ANTONIO AND MELLIDA
circa 1599–1600
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Antonio has been cast up on the Venice beach and has disguised himself as an Amazon. He laments the death of his father, Andrugio, in the sea battle, but determines to win Mellida. Piero enters with Feliche the malcontent/stoic, his
hangers-on Alberto, Castilio, Forobosco, Catzo, and Dildo, as well as Balurdo, who, although a gentleman, fills the role of fool in the play. Piero is boastful and proud of his victory--demonstrating great hubris before his followers. Feliche makes a "pride comes before the fall" comment.
Piero has placed a bounty on Andrugio and Antonio; whosoever brings them or their heads to Piero will win the undying love of Piero and 20,000 double pistolets.
Mellida enters above with Rossaline, her cousin, and with Flavia, her gentlewoman. They comment upon the young gentlemen--Galeatzo and Matagente--whom Piero may choose to marry to Mellida. They see the disguised Antonio and take him to be an Amazon. They befriend "Florizell", the name of Antonio in disguise. Florizell tells Mellida of rescuing the near-dead Antonio from the water and of his moving last words pledging his love to Mellida. After breathing out his oath to Mellida, Florizell says, Antonio reeled from the ship and sank into the sea (conveniently disposing of the body, which Florizell could not otherwise produce). The gentlewomen take Florizell into the castle as their guest.
Catzo and Dildo enter and drink unflattering toasts to their respective masters, Castilio and Balurdo. Flavia comes in and sings a song.
Forobosco, Castilio, Rossaline, Balurdo, and Feliche enter. Rossaline smells a smell and believes that someone has dirty socks on. Some bawdy humor passes between them.
The rout enters. Piero promises Mellida he'll have her married off and makes a speech about his victory. Mellida looks unhappily on, sorrowful at the loss of her Antonio. Mellida is asked to dance in order to improve her spirits. The sight of Mellida dancing with other men is too much for Antonio, and he throws himself onto the ground. Meanwhile the court gallants engage in bawdy banter with Rossaline.
Night draws on and all leave except Antonio and Mellida. Antonio reveals himself to Mellida and they plan to escape together.
Andrugio, not dead but cast up on Venice's beach, is entreated by his counselor, Lucio, to disguise himself as a shepherd. Andrugio abjures the disguise. He finds the warrant of Piero's offering love and money for Andrugio's head. He faces his fate philosophically. He is grieved for having lost Antonio to the sea.
Feliche enters, unable to sleep, and lies down on stage. Castilio enters perfuming himself. Castilio sings a song. Castilio tries to convince Feliche that Rossaline loves Castilio, but he is discovered to be lying, and Feliche strikes him with the deceitful letter Castilio used as evidence.
Balurdo and his servant, Dildo, and Rossaline and her servant, Flavia, enter--Balurdo and Rossaline primping before mirrors held by their servants. Feliche is astonished at the foppery of court.
Piero enters and finds a letter on the ground. It is a letter from Antonio to Mellida detailing how they are to escape and fly the court. Piero calls up his nobles to find the lovers out and arrest their flight. Feliche overhears Piero's orders, finds Antonio, and warns him to flee. Feliche gives Antonio the key to his room and tells him where he can find a disguise-that of a seaman-in order to slip out of Venice. This Antonio does. While Piero is looking for Antonio, Antonio enters as the sailor, yelling that he is in hot pursuit of Antonio. Piero gives him his signet ring so that the "sailor" might continue the chase beyond Venice's walls--telling the "sailor" to take a gondola.
Mellida dances past him wearing a page's attire. This disguise also fools Piero. The lovers succeed in their first step.
Piero learns that Mellida has escaped, puts two-and-two together and gives chase.
Antonio, in his flight, fortuitously comes upon Andrugio and Lucio. There is a recognition and reunion. Mellida enters and all are united. Antonio goes to "scout the marsh" and leaves Mellida with a page. Piero enters and asks Mellida, also dressed as a page, if "he" has seen Mellida pass this way. Mellida is terrified, and when she does not take off her hat to the Duke it is snatched off of her head. She is discovered. The Duke and his entourage take her back to the castle. Piero swears he will marry her to Galeatzo, son of the Duke of Florence.
When Antonio and Andrugio return with Lucio the page tells them that Mellida has been captured. Andrugio calls for his arms and armor--he determines to die like a man.
Balurdo, Feliche, Alberto, and a painter engage in a humorous scene.
Piero has a masque prepared, a boy sings. Rossaline is asked if she'll not marry. She protests that she has plenty of gentlemen friends and has no desire to choose between them. Andrugio--fitted out in his armor, his visor down--is introduced as a knight who brings Andrugio's head to Piero. He asks Piero if Piero will abide to the letter of the edict. Piero swears he will give all his love and 20,000 double pistolets to the man who brings in Andrugio's head. Andrugio lifts his visor to display his head. Piero is so taken with the nobility of Andrugio and, fearing blight upon his house if he rescinds his promise, agrees to give Andrugio his love and to make the 20,000 double pistolets Mellida's dowry and allow her to marry Antonio.
Lucio enters with a coffin. Antonio is dead within it. When Piero laments the death, wishing he could give the noble Antonio his Mellida, Antonio rises from the coffin. He says he was dead as long as he could not have his Mellida, but now that he can have her he is alive again.
Rossaline says that she is so impressed she just might marry someone herself.
Mellida is sketched in, two-dimensional, but has many of the attributes of the clever woman. She has strength enough to see the evil in her own father and the courage to take it upon herself to escape him.
Feliche, "the happy man", is an early rendering of the malcontent figure. He flouts the establishment at court-the fools and foppery as well as the evil he sees-but he is generally satisfied in his own life, although he cannot seem to get a date. He is therefore a poor rendering, technically, of a "malcontent." He's a good fellow in that he warns Antonio of Piero's plans to capture Antonio and goes so far as to provide Antonio with the disguise he uses to elude capture.
Piero Sforza, duke of Venice, is the Machiavel. His name "Sforza" should remind the audience of Lodovico Sforza, duke of Milan, an archetypal tyrant. He plays the comic villain, but because this is a comedy, he is little more than a Miles Gloriosus, a braggart.
Balurdo, the foolish gentleman, is rather fun here, but his scenes generally add fun only and do not advance the plot.
Rossaline is an interesting variation on the Beatrice theme--the woman who does not care to marry. She likes men, but she chooses not to choose one.
Catzo and Dildo, both names for the male privy member, indicates the bawdy nature of the children's theatre even at this early stage in its development.
Andrugio is the stoic, manfully accepting his destiny.
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This play appears to be the only Elizabethan play that features a man dressing as an Amazon. The stage convention of women dressing as men is, of course, played for all it's worth during this period, but the reverse is quite unusual. This can be explained, at least partially, by the fact that a boy's
company performed the work, and the androgynous nature of children allowed the peculiar transformation without calling much attention to its oddity. The only other play from the period in which a male significantly dresses as a female could be Jonson's Epicoene.
Marston engages in his habit of checking his own rhetoric, especially at I.i.151-163 (Cf. Antonio's Revenge I.ii.187).
There is also a tendency displayed throughout of having characters mimic other characters' lines. See especially II.i.50-54; 127-30; 241-44; III.i.3 & 7; III.ii.30 (mockery rather than mimicry); IV.i.262 & 64; 277-79.
The escape of the disguised Antonio and Mellida (III.ii.232-65) seems to be a parody of the motif.
In IV.i. the scene should end with Galeatzo's rhymed couplet, but once again Marston demonstrates his sensitivity to language, stage convention, and parody by extending the scene by 16 lines (IV.i.264-79) and allowing Balurdo the chance to ham-handedly pick out another rhyme with Dildo to assist. Synopsis:
After an Induction not unlike that found in The Malcontent, the play opens after a great sea battle has seen the defeat of Andrugio and Antonio's forces by the Venetian Duke Piero, father to Mellida. The sea battle was waged when Piero refused to allow his great enemy's son wed his daughter. Characterization:
Antonio is depicted as the lover, much in the vein of tragic lover, like Romeo--and indeed could have been intended to cash in on Shakespeare's success with R&J, although this play is not a tragedy. Antonio's main mode of expression is tossing himself on the floor. Notes of Interest:
The play begins with an induction, much as in The Malcontent, which makes reference to the task of acting.