The Faithful Shepherdess by John Fletcher
"The Faithful Shepherdess" is a pastoral drama by John Fletcher, written around 1608-1609. The play centers on Clorin, a devoted shepherdess who, after burying her lover, vows to forsake worldly pleasures and remain chaste while tending to his grave. Her commitment allows her to wield a powerful influence in the woodland, where her purity enchants even the brutish satyr, who becomes her servant. Meanwhile, other characters navigate their own complicated romantic entanglements, with Amoret and Perigot planning to solidify their love, while Amarillis schemes to disrupt their bond.
The narrative unfolds with a mix of romantic pursuits and deceptions, culminating in a series of misunderstandings and magical transformations that complicate the relationships between the characters. As the story progresses, themes of chastity, love, and the consequences of lust are explored, leading to a resolution where true love ultimately triumphs. The play reflects the complexities of love and fidelity in a rural setting, set against a backdrop of mythical elements and pastoral ideals, making it a rich exploration of human emotions and societal norms of Fletcher's time.
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The Faithful Shepherdess by John Fletcher
First produced: c. 1608-1609; first published, 1629
Type of work: Drama
Type of plot: Tragicomedy
Time of plot: Antiquity
Locale: Thessaly
Principal characters
Perigot , a shepherd, in love with AmoretThenot , a shepherd, in love with ClorinDaphnis , a modest shepherd, in love with CloeAlexis , a wanton shepherd, in love with CloeThe Sullen Shepherd ,Amoret , a shepherdess, in love with PerigotClorin , a hermit, the faithful shepherdessAmarillis , a shepherd, in love with PerigotCloe , a wanton shepherd
The Story:
Clorin, who buries her sweetheart in a woodland arbor, vows to forsake all of the pleasures of a shepherd’s life and devote herself to chaste vigil over his grave, relinquishing it only to cure sick people and beasts through her knowledge of the secret virtues of herbs. So great is the power of her virginity that nothing in the woodland can harm her; her mere presence tames a rough and brutish satyr, who becomes her servant. Among the other shepherds and shepherdesses, however, love affairs of various kinds are progressing. The beautiful Amoret agrees to meet her sweetheart Perigot that night in the wood so that they can plight their troth beside a sacred well. Amarillis, a rejected admirer of Perigot, also has plans for the evening. Hoping that Perigot might accept her if he can only be parted from Amoret, she promises the Sullen Shepherd her love if he will break up the meeting. The Sullen Shepherd, who wants only to satisfy his lust, agrees to carry out any plan she might propose.
Cloe is also seeking a partner for the evening. First she approaches Thenot, but he declines her advances because he is in love with the unattainable Clorin. Daphnis, whom she next meets, agrees to meet her in the wood, but his modest bearing promises so little that Cloe also makes an engagement with Alexis, a youth who is much livelier.
After nightfall, Amarillis and the Sullen Shepherd prepare to deceive Perigot. Following a magical formula, the Sullen Shepherd lowers Amarillis into the sacred well, and when he draws her out again she takes on the form of Amoret. In this shape, she meets Perigot and attempts to seduce him, but he is so offended by her conduct that he attempts to kill her. Seeing her danger, the Sullen Shepherd uses another charm to change her back into her true appearance. Perigot rushes off into the dark wood to find and kill the supposedly lustful Amoret.
Cloe, meanwhile, meets Daphnis and finds his intentions to be purer than she hoped. Making an appointment to meet him later at a certain hollow tree, she goes in search of Alexis. This swain’s desires are in perfect accord with hers, but their embraces are interrupted by the Sullen Shepherd, who attacks and wounds Alexis. Undoubtedly, Alexis would have been killed but for the arrival of Clorin’s satyr, who frightens both Cloe and the Sullen Shepherd away and bears Alexis off to his mistress to be healed. Perigot during this time finds the true Amoret, stabs her, and leaves her for dead. She is discovered by the Sullen Shepherd who, wishing to make sure of his bargain with Amarillis, throws her into the sacred well to drown. From this fate she is saved by the river god, who also heals her wounds.
Perigot, thinking Amoret dead, is about to take his own life when Amarillis, seeing that things have gone much too far, attempts to explain her deception. In order to convince him, she asks only an hour in which to reappear in Amoret’s shape. She hardly leaves him, however, when she comes upon the true Amoret. Realizing that virtuous love cannot be frustrated, she directs the unfortunate shepherdess to the place where Perigot waits; but when Amoret arrives, her sweetheart takes her to be Amarillis transformed and, wishing to be revenged, he again stabs her. Once more the satyr arrives opportunely. As the frightened Perigot flees, the satyr bears Amoret off to Clorin’s arbor.
There Clorin nearly effects Alexis’s cure by purging him of lust, but her treatment of Amoret is interrupted because of intemperate influences in the atmosphere. Seeking them out, the satyr finds Daphnis and Cloe in the hollow tree. Being innocent of lechery, the young man is dismissed, but Cloe fails the test of chastity to which she is put and is kept for Clorin’s ministrations. Perigot, meanwhile, arrives to be cleared of the blood he shed and to his astonishment finds Amoret alive and well. The two are happily reunited. Alexis and Cloe, purged of lust, also swear a chaste love to each other.
Bibliography
Appleton, William W. Beaumont and Fletcher: A Critical Study. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1956. Appleton equivocates about the merits of The Faithful Shepherdess, but he shows that this play and other tragicomedies, although they are hybrids and reflect a decadent age, are important forerunners of Restoration heroic drama.
Edwards, Philip. “The Danger Not the Death: The Art of John Fletcher.” In Jacobean Theatre, edited by John Russell Brown and Bernard Harris. New York: Capricorn Books, 1967. Edwards analyzes what he considers the key elements in Fletcher’s plays: improbable, elaborately complicated plots, prurience, strong scenes, mystification and disguise, and disputation and persuasion.
Ellis-Fermor, Una. The Jacobean Drama: An Interpretation. New York: Vintage Books, 1964. In the chapter on Fletcher and his collaborator Francis Beaumont, Ellis-Fermor treats the tragicomic genre in detail and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the form in various plays, including The Faithful Shepherdess. Declares that this play has a weak plot but some fine poetry.
Finkelpearl, Philip J. Court and Country Politics in the Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990. Looking at the plays as dramatic criticism of the court and monarch, Finkelpearl links Clorin and Pan in The Faithful Shepherdess, which he says is the prototypical Fletcher tragicomedy, with Elizabeth I and James I.
Foster, Verna A. “Sexuality and Tragicomic Genre in the Plays of Fletcher.” In The Name and Nature of Tragicomedy. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2004. This analysis of Fletcher’s tragicomic plays includes a discussion of The Faithful Shepherdess. Foster analyzes tragicomedies from the Renaissance and twentieth century, describing the characteristics and perceptions that differentiate these plays from comedies and dramas.
Leech, Clifford. The John Fletcher Plays. London: Chatto & Windus, 1962. Analyzes the pastoral form, language, and poetry of The Faithful Shepherdess that distinguish it from other Fletcher plays. Shows that Fletcher’s attitude toward human behavior first emerges in this early work. Also discusses similarities between The Faithful Shepherdess and William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (pr. 1611, pb. 1623).
Wells, Stanley W. “The Move to Tragicomedy: John Fletcher and Others.” In Shakespeare and Co.: Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher, and the Other Players in His Story. New York: Penguin Books, 2007. Wells examines the plays of William Shakespeare by placing them within the broader context of Elizabethan theater, discussing Fletcher and other playwrights of the period, the work of acting companies, and the staging of theatrical productions. The chapter on Fletcher includes a discussion of The Faithful Shepherdess.