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Cyclopedia of Literary Places

The Malcontent

Author: John Marston (1576–1634)

First published: 1604

First produced: 1604

Type of work: Drama

Type of plot: Tragicomedy

Time of plot: Thirteenth century

In common with much Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, this play requires minimal staging: A few doors, drapes, and benches suffice. The sense of place the play conveys, therefore, lies largely in its audiences’ imagination. Genoa, Italy, is ostensibly the play's setting, but it is not a Genoa that has any geographical reality. Thirteenth century Genoa, historically, was the center of a huge commercial maritime enterprise, rivaling that of Venice. None of this is apparent in the play. All that matters to John Marston is his Italian setting, wherein the political philosophy of Niccolo Machiavelli, combined with the hot-blooded lusts, supposedly, of southern Europe, created an other world for his northern European Protestant audiences.

*Genoa. Northwestern Italian city-state and mercantile center around whose palace and court of Duke Altofronto the play centers. Within the palace building only the duchess's bedchamber has special significance, for its sexual intrigues and adulterous relationships. Marston never shows the inside of the bedroom, only its outside. At its door, the young courtier Ferneze is stabbed, so though sexuality is promised, only violence is delivered. However, the general atmosphere is one of promiscuity; the lack of borders in the staging reinforces this.

Citadel. At some location near the Palace lies the citadel, in which Maria lies imprisoned through most of the drama. Act 5, scene 2 presumably takes place there, though this is never stated as such. The citadel symbolizes the chastity of the duke's wife, Maria, which has a stronghold even in a corrupt court, thereby making some sort of comic resolution possible.

Countryside. Ahunting scene in act 3 is the only other scene not taking place in court. Hunting is a feature of tragicomedy, derived from the pastoral, but here denoting the sexual chase.

*Florence. Powerful city-state in north-central Italy that was a rival of Genoa. Although no scene in the play is set there, the Duke of Florence is a manipulative force in the play; he helps usurp Altofronto and through Bilioso seeks to reinstate him. Florence therefore represents a rival power base and the source of a complicating corruption.

—David Barratt

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
"The Malcontent." Cyclopedia of Literary Places,Salem Press, 2015. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=CLP_0744.
APA 7th
The Malcontent. Cyclopedia of Literary Places,Salem Press, 2015. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=CLP_0744.
CMOS 17th
"The Malcontent." Cyclopedia of Literary Places,Salem Press, 2015. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=CLP_0744.