The Fatal Jealousie (1673) | Page 3

duty it would be to prosecute him feared
what might happen if he were brought to the bar.
Finally, in February 1700/01, Payne was released. He made his way to
the Stuart court at St. Germain, whose incorruptible secret agent he had
been for twelve years. It was fitting that the last information we have of
him during his life is derived from his "Brief memorial by way of
preface to some proposals for your Majesty's service," a detailed letter
of advice instructing the exiled king how he might yet recapture his
throne (printed in _Original Papers; containing the Secret History of
Great Britain_, 1775, I, 602-5). When last heard from, Payne had yet
another conspiracy planned and ripened, to submit to his sovereign's
approval.
Payne's Fatal Jealousy has intrinsic merit. If he had written more works
for the theater, he might have been remembered with Southerne and
possibly with Otway. But for the scholar this tragedy will be chiefly
interesting for the Shakespearean influences to be found in it. Evidently
Payne held Shakespeare in great reverence, and the result is that The
Fatal Jealousy is one of the earliest examples of the return to the
Shakespearean norm in tragedy after the interlude of the heroic play.
Payne ridicules the love and honor theme in The Morning Ramble
where he makes Rose say (p. 54):
Love and Honour are the two great Wheels, on which all business
moves. The Tradesman cheats you upon his Honour, and like a Lord
swears by that, but that he particularly loves you, you should not have
it so. No Tragedy, Comedy, Farse, Demi-Farse, or Song nowadayes,
but is full of Love and Honour: Your Coffee-drinking Crop-ear'd Little
Banded-Secretary, that pretends not to know more of Honour than it's
Name, will out of abundance of Love be still sighing and groaning for
the Honour of the Nation.
The speaker of the Epilogue to The Fatal Jealousy pointedly reminds

the audience that they have listened to a genuine tragedy and not to an
heroic play. Its author has not relied on the "rules of art," but hopes he
may have succeeded by some "Trick of Nature."
Most obvious of the Shakespearean influences is the jealousy theme in
which Don Antonio is modelled on Othello, Caelia on Desdemona, and
Jasper on Iago. My colleague, Professor E.L. Hubler, who has a vast
deal of the Shakespearean text in his memory, finds twenty-two
possible echoes or parallels. Of these we agree that at least fourteen are
certain. The influences strike in most impressively from Othello,
Hamlet, Much Ado, _Midsummer Night's Dream_, and The Tempest.
Let me cite two or three unmistakable echoes. Jasper's manner of
arousing Antonio's jealousy (pp. 17-19) and even his words recall
Iago's mental torturing of the Moor in Othello, III, 3. Throughout
Gerardo's soliloquy on death, at the opening of Act III, there is
continuous reference to Hamlet's "To be or not to be." The antecedent
of "madness methodiz'd" (p. 35) is easily spotted, as is the parallel
between Flora's dream (p. 63) which will not leave her head and the
song that will not go from Desdemona's mind. So far as I can discover,
the seekers for Shakespearean allusions in seventeenth-century writing
have not located this rich mine.
It is to be regretted that when The Fatal Jealousy came to the stage the
company had, as Downes says, "plenty of new poets," and so the play
was laid aside after the first run. The performance must have been
brilliant. The greatest of Restoration stage villains, Sandford, played
Jasper. The parts of Caelia, Eugenia, and the Witch were taken by
veteran actors. "Mr. Nath. Leigh" made his second appearance on the
stage in this performance as Captain of the Watch. The lecherous Nurse
to Caelia was played by the famous Nokes whose sobriquet of "Nurse
Nokes" may have come to him with this rôle rather than from the part
he took, seven years later, in Otway's Caius Marius.
The text of The Fatal Jealousy presents no special difficulties. Such
slight variations as I have found among the eleven copies I have
examined--chiefly dropped letters and the imperfect impression of
some words--can be accounted for as accidents to be expected in the

printing off of the sheets of a single edition. There seems to be no
significance in the fact that the title-page in some copies shows an
ornament placed between the second rule and the word London.
The copy of the play here reproduced is owned by the University of
Michigan, and is reprinted by permission.
WILLARD THORP Princeton University
* * * * *
The Fatal Jealousie.
A TRAGEDY.
Acted at the Duke's Theatre. Licensed _Novemb. 22, 1672_. _Roger
L'Estrange._
LONDON,
Printed for Thomas Dring, at the White Lyon, next _Chancery-Lane_
end in _Fleet-street_. 1673.