The City Bride (1696).

by Joseph Harris.

INTRODUCTION

_The City Bride_, by Joseph Harris, is of special interest as the only adaptation from the canon of John Webster to have come upon the stage in the Restoration. Nahum Tate's _Injur'd Love: or, The Cruel Husband_ is an adaptation of _The White Devil_, but it was never acted and was not printed until 1707. _The City Bride_ is taken from _A Cure for a Cuckold_, in which William Rowley and perhaps Thomas Heywood collaborated with Webster. F. L. Lucas, Webster's most recent and most scholarly editor, remarks that _A Cure for a Cuckold_ is one of the better specimens of Post-Elizabethan romantic comedy. In particular, the character of the bride, Annabel (Arabella in Harris's adaptation), has a universal appeal. _The City Bride_, a very close copy of its original, retains its virtues, and has some additional virtues of its own.

Not much is known of its author, Joseph Harris. Genest first notices him as playing Bourcher, the companion of a French pirate, in _A Common-Wealth of Women_. Thomas Durfey's alteration of _The Sea Voyage_ from the Beaumont and Fletcher folio, which was produced about September 1685. His subsequent roles were of a similar calibre, but if he never rose to be a star he seems to have become a valued supporting player, for in 1692 he was chosen to join the royal "comedians in ordinary." He did not at first side with Thomas Betterton in his quarrel with the patentees of the theatre in 1694-5, but he withdrew with him to Lincoln's Inn Fields. Genest notices him for the last time as playing Sir Richard Vernon in Betterton's adaptation of _1 Henry IV_, which was produced about April 1700.

During his career on the stage Harris found time to compose a tragi-comedy, _The Mistakes, or, The False Report_ (1691), produced in December 1690; _The City Bride_, produced in 1696; and a comedy and a masque, _Love's a Lottery, and a Woman the Prize. With a New Masque, call'd Love and Riches Reconcil'd_ (1699), produced about March 1698/9.

_The Mistakes_ is clearly apprentice work, for Harris acknowledges in a preface the considerable help of William Mountfort, who took the part of the villain, Ricardo. Mountfort, who had already written three plays himself, cut one of the scenes intended for the fifth act and inserted one of his own composition (probably the last) which not only clarified the plot but also elevated the character of the part he was to play. The company seems to have done its best by the budding dramatist, for Dryden wrote the prologue, a rather unusual one in prose and verse, and Tate supplied the epilogue. Harris professed himself satisfied with the play's reception, but owned that it was Mountfort's acting which really carried it off.

_The City Bride_, on the other hand, shows its author completely self-a.s.sured, and rightly so. No doubt some of his ease comes from the fact that he had nothing to invent, but in large part it must derive from his ten-years' experience on the stage. Harris added nothing to the plot of _The City Bride_, although he commendably shifted its emphasis, as his t.i.tle makes clear, from infidelity to fidelity; but he rewrote the dialogue almost completely, and the new dialogue is remarkable good.

The reader will notice that it is, except for the last half of the first act, printed as prose. The quarto of _A Cure for a Cuckold_, from which Harris worked, is also largely printed as prose, but has correct verse lineation in the same portion of the first act. It is the more remarkable that Harris, following thus closely the apparent form of his original, could vary from it so successfully. Most notable, probably, are the pa.s.sages in which he intensified the expression of his source.

They may indicate no more than the eternal "ham" in our author; but I think they probably indicate as well a new style of acting, more rhetorical in one way, more natural in another. A good example, in which the new rhetoric is not oppressive, is the account of the sea fight at the end of Act III. Even when Harris followed his original most closely, we seem to hear the actor, speaking in a new tongue, in a more relaxed and colloquial rhythm. The reader will find it both amusing and instructive to compare the two versions of Act II, scene ii. The new cadences do more than merely prove that Harris had no ear for blank verse.

_The City Bride_ does not conform to the dominant type of Restoration comedy, but it belongs to a thriving tradition. Domestic comedy, in adaptations from the Elizabethans, had been staged at intervals for twenty years before _The City Bride_ appeared, and the type was of course destined to supplant gay comedy in the near future. Harris was not, therefore, going against the taste of the town; on the contrary he was regularly guided by contemporary taste and practice. His stage is less crowded: he amalgamated the four gallants of _A Cure for a Cuckold_ in the person of Mr. Spruce, at the expense of a dramatic scene (I, ii, 31-125); and he ended the sub-plot with the fourth act instead of bringing its persons into the final scene, with some loss of liveliness and a concomitant gain in unity of effect. He modernized his dialogue entirely, bringing up to date the usage and allusions of his original, and restraining the richness of its metaphor by removing the figures altogether or by subst.i.tuting others more familiar. He omitted a good deal of bawdry, especially in Act II, scene ii. All these changes have parallels in other Restoration adaptations. Again, the songs and dances, which are all of Harris's composition, reflect the demand of the Restoration audience for excitement, variety, novelty, in their dramatic fare. When in Act III, scene i, Harris meets this demand by making Bonvile bare his breast to Friendly's sword, and Friendly a little later grovel at Bonvile's feet for pardon, we may condemn the new business as bathetic; but when in Act IV, scene i, he subst.i.tutes for Webster's emaciated jokes the bustle of drawers, the sound of the bar bell, and healths all around, we can only applaud the change.

We must also commend Harris for supplying a consistent and relatively believable motivation for the main action. In both _A Cure for a Cuckold_ and _The City Bride_, Clare (Clara) begins the action by giving her suitor, Lessingham (Friendly), a cryptic message: he is to determine who his best friend is and kill him. In _A Cure for a Cuckold_, it is never made clear whether the victim should have been Bonvile or Clare herself (she apparently intended to trick Lessingham into poisoning her). This uncertainty has only recently been noticed by students of the drama, who have been forced to emend the text at IV, ii, 165 (see Lucas's note on the pa.s.sage). Harris's solution is simpler. He will have nothing to do with either murder or suicide. Clara explains to Friendly that the best friend of a lover is love itself.

This is not the place to enumerate all the differences between _A Cure for a Cuckold_ and _The City Bride_; indeed the reader may prefer making the comparisons for himself. Harris's alterations follow the general pattern of Restoration adaptations from the earlier drama, it is true.

On the other hand, a relatively small number of such plays allow us to see the professional actor feeling his way through the emotions and actions of the scenes. To compare a play like _The City Bride_ with its source is like visiting the rehearsals of an acting company of the time.

Such a play has an immediacy and liveness that strongly appeals to those who delight to image forth the past.

_The City Bride_ has never been reprinted. The present edition reproduces, with permission, the copy in the Henry E. Huntington Library, omitting Harris's signed dedication to Sir John Walter, Bart., on A2^r-A3^r (A1^v in the original is blank). The top line on page 44, which is partly cut away, reads: _Cla._ Who (if thou ever lov'dst me ...

Vinton A. Dearing University of California Los Angeles

THE CITY BRIDE: OR, THE Merry Cuckold.

ACT I. SCENE the I.

_The Curtain draws up, and discovers several sitting at a Banquet.

An Entertainment of Instrumental Musick, Compos'd by Signior_ Finger: _Then a Song, set by Mr._ John Eccles, _and Sung by Young_ La Roche.

SONG.

_Many I've lik'd, and some Enjoy'd, But if I said I Lov'd, I ly'd.

Inconstant as the wandring Bee, From once touch'd Sweets I us'd to flee; Nor all the Power of Female Skill, Cou'd curb the freedom of my Will:_ Clarinda _only found the Art, To Conquer and so keep my Heart._

[_After this a Dance, and then the Scene shuts._

Enter_ Friendly _and_ Clara.

_Friend._ This is a Day of Mirth and Jollity my _Clara_.

_Clara._ 'Tis so, for such as can be merry, Mr. _Friendly_.

_Friend._ Why not for us my Love, we have a n.o.ble President, and methinks shou'd Imitate (thro Envy) this their happiness.

_Clara._ I am not of your Opinion.

_Friend._ Why not my Fair?

_Clara._ I'll tell you, because I purpose not to Marry.

_Fri._ Prithee be serious, and reform that Thought: Think of my past Service, and judge by that my future; weigh all the respect I have paid you long, and ever lov'd you beyond my self.

_Cla._ I know your Weakness, and will reward it too.

_Fri._ I am sure you will, you must be kind; And can you think an Answer of this killing Nature, a just return for all my faithful Love?

_Cla._ As to that I have already said.

_Fri._ Oh speak, from whence this Coldness doth arise! Be at least so kind as to tell me that; Is it some late Disgust you have conceived of my Person; or rather your desire, (I fear) of some unworthier, happy Creature, base in the Attempt, as you unkind in thinking of a Change; if neither.

_I must impute it to your Woman's Will, Still pleased with what it fancies, Good or Ill._

_Cla._ Be't what it will, thus it is, and with this Answer pray rest satisfied; there is but one way ever to win me and draw me unto Marriage, which whosoever finds, 'tis like he may have me, if not, I am still my own.

_Fri._ Oh name it then! Thou dearest Treasure of my Life! my Soul! my All! I am in a maze of Extasie, to think there's any means to gain you, and hope you'l be so kind to tell me how I may be happy.

_Cla._ I'll retire a while; and with my self resolve what must be done, and in the end send you my Resolution.

[_Exit_ Clara.

_Fri._ I'll here expect it: What more can I desire, than now be satisfied and know my Dooom.

_Suspence is the worst Torment we endure, 'Tis Knowledge make the Wound both safe and sure._

_Enter_ Spruce _and_ _Mr._ Venter.

_Spru._ How now _Jack_! What all alone Man?

_Fri._ No, for I have heard some say, Men are ne're less alone, then when alone. The reason I suppose is this, because they have Crowds of Thoughts, that still perplex the Mind; which wou'd be, like the Soul retired and free, thereby to enjoy that sweet repose, which nought but that can Grant.

_Spru._ Pshaw! Pox of this Morality and dull Stuff; Prithee let us be Merry, and Entertain the Bride and Bridegroom. Ods fish there a parcel of rare Creatures within! But of all Mrs. _Clara_ for my Money.

_Mr. Ven._ And truly, I am of your Opinion Mr. _Spruce_; for setting aside her present Melancholly and Discontent, I think she is beyond Comparison with any other.

_Spr._ Od's nigs, I know the Cause of her Disorder.