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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
An inquiry into the sources of Massinger's tragicomedy The Emperour of the East (1632) is made difficult by the abundance and variety of historical literature which contains the principal elements of the plot. On the one hand, the ready availability of the story in Byzantine chronicles has led students of Massinger to search for the sources exclusively in the histories; on the other, the variety in the content of these has made selection virtually impossible, for though many of the histories provide long accounts of the story of Theodosius and Eudoxia, none contains all the details which Massinger introduced in his tragicomedy. As a result, various scholars have proposed interesting, though unsatisfactory, combinations. Langbaine refers his reader to no fewer than five histories; Coxeter, the first editor of the plays, selects the first two of the sources cited by Langbaine, namely Socrates and Theodoret, but he admits that there may be others; Mason, the next editor, repeats Coxe-ter's note; and Gifford in his standard edition is even more vague than his predecessors. But to balance his inconclusive remarks he appends a note provided by his friend Dr. Ireland offering as the main sources Cedrenus and Theophanes, principally because they include the quarrel of Theodosius and Eudoxia; and a second note, this one by Gilchrist, another literary friend, who hazards the opinion that Massinger based his plot on two passages in the Anatomy of Melancholy, in which Burton relates briefly the marriage of Eudoxia and the famous episode with the apple. All of these are unacceptable, however, as both singly and in their sum they leave out of account significant details present in the play. A more satisfactory study of the sources was produced in 1897 by Emil Koeppel, whose conclusions were confirmed three years later by Wolfgang von Wurzbach.
1 “For the Play, 'tis founded on the History of Theodosius the Younger. See Socrates L. 7. Theodoret L. 5. Nicephorus L. 14. Baronius, Godeau, &c.”—An Account of the English Dramatick Poets (Oxford, 1691), p. 355.
2 Coxeter, ed. Dramatic Works (London, 1759), II, 281; Mason, ed. Dramatick Works (London, 1779), II, 281; Gifford, ed. The Plays of Massinger (London, 1813), III, 241, 351, 266.
3 Cedrenus, Historiarum Compendium (11th cent.); Theophanes, Chronographia (8th cent.).
4 See The Anatomy of Melancholy (Oxford, 1628), pp. 351, 352.
5 “Quellen-Studien zu den Dramen George Chapman's, Philip Massinger's, und John Ford's”, Quellen und Forschungen, LXXXII, 1-199; W. von Wurzbach, “Philip Massinger”, Shakespeare Jahrbuch, xxxvI (1900), 128-217.
6 Les Histoires et Croniques du Monde, de Jean Zonaras … Disposez en trois livres (Paris, 1583); Historia Ecclesiastica (14th cent.); Painter's Palace of Pleasure (London, 1890), i, 285-333.
7 The incident with the empiric (rv, iv) is too slight to claim a direct source. Its purpose is to afford comic relief, an aim it lamentably fails to achieve. The confession scene (v, iii), on the other hand, is made an organic part of the plot and is effective both for the purpose of characterization and as a means of reversing the fortunes of the heroine. Koeppel (pp. cit., pp. 132-133) believes that Massinger found the idea of the husband-confessor in Bandello's “Duchess of Savoy”—Painter, Palace of Pleasure (London, 1890), I, 285-333. But there are so many analogues of this contrivance in romance, ballad, and drama that it is difficult to fix Massinger's source. He must have known more than one of the following analogues: Boccaccio's story of the jealous merchant of Ariminio, The Decameron, 5th novel, 7th day; the 78th novel of the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles (Paris, 1884), pp. 318-321; the 35th novel of The Heptameron of Marguerite of Navarre, transi. L. Flameng (Philadelphia [189?]), pp. 220-226; the ballads of Queen Eleanor's confession, F. J. Child, ed. The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Boston, 1888), iII, 258-264; Peek's Edward I (1590), sc. xxv, 35-110 (ed. Bullen); Marston's Malcontent (1601), Iv, ii, 30-82 (ed. Bul-len); Robert Davenport's City-Night-Cap (1624), III, 24 (quarto, 1661).
8 C. M. Gayley sees Massinger's hand in it: Beaumont the Dramatist (New York, 1914), pp. 8, 400.
9 Eudocia is the historical name given to Athenais after her conversion, according to the majority of Byzantine historians. The only exception is Marcellinus: “(A.C. 421). Ind. Iv, Eustachio et Agricola coss. Theodosius imp. Eudoxiam Archivam duxit uxorem”— Chronicon (6th cent.) in Patrologia Latina, ed. J. P. Migne (Paris, 1846), Li, 924. This, however, is incorrect. Eudoxia was the name of Theodosius' mother and of the daughter of Theodosius and Eudocia. The names differ in their meaning: Eudocia means good will, whereas Eudoxia stands for fame, good repute. In his Theodosius, or the Force of Love (1680) Nathaniel Lee calls her Eudosia. Massinger's Eudoxia agrees with the spelling given by his source, Nicolas Caussin's Holy Court. See below, n. 18.
10 Gibbon was fascinated by the career of Eudocia and spoke of it as an “incredible romance”—Decline and Fall, ed. Milman, Guizot, and Smith (London, 1925), Iv, 164. In spite of this romance of her life Eudocia has been comparatively neglected by literary men. Ferdinand Gregorovius complains of this neglect in his Athenais. Geschichte einer byzantinischen Kaiserin (Leipzig, 1882), p. vii; according to him Athenais had appeared only in a sentimental novel by the 18th-century French writer Baculard d'Arnaud, and in a short account by Wilhelm Wiegand, Eudoxia, Gemahlin des Oströmischen Kaisers Theodosius (Worms, 1871). Gregorovius does not appear to have known either Massinger's tragicomedy, Nathaniel Lee's Theodosius, or the Face of Love, or the two French plays cited below.
11 See A. H. Cruickshank, Philip Massinger (New York, 1920), pp. 148-151; and E. A. Bryne, ed. The Maid of Honour (London, 1927), pp. lxiii-lxv.476
12 The relevant details found in these histories appear also in other works, such as The Chronicon Pascliale (7th cent.) and the Chronographia of John Malalas (7th cent.).
13 In 1631 Massinger wrote or completed at least three plays, The Emperour of the East, Believe as Ye List, and The Unfortunate Piety. All three were licensed for presentation in that year. See J. Q. Adams, ed. The Dramatic Records of Sir Henry Herbert (New Haven, 1917), p. 33.
14 The Holy Covrt or The Christian Institution of Men of Quality … by Nicolas Caussin of the Society of Iesvs written in French, & translated into English by T[homas] H[awkins]. For the suggestion to examine this work in connection with Massinger's Emperour of the East I am indebted to Professor Don Cameron Allen.
15 The story of Herod and Mariamne is the basis for the plot of Massinger's Duke of Milan (1622). His source for this play appears to have been Josephus' Wars of the Jews. See T. W. Baldwin, ed. The Duke of Milan (Lancaster, Pa., 1918), pp. 10-30.
16 It may be of interest to note the echo of this heading in the title of Massinger's lost tragedy The Unfortunate Piety, licensed shortly after The Emperour of the East. See above, n. 13.477
17 Caussin speaks of him at greater length in another part of the tale, pp. 523-529. He describes his alliance with Eudoxia and their successful attempt to oust Pulcheria from her position of power. When, four years later, she returned to her earlier eminence, she had Chrysapius put to death.
18 Caussin calls her Eudoxia throughout. See above, n. 9.
19 Such an addition is the scene with the projector and his fellows (i, ii), which serves a double purpose: it offers Pulcheria the opportunity to reveal her authority as a strict though benevolent despot; and it is also a satire of contemporary ills in court.
20 Cf. III, iv, pp. 305-306 (ed. Gifford, 1813).
21 Massinger saves Paulinus in yet another way, by representing him as a eunuch. (Philanax reveals the fact to Theodosius, v, ii, p. 347, ed. Gifford, 1813). Koeppel (p. 325) believes that Massinger received the suggestion for this contrivance from Lucian's On the Syrian Goddess, the story of Combabus and Stratonice in which the former causes himself to become a eunuch because he anticipates both the charge of adultery and temptation to it. Although Koeppel's theory is not unacceptable, there is another more likely source for this detail. This source is connected with a textual discrepancy evident to the most casual
22 Such details are Eudoxia's modest plea that Pulcheria accept her as a servant (i, ii, p. 267; Caussin, p. 453); the eunuchs' charge that Pulcheria gives Eudoxia to Theodosius in marriage for selfish reasons (II, i, p. 255; Caussin, p. 498); and Eudoxia's speechless amazement and grief when Theodosius accuses her of adultery (Iv, v, pp. 329-331; Caussin, p. 516).481
23 No single chronicle contains all three details.
24 For a brief biography of Nicolas Caussin and a description of his works see G. D. Hocking, A Study of the “Tragoediae Sacrae” of Father Caussin (1583-1651) (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1943), pp. 11-19. That the Holy Court was a widely known and influential book in the 17th century there seems to be no doubt. “II [Caussin] donna depuis un grand nombre d'autres ouvrages de dévotion, dont le plus fameux est sa Cour Sainte … dont la vogue prodigieuse fit dire dans le temps, ‘que le P. Caussin avait mieux fait ses affaires à la cour sainte qu'à la cour de France;’ elle fut imprimée une infinité de fois, et traduite dans toutes les langues”—Biographie Universelle (Paris, 1811), vII, 436.
25 See H. C. Lancaster, History of French Dramatic Literature (Baltimore, 1932), Part 2, i, ii, passim.
26 The play, never printed and surviving only in MS, was acted on Aug. 13, 1643. Lan- caster, op. cit., Part 2, II, 620, n.
27 Massinger's reading of the Holy Court—the very presence of the book in England—is in harmony with the alleged resurgence of Catholic faith in England during the eleven years after the breach between Charles I and his parliament in 1629. See G. Davies, The Early Stuarts (Oxford, 1937), p. 207. The uxorious king, moved by the Queen's mediation to spare her coreligionists, and no longer constrained to persecute these for the purpose of placating Parliament, allowed the conditions of the Catholics to improve, and the years 1629–40 saw many and notable conversions. This revival was attended by the re-introduction into England of books by Catholic writers, the most famous of these being Nicolas Caussin, teacher, orator, dramatist, and royal confessor. His works, many of them already translated into English, now became available in England, and the fourth book of the Holy Court was printed at Oxford in 1638 and again in 1639 under the title The Unfortunate Politique. To the theory that Massinger was a Catholic the fact that he read Caussin in the year 1630 or 1631 may offer a slight though not uninteresting contribution.
∗Editor's note: By one of those coincidences still far too common in the scholarly world, Mr. Phialas' research has been paralleled and the publication of his article slightly anticipated by J. E. Gray, whose “The Source of The Emperour of the East” appeared in the April, 1950, number of The Review of English Studies (n.s., I, 126-135). Mr. Phialas' article was in page proof when the April RES came to our hands. Mr. Phialas' study was listed in the 1947 compilation of “Research in Progress”; Mr. Gray's study has not been listed. We feel that the supplementary information contained in Mr. Phialas' article warrants our decision not to “kill” the type at the last possible moment.—W.R.P.
