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The Aphrodysial or Sea-Feast
The Aphrodysial is one of six plays written by William Percy (c. 1570-1648), brother of the Ninth Earl of Northumberland (1564-1632). This edition reproduces the copy of the text preserved in Huntington Library MS HM4, with a substantial collation of variants between it and the other extant version preserved in Alnwick Castle Library MS 509.
This ‘Marinall’ is set at the underwater court of Oceanus. The action is concerned with piscatory and amatory pursuits that take place during Cytheræa’s Aphrodysial feast-day. The play offers a retelling of the Hero and Leander story, Jupiter and Neptune’s quest for Thetis’s lost magic bracelet, and the comical attempts of some fishermen, led by Proteus, to capture a talking whale. The play is notable for its extensive stage directions, which envisage performance by boy actors and adult actors respectively.
This ‘Marinall’ is set at the underwater court of Oceanus. The action is concerned with piscatory and amatory pursuits that take place during Cytheræa’s Aphrodysial feast-day. The play offers a retelling of the Hero and Leander story, Jupiter and Neptune’s quest for Thetis’s lost magic bracelet, and the comical attempts of some fishermen, led by Proteus, to capture a talking whale. The play is notable for its extensive stage directions, which envisage performance by boy actors and adult actors respectively.
192 pages, Hardcover
Published December 13, 2022
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 25, 2023
We read a modern-spelling text prepared by Maria for the launch of her edition with the Malone Society - this was a joint online event of REP and the Malone Society.
That was a lot of fish and a ridiculous number of fishy puns! It's unclear whether this was ever performed. The stage directions vary from a past tense which implies memory to a very tentative present/conditional, which offers a lot of options for a production. Some of these are hilarious, such as the point when he offers the option of ditching everything except the dance of seals and porpoises! In places he seems to be thinking of suitable costume options, such as for Vulcan, while elsewhere he gives no clue - I'd love to know how he envisaged seal and dolphin costumes in the last years of Elizabeth Tudor!
The reading was great fun, the play very long - well over three hours to read. And so much fish. Definitely an experience I wouldn't have missed, though.
That was a lot of fish and a ridiculous number of fishy puns! It's unclear whether this was ever performed. The stage directions vary from a past tense which implies memory to a very tentative present/conditional, which offers a lot of options for a production. Some of these are hilarious, such as the point when he offers the option of ditching everything except the dance of seals and porpoises! In places he seems to be thinking of suitable costume options, such as for Vulcan, while elsewhere he gives no clue - I'd love to know how he envisaged seal and dolphin costumes in the last years of Elizabeth Tudor!
The reading was great fun, the play very long - well over three hours to read. And so much fish. Definitely an experience I wouldn't have missed, though.
Displaying 1 of 1 review