The Honest Whore, Part II by Thomas Dekker

First produced: c. 1605

First published: 1630

Type of work: Drama

Type of plot: Tragi-comedy

Time of work: Sixteenth century

Locale: Milan, Italy

Principal Characters:

• Gasparo Trebazzi, Duke of Milan
• Infelice, his daughter
• Count Hippolito, a nobleman, Infelice’s husband
• Bellafront, a former harlot
• Orlando Friscobaldo, Bellafront’s father
• Matheo, Bellafront’s husband
• Candido, a linen-draper
• Candido’s Bride

Critique:

Part One of THE HONEST WHORE must have been successful on the stage, for Dekker very quickly followed it with a sequel, written entirely by himself. He was obviously endeavoring to capitalize on features of the first play, since in the second part he used all the principal characters save one and continued the subplot of the patient Candido. He ended with a scene in Bridewell, a London prison of his time, to balance the Bethlem Scene in Part One. He also continued the high moral tone of the earlier play, this time, however, making gambling as well as prostitution the object of his strictures. The new character of Friscobaldo, the outwardly stern yet inwardly forgiving father, was extravagantly admired by Hazlitt, and both he and Ernest Rhys considered Part Two superior to Part One. The modern reader will perhaps find that some of the freshness of Part One has worn off and feel that Dekker tried to carry a good thing a bit too far.

The Story:

One day Bellafront, a former prostitute now married to Matheo, the former friend of Count Hippolito, arrived at that nobleman’s house with a petition. Her husband had killed a man, but it was in fair fight and the man a notorious villain. Still, Matheo has been condemned to death. Hippolito, who was about to ride out with his wife Infelice, stayed behind to hear the petition. He took the opportunity to remind Bellafront of their old relationship and promised to help Matheo to a pardon and, if possible, to reconcile her with her unforgiving father. But it was significant that Count Hippolito showed much more interest in Bellafront than she in him.

Meanwhile, at the palace of Duke Gasparo, father of Infelice, the courtiers were talking of the marriage of Candido, an old linen-draper still famous in Milan for his patience. Viola had died, and, to the mystification of the gallants, Candido was marrying a young girl. Just as they had decided to attend the wedding feast, Hippolito entered, followed shortly by Orlando Friscobaldo, Bellafront’s estranged father. Their meeting gave Hippolito an opportunity to ask the old man about his daughter. Friscobaldo declared that he had not seen her for seventeen years, that her disgrace had been so great that he no longer considered her his child. But when Hippolito had left, with the parting remark that Bellafront was in dire poverty, the father relented and resolved to rescue his daughter. To this end, he put on the livery of a servant and, thus disguised, went to find his offspring.

At the same time, the wedding of the widowed Candido was taking place, attended by some of the gallants of the city who wished to see what sort of bride the old man had chosen. The first impression was unfavorable: when the bride was handed the wedding goblet, she broke the glass and refused to drink. Candido was as patient as ever, but he did consent to allow a nobleman to disguise himself as an apprentice so that the disguised man might try to cure the bride of her peevishness. The courtiers did not wish to see Candido saddled with another shrew.

Thanks to Hippolito, Matheo had been released from prison and had, somewhat unconvincingly, promised his wife to reform and give up gambling. When Friscobaldo arrived, disguised as a servant, he pretended to be an old family retainer discharged by Bellafront’s father. He asked Matheo for a place in his household and insisted on turning over to the latter, for safe-keeping, what he claimed to be his life’s savings: twenty pounds. His offer was enthusiastically accepted by Matheo, who took the opportunity to abuse his father-in-law. The outburst was interrupted by the arrival of Hippolito, come ostensibly to congratulate Matheo but in reality to pursue his wooing of Bellafront. He had already sent her gifts; he now left her a purse. To the delight of her disguised father—who was to convey the purse—she rejected all the gifts and resolved to remain honest.

Meanwhile, a rather labored trick was being played at Candido’s shop. The nobleman, disguised as an apprentice, arrived as if looking for work. The bride refused to prepare a room for him, whereupon Candido took the unusual step of vowing to tame her. He picked up a yardstick; she armed herself with the longer ell-wand; but before they could come to blows, the bride asked forgiveness and delivered a speech on the proper obedience of wives.

In the interest of saving his daughter from Hippolito’s advances, Friscobaldo went to the count’s house and revealed to Infelice her husband’s infidelity, surrendering to her the gifts sent to Bellafront. When Hippolito returned, Infelice was able to play a neat trick upon him. Kneeling, she made a mock confession of having committed adultery with a servant. The enraged husband delivered a tirade on unfaithful wives, thus giving Infelice the opportunity to turn his own words against him as she displayed the gifts he had sent Bellafront. But her just reproaches succeeded only in making her husband the more determined to pursue his illicit passion.

In the household of Matheo, affairs were going from bad to worse. That unlucky gamester had lost everything at dice, including the money entrusted to him by his feigned servant; so, reduced to nothing, he pawned his wife’s clothes and hinted strongly that he would be pleased if she would return to her former profession so as to gain a few ducats. He was, however, temporarily rescued by a friend, who promised to give him both money and clothes fashionable for a gentleman.

Candido’s troubles, also, were continuing. Two disreputable characters, Mrs. Horseleech, a bawd, and Botts, a pander, had designs upon his new wife and tried to seduce her for one of their customers; but the plot broke against her honesty. While these events were taking place, Matheo had received his new clothes and was happily showing them to his wife. In the midst of Matheo’s display old Friscobaldo appeared, this time in his own person, to be recognized by Bellafront, who asked his forgiveness. The father startled Matheo by his knowledge of the latter’s shady dealings and then left in pretended anger, vowing that he would let the couple starve. While Bellafront and Matheo were quarreling, the father returned in his servant’s disguise to hear Matheo’s very garbled account of what had just happened and his proposal that they rob Friscobaldo’s house. The disguised old man agreed to the plan.

After they had left the house, Bellafront appeared with Hippolito, who was still intent on his wooing. A long debate ensued between them, Hippolito urging his suit and Bellafront describing the miseries of a harlot’s life. When she repulsed his advances, he swore to continue until he had succeeded. In the meantime, Friscobaldo had been revealing to Duke Gasparo the villainy of Matheo. The duke agreed to aid the plot of catching Matheo in the robbery and also resolved to cure Hippolito by purging Milan of harlots by imposing such strict laws that Hippolito would be afraid to approach a prostitute, no matter how fair she might be.

The young Milanese gallants, never tired of trying to vex the patient Candido, met at Matheo’s house to plan another trick. Matheo suggested that, as a bait, he should offer to sell Candido some lawn, thus accomplishing two purposes at once, for he had stolen the lawn from two supposed peddlers—actually men hired by Friscobaldo. Candido arrived and was persuaded to drink a glass of wine. At that moment the constable entered to arrest Matheo for theft and Candido for receiving stolen goods. Both were taken to Bridewell prison, along with Mrs. Horseleech and Botts, who had been present during the episode. Duke Gasparo, attended by his court, arrived at the prison to administer justice. Hippolito came also, having heard that Bellafront had been arrested in the wholesale sweep of the harlots of Milan. At the trial Matheo’s real baseness was revealed: he boldly admitted the robbery but claimed that his wife had inspired it; when this charge was disproved by the disguised Friscobaldo, he accused Bellafront of being a whore and swore that he had found her in bed with Hippolito. To this accusation, Infelice, in order to prolong the stratagem, added that Bellafront had accepted presents from Hippolito. In the midst of these charges and countercharges Friscobaldo at last threw off his disguise and proclaimed his daughter’s innocence and Matheo’s villainy. All ended happily when, at Bellafront’s petition, her unworthy husband was pardoned, Hippolito and his wife were reconciled, and Candido was shown to have been the victim of a cruel joke.

Further Critical Evaluation of the Work:

THE HONEST WHORE, PART TWO, continues in a more realistic, indeed often cynical fashion the story of THE HONEST WHORE, PART ONE. As is true of many literary sequels, in the second play Dekker changes his concept of the characters in order to satisfy the demands of his different plot. In PART ONE, Count Hippolito was the melancholy but faithful lover of Infelice; Gasparo Trebazzi was the inflexible father-tyrant who crossed the young lovers until the concluding scene; and Bellafront was the whore reformed through her unrequited but pure love for Hippolito. In PART TWO Hippolito, now married to Infelice, is no longer the melancholy saint of love: “turned ranger,” his passions are roused by Bellafront’s beauty; Gasparo is judicious instead of rancorous; and Bellafront is a model of wifely virtue, deaf to Hippolito’s seductive entreaties. Only Candido, the patient linen draper, remains quite the same in both plays. His “humor”—an exaggerated meekness and forbearance—is tested by his young skittish bride (his former wife Viola, the shrew, having fortunately expired), by pranksters, a bawd, a pander, and by assorted whores and knaves at Bridewell prison. The single important new character, Orlando Friscobaldo, who is Bellafront’s father, is intended to arouse in the audience sentimental affection, but his meretricious disguise and mean intrigues serve only to make his motivation appear inconsistent, and he is ultimately unsympathetic.

To be sure, the major difference between the plays is the change from romantic tragi-comedy approaching comedy of humors in PART ONE to tragi-comic realism in PART TWO. So far as we can judge from what remains of Dekker’s many plays, the author’s talents would not appear to run toward authentic tragedy. He is at his best with comic scenes of London lower class or lower-middle class life. In PART TWO, he is most convincing when he treats Candido in the linen shop, fretted by apprentices; or when he brings all his characters, in the final scene, to Bridewell Prison. Like the conclusion of PART ONE in Bethlem Monastery (a madhouse), the Bridewell scene is vivid with caricatures of the denizens of London’s sordid underworld. Unlike such dramatists as Marston, Chapman, or Jonson, who often flail these wretched creatures with indignant satire, Dekker sees them as amusing although pitiful. His humanity rather than moral power is most clearly displayed in the play.

In the character of Matheo, Dekker’s failure in moral vision seriously weakens the otherwise happy ending. In PART ONE, Matheo was a minor figure, a friend of the count. In PART TWO, as Bellafront’s husband, he is an evil, scheming, luxurious brute. Contrasted to Hippolito’s amateur philandering, Matheo’s studied lust and depravity are the greater vices. Yet Matheo is pardoned at the end, thanks to the intercession of Bellafront, who dutifully forgives her husband. Thus the patient generosity of the wife nearly matches the patience of Candido. Nevertheless, for modern audiences, Bellafront sacrifices too much of her self-respect for her worthless spouse; his reformation, it would seem, is only temporary, and he is likely to abuse her afterward—a destiny that any woman, even an “honest whore,” should not have to endure.