''Valentinian'' is a Jacobean stage play written by John Fletcher, a

revenge tragedy Revenge tragedy (sometimes referred to as revenge drama, revenge play, or tragedy of blood) is a theoretical genre in which the principal theme is revenge and revenge's fatal consequences. Formally established by American educator Ashley H. Thor ...

based on the life of the Roman emperor

Valentinian III Valentinian III ( la, Placidus Valentinianus; 2 July 41916 March 455) was Roman emperor in the West from 425 to 455. Made emperor in childhood, his reign over the Roman Empire was one of the longest, but was dominated by powerful generals vying ...

(), and originally published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. The play dramatizes the story of Valentinian, one of the last Roman emperors in the

western Roman Empire The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period ...

and last ruler of the conjoined Valentinianic– Theodosian dynasty, as recorded by the Late Antique

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

historian

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea ( grc-gre, Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; la, Procopius Caesariensis; – after 565) was a prominent late antique Greek scholar from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman gen ...

. His assassin in the play is based on

Petronius Maximus Petronius Maximus ( 39731 May 455) was Roman emperor of the West for two and a half months in 455. A wealthy senator and a prominent aristocrat, he was instrumental in the murders of the Western Roman ''magister militum'', Aëtius, and the W ...

(), Valentinian's short-reigning successor.

Date, source, performance

Scholars date the play to the 1610–14 period. As he did with '' Monsieur Thomas,'' another play of the same era, Fletcher used the second part of the novel ''

L'Astrée ''L'Astrée'' is a pastoral novel by Honoré d'Urfé, published between 1607 and 1627. Possibly the single most influential work of 17th-century French literature, ''L'Astrée'' has been called the "novel of novels", partly for its immense leng ...

'' by

Honoré D'Urfé Honoré d'Urfé, marquis de Valromey, comte de Châteauneuf (11 February 15681 June 1625) was a French novelist and miscellaneous writer. Life He was born at Marseille, the grandson of Claude d'Urfé, and was educated at the Collège de T ...

, as one of his sources; and Part 2 of ''Astrée'' was first published in

1610 Some have suggested that 1610 may mark the beginning of the Anthropocene, or the 'Age of Man', marking a fundamental change in the relationship between humans and the Earth system, but earlier starting dates (ca. 1000 C.E.) have received broa ...

. The play was performed by the King's Men; the cast list added to the play in the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of

1679 Events January–June * January 24 – King Charles II of England dissolves the "Cavalier Parliament", after nearly 18 years. * February 3 – Moroccan troops from Fez are killed, along with their commander Moussa ben Ahmed be ...

mentions

Richard Burbage Richard Burbage (c. 1567 – 13 March 1619) was an English stage actor, widely considered to have been one of the most famous actors of the Globe Theatre and of his time. In addition to being a stage actor, he was also a theatre owner, entr ...

Henry Condell Henry Condell ( bapt. 5 September 1576 – December 1627) was a British actor in the King's Men, the playing company for which William Shakespeare wrote. With John Heminges, he was instrumental in preparing and editing the First Folio, the c ...

John Lowin John Lowin (baptized 9 December 1576 – buried – 24 August 1653) was an English actor. Early life Born in St Giles-without-Cripplegate, London, Lowin was the son of a tanner. Like Robert Armin, he was apprenticed to a goldsmith. Whil ...

William Ostler William Ostler (died 16 December 1614) was an actor in English Renaissance theatre, a member of the King's Men, the company of William Shakespeare. Ostler started out as a boy player in the Children of the Chapel troupe; he was cast in their 1 ...

, and John Underwood. Since Ostler died in December 1614, ''Valentinian'' must have been written and staged between those two dates.

Plot

Fletcher portrays Valentinian as a lustful and rapacious

tyrant A tyrant (), in the modern English usage of the word, is an absolute ruler who is unrestrained by law, or one who has usurped a legitimate ruler's sovereignty. Often portrayed as cruel, tyrants may defend their positions by resorting to ...

, comparable to the King in ''

The Maid's Tragedy ''The Maid's Tragedy'' is a play by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. It was first published in 1619. The play has provoked divided responses from critics. Date The play's date of origin is not known with certainty. In 1611, Sir George Buck ...

.'' His empire is decadent and collapsing, his soldiers mutinous. Valentinian rapes the virtuous Lucina; she then commits suicide. Lucina's husband, the upright soldier Maximus, devotes himself to obtaining revenge against the emperor, though his friend Aecius tries to dissuade him. Maximus finally succeeds as Valentinian dies a painful and drawn-out death by poison. Maximus is crowned by the

Roman Senate The Roman Senate ( la, Senātus Rōmānus) was a governing and advisory assembly in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being established in the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in ...

for overthrowing the tyrant, only to die himself soon after. (Curiously, the play was published with an

Epilogue An epilogue or epilog (from Greek ἐπίλογος ''epílogos'', "conclusion" from ἐπί ''epi'', "in addition" and λόγος ''logos'', "word") is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature, usually used to bring closure to the ...

suited to a

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

– an apparent print-shop blunder.)

After 1660

Like many plays in Fletcher's canon, ''Valentinian'' was both revived and adapted during the Restoration period. An adaptation under the same title by the poet and playwright

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1 April 1647 – 26 July 1680) was an English poet and courtier of King Charles II's Restoration court. The Restoration reacted against the "spiritual authoritarianism" of the Puritan era. Rochester embodie ...

was staged in

1684 Events January–March * January 5 – King Charles II of England gives the title Duke of St Albans to Charles Beauclerk, his illegitimate son by Nell Gwyn. * January 15 (January 5 O.S.) - To demonstrate that the River Thames, froz ...

Drury Lane Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster. Notable landmarks T ...

and published in 1685. Rochester changed the play's order of scenes and eliminated the final act entirely, making Fletcher's heroine Lucina the central focus of the drama. A setting by

Robert Johnson Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generati ...

of the song "Care charming sleep," the text of which is adapted from a sonnet by John Daniel, dates from about the time of the original production. The

adaptation featured music composed by

Louis Grabu Louis Grabu, Grabut, Grabue, or Grebus (fl. 1665 – 1690, died after 1693) was a Catalan-born, French-trained composer and violinist who was mainly active in England. While he was probably born in Catalonia – he was later referred to as 'Lo ...

Critical responses

Critics generally do not place Fletcher's play in the first rank of the

English Renaissance theatre English Renaissance theatre, also known as Renaissance English theatre and Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1558 and 1642. This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson ...

's tragedies; the play has been criticized for "its disunity of plot, structural faults, and support of tyranny...." But the play has been considered influential on the Restoration tragedy that followed. Modern critics have discussed the play's politics and sexual violence.Karen Bamford, ''Sexual Violence on the Jacobean Stage,'' London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2000; pp. 100–6.

References

{{Authority control 1610s plays Plays set in the 5th century Plays set in ancient Rome English Renaissance plays Plays by John Fletcher (playwright) Rape in fiction Fiction about regicide Revenge plays Fiction about suicide Valentinian III Works about monarchs Tragedy plays