Dryden's Marriage a la Mode

Dryden's Marriage a la Mode and the Restortation of Society

General question: What is it that holds a society together? What forces split a society into warring factions?

Critical question for the text: What is the effect of Dryden's weave comedy and romance together into one play? How does this aesthetic strategy enable him to offer answers to the general question above?

Mapping the Characters
Comic plot
Doralice	married to	Rhodophil
desires/ is desired by	rivals (P & R)	desires
Palamede	betrothed to	Melanthea	desires	Fashion/ modish court life
Romance plot
Polydamas, the King	favorite is	Argaleon (schemer)	brother to	Amalthea (in love with Leonidas)
	rivals (L & A)	desires
Leonidas	loves/ loved by	Palmyra
Pre-history (18? years earlier) of the Romance plot
Former King	leaving Syracuse entrusts	Eubulus	to protect	Queen and their 3 year old son (the prince)
dies in war				flees
King's general Polydamas usurps the throne	has recently married	Eudocia, who is pregnant	flees into country	with Eubulus, the Queen, and the 3 year old prince

In present:

Jewels and letter fragment from Polydamas's lost wife Eudocia have been recovered.
Polydamas's court moves into the country (away from urbane toward pastorale) to uncover the past by removing disguises.
Two young people of "uncommon beauty" (23) have been identified; they might help clear up the mystery.

Three stages of discovery within the romance plot over the course of the whole play:

Leonidas is Polydamas's son
Palmyra is Polydamas's daughter
Leonidas is the son of the old King of Syracuse, and thus the legitimate King

What is the allure and magic of these recognition scenes?

Recognizing Leonidas's nobility through his speech

27: P: "Call the youth nearer. ...

Come near, and be not dazzled with the splendor/

And greatness of a court."

L: I need not this encouragement.

I can fear nothing but the gods.

And for this glory, after I have seen

The canopy of state spread wide above

In the abyss of heaven, the court of stars

The blushing morning, and the rising sun,'

What greater can I see?

P: This speaks thee born a prince;…"

How does the rhythm of Leonidas speech express his greatness?

44: P: Leonidas, you owe me more/ ` _ ` _ ` _ ` _

Than to oppose your liking to my pleasure ` _ ` _ ` _ ` _ ` _

L: I owe you all things, sir; but something too/ `_ `_ _ _ ` _ ` _

I owe myself. ` _ ` _

P: You shall dispute no more: I am a king, ` _ ` _ ` _ ` _ ` _

And I will be obeyed. ` _ ` _ ` _

L: You are a king, sir, but you are no god; ` _ ` _ _ ` _ _ _ _

Or if you were, you could not force my will. ` _ ` _ _ _ _ _ _ _

First love and first kiss of Palymra and Leonidas

"P: I know too well when first my love began,

When, at our wake*, you for the chaplet** ran. (* festival **garland)

Then I was made the lady of the May

And with the garland at the goal did stay.

Still*, as you ran, I kept you full in view; (*always)

I hoped, and wished, and ran, methought, for you.

As you came near, I hastily did rise,

And stretched my arm outright that held the prize.

The custom was to kiss whom I should crown:

You kneeled and, in my lap, your head laid down.

I blushed, and blushed, and did the kiss delay:

At last my subjects* force me to obey; (*other virgins)

But, when I gave the crown, and then the kiss,

I scarce had breath to say, take that-and this."

What is the general effect of this interweaving of these two genre and codes?

How does Dryden resolve the tensions in both the romance and comic plot… and brings the solutions to both plots into one grand design?

Lecture 3: Restoring Society (Part II)

Interweaving the comic and romance elements into one play
Comic Plot : win the object of desire; gratify one's private pleasure	Romance Plot : strip away disguises; uncover origins; find the true and proper King
in prose	in blank verse (iambic pentameter)
marriage vs. "love" (as intrigue and novelty)	marriage and love=apparently united
setting: the urbane private life	setting: the court come to the country
Game of sexual intrigue: goal is to win the maximum of pleasure from the opposite sex, while not being constrained by your partner (Doralice's opening song: "Why should a foolish marriage vow...")	Pure Love:love as the highest and most spiritual realization of life (May race; love unto death; Leonidas: "I'll hold my breath and die"(66) Politics: to gain power: Argaleon as rival to Leonidas
Merging the Comic and Romance actions

The first climax of the comic plot: performing the Grotto Scene: Act III, ii, 71-78

What is it that the four characters who come to the grotto want?
What is the symbolism of the space?
What is the effect of the four characters coming together accidentally?
How in this four-some do you think the desire for the opposite sex is effected by the relationship with the same sex rival/friend?

Triangular Desire and Rivalry

Object of desire

Rival 1 and/or Rival 2 (Desiring subjects)

Doralice

Palamede and/or Rhodaphil

Melanthea

Rhodaphil and/or Palamede

Leonidas

Amalthea and/or Palmyra

Palmyra

Leonidas and/or Argaleon

The crown of the King

Leonidas and/or Argaleon a

High fashion; the "in" thing (at Court)

Melanthea and/or all others (dress and speech)

How would you characterize the relationship of erotic rivals? in the comic plot? in the romance plot?

What is the effect of desire and rivalry upon these characters? upon the society as a whole?

Reinventing marriage (Palamede and Rhodophil and Doralice change the game)
120: 322: Rhod: All things considered, I begin vehemently to suspect that the young gentleman found in your company last night was a certain youth of may acquaintance. Pal: And I have an odd imagination.... Rhod: Futher arguments are needless...	Rivalrous desire almost issues in a duel between friends
121: Dor: Hold, hold: are not you two a couple of mad fighting fools, to cut one another's throats for nothing? ... Rhod: Faith I am jealous, and that makes me partly suspect that I love you better than I thought. Dor: Pish! a mere jealousy of honor.	Jealously of rivalry implies desire for one's spouse/ spouse-to-be
Rhod: Gad I am afraid there's something else in't; for Palamede has wit, and if he love you, there's something more in ye that I have found, some rich mine, for aught I know, that I have not yet discovered. Pal: 'S life, what's this? here's an argument for me to love Melantha; for he has loved her, and he has wit too,...	The value of the object has been learned from the rival
Doralice (to Rhodaophil): Then I have dound my account in raising your jealously: O! 'tis the most delicate sharp sauce to a cloyed stomach; it will give you a new edge, Rhodophil.	There is a return of desire for an stale love
122: 364: Pal: Rhodophil, you know me too well to imageine I speak for fear: and therefore in consideration of our past friendship, I will tell you, and bind it by all things holy, that Doralice is innocent.	Solemn vow by men that the women are innocent; a return to openness and honesty.
Pal: What dost think of a blessed community betwixt us four,...	"open marriage" scheme; but dismissed as the source of new rivalry
123: 381: Rhod: Then I think, Palamede, we had as good make a firm league not to invade each other's property. Pal: Content, say I. From henceforth let all acts of hostility cease betwixt us, ...	A pledge to end the game of sexual intrigue (to dupe your friend by getting his women)

What is the relationship between sexual and political rivalry of most of the characters and Melantha's rage for novelty?

Fashions and songs migrate: 57-58: 145ff Melantha re songs…

Doralice describes the geography of fashion 58:166ff:

the fashionable new thing migrates down the social hierarchy: from court (King and courtiers)

…town (the rich upper class)

…city (the merchants)

…country (the squires and lower gentry)

What's Melantha's problem? Why is fashion a problem in this play? How does the romance plot express a value for the original? What event expresses the value of the original? (Leonidas's speech: 127:476-485)