The History of Sir Francis Drake

"The History of Sir Francis Drake" was a hybrid theatrical entertainment, a masque or "operatic tableau" with an English libretto written by Sir William Davenant and music by Matthew Locke. The masque was most likely first performed in 1659 and produced by Davenant. As with his earlier "The Siege of Rhodes" (1656) and "The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru" (1658), Davenant cast "The History of Sir Francis Drake" as a musical drama to avoid the Puritan prohibition of stage plays during the English Commonwealth era. The three Davenant works were important in the evolution of English opera and musical theatre, and heralded the coming revival of drama with the Restoration of 1660. [Terence P. Logan and Denzell S. Smith, eds., "The Later Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama", Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1978; pp. 194, 197-8, 201, 203-4.]

Performance and publication

Like "The Cruelty" before it, "Drake" was acted at the Cockpit Theatre. "Drake" was first published in quarto in 1659, and most likely staged in that year or in late 1658. "Drake" is generally seen as a companion piece to "The Cruelty"; the first editions of the two works (1658 and 1659), both issued by Henry Herringman, were published with the same frontispiece, and both works were furnished with the same subtitle, "Exprest by Instrumentall and Vocall Musick, and by the Art of Perspective in Scenes, &c." — since both stage productions employed the scenery and painted backdrops that had previously been used in courtly masques but not in the public theatre.

It is uncertain how long either "The History of Sir Francis Drake" or "The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru" ran at the Cockpit; but Anthony Wood wrote that Davenant's version of operatic drama "delighted the eye and ear extremely well", and "was much frequented for many years" ("Athenae Oxonienses", Vol. 2).

The 1659 quarto labels its work as "the first part" of "The History of Sir Francis Drake", but no second part is known. In 1663, Davenant used his text of "Drake" as Act III of "The Playhouse to Be Let" (the text of "The Cruelty" was Act IV).

History and propaganda

Like "The Cruelty", Davenant's "Drake" was not only tolerated but even encouraged by Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, for its value as anti-Spanish propaganda. (The English had been at war with Spain since 1655.) Davenant exploited Drake as an English national hero and a symbol of an expansionist foreign policy. He drew his narrative materials from Philip Nichols's "Sir Francis Drake Revived" (1626; reprinted 1652). [Susan Wiseman, "Drama and Politics in the English Civil War", Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998; p. 150.]

Davenant's text deals with Drake's adventures on the northeastern coast of South America during his expedition of 1572. At one point, Davenant shows Drake allying himself with the "Symerons" or Cimaroons, escaped slaves of Surinam who had formed their own independent society. [Derek Hughes, "Versions of Blackness: Key Texts on Slavery from the Seventeenth Century", Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007; pp. 307-12.] (Though Davenant's "Drake" has been classified as "pseudo-history," this part of the story is based on fact — though Davenant displaces the Cimaroons to Peru.) As in "The Cruelty", the English in "Drake" are presented as a humane alternative to the brutal and rapacious Spanish.

Music

Only one piece of music from the score of "Drake" has survived — a "Symeron" dance composed by Matthew Locke. Locke was one of the composers who worked on "The Siege of Rhodes", and perhaps on "The Cruelty" too. [Ian Spink, "Henry Lawes: Cavalier Songwriter", Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000; p. 111.]

References