The Double Dealer- Research Blog

THE DOUBLE DEALER 

All additions are in blue!

PART: LADY TOUCHWOOD

Short Synopsis:

This comedy sees character Mellefont, nephew and prospective heir of Lord Touchwood, about to marry Cynthia, daughter of Sir Paul Plyant. Lady Touchwood, a violent and dissolute woman, is in love with Mellefont, but as he rejects her advances, determines to prevent the match and ruin him in Lord Touchwood's esteem. In this design she finds a confederate in Maskwell, the Double Dealer, who has been her lover, pretends to be Mellefont's friend, and aspires to cheat him of Cynthia and get her for himself. To this end he leads Plyant to suspect an intrigue between Mellefont and Lady Plyant, and Touchwood an intrigue between Mellefont and Lady Touchwood; and contrives that Touchwood shall find Mellefont in the latter's chamber.

In those days it was perfectly normal to be married, or in a relationship to someone related to you. For example a cousin could be engaged to another cousin with out it even thinking anything of it. People also used to marry for money and not love hence why Lady Touchwood and Lord Touchwood had there own chambers. Also this resulted in Mistresses and love affairs as they were not in love with there partners. Lady Touchwood likes Lord Touchwood but probably isn't attracted to him in that way, and it was most likely an arranged marriage. Arranged marriages were common and were often supported and done by the parents, and possibly before they were even born. King Charles married Catherine of Braganza to connect there countries England and Portugal together. Catherine's husband was chosen by her mother Queen Luisa and Charles father King Charles the 1st. Although Catherine and King Charles the 2nd had a sexual relationship this was most likely because it was her duty to produce and heir, which unfortunately did not happen after three miscarriages. Charles kept many mistresses including Barbara Palmer and Nell Gywn. All types of people would have gone to the theatre, all classes! It would be a social event to attend the theatre and watch a play. 

Impact on delivering the play now: 

The impact on delivering the play now is very different to delivering the play then. If a play wasn't well received back then you could have been executed put in prison or in the best case been targeted by rotten tomatoes. It was all about who had the power. Playwrights needed to be careful about what and who they were writing about in order to keep there heads. Today's impact show what the restoration period was like, it shows the difference between today's rights and rights back then. It shows how there was no such thing as feminism then, and that woman were lower status men and equality wasn't even around. The play shows how people married for money and how common affairs were and also how common incest was. Time has changed and I think people's opinion of the play has probably changed too. I find the play funny but also educating. I think it really highlights the themes in the play listed below. 

Themes of the play:

• Betrayal

• trickery

• manipulation

• Treachery

• love

• deceit

• romance

• lust

• misinterpretation

Themes of the play within the film stage beauty:

Relating to restoration cultural, social, political, religious views. 

Woman were being constantly groaped 

Men saw women as easy shags 

Thought women couldn't act 

Men trained for years to act like women 

Priests preached that a man should play a man 

Women would fight 

Staging: 

'The sumptuously decorated Dorset Gardens playhouse in 1673, with one of the sets for Elkannah Settle's The Empress of Morocco. The apron stageat the front which allowed intimate audience contact is not visible in the picture (the artist is standing on it).'  - Quote and pictures from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_comedy

For eighteen years, since 1642, the theatres of England were closed and out of work. The only performances that were given where illegal ones that were given in secrecy performed in private locations a few miles from town. Anyone who would go against the law were putting themselves in a very risky situation and no actor nor spectator was safe to do anything of the such especially during The rule of the Puritans. In 1660 Charles 2nd returned from hiding in France and regained the throne of England, where he then enjoyed drama and theatre. He became a active patron of drama and issued patents for two companies of players "The Kings Company"  and "Dukes Company". Then performances immediately began again. Few playwrights had managed to survive the civil war and now had there chance to show there artistic creations. These included Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant, both of them were provided with what was described as 'fine play houses' but known as patent theatres. These were built in both Dury Lane and Dorset Gardens. Both Killigrew and Davenant were apparently trying to out do each other constantly and ended up with similar theatres bothed built and designed by Christopher Wren. Christopher Wren was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history. He was given responsibility of rebuilding 52 chrches after The Great Fire of London including his masterpiece St. Paul's Cathedral. Both Patent theatres were built for the purpose of spoken english (acting) music and dancing. They were also built for moving scenery, and elaborate machines for thunder, lighting and waves. 

http://www.theatrehistory.com/british/restoration_drama_001.html


Having these elaborate machines would have helped portray themes across to the audience during the show to help there imaginations fill the rest of the story. The sound effect of thunder and lighting could indicate dramatic scenes, which could highlight themes such as deceit, death, sadness. Anything that could be related to melancholy themes. Today we use set and scenery in a show/performance to enhance the acting or performance. It puts it all together and helps us to envision a realism about it all. Being able to have something to help piece together a story makes it more relatable and real, making it more entertaining to the audience. When an audience finds something funny, it normally is something we can relate to, for example a lot of today's audiences find the american tv programme 'Friends'. This is one of the most popular tv shows to this date, and one of the main reasons why it was a hit is because it based on things that real people do, this enables us to connect with the show, allowing us to get a sense of joy out of it. In restoration times, they would have made jokes which they could relate to around the 17th century. Things like politics that are happening, or who is on the throne, or who the celebrities of the day were. 

Our staging for the play is based in a contemporary theatre on a flat stage and tierd seating. We have two set changes one for the lounge seating area for the characters, which is painted yellow with brown/wooden assets. It has a French window balcony style in the middle of the set. And a wooden screen. The other side is pink for lady touchwoods chamber, it has a chez with a red throw which we change during transitions. There is a window too. The difference between todays audience and the audience in 1600's is that restoration period would laugh, spit, throw tomatoes if they didn't like it and the characters still had to carry on. Today's audience are a little more polite. 

I searched into what people found funny and this is what I discovered: 

British humor: 

Innuendo

Pranks and practical jokes

Tolerance of, and affection for, the eccentric

Bullying and harsh sarcasm

Parodies of stereotypes

Adults and children

Race and regional stereotypes

British class system

Embarrassment of social ineptitude

Lovable rogue

Humour inherent in everyday life

Surreal and chaotic

Absurd

Macabre

Satire

English Civil War: 

These are lists of basics playwrights, authors, script writers, ect, would base there work on. 

The English Civil war started when Charles I was on the thrown. It began in 1642 where the split was between Charles and Parliament. The country had split into two sides of who supported King Charles I and who supported the Parliament. Roundheads was the name given to people who supported Parliament, and Cavaliers to who supported the king. They were given the name Roundheads because a lot of the younger boys had their hair cut very short. Most towns and cities were known to have been on the side of Parliament and most Anglicans, landowners and nobility were more for the side of Charles. There were long periods of time when there were no battles going on even though there was a war going on. The three major battles in the English Civil War were, Edge Hill which took place in 1642, Marston Moor (1644) and Naseby (1645). Charles I was beheaded January 30th 1649, and he wore two layers to stop him from shivering because he didn't want people to think he was afraid. Charles I was over powered by parliament, which meant the common wealth managed the country and then Oliver Cromwell  stepped up and ran the country. 

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/civil_war_england.htm

'The English Civil War killed a higher proportion of the British population than any other. In the seven years between 1642 and 1649, an amazing 1 in 10 of the adult male population died: more than three times the proportion that died in WWI and five times the proportion than in WWII.'

I believe Lady Touchwood would have supported the Parliament as they are very high class and situated in a city, and it would be of fashion to be agreeing with the men who were most likely influenced by friends of friends who would be involved with Parliament. 

Quote from below link:

http://gileskristian.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/The-English-Civil-War-10-Interesting-Facts.pdf

The Interregnum:

"The Interregnum was the time between the execution of Charles I on 30 January 1649 and the arrival of his son Charles II in London on 29 May 1660 which marked the start of the Restoration. During the Interregnum England was under various forms of republican government, for which see Commonwealth of England; this article describes other facets of the Interregnum." 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interregnum_%28England%29

Cromwell's convincing military successes at Drogheda in Ireland (1649), Dunbar in Scotland (1650) and Worcester in England (1651) forced Charles I's son, Charles, into foreign exile despite being accepted as King in Scotland.

From 1649 to 1660, England was therefore a republic during a period known as the Interregnum ('between reigns'). A series of political experiments followed, as the country's rulers tried to redefine and establish a workable constitution without a monarchy.

Throughout the Interregnum, Cromwell's relationship with Parliament was a troubled one, with tensions over the nature of the constitution and the issue of supremacy, control of the armed forces and debate over religious toleration.

In 1653 Parliament was dissolved, and under the Instrument of Government, Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector, later refusing the offer of the throne.
Further disputes with the House of Commons followed; at one stage Cromwell resorted to regional rule by a number of the army's major generals. After Cromwell's death in 1658, and the failure of his son Richard's short-lived Protectorate, the army under General Monk invited Charles I's son, Charles, to become King. The whole country would have been torn and constantly discussing politics. This is relevant to the play as the men would be discussing politics in a room separate to the women. Men were higher status than woman and woman would often be like an accessory to a man in those days. 

Nell Gwyn:

(Images from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nell_Gwyn)

Nell Gwyn was one of Charles II mistresses and was reported to be an aspiring actress around the time of Margret Hughes (Maria). Nell Gywn was reported to have two sons with Charles II with the first Charles Burford living on till 56 and James who was sent to school in Paris at six and died there suspiciously.

The new theatres were the first in England to feature actresses; earlier, women's parts were played by boys or men. Gwyn joined the rank of actresses at Bridges Street when she was fourteen, less than a year after becoming an orange-girl.

'If her good looks, strong clear voice, and lively wit were responsible for catching the eye of Killigrew, she still had to prove herself clever enough to succeed as an actress. This was no easy task in the Restoration theatre; the limited pool of audience members meant that very short runs were the norm for plays and fifty different productions might be mounted in the nine-month season lasting from September to June'

Elizabeth Barry:

She worked in big, prestigious London theatre companies throughout her successful career: from 1675 in the Duke's Company, 1682 – 1695 in the monopoly United Company, and from 1695 onwards as a member of the actors' cooperative usually known as Betterton's Company, of which she was one of the original shareholders. Her stage career began 15 years after the first-ever professional actresses had replaced Shakespeare's boy heroines on the London stage.

A frequently repeated anecdote holds that the 17-year-old Barry at first performed so unskillfully that she was fired from the company several times, but was transformed into a brilliant actress by the coaching of her lover, John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester. While multiple sources confirm that Rochester was Barry's lover, the only source for the coaching story is a Life of Barry published in 1740 – 65 years after the events – by Edmund Curll, well known for his fanciful and inaccurate biographies.

Susanna Mountfort:

Susanna Verbruggen or aka Susanna Mountfort, was an English actress working in London. Her first recorded stage appearance may have been as early as 1681 in D'Urfey's Sir Barnaby Whig. In 1686 she married the actor William Mountfort, and after Mountfort's infamous murder in 1692, she married the actor John Verbruggen.

Breeches Roles:

A breeches role is a role in which an actress appears in male clothing. Breeches, tight-fitting knee-length pants, were the standard male garment at the time breeches roles were introduced.

In opera it also refers to any male character that is sung and acted by a female singer. Most often the character is an adolescent or a very young man, sung by a mezzo-soprano or contralto. The operatic concept assumes that the character is male, and the audience accepts him as such, even knowing that the actor is not.

Samuel Pepy's: 

Samuel wrote when  The Great plague of London was at its height. The Plague impacted many lives and left many people dead, infected or without loved ones. The diseased was easily spread due to the breeding of rats after London had experience a very hot summer of which fleas carried around on other vermin and stray animals within the cities. Many people lived in poverty and small tight houses and therefore the disease was easily given round. Sources say that the rats first came from ships that have come over from France.The Plague had been around for centuries but in 1665 the so called Great Plague hit the country.  Stuart of London took the worst hit of the plague and the plague never really got under control until the Great Fire of London in 1666, wiped out most areas of the Plague. So the living conditions in London were like one big bin during this scene. The three girls were quite lucky to be more disclosed from the drama, as they were ladies maids in a big well-kept house. The chances of getting the plague were somewhat shorter than others who were living in poverty.

The popular nursery rhyme, describes the symptoms of the plague:

"Ring-a-ring of roses,

A pocketful of posies,

Attischo, Attischo,

We all fall down."

poem -found form historylearningsite.co.uk

King Charles the 2nd was on the thrown and baroque music was the fashion. The attire for woman included the wide, high-waisted look of the previous period was gradually superseded by a long vertical line, with horizontal emphasis at the shoulder. Full, loose sleeves ended just below the elbow at mid-century and became longer and tighter in keeping with the new trend. The body was tightly corseted, with a low, broad neckline and dropped shoulder.Clothing in the Restoration expressed the suppressed feelings of freedom during the Puritan period. The frivolities of courtiers had been stifled for eleven years and the Restoration is the period that everything that had been stifled is cut loose. Curls, ribbons puff, flounces and feathers returned to clothing wherever they could be attached. Masculine and feminine dress began to take on the stiffness and smart elegance that had been abandoned with James I's death.t

Gentlemen wore wigs that had curls all over it and they shaved their heads. The faces were shaved at first then only a thread of a mustache if any. The hat moved to a high-crown, stiffer and a little narrower-brimmed hat and it was cocked to side. All men tried to wear cravats around the neck rather than the huge collars.
Women wore ringlets clustered in the back of the hair with smaller tendrils waved around the face which replaced the earlier dense frizzle. Rich women would weave pearls into their hair and put nosegays in their buns, however, the common people wore simpler hair. In the Old and New World they continued to wear caps, especially in the Colonial scene. Collars were higher but wider across the shoulders and necklines were low, wide and dropped on the shoulders. Most women wore under dress with another garment on top and if the she could afford it the bodice and skirt would be attached. If she was poorer the skirts and bodices were of different colors. In this period the apron became very popular and in fact it could be classed with the skirt rather than an accessory. Skirts were a tad bit shorter and peasant women shortened their dresses to the instep, while court women shortened their skirts just to show the toe. The court used deep-toned velvet and light colored satin and colors at Versailles were subdued. The Colonial fashion was not subdued and bright-hued garments prevailed. Red, blue, yellow and green were popular and fearlessly combined. Men often wore red coats and women's petticoats were also red but in flowered silks. Hats and shoes were black and stockings were light colored.Lady Touchwood will be wearing a red dress with a corset that laces up the back and fillers to make the hips look bigger. The corsets would make the boobs look fuller and pushed up and the waist look smaller. 


Restoration makeup for women:

Hair was nearly always curled, waved, or frizzed before styling, in order to create texture. Styling was accomplished with combs and curling irons, held with pins. When height was wanted, it was raised over pads made of wool, tow, hemp, cut hair, or wire.

• Bright eyes (achieved with drops of powdered ash or saffron)
• A light complexion (achieved with chalk and lead)
• Dark arched eyebrows that met in the middle (achieved with antimony, lead or soot)
• Small round beauty marks called splenia –often used in profusion
• Dark eyelashes (achieved with antimony, lead or soot)
• Rose-coloured cheeks and lips (achieved with carmine)

http://www.apparelsearch.com/definitions/fashion/1600-1650_fashion_history.htm

https://prezi.com/z2fradukfwak/womens-roles-during-1500s-1600s/

Samuel Pepys was also know to have dug a hole to put in his Parmasan cheese and wine in it to keep it safe from the flames. He did this as this was valuable to him. Parmasain cheese is thought to be made over a course of 2000 years in the Po Valley area of Italy. It takes at least 2 years to mature however the longer it's been matured the more valuable it comes.

 

Samuel Pepys lived through both disasters and the Civil War.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plague_of_London

http://www.historyhouse.co.uk/articles/parmesan_cheese.html

Manners and behaviour of the class is addressed anti punctual.

Sexual life led by a large number of courtiers.  

• 1.Charles II lived his life as a protestant but on his deathbed he converted to Catholicism. This is because he feared the people would not accept a Catholic king.

• 2. He brought back Christmas. When Oliver Cromwell took over England in 1645, he banned all celebrations surrounding the holiday. Charles II immediately dropped all the legislation and festivities resumed with renewed enthusiasm.

• 3. Charles II was enormously fond of his toy spaniel, and is recorded as playing with the dog during council meetings. The breed soared in popularity as a result and has since been named after him – the King Charles Spaniel.

• 4. Infamous for his many mistresses, Charles II nicknamed Louise de Keroualle ‘Fubbs.’ This stems from an old English word meaning chubby.

• 5. Despite his eccentric tendencies, Charles II was a brave man and took an active part in fighting the great fire of London, endangering his own life. This only increased the love and admiration the people had for him.

I think I wouldn't of been on any side I don't particularly like King Charles the 1st of Cromwell. I do however prefer King Charles the 2nd.