This is the first play of my daily-drama project to feature a really tasty villain. That combined with the fact that it’s a tightly plotted, finely written melodramatic comedy made it a joy to read.
Despite being the villain, Sir Giles Overreach is really the main character of this play. Frank Wellborn (what a name), who plays the part of the prodigal protagonist is nowhere near as interesting as this towering antagonist.
What would normally be the main plot starts Wellborn at his lowest point, kicked out of an inn that he had given the keeper the money to start in better times. He’s in such dire straits because he fell under the spell of Overreach, one of whose many awful strategies is to lend so much to the unwise that they become overextended and go bankrupt, and he seizes all their assets in court, thanks to his corrupt hanger-on Justice Greedy and wicked lawyer Marrall.
Schemes and Plots
The A-plot revolves around Wellborn seeking revenge, with the help of the Allworth, the page of Lord Lovell) and his widowed stepmother, Lady Allworth (whose late husband Wellborn had supported under similar circumstances) and her comical household staff, as well as Lord Lovell and, eventually Marrall, Overreach’s unctuous turncoat lawyer.
The B-Plot is about young Allworth and Margaret Overreach (who has a pretty decent part, too), who are plotting to carry off their nuptuals, which are blocked by Sir Giles, who wants his daughter to Marry Lord Lovell. Lord Lovell, Lady Allworth, Wellborn, Margaret, and eventually Marrall all combine to help them.
The villain plot focuses squarely on Sir Giles Overrreach, and his obsession--scheming to marry his daughter to high nobility so that people who are now his betters (despite his huge wealth) will be her servants, having been ruined by him. As he says to Marrall about Margaret:
....She must part with
That humble title [Mistress] and write honourable,
Right honorable, Marrall, my right honorable daughter,
If all I have, or e’er shall get, will do it.
I’ll have her well attended: there are ladies
Of errant knights decayed and brought so low,
That for cast clothes and meat will gladly serve her.
And ‘tis my glory, though I have come from the city,
To have their issue whom I have undone,
To kneel to mind as bondslaves.
Overreach's misdeeds are only matched by his unpleasant recurring fantasies of his status rising with that of his daughter so that everyone he meets licks his boots. To realize his dream, he neatly sets his sights on Lord Lovell as his prospective son-in-law.This is unsurprising: Lord L is the only eligible nobleman in the play.
Determined to Prove a Villain
Every time we see Overreach, Massinger gives him some new atrocity to commit. He sets Marrall onto Wellborn to hound him to death, either by forcing him to steal so that he’ll be hung, or to simply persuade him that killing himself is the best solution to his poverty and shame. We get to see him plotting land thefts, talking openly of bribery, and perverting the law.
When Wellborn won’t conveniently die, Overreach seizes on a plot to marry Wellborn to Lady Allworth so that he can get to her lands and money via Wellborn, who he doesn’t believe has changed. Overreach is utterly ruthless, and he’s a fantastic villain. You can hear the audience hissing him like a pantomime baddie, and see him strutting around the stage menacing audience members. As he explains to Lord L, when sounding him out as a groom for Margaret:
...if you will have my character
In little, I enjoy more true delight
In my arrival to my wealth in these dark
And crooked ways than you shall e’er take pleasure
In spending what my industry has compassed.
The Worm Turns
The pivot point of the play comes when Overreach, who can’t believe Marrall’s report that Wellborn has changed, beats Marrall one time too many. Because he can’t see anyone as anything but marks or tools, he can’t fathom that Marrall would betray him, but that’s exactly what happens.
It's Overreach's very strength, that he can do the most terrible things without any guilt, and his hubris in believing he's above everyone else, more than anything the A- and B-plotters do, that brings him down. If he weren't such a dastard, he'd be a tragic hero. As it is, he's an excellent antagonist, and far more interesting and better drawn than any other character in the play.
The Story Unfolds
Some of the best comedy bits feature Wellborn refusing to accept charity so that he might change out of his disgusting tramp clothes, and the reactions people have to him early on, holding perfumed gloves to their noses, trying to send him out the pigstye to eat, referring to him as “a creature made out of the privvy.” I imagine seeing this onstage, Wellbord looking truly over-the-top awful, smeared with filth from sleeping under hedges.
In a striking middle bit, Overreach advances Wellborn (who refuses to take charity, despite being offered by virtually every non-evil character) a thousand more pounds so that he can make a better potential match for Lady A. Wellborn uses the money to transform into his heroic self, and, surprisingly, to pay off all the creditors whose businesses his Overreach funded prodigality had ruined. It’s actually affecting as each of them describes how Wellborn cheated them, and exactly it meant to their businesses and families.
It’s wildly contrary to the usual very cavalier (pun intended) way plays treat asshole rich people cheating merchants and tailors and so on. Getting his own creditor to finance his repayments is referred to as a new way to pay old debts--though the wrapup of the play suggests another way, too.
The plot wraps up neatly with Wellborn pretending to marry Lady Allworth and Lord Lovell pretending to marry Margaret. There’s a tense bit where Allworth is afraid that Lord Lovell will take Margaret for himself, but Lord is true to his page--and his class. In a now-offputting passage, he explains that he doesn’t want kids who are one part scarlet (noble) and one part blue (commoner).
Overreach Overreaches
Overreach tries to ruin Wellborn and Lady A by whipping out the various deeds that show all his various debts, but Marrall has used some alchemic nonsense to dissolve all the ink, and it seems that Overreach may end up owing Wellborn 10 times more than he’d intended to collect. There’s much chewing of scenery by Overreach, and it gets exponentially worse when it’s revealed that Allworth has married Margaret, instead of Lord L. Overreach storms offstage after completely bonkers blowup in which he challenges various people to duels and even tries to kill his daughter, saying:
...Village nurses
Revenge their wrongs with curses; I’ll not waste
A syllable but thus I take the life
Which, wretched, I gave to thee.
Even Margaret, we see, is nothing more than a tool to him. He storms offstage long enough for Marrall to give some exposition regarding his vanishing ink trick, then storms back on for one last completely mad turn on stage. After some quality ranting, threatening, and menacing, he collapses to the floor, foaming at the mouth, and is carried off to Bedlam.
Now that is how a villain should go out.
Everything wraps up satisfactorily. Lady A and Lord L agree to marry, and Wellborn (who surprisingly doesn’t marry anyone) joins Lord L and Allworth’s military unit, with an eye toward rehabilitating his name through deeds of war. Marrall and Greedy are chased off stage with kicks.
More Massinger, Please
It’s a tremendously satisfying play, with some excellent plotting and a ton of social commentary. The very conservative view of citizens getting above themselves and Lord L’s views on marriage are contrasted with the villainous perversion of the law by speculators, userers, and enclosers, as well as the surprising sympathy for tradespeople ruined by the rich--there’s a lot to think about for a play with such a melodramatic villain and occasionally very broad humor.
I’m definitely looking forward to reading more Massinger. I hope I can see this one staged someday! Maybe it could be one of the annual readings by the Red Bull Theater in a coming year?
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