Gallathea

"Gallathea" is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy by John Lyly. It is unusual among Lyly's plays in that it has a record of modern productions.

Early history

A play titled "Titirus and Galathea" was entered into the Stationers' Register on April 1, 1585. Some scholars have speculated that this play, otherwise unknown, may have been an early version of Lyly's work — though the point is open to doubt, since what clearly was Lyly's play was entered into the Register on October 4, 1591, along with his "Endymion" and "Midas". "Gallathea" was acted at the royal palace at Greenwich before Queen Elizabeth I by the Children of Paul's, most likely on January 1, 1588 (new style). [E. K. Chambers, "The Elizabethan Stage," 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923; Vol. 2, p. 18.] "Gallathea" was first printed in 1592, in a quarto printed by John Charlwood for Joan Broome (the widow of bookseller William Broome, who had published reprints of Lyly's "Campaspe" and "Sapho and Phao" in 1591). "Gallathea" was next printed in "Six Court Comedies" (1632), the first collected edition of Lyly's works. [Chambers, Vol. 3, pp. 413, 415.]

Plot Synopsis

A small village somewhere in Lincolnshire is forced by Neptune to sacrifice their most beautiful virgin to him every five years, or he will drown them all. The chosen virgin must be tied to a certain tree to await her fate at the hands of the Agar, a terrible monster. The fathers of the two most beautiful virgins of the village, Gallathea and Phillida, decide to disguise their daughters as boys until after the sacrifice. Both girls are then sent off into the woods. Meanwhile, in an almost completely unrelated subplot, three brothers, Rafe, Robin, and Dick, set off to seek their fortune. At the same time, the god Cupid is wandering through the forest when he happens upon a nymph of Diana. After a rebuff of his amorous advances, he resolves to trick all of the nymphs into falling in love, despite their vows of chastity. Predictably, all three of the nymphs who appear fall in love with either Gallathea or Phillida, whom Diana has forced to assist in her hunt. The rest of the plot revolves around the relationship between Gallathea and Phillida, who, each believing the other to be a boy, fall in love with each other. Cupid's punishment, substitute sacrifices of inferior virgins, brotherly reunions, divine reconciliations, a surprise ending, and the triumph of true love ensue.

Modern productions

A production directed by Brett Sullivan Santry, an MLitt/MFA graduate student in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in Performance at Mary Baldwin College, was performed by the students of Stuart Hall School of Staunton, Virginia. It ran from the second to the fifth of February, 2007. [http://www.stuart-hall.org/content/view/158/149/] The production also appeared among the calendar of featured events, during the week-long celebration of Shakespeare's birthday, at the American Shakespeare Center's Blackfriars Playhouse on April 17, 2007. [http://www.americanshakespearecenter.com/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=172]

A staged reading of "Gallathea" was presented in May 2007 by Primavera Productions at the King's Head Theatre in London. The reading feature Mary Nighy as Phillida and was directed by Tom Littler.

An all-female production of "Gallathea" was performed by the [http://www.uncutpages.org Uncut Pages Theater Company] from the 26th to 29th of July 2007 as part of Washington D.C.'s Capitol Fringe Festival.

Modern commentators have praised the play's "harmonious variety" and "allegorical dramaturgy." [Terence P. Logan and Denzell S. Smith, eds., "The Predecessors of Shakespeare: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama," Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1973; pp. 134-5.]

References

External links

* [http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/eprosed/eprosed-idx?coll=eprosed;idno=P1.0161 "Gallathea" online.]