''The Princess, or Love at First Sight'' is a
Caroline era stage play, a
tragicomedy
Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragedy, tragic and comedy, comic forms. Most often seen in drama, dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the ov ...
written by
Thomas Killigrew
Thomas Killigrew (7 February 1612 – 19 March 1683) was an English dramatist and theatre manager. He was a witty, dissolute figure at the court of King Charles II of England.
Life
Killigrew was one of twelve children of Sir Robert Killigre ...
. The play was most likely written c. 1636, while Killigrew was travelling in Italy, and was acted on the stage c. 1638, by
Queen Henrietta's Men Queen Henrietta's Men was an important playing company or troupe of actors of the Caroline era in London, England. At their peak of popularity, Queen Henrietta's Men were the second leading troupe of the day, after only the King's Men.
Beginnin ...
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 ...
.
Genre
As with his two previous plays, ''
The Prisoners
A prisoner is someone incarcerated in a prison, jail or similar facility.
Prisoner(s) or The Prisoner(s) may also refer to:
Literature
* ''The Prisoner'' (), the fifth volume of ''In Search of Lost Time'', a 1913–27 novel by Marcel Proust
* ' ...
'' and ''
Claricilla'', Killigrew chose to work in the tragicomic genre for ''The Princess''. He was working in the dramatic style favoured at the court of Queen
Henrietta Maria
Henrietta Maria of France (French language, French: ''Henriette Marie''; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England, List of Scottish royal consorts, Scotland and Ireland from her marriage to K ...
. Tragicomedy, coloured by
Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism is a version of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a series of thinkers. Among the common id ...
and
Platonic love
Platonic love is a type of love in which sexual desire or romantic features are nonexistent or have been suppressed or sublimated, but it means more than simple friendship.
The term is derived from the name of Greek philosopher Plato, tho ...
influences, was the fashion in which courtier dramatists like
William Cartwright,
Sir John Suckling, and
Lodowick Carlell were casting their dramas in the 1630s.
Publication
Though written and acted late in the
Caroline era
The Caroline era is the period in English and Scottish history named for the 24-year reign of Charles I of England, Charles I (1625–1649). The term is derived from ''Carolus'', Latin for Charles. The Caroline era followed the Jacobean era, the ...
, ''The Princess'' was not published until its inclusion in ''Comedies and Tragedies'', the collected edition of Killigrew's plays issued by
Henry Herringman
Henry Herringman (1628–1704) was a prominent London bookseller and publisher in the second half of the 17th century. He is especially noted for his publications in English Renaissance drama and English Restoration drama; he was the first publis ...
in 1664. (Like some other plays in that volume, ''The Princess'' has a separate title page dated 1663, an inconsistency that causes confusion in Killigrew's bibliography.) The collected edition dedicates the play to Killigrew's niece Lady Anne Wentworth, the wife of Lord Lovelace; and it specifies that the play was written in
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
.
Revival
Early in the
Restoration era, Killigrew, then the manager of the
King's Company
The King's Company was one of two enterprises granted the rights to mount theatrical productions in London, after the London theatre closure 1642, London theatre closure had been lifted at the start of the English Restoration. It existed from 166 ...
, staged a new production of ''The Princess''.
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys ( ; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English writer and Tories (British political party), Tory politician. He served as an official in the Navy Board and Member of Parliament (England), Member of Parliament, but is most r ...
attended the first performance on 29 November 1661. (As he recorded in his Diary, Pepys thought it "a poor thing.")
[Helen McAfee, ''Pepys on the Restoration Stage'', London, Oxford University Press, 1916; p. 168.]
Synopsis
Killigrew sets his play in a profoundly un-historical version of the
ancient Roman
In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...
world. His story concerns two sets of royal offspring. One consists of Facertes, Cicilia, and Lucius, the children of the late
king of Sicily
The monarchs of Sicily ruled from the establishment of the Kingdom of Sicily in 1130 until the "perfect fusion" in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1816.
The origins of the Sicilian monarchy lie in the Norman conquest of southern Italy which oc ...
; and the other, Virgilius and Sophia, the (wildly fictitious) son and daughter of
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...
. (Cicilia, a name that Killigrew would re-use in his later work ''
Cicilia and Clorinda'', was the name of his first wife:
Cecilia Crofts.)
The play's opening scenes show Sicilian soldiers taking Roman prisoners. Among them is Sophia, daughter of Casear; she conceals her identity. The soldiers are drawn by her beauty, and contend as to who will have her; a prominent warrior called Cilius protects Sophia from mistreatment.
These scenes also begin to sketch in the play's
backstory
A backstory, background story, background, or legend is a set of events invented for a plot, preceding and leading up to that plot. In acting, it is the history of the character before the drama begins, and is created during the actor's prepara ...
. Caesar has attacked an independent Sicilian kingdom; its king was killed in battle, and his son and heir Facertes taken prisoner. Facertes has been placed in the custody of Caesar's son Virgilius, who, commanding troops in the
Gallic Wars
The Gallic Wars were waged between 58 and 50 BC by the Roman general Julius Caesar against the peoples of Gaul (present-day France, Belgium, and Switzerland). Gauls, Gallic, Germanic peoples, Germanic, and Celtic Britons, Brittonic trib ...
, was not involved in the conquest of the island. Sicily is in a state of confusion; renegade soldiers turn pirate and engage in
slave trading
The history of slavery spans many cultures, nationalities, and Slavery and religion, religions from ancient times to the present day. Likewise, its victims have come from many different ethnicities and religious groups. The social, economic, a ...
.
Facertes and Virgilius, two young men of noble nature, have become trusted friends; Virgilius lets his prisoner wear a sword and accompany him unguarded. Virgilius has guessed that Facertes has fallen in love with Sophia; and Virgilius has developed a plan for peace between Rome and Sicily, through a dynastic marriage between himself and Cicilia. With that goal in mind, the two young men go south.
Stopping in Naples, Virgilius sees a beautiful young woman in the slave market there, and instantly falls in love with her. Unknown to him, this is none other than Cicilia, Facertes' sister and his intended bride. He tries to buy her, but a local man purchases her first; this is Bragadine, son to the Roman viceroy of Sicily. Virgilus protests this; a brawl breaks out. Virgilius kills a soldier, and he and Facertes are pursued through the streets. A local woman named Paulina has watched the unfolding events; she has fallen in love with Virgilius, and hides him in her house. She knows Bragadine, and borrows his new slave. Facertes catches up with Virgilius at Paulina's house, and is re-united with his sister Cicilia. He tells her of Virgilius and his love for her; but Cicilia is appalled at the idea of marrying a conqueror and oppressor of her country. Through some emotional conversations, Virgilius begins to win Cicilia's heart despite her reservations.
The two young men try to leave the city at night, but are waylaid by Bragadine and his "Bravos." Though both are wounded, they kill their attackers in self-defense. (In tragicomedies – Killigrew's and others too – heroes suffer wounds but recover from them quickly and painlessly.) The two escape the city with Cicilia and Paulina and sail south on a galley.
Meanwhile, Cilius has failed in an attempt to purchase Sophia's freedom; to save her from the Neapolitan slave market, he sets the Roman prisoners free and escapes, with them and his followers, on a galley of his own. After a storm, the two parties blunder into each other on a deserted
Calabria
Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...
n coast. They fight; Cilius captures Facertes, Cicilia, and Paulina, but Virgilius, though wounded (again), escapes. Cilius soon tracks him down; they fight; more wounds. In the final revelation scene, Cilius turns out to be Lucius, the long-lost brother of Facertes and Cicilia. In the rather rushed and perfunctory conclusion, Virgilius wins Cicilia, and Facertes will marry Sophia; Cilius/Lucius loves her too, but this is forgotten about, as is Paulina's affection for Virgilius. Multiple
plot holes
In fiction, a plot hole, plothole, or plot error is an inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's plot.
Plot holes are usually created unintentionally, often as a result of editing or the writers ...
(how did Caesar's daughter get captured by slavers; how did Sicilian princess Cicilia get captured by slavers; etc.) are left unfilled.
The main plot is accompanied by scenes of
comic relief
Comic Relief is a British charity, founded in 1986 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Sir Lenny Henry in response to the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make t ...
, featuring soldiers and clown characters.
References
External links
''The Princess'' online.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Princess, The
English Renaissance plays
Plays by Thomas Killigrew
1636 plays
Tragicomedy plays
Henrietta Maria of France
Plays set in ancient Rome
Depictions of Julius Caesar in plays
Plays set in Sicily
Plays about princesses