The story, however, is not original even in La Calprenède, being taken with changed names from Il Calsandro smascherato di Giovanni Ambrogio Marini (Part 1, Fiorenza, 1646; Part 2, Bologna, 1651), a French version of which, by Georges de Scudéri, appeared in 1668.
Some critics have seen a resemblance between the character of the young prince Orsames and that of Hippolito, ‘one that never saw woman,’ in Dryden and Davenant’s alteration of The Tempest (1667).[1] But the likeness is merely superficial. Mrs. Behn has undoubtedly taken the whole episode of Orsames directly from Calderon’s great philosophic and symbolical comedia, La Vida es Sueño (1633).[2] That Mrs. Behn had a good knowledge of Spanish is certain, and she has copied with the closest fidelity minute but telling details of her original. Calderon himself probably derived his plot from Rojas’ Viaje Entretenido. Basilio, King of Poland, to thwart the fulfilling of a horoscope, imprisons his son Segismundo from infancy in a lonely tower. The youth is, however, as a test of his character, one night whilst under the influence of a soporofic conveyed from his prison and wakes to find himself in a sumptuous apartment amidst crowds of adulating courtiers. He shows himself, however, a very despot, and throws an officious servant, who warns him to proffer greater respect to the infanta Estella, his cousin, clean out of window; he nearly kills his tutor Clotaldo, who interrupts his violent wooing; and, in fine, is seen to be wholly unfit to reign. A potion is deftly administered, and once more, asleep, he is carried back to the castle. The populace, however, rise and set him on the throne, and eventually the astrological forecast comes true; but at the same time he proves himself a worthy sovereign. All these details are to be found in The Young King, as well as Calderon’s scene where Rosaura, in pursuit of her lover, accidently encounters Segismundo in his prison.
The story itself is, of course, world-wide with a thousand variants. Oriental in origin, it is familiar to all readers of the Thousand and One Nights, when Abou Hassan is drugged by Haroun al Raschid, and for one day allowed to play the caliph with power complete and unconfined. The same trick is said to have been tried upon a drunkard at Bruges by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, during his marriage festivities, 1440. Christopher Sly, well drubbed by Marian Hacket and bawling for a pot of small ale, will at once occur to every mind. Richard Edwardes has the same story in his Collection of Tales (1570); the old Ballad of the Frolicsome Duke sings it; Sir Richard Barckley repeats it in his Discourse of the Felicitie of Man (1598); and Burton found a niche for it in his Anatomy of Melancholy (1621). Simon Goulart included it in the Tresor d’histoires admirables et memorables (circa 1600), whence it was Englished by Grimeston (1607). In fact it is a common property of all times and all nations.
Although Mrs. Behn confessedly does not attain (nor was such her intention) the deep philosophy and exquisite melody of the great Spanish poet, she has produced a first-rate specimen of the romance drama, rococo perhaps, and with quaint ornaments, but none the less full of life, incident and interest.
FOOTNOTES:
1. This version of Shakespeare, and particularly the part of Hippolito, belong to Davenant, for, as Dryden says in the preface, Sir William ‘to put the last hand to it, design’d the counterpart to Shakespeare’s plot, namely that of a man who had never seen a woman.’.
2. Life is a Dream. English translation by John Oxenford, Monthly
Magazine, Vol. XCVI; by Archbishop Trench, 1856; by Denis Florence
Mac-Carthy, 1873; by FitzGerald (a private edition), ‘Such Stuff as
Dreams are Made Of’. It has also been excellently edited by Norman
Maccoll, Select Plays from Calderon (1888).
THEATRICAL HISTORY.
The earliest sketch of The Young King; or, The Mistake was written by Mrs. Behn whilst she was still a young girl at Surinam. Upon her return to England the rhyming play had made its appearance, and soon heroic tragedy was carrying all before it on the London stage. Influenced no doubt by this tremendous vogue, she turned to her early MS. and proceeded to put her work, founded on one of the most famous of the heroic romances, into the fashionable couplets. Traces of this may be found in the scene between Cleomena and Urania, i, II; in Orsames’ speech, iv, III, and elsewhere. Whilst she was busy, however, The Rehearsal was produced at the King’s Theatre, 8 December, 1671, and for the moment gave a severe blow to the drama it parodied. Accordingly, Mrs. Behn with no little acumen put her tragi-comedy on one side until the first irresistible influence of Buckingham’s burlesque had waned ever so slightly, and then, when her dramatic reputation was firmly established by the triumphant success of The Rover, the applause that had been given to Sir Patient Fancy and half-a-dozen more of her plays, she bethought of her earlier efforts, and after subjecting The Toung King to a thorough revision, in which, however, it retained marked traces of its original characteristics, she had it produced at the Duke’s Theatre in the spring of 1679. Mr. Gosse goes so far as to say that she had previously offered it to the theatres and publishers, but could find neither manager nor printer who would accept it. This, which he deduces from her dedication to Philaster, seems to me unwarrantable, and is not borne out by the play itself, which, baroque as it may appear to us, is certainly equal to, and indeed far better, than the rank and file of Restoration tragi-comedy. There is no record of its performance, and it never kept the boards. But although we have no direct evidence of its success, on the other hand it would be rash to suggest it was in any sense a failure. Indeed, since two editions were published we may safely assert its popularity. The actors’ names are not preserved, but Mrs. Mary Lee doubtless created Cleomena; Mrs. Barry, Urania; Betterton, Thersander; and Smith, Orsames.