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The Sea Voyage
The play opens on a ship at sea, caught in a storm; the ship's Master and sailors struggle to cope, while the vessel's commander and passengers make their way on deck. Albert, a French pirate, is the captain; he is accompanied by a heterogeneous group of compatriots, including Lamur, a "usuring Merchant," Franville, "a vain-glorious gallant," and Morillat, "a shallow-brain'd Gentleman." Also present are the captain's friend Tibalt, and his love interest, Aminta. Aminta was captured by Albert, but he has since fallen in love with her, and respects her virtue and chastity. He also set out in search of her missing brother Raimond, before the storm struck.
The ship struggles to reach a nearby island; the crew toss overboard cargo, belongings, even treasure, in an attempt to lighten the load. The second scene shifts perspective to two men stranded on the same island. Two Portuguese castaways, Sebastian and his nephew Nicusa, have long suffered privation on this barren rocky island; they watch as the ship endures the storm, and they see the survivors make their way to the beach. Their conversation reveals that they were victims of a pirate attack, which divided them from another Portuguese ship that carried Sebastian's wife and other members of their family.
The Frenchmen meet Sebatian and Nicusa, but behave with hostility and menace; while the French fall to fighting over treasure the two Portuguese have salvaged, Sebastian and Nicusa escape in the Frenchmen's ship, leaving the new arrivals behind. The French crew find that the island is as bleak and inhospitable as Sebastian and Nicusa had indicated; they are soon suffering severely from hunger and thirst. There is abundant material concerning this privation, perhaps intended as comedy; at one point, Lamure, Franville and Morillat (who represent colonial Europeans at their worst—brawling, cowardly, greedy, selfish, etc.) are ready to kill Aminta and eat her, before she is rescued by Tibalt and Albert.
Sebastian and Nicusa had informed the French that they sometimes heard sounds of other people, but were never able to locate and reach these mysterious individuals. Albert and Aminta also hear these sounds, and Albert swims across a "hellish river" to find them, though he is suffering from wounds sustained in brawls with Franville and company. (The geography of the play's fictional location is confused at best; the islands are separated by a river, or else a "black lake".) The people Albert finds are a community of women, living without men like Amazons. Led by a fifty-year-old woman named Rosilla and her daughter Clarinda, the women have developed a strongly anti-male ideology under their leader's tutelage; but they also realize that they need men to propagate a new generation, and the younger women are curious about, and eager for contact with, the new arrivals. Rosilla bows to the popular will enough to allow some contact: the women can meet the men, choose partners from among them if they will; of any children born from such contact, the girls will be kept and the boys returned to their fathers. Clarinda is excited about this arrangement, since she has fallen in love with Albert—which creates a conflict with Albert's commitment to Aminta. And there is much flirting and chivalric-style courtship among the men and women.
The plan quickly falls through when the Frenchmen try to court the women with jewels taken from Sebastian's treasure — and the women recognize their own possessions. The Amazons imprison the men, and appear to be planning their execution. But a new ship arrives to change the situation. Aminta's brother Raimond has captured/rescued Sebastian and Nicusa while searching the seas for Aminta. Sebastian and Rosilla are husband and wife, and the two branches of their family are happily re-united. It is revealed that the Portuguese colonists in the New World have been oppressed by French pirates, which generated the initial conflict situation. Along with the reunion of Sebastian and Rosilla, Raimond and Clarinda form a couple, which helps to palliate the resentments of the two groups, French and Portuguese; and Albert and Aminta are free to marry as well.
The Sea Voyage is one of the shortest plays in the canon of Fletcher and his collaborators;[5] The Tempest, concomitantly, is the second-shortest play in Shakespeare's collected works.[6] The reason may be that both plays devote a greater-than-usual proportion of their theatrical space and time to their special effects.
The ship struggles to reach a nearby island; the crew toss overboard cargo, belongings, even treasure, in an attempt to lighten the load. The second scene shifts perspective to two men stranded on the same island. Two Portuguese castaways, Sebastian and his nephew Nicusa, have long suffered privation on this barren rocky island; they watch as the ship endures the storm, and they see the survivors make their way to the beach. Their conversation reveals that they were victims of a pirate attack, which divided them from another Portuguese ship that carried Sebastian's wife and other members of their family.
The Frenchmen meet Sebatian and Nicusa, but behave with hostility and menace; while the French fall to fighting over treasure the two Portuguese have salvaged, Sebastian and Nicusa escape in the Frenchmen's ship, leaving the new arrivals behind. The French crew find that the island is as bleak and inhospitable as Sebastian and Nicusa had indicated; they are soon suffering severely from hunger and thirst. There is abundant material concerning this privation, perhaps intended as comedy; at one point, Lamure, Franville and Morillat (who represent colonial Europeans at their worst—brawling, cowardly, greedy, selfish, etc.) are ready to kill Aminta and eat her, before she is rescued by Tibalt and Albert.
Sebastian and Nicusa had informed the French that they sometimes heard sounds of other people, but were never able to locate and reach these mysterious individuals. Albert and Aminta also hear these sounds, and Albert swims across a "hellish river" to find them, though he is suffering from wounds sustained in brawls with Franville and company. (The geography of the play's fictional location is confused at best; the islands are separated by a river, or else a "black lake".) The people Albert finds are a community of women, living without men like Amazons. Led by a fifty-year-old woman named Rosilla and her daughter Clarinda, the women have developed a strongly anti-male ideology under their leader's tutelage; but they also realize that they need men to propagate a new generation, and the younger women are curious about, and eager for contact with, the new arrivals. Rosilla bows to the popular will enough to allow some contact: the women can meet the men, choose partners from among them if they will; of any children born from such contact, the girls will be kept and the boys returned to their fathers. Clarinda is excited about this arrangement, since she has fallen in love with Albert—which creates a conflict with Albert's commitment to Aminta. And there is much flirting and chivalric-style courtship among the men and women.
The plan quickly falls through when the Frenchmen try to court the women with jewels taken from Sebastian's treasure — and the women recognize their own possessions. The Amazons imprison the men, and appear to be planning their execution. But a new ship arrives to change the situation. Aminta's brother Raimond has captured/rescued Sebastian and Nicusa while searching the seas for Aminta. Sebastian and Rosilla are husband and wife, and the two branches of their family are happily re-united. It is revealed that the Portuguese colonists in the New World have been oppressed by French pirates, which generated the initial conflict situation. Along with the reunion of Sebastian and Rosilla, Raimond and Clarinda form a couple, which helps to palliate the resentments of the two groups, French and Portuguese; and Albert and Aminta are free to marry as well.
The Sea Voyage is one of the shortest plays in the canon of Fletcher and his collaborators;[5] The Tempest, concomitantly, is the second-shortest play in Shakespeare's collected works.[6] The reason may be that both plays devote a greater-than-usual proportion of their theatrical space and time to their special effects.
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First published January 1, 1647
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About the author
John Fletcher
865 books20 followersborn December 1579
died August 1625
English playwright John Fletcher collaborated with Francis Beaumont on romantic comedies, including Philaster (1610) and The Maid's Tragedy (1611).
John Fletcher identified as a Jacobean. He followed William Shakespeare as house for the men of the king among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; during his lifetime and in the early Restoration, his fame rivaled that of his predecessor.
In 1606, he began to appear as an author for the Children of the Queen's Revels, then performing at the Blackfriars theater. Commendatory verses by Richard Brome in the Fletcher 1647 folio place Fletcher in the company of Ben Jonson; a comment of Jonson's to Drummond corroborates this claim, although it is not known when this friendship began. At the beginning of his career, his most important association. The two together for close to a decade, first for the children and then for the King's Men. According to a legend transmitted or invented by John Aubrey, they also lived together (in Bankside), sharing clothes and having "one wench in the house between them." This domestic arrangement, if it existed, was ended by marriage in 1613, and their dramatic partnership ended after fell ill, probably of a stroke, the same year.
Though Fletcher's reputation has been eclipsed since, he remains an important transitional figure between the Elizabethan popular tradition and the popular drama of the Restoration.
died August 1625
English playwright John Fletcher collaborated with Francis Beaumont on romantic comedies, including Philaster (1610) and The Maid's Tragedy (1611).
John Fletcher identified as a Jacobean. He followed William Shakespeare as house for the men of the king among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; during his lifetime and in the early Restoration, his fame rivaled that of his predecessor.
In 1606, he began to appear as an author for the Children of the Queen's Revels, then performing at the Blackfriars theater. Commendatory verses by Richard Brome in the Fletcher 1647 folio place Fletcher in the company of Ben Jonson; a comment of Jonson's to Drummond corroborates this claim, although it is not known when this friendship began. At the beginning of his career, his most important association. The two together for close to a decade, first for the children and then for the King's Men. According to a legend transmitted or invented by John Aubrey, they also lived together (in Bankside), sharing clothes and having "one wench in the house between them." This domestic arrangement, if it existed, was ended by marriage in 1613, and their dramatic partnership ended after fell ill, probably of a stroke, the same year.
Though Fletcher's reputation has been eclipsed since, he remains an important transitional figure between the Elizabethan popular tradition and the popular drama of the Restoration.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 27, 2025
All the cool kids are saying the Beaumont collaboration era is far superior to the Massinger collaboration era
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February 28, 2023Read for class. Very interesting, would like to see it performed.
Read
December 24, 2025crazy ass moments in portuguese history
May 15, 2020
i can’t believe fletcher isn’t more read? there’s loads of really interesting stuff in here, it’s far more than the rip-off of the tempest scholarship makes it out to be
February 11, 2021
Well, this was more bonkers than most, which is saying something. The plot reminded me weirdly of Gilbert and Sullivan. There's a storm and a shipwreck though all the people on it escape to an island inhabited by two ragged men who have been there a very long time. There's no food on the island, except across a river or lake - not entirely clear - there is, and a bunch of women who want men, all apart from their leader/mother. So then they meet the shipwrecked people, but only after the first two stranded men have stolen the boat and gone off in the ship which was not as damaged as we first thought. There's a creepy bit in which a bunch of men plan to kill and eat Our Heroine, but then they are found by the man-mad women. Then the two stranded men return and turn out to be Highly Relevant Characters.
It all ends happily. How? It's a mystery. The creepy crew are potentially quite funny, as are the very randy young women. Massinger ends the play with an enormous chunk of indigestible exposition, which is very much his thing, and there is a lot of pairing off.
I would love to see this one on stage.
Read as part of the REP King's Men Repertoire online reading marathon in the bleak, chill February of 2021.
It all ends happily. How? It's a mystery. The creepy crew are potentially quite funny, as are the very randy young women. Massinger ends the play with an enormous chunk of indigestible exposition, which is very much his thing, and there is a lot of pairing off.
I would love to see this one on stage.
Read as part of the REP King's Men Repertoire online reading marathon in the bleak, chill February of 2021.
July 25, 2022
(For my personal records only.)
Academically, this hit exactly what I needed for research on early modern attitudes toward Amazon women. Personally, I still felt like this story hit. The dialogue is less packed with symbolism and wordplay than a Shakespeare play (to compare this to The Tempest). However, there's a clarity in the writing for contemporary readers that can't be short-changed. I think the visual interpretations of this on stage would allow for many different styles, which makes this an engaging read.
It's a very mentally visual play, and I was able to create mental scenes as I read. It's a very quick read, and the plot was engaging with no distracting/confusing subplots. I think because the language was much more simplistic it allowed me to really appreciate whenever a character did have a hard-hitting or insightful line. The ending did leave a little to be desired, but it's better than a long drawn out epilogue.
Academically, this hit exactly what I needed for research on early modern attitudes toward Amazon women. Personally, I still felt like this story hit. The dialogue is less packed with symbolism and wordplay than a Shakespeare play (to compare this to The Tempest). However, there's a clarity in the writing for contemporary readers that can't be short-changed. I think the visual interpretations of this on stage would allow for many different styles, which makes this an engaging read.
It's a very mentally visual play, and I was able to create mental scenes as I read. It's a very quick read, and the plot was engaging with no distracting/confusing subplots. I think because the language was much more simplistic it allowed me to really appreciate whenever a character did have a hard-hitting or insightful line. The ending did leave a little to be desired, but it's better than a long drawn out epilogue.
February 17, 2023
read this for a class at psu and actually quite enjoyed it -- it is a funny play that definitely reads as a bit of a social experiment. obviously, misogyny ABOUND, but it does try to challenge it within the bounds of the play i guess
March 5, 2024
a fairly striking early modern critique of colonialism, notably (although not entirely) undercut by the twist that if you've ever thought to yourself "i wish the tempest were less racist but also less compelling" then this is the play for you.
November 29, 2025
What an amazing extension of a Tempest-like story into the bizarrely theatrical world of Fletcher. Storm, shipwreck, castaways, kidnapping, starvation, cannibalism, Amazons, pirates, treasure, sex for food - it's all here. This one has to be read to be believed, and to be seen to be fully appreciated.
This rarely read and scarcely ever performed play is making its fourth appearance on the Blackfriars stage in Staunton Virginia this fall - by the 2012-13 graduate Shakespeare and Performance troupe "Roving Shakespeare" at Mary Baldwin, in the American Shakespeare Center's 2016 spring Renaissance season, in a teen ASC summer camp performance in 2017, and now by Baldwin's latest graduate MFA troupe Constellation Shakespeare Collective. Where else in the world does early modern theater come to life so brilliantly and so frequently?
This rarely read and scarcely ever performed play is making its fourth appearance on the Blackfriars stage in Staunton Virginia this fall - by the 2012-13 graduate Shakespeare and Performance troupe "Roving Shakespeare" at Mary Baldwin, in the American Shakespeare Center's 2016 spring Renaissance season, in a teen ASC summer camp performance in 2017, and now by Baldwin's latest graduate MFA troupe Constellation Shakespeare Collective. Where else in the world does early modern theater come to life so brilliantly and so frequently?
February 19, 2025
2.5 stars
September 22, 2025
HYSTERICAL
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews