“Build the Wall! Beat the Germans! Bewitch the Girl!”

Red-bearded Robert Greene (by turns profligate and penitent) seems to have been as dramatic a character in real life as any that he created for the early modern stage. Sometime after taking his BA and MA degrees at Cambridge in the early 1580’s, and before he attacked “the onely Shake-scene in a country” as “an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers,” Greene penned Pandosto (which became the source for The Winter’s Tale) and Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, his best known -- and best -- play.

Beyond these Shakespeare connections, several traits make Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay an exciting choice for modern readers and actors. Chief among them is its central theme, the powerful but dangerous attraction of unnatural knowledge, represented both as new science and ancient magic.

Greene’s play brings “magic’s secret mysteries” to the stage with spectacle galore: notably a quartet of wizards’ duels (involving the two friars Bacon and Bungay, a brace of Oxford scholars, and a German magician Vandermast) as well as a fire-breathing dragon, a necromantic golden tree, and spirits carrying away the defeated sorcerers.

At the heart of the special effects are two extraordinary stage props. One unusual prop was Friar Bacon’s “glass perspective” – perhaps a prop telescope rather than the kind of mirror featured in Richard 2 – which allows the friar to reveal far-off actions to those who come to his cell and peer into his glass. Even more spectacular was the “brazen head” breathing “flames of fire” that was featured not only in Greene’s earlier Alphonsus of Aragon but in the subsequent Friar Bacon play as well (scene 11). Henslowe’s papers indicate that the properties of the Admiral’s Men included such an “owld Mahemetes head,” likely what is pictured on the title page of the 1630 edition of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay. Bacon plans to animate this mechanical marvel so that it will reveal secret wisdom, perform the feat of encircling all of England with a wall of brass, and bring undying glory and fame to Bacon and his Oxford college of Brasenose.

Greene’s double plot play features rival lovers as well as dueling magicians, and Friar Bacon’s marvels are at the center of both rivalries. By play’s end the technological wonders are shattered, as knowledge, devotion and love assume their proper places.
What makes this play an appropriate and timely choice for a revival?
- This tale of magical technology is perfectly suited for the present generation who has grown up with Harry Potter and Bill Nye.
- Greene’s play comments pointedly on the vain dream of securing a nation’s borders with a wall, and on the attempt by a government to harness the intellectual capital of the nation’s greatest universities for its own political ends.
- It also dramatizes one of the most powerful men in the realm seeking to employ the latest technological advances of his day to further his own sexual conquest.

The play begins with Prince Edward and his minions leaving court responsibilities to ride to Oxford, seeking to recruit the famous magician Friar Bacon to charm Margaret, the Fair Maid of Fressingfield in Suffolk, to succumb to Prince Edward’s love-suit. Though Bacon has more important tasks than enchanting Margaret for the prince, he does establish his potency by summoning devils and unmasking fools in disguise. Bacon’s true quest has been to command another devil to craft a brazen head that the friar will command to rear a brass wall ringing all of England and protecting it from potential invasion. When the prince arrives in Oxford, having left his favorite Lacy, the Earl of Lincoln, to woo for him in his absence, he soon discovers via the Friar’s magic glass that Lacy woos the lovely Margaret for himself and that they are shortly to be married by the rival Friar Bungay.

When the irate prince confronts Lacy and Margaret in Suffolk, they swear their eternal love to one another and both plead for their own deaths in order to save their beloved. Suddenly chastened, the royal heir Prince Edward masters his passions and magnanimously gives the couple his blessing to wed, before he speeds with Lacy to Oxford again – this time to join his father King Henry III and meet the royal bride who has been arranged for him, Princess Eleanor of Castile.

In an international wizards’ contest in Oxford, prompted by the king to demonstrate national supremacy, England’s Friar Bungay (the nation’s second best magician) conjures the golden tree of the Hesperides and the dragon protecting it; then the German champion Vandermast (the best professor of magical arts from the continent) bests Bungay by summoning Hercules to destroy Bungay’s marvelous vision. Just in time Friar Bacon, England’s true champion, appears to paralyze Hercules and command him to carry the defeated Vandermast back to Hapsburg. Then Princess Eleanor and Prince Edward declare their love at first sight, and the love-troubles seem to have vanished as surely as Bungay’s mystical golden tree.

BACK TO THE LOVE-PLOT . . . the still fair maid Margaret, now left alone in Fressingfield, is wooed by two neighboring landowners, who as rivals for her love prepare to duel. Though she remains faithful to her Lord Lacy, she receives word that Lacy has abandoned her for a new love, the chief lady in waiting to Castilian Princess Eleanor. Margaret bears this heartbreaking news as patiently as Griselda and prepares to enter a nunnery, while Friar Bacon prepares for his greatest feat, the animation of the Brazenose, aided by his assistant the poor scholar Miles.

Soon Bacon’s servant Miles gets his just deserts, and the love plots wind their way to the anticipated happy endings, both domestically and internationally, accompanied by repentance and prophecy. After another magical episode with Bacon’s perspective glass, another violent duel, and another scene of iconographic destruction, mutual harmony and appropriate order comes to court, college and country alike -- not with a magical wall separating England from Europe but with a royal marriage uniting the two realms.

The final scorecard? the wall is not built, the nation’s intellectual supremacy is proven, technological dangers are averted, and sexual conquest gives place to mutual love – all happy endings for the early modern period, and for ours.

What does this play offer for today? Reflections on the threats represented by male sexual conquest, unbridled nationalism, the building of a massive impenetrable wall to protect the homeland from invasion, unchecked technological innovations, the state’s attempt to co-opt university and church alike for its own ends . . . and alternatives to all of these vain desires. Timely indeed. ( )

Robert Greene - [The Honorable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay]
Robert Greene was one of the Elizabethan University wits who needed to write stuff that would sell to put food and drink on his table. He wrote pamphlets, romantic novels, framework stories with a moral theme, social tracts and perhaps best of all a number of plays for the popular London theatres. The Honorable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay written sometime between 1589-92 was perhaps his most successful. It was popular with audiences and it brought in good gate receipts, how much money it made Greene is not known, but he died in poverty in 1592. Although Greene wrote plays to earn a living he was not the only one: Marlowe, George Peele, Thomas Kyd Anthony Munday were all in the same position, but Greene is perhaps best remembered for allegedly referring to the young Shakespeare as an "upstart Crowe, beautified with our feathers' and so unwittingly has set critics to measure his work against that of Shakespeare.

I hope that Greene did make some money from Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay because it is an excellent example of a popular play written for the Elizabethan theatre. Greene seems to have brought together elements of romance, comedy, history, and magical illusions into a winning combination. He may well have borrowed ideas from Marlowe and Kyd and imitated their high flown verse in well put together iambic pentameters, but it has a lighter touch but still carries with it a moral message to the playgoing public: "don't mess with magic"

The play opens with Prince Edward and his male courtier friends returning from a successful Hunting expedition and taking their refreshments. Prince Edward falls in lust with Margaret the fair maid of Fressingfield, but Lacy Earl of Lincoln reminds him that there are many beautiful women at court.

Lacy. I grant, my lord, the damsel is as fair
As simple Suffolk's homely towns can yield;
But in the court be quainter[179] dames than she,
Whose faces are enrich'd with honour's taint,
Whose beauties stand upon the stage of fame,
And vaunt their trophies in the courts of love.

The prince will not be denied and sets Lacy the task of spying on Margaret at the Harleston Fair and the kings Fool: Ralph Simnell reminds him that Friar Bacon will be able to assist with his magic. Friar Bacon is hard at work putting the finishing touches to his 'brazen head" a device to summon the very devils from hell and which he says will put a brass ring round all of England to protect it from it's enemies. At the fair Lacy (in disguise) finds Margaret and falls in love with her himself, but Friar Bacon with Ralph Simnell and Prince Edward disguised as each other see Lacy and Margaret through Friar bacon's magic glass. Meanwhile at the Court of King Henry Elinor of Castille has arrived for her arranged marriage with Prince Edward. Lacy has managed to get himself alone with Margaret and says he will marry her (she is the prison keepers daughter). Prince Edward vows to kill Lacy, when he sees Friar Bungay arrive to perform the ceremony. Friar Bacon summons a devil who carries away Friar Bungay on his back. Prince Edward confronts Lacy and says he will kill him , Margaret pleads for Lacy's life and eventually Prince Edward realises that the right thing to do would be to sanction the lovers marriage. The emperor of Germany arrives with his magician Vandermast to challenge Friar Bacon, but Bacon easily defeats him with his power now so great that he commands the very devils from hell. Lacy sends a message to Margaret saying he is betrothed to a court lady and two former suitors fight a duel over Margaret with Friar Bacon unable to stop them: they kill each other. Friar Bacon is worried about the state of the Brazen Head but cannot keep awake and so he instructs his assistant Miles to wake him if there are developments. Miles doesn't wake him when the Brazen Head speaks and is later carried off to Hell. Friar Bacon repents and says he will spend the rest of his life asking for forgiveness - no more magic. Meanwhile Margaret is summoned to the Kings court to marry Lacy and Prince Edward marries Elinor.

Greene's play is loosely based on history with Friar Bacon a representation of Roger Bacon the 13th century monk who some recognised as a wizard. Much of the drama of the play is centred around Friar Bacon and his making of the Brazen Head. The most dramatic scene takes place in Bacon's cell when the Brazen Head speaks out the words Time is, (pause) Time was (pause) Time past and Miles fails to wake up his master in time to stop the destruction of the head.

The Romance is between Earl Lacy and the commoner Margaret with Prince Edward threatening to destroy them both. Edwards speech owes much to Christopher Marlowe; just about keeping on the right side of parody:

P. Edw. I tell thee, Peggy, I will have thy loves:
Edward or none shall conquer Margaret.
In frigates bottom'd with rich Sethin planks,
Topt with the lofty firs of Lebanon,
Stemm'd and encas'd with burnish'd ivory,
And overlaid with plates of Persian wealth,
Like Thetis shalt thou wanton on the waves,
And draw the dolphins to thy lovely eyes,
To dance lavoltas[207] in the purple streams:
Sirens, with harps and silver psalteries,
Shall wait with music at thy frigate's stem,
And entertain fair Margaret with their lays.
England and England's wealth shall wait on thee;
Britain shall bend unto her prince's love,
And do due homage to thine excellence,
If thou wilt be but Edward's Margaret.

But Prince Edward relents after Lacy has said he would rather the Prince kill him and Margaret says she will die too.

Conquering thyself, thou gett'st the richest spoil.—
Lacy, rise up. Fair Peggy, here's my hand:
The Prince of Wales hath conquer'd all his thoughts,

This part of the play generates some real tension as the Prince battles with himself over Margaret, but she is not out of the woods as she is tested again by Lacy later in the play when the audience realises that he would be sacrificing much by marrying a commoner.

Magic: black magic gives the play an abundance of spectacle with the conjuring competition between Friar Bacon and Vandermast when the spirit of Hercules is summoned and then the destruction of the Brazen Head and the appearance of the devils in the street carrying away Miles and transporting Friar Bungay. While Greene writes these scenes with a comedic element they may well have frightened an Elizabethan audience. Greene was one of the better writers of comedy and he has plenty of opportunities in the play to put his art to good use. Ralph Simnell the kings fool disguised as Prince Edward creates havoc wherever he goes as does Friar Bacon's assistant Miles.

The play might not have the depth of Shakespeares and Marlowe's plays of the same period and the verse might be inferior or not quite reaching the heights of those other two playwrights. The structure is a little simple with most of the action taking place as a direct result of what has happened in the previous scene and after Act 3 many of the issues appeared to be resolved and the play needs to spring back into life for the final two acts. I get the feeling it does this because Greene had a message to deliver that would hit home with his audience and give them something to think about after they had enjoyed the comedy and the romance and the spectacle. He wanted to play on their fears of witches and devils and some of the humour would be black with the audience laughing but being a little scared at the same time: the moral was do not play with magic or other forces that you do not understand. A play then very much of it's time which also has things to say about 'the great chain of being' for example people marrying outside of their allotted rank and people disguised as their betters or their servants; the audience would be well aware of the Elizabethan sumptuary laws.

I enjoyed this play it has many bright moments even for the modern reader and so anybody with an interest in the Elizabethan theatre and it's plays might well enjoy this: 4 stars. ( )

Interesting as being a work by Greene, who is known chiefly for some nasty remarks about Shakespeare, whom he considered an upstart playwright. ( )