''Rollo Duke of Normandy'', also known as ''The Bloody Brother'', is a play written in collaboration by
John Fletcher,
Philip Massinger
Philip Massinger (1583 – 17 March 1640) was an English dramatist. His plays, including '' A New Way to Pay Old Debts'', '' The City Madam'', and '' The Roman Actor'', are noted for their satire and realism, and their political and soci ...
,
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson ( 11 June 1572 – ) was an English playwright, poet and actor. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence on English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for the satire, satirical ...
and
George Chapman
George Chapman ( – 12 May 1634) was an English dramatist, translator and poet. He was a classical scholar whose work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman is seen as an anticipator of the metaphysical poets of the 17th century. He is ...
. The
title character
The title character in a narrative work is one who is named or referred to in the title of the work. In a performed work such as a play or film, the performer who plays the title character is said to have the title role of the piëce. The title o ...
is the historical
Viking
Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...
duke of Normandy,
Rollo
Rollo (, ''Rolloun''; ; ; – 933), also known with his epithet, Rollo "the Walker", was a Viking who, as Count of Rouen, became the first ruler of Normandy, a region in today's northern France. He was prominent among the Vikings who Siege o ...
(lived 846 – ). Scholars have disputed almost everything about the play; but it was probably written sometime in the 1612–24 era and later revised, perhaps in 1630 or after. In addition to the four writers cited above, the names of
Nathan Field
Nathan Field (also spelled Feild occasionally; 17 October 1587 – 1620) was an English dramatist and actor.
Life
His father was the Puritan preacher John Field, and his brother Theophilus Field became the Bishop of Llandaff. One of his bro ...
and
Robert Daborne have been connected with the play by individual scholars.
Synopsis
Rollo, Duke of Normandy, is locked in a struggle for power with his brother Otto. Urged on by the sycophantic LaTorch, Rollo eventually murders Otto.
After he commits a number of other bloodthirsty deeds, Rollo is lured into a private meeting with the beautiful Edith, daughter of one of his victims, who plots to murder him. As Edith hesitates, Hamond, captain of the guard and brother of another of Rollo's victims, breaks in and murders Rollo. Hamond is himself killed in the process.
Aubrey, Rollo's cousin, succeeds to the dukedom; he has Edith cloistered and LaTorch whipped and hanged.
Performance and publication
Details of the play's earliest productions are not preserved in the historical record. The play was seen at the
Globe Theatre
The Globe Theatre was a Theater (structure), theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 at Southwark, close to the south bank of the Thames, by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It was ...
on 13 May
1633
Events
January–March
* January 20 – Galileo Galilei, having been summoned to Rome on orders of Pope Urban VIII, leaves for Florence for his journey. His carriage is halted at Ponte a Centino at the border of Tuscany, wher ...
, and was acted at
Hampton Court Palace
Hampton Court Palace is a Listed building, Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. Opened to the public, the palace is managed by Historic Royal ...
on 24 January
1637
Events
January–March
* January 5 – Pierre Corneille's tragicomedy '' Le Cid'' is first performed, in Paris, France.
* January 16 – The siege of Nagpur ends in the modern-day Maharashtra state of India, as Kok Shah, the ...
(
new style
Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, they refer to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various Europe, European countrie ...
). It was entered into the
Stationers' Register
The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. This was a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with England's publishing industry, including prin ...
on 4 October
1639
Events
January–March
* January 19 – Hämeenlinna () is granted privileges, after it separates from the Vanaja parish, as its own city in Tavastia.
*c. January – The first printing press in British North America is ...
by the booksellers John Crook and Richard Sergier, as the work of "J. B." It was first published later in 1639, in a
quarto
Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...
printed by R. Bishop for John Crook and Thomas Allot, under the title ''The Bloody Brother''. The title page of this quarto attributes the play to "B. J. F." A second quarto appeared in 1640 under the title ''The Tragoedy of Rollo Duke of Normandy'', published at Oxford by stationer Leonard Lichfield, "Printer to the University." Q2 assigns the play to Fletcher, and asserts that it was acted by the
King's Men. Q2 appears to derive from a theatre prompt-book, while Q1 shows less sign of direct contact with the stage and is a more "literary" text. The play was included in the
second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of
1679.
Though the theatres were officially closed from 1642 to 1660, surreptitious performances occurred sporadically through the era. 1647 was a year of relative official lenience, when the actors were surprisingly active; but the London authorities soon cracked down. On 5 February 1648, King's Men players were arrested in the midst of a clandestine performance of ''Rollo'' at the
Cockpit Theatre
The Cockpit was a theatre in London, operating from 1616 to around 1665. It was the first theatre to be located near Drury Lane. After damage in 1617, it was named The Phoenix.
History
The original building was an actual cockpit; that is, a s ...
.
Joseph Taylor was acting Rollo;
John Lowin played Aubrey,
Charles Hart Otto;
Nicholas Burt was Latorch, and
Thomas Pollard the Cook. The actors were arrested, and imprisoned in Hatton House for a time; their costumes were confiscated.
Authorship
Scholars have been divided about the nature of the play's authorship. Some have regarded it as a play that was originally written by Jonson and Chapman and later revised by Fletcher and Massinger; while this scheme makes a good deal of sense, others have disputed it. In his sweeping study of authorship problems in the Fletcher canon,
Cyrus Hoy
Cyrus Henry Hoy (February 26, 1926 – April 27, 2010) was an American literary scholar of the English Renaissance stage who taught at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, and was the John B. Trevor Professor of English (emerit ...
provided this breakdown among the shares of the four dramatists —
[Logan and Smith, pp. 70–2.]
:Massinger — Act I; Act V, scene 1 (lines 1–90);
:Massinger and Fletcher —Act V, 1 (remainder) and 2 (first part);
:Fletcher — Act II; Act III, 1 (middle portion) and 2; Act V, 2 (second part);
:Chapman — Act III, 1 (excluding middle portion); Act IV, 3;
:Jonson — Act IV, 1–2.
References
{{Authority control
Plays by George Chapman
English Renaissance plays
1610s plays
1620s plays
Plays by John Fletcher (playwright)
Plays by Philip Massinger
Plays by Ben Jonson
Plays by John Fletcher and Massinger
Rollo