circa 1558–1569
a synoptic, alphabetical character list
Full synopsis available, click here
Sc.I: Cambises enters and calls for his counselors to advise him upon the Egyptian campaign that he wishes to embark upon. He is told that the Egyptians are unruly, that he must crush them. But while he is at war he must leave a viceroy behind to rule Persia. He is also warned against the sin of drinking to excess and told that drunkenness makes poor kingship. He listens to their wise counsel and chooses Sisamnes to sit as Judge and viceroy while he is away fighting the Egyptians. The counselors know Sisamnes only by reputation, but he has a good reputation and they consent to Cambises' choice for viceroy. Sisamnes is called in and made viceroy. He is given a stern warning to rule fairly and well or face the consequences of his evil actions. Sisamnes swears his good intentions towards Cambises' domain. As soon as Cambises leaves Sisamnes alone, the viceroy plots how to take advantage of his new position.
Sc.II: Ambidexter "the Vice" enters the barracks where three soldiers prepare for the campaign. There is a humorous exchange and a fight between he and the soldiers (Huf, Ruf, and Snuf). The soldiers are mainly interested in winning loot in the war. The four are soon made friends. Ambidexter tells of his skill at using both of his hands in his affairs--"one must play with both hands" becomes a rallying cry in the play. Meretrix, a whore, enters and puts the men to flight, subdues Ruf and makes him her pander/protector.
Sc.III: Ambidexter meets his old friend, Sisamnes, whom he taught to play with both hands. The Judge gloats over "What abundance of wealth to me might I get." He is now accepts bribes in the cases that come before him. When Small Habilitie, a poor man, comes to him with a case and just cause he is dismissed summarily because he has no money with which to bribe the Judge.
Sc.IV: Shame enters with his trumpet. He tells of the change in Cambises. The king will no longer listen to counsel and has taken to drink. Cambises enters and hears from Commons Cry (e.g. "rumor") that Sisamnes has raped the kingdom. The judge denies the charge. Common Complaint brings a charge against the Judge of accepting bribes and oppressing the poor. Proof enters and verifies Common Complaint's charge. Sisamnes begs for mercy from Cambises. The king calls for the executioner and Otian, Sisamnes's son, to come to him. Otian begs for his father's life and offers his own instead. Cambises has Sisamnes executed in front of Otian as an object lesson. Otian then takes over his father's position in the court. Cambises orders that Sisamnes' corpse is to be flayed and his flesh pulled over his ears as a warning to Otian to avoid corruption.
Sc.V: Praxaspes, Cambises' counselor, advises the king that he is drinking too much. Cambises orders Praxaspes to fetch his own son to court. Cambises will prove by way of a test that he can hold his wine. He will drink a great amount and then attempting to shoot an arrow through the heart of Praxaspes's son. If he misses, he cannot hold his wine as Praxaspes says, and if he kills the boy, Praxaspes is wrong about the king's drunkenness.
Cambises drinks deeply, aims, and kills the boy. The king orders the boy's heart cut out so he can see where the arrow hit it. One of the guards does the king's bidding. Cambises leaves gloating about his ability to hold his liquor. Praxaspes and his wife mourn the death of the boy and take him from the stage.
Sc. VI: Ambidexter addresses the audience--especially his friends the pickpockets among the spectators. He foresees that Cambises will soon work a mischief against himself.
Smirdis, the king's younger brother, enters and announces his concern over Cambises' actions. Ambidexter advises him to stay clear of Cambises, as that is the only way to avoid trouble with the king. Smirdis' servants, Diligence and Attendance, agree. Cambises enters and professes his love for his brother and asks him to wait for him at the palace. Once Smirdis leaves, Ambidexter tells Cambises lies about Smirdis. He claims that Smirdis says awful things about Cambises, that Smirdis longs for Cambises' death. He suggests that Smirdis wants Cambises' throne. Cambises is enraged and calls for Cruelty and Murder to dispatch his brother at once.
Sc.VII: Cruelty and Murder overtake Smirdis and kill him on stage (here we are given insight into a Renaissance stage device: a bladder filled with vinegar allows them to spill his blood on stage).
Sc.VIII: Ambidexter enters lamenting the death of Smirdis, but soon begins to laugh. He is proud of his ability to work with both hands. He meets two clowns, Hob and Lob, who speak in the dialect familiar in rustic comedy such as Ralph Roister Doister and Gammer Gurton's Needle. Ambidexter tricks them into saying they wish their evil king were dead. He calls them traitors. He would extort a bribe from them to keep silent except that Hob's wife, Marian, enters and runs Ambidexter off with a broom. The clowns then go their way to market. Ambidexter returns, and Marian beats him again and chases him off stage.
Sc.IX: Venus enters with Cupid and causes Cambises to fall in love with a Lady kinsman. Despite the sin, Cambises forces her to accept his marriage proposal.
Sc.X: Ambidexter enters and expresses his surprise at the speed with which the wedding is readied and conducted. Preparation enters and makes a banquet ready. After a few more words addressed to his friends the pickpockets, Ambidexter retires to the banquet with the King, his new Queen, and guests.
The king tells a story of two whelps and a lion cub. He had one pup fight the cub; when it looked as though the pup would fail, the other whelp came to his rescue against the cub. This story makes the Queen cry to think how Cambises refused the protection to his own brother that dumb beasts show to their siblings. The Queen's judgment of Cambises' murder of Smirdis enrages the king. He orders the Queen's immediate execution. Two lords beg mercy for the Queen, but they are silenced by a threat that they, too, imperil their lives with their pleading. Murder and Cruelty are again called, and the Queen is left with them. Murder and Cruelty allow the Queen to sing a psalm forgiving the king before they take her off for execution.
Sc.XI: Ambidexter enters and tells of the deep mourning in the kingdom over the execution of the Queen. Cambises enters with a sword through his side. He was attempting to mount his horse when the sword came loose and pierced him. He lies down and dies horribly on stage with no one to help. Ambidexter fears he will be accused of killing the king and runs away. Three lords enter and find the body. They know what has happened to the king and see the accident as the working of God's will on the tyrant. Though he was evil, they say he will be given a burial befitting his title. They carry him from the stage.
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It has the elements of the later revenge play (indeed, Otian, Praxaspes, Smirdis's friends, the Queen's friends could all make good revengers). But this is a play about the Tudor idea of loyalty to the throne--no matter how bad the sovereign on the throne might be. The belief in the divine right of kings is strong here. The play's underlying theme returns to the notion that God put even this bad ruler on the throne (perhaps as a punishment for bad subjects). It would therefore be a mortal sin to conspire against the life of God's appointed minister. The perfect revengers types therefore become perfectly obedient subjects who trust in the will of God. What would today be considered dramatic tension is thereby lost.
Cambises begins as a good king. He listens to advice of counselors (although it may be argued that they are advising what he wants to hear and that is why he listens). He is absolute in his pursuit of justice, as when he has the corrupt Sisamnes executed. The circumstances surrounding the execution, however, (having Otian watch and having Sisamnes' body flayed) are extreme and cruel. He turns into a tyrant by his second appearance. He is a drunkard and will no longer listen to counsel. He goes so far as to kill one of his counselors' children when that counselor tries to do his duty to the king.
There is a well-constructed parallelism to the executions in the middle of the play. At first Cambises makes a son watch the brutal execution and dismemberment of a father. Next he makes a father watch the cruel murder and dismemberment of a son. The play, through the beginning at least, is in fourteeners written in rhyming couplets. When Ambidexter enters at Scene II his meter changes to iambic pentameter rhyming abab.
There are three interesting stage actions here involving on-stage violence. The execution of Sisamnes requires that the executioner "smite him in the neck with a sword to signify death" and that he flay Sisamnes "with a false skin." How this was accomplished would be an interesting examination. Second, the killing of Smirdis requires his blood to be spilt from a bladder filled with vinegar. This is another interesting bit of stagecraft betrayed off-handedly in a stage direction. In addition, the killing of Paxaspes's son with an arrow would be interesting to speculate upon. How was the boy is shot on stage? This is an action that is repeated later when Cupid shoots Cambises in view of the audience. Synopsis:
The Prologue enters and tells of the history of
Cambises and of his noble father, Cyrus, who won great fame with his goodness and who left the kingdom to Cambises. Cambises was young when he took possession of the throne. He tells us that Cambises was a tyrant and did not rule two years. Characterization:
Preston relies on Morality types (Murder, Cruelty, etc.) rather than the fully-developed psychological characters of latter Renaissance drama. When he needs absolute veracity in the trial of Sisamnes he relies on "Proof" as a character rather than taking the pains required to develop a complex character that would be accepted as reliable in court. Notes of Interest:
The playwright, Thomas Preston, is an enigma. We are not really certain who he was. Neither is the date of the play entirely certain. Cambises is a transition between the Morality play (with such characters as Ambidexter "the Vice," Murder, Cruelty, Preparation, Diligence, Attendance, Execution) and the chronicle play (because the character is based on an historical character drawn from Herodotus).