The Spanish Friar by John Dryden

First produced: 1680; first published, 1681

Type of work: Drama

Type of plot: Tragicomedy

Time of plot: Fifteenth century

Locale: Aragon, Spain

Principal characters

• Torrismond, son of Sancho, the deposed king, and defender of Aragon against the Moors
• Leonora, queen of Aragon, the daughter of the usurper, and engaged to Bertran
• Bertran, made a duke by Leonora’s father, now in military disgrace
• Raymond, foster father of Torrismond
• Dominic, a licentious friar
• Lorenzo, a young gallant and soldier
• Gomez, an elderly usurer
• Elvira, his young wife

The Story:

Aragon is in a state of siege because the usurper king, lately dead, refused to acknowledge and reward the services of the Moors in gaining the kingdom for him. Queen Leonora, promised on her father’s deathbed to Duke Bertran, regrets this alliance as well as the fact that she holds in a dungeon the deposed King Sancho, a righteous and beloved ruler. Bertran’s forces were routed three times by the Moors before Torrismond, supposed son of Raymond, one of the leading nobles, rallied the scattered Christians and saved the kingdom from the infidels.

Young Lorenzo, a valiant colonel in Torrismond’s army, brings news of the victory and confides to his friends his desire to celebrate with the first prostitute available. He boasts that he robbed his Moorish victims of gold and jewels. Elvira, the young wife of a jealous old moneylender named Gomez, makes advances to the handsome soldier, but her husband immediately thwarts plans for the assignation that was put in motion by Friar Dominic.

Upon his triumphal return, Torrismond offends Bertran by openly ridiculing him for ineptness. He also naïvely declares his love for the queen, who, in turn, is smitten with love for the young hero. Bertran vows vengeance and agrees to her suggestion to kill King Sancho because he thinks that will hasten the marriage. Leonora makes the suggestion with the intention of thereby making Torrismond her king-husband. Torrismond, however, remains loyal to the old king and to Raymond.

Despite all efforts to the contrary, clandestine love prevails in the palace, though not in Gomez’s mansion. Friar Dominic, ghostly father to Elvira, makes a series of arrangements for the young wife and her hopeful gallant to meet, but each meeting is discovered by the near-cuckolded husband. Bertran, too, does his best to keep Leonora and Torrismond apart by testing the reaction of the populace to the supposed murder of King Sancho.

Raymond, incensed by such intrigues, admits that in the troublesome days of the Moorish invasion King Sancho entrusted to him his son Torrismond. Raymond urges Torrismond to take over the kingdom and to avenge the old king’s death by deposing or by killing the usurpers. Torn between his love for Leonora and his filial duty to his foster father and real father, Torrismond is unable to commit so bloody a deed. He declares his belief that Leonora’s repentance and his own attempt to thwart the regicide settled that score. After learning Torrismond’s decision, Raymond, though he is moved to compassion over his adopted son’s predicament, departs to rouse the citizens.

The intrigue involving Elvira and Lorenzo comes to nothing; no amount of bribery, blackmail, or disguise can bring the two together, despite the fact that Friar Dominic is a master of trickery and knavery. The friar is finally exposed when Lorenzo’s father reveals that Elvira is his daughter, married to Gomez the usurer in order to prevent her suffering a worse fate in those troubled times. Thus the affection Elvira and Lorenzo feel for each other is based on the family relationship of brother and sister.

To this double discovery of the true parentage of Torrismond and Elvira comes a third: King Sancho is not dead. Bertran, suspicious of the queen’s motives and aware of the people’s loyalty to the old king, merely spread the rumor of King Sancho’s death. Knowing also that the queen is devoted to Torrismond rather than to himself, Bertran begs forgiveness for his part in the many sad events that occurred in the kingdom. Leonora, much relieved, wishes only for King Sancho’s permission for her marriage to his son. Torrismond assures her that the good king, quick to forgive, will grant such a boon.

Bibliography

Eliot, T. S. John Dryden: The Poet, the Dramatist, the Critic. 1932. Reprint. New York: Haskell House, 1966. Eliot’s discussion helped introduce Dryden to twentieth century audiences and still serves as a starting point for other critiques. Although very generalized, it highlights reasons why Dryden’s plays continue to fascinate critics and students.

Hammond, Paul, and David Hopkins, eds. John Dryden: Tercentenary Essays. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. This collection, published during the tercentenary of Dryden’s death, examines some of Dryden’s individual works, as well as more general characteristics of his writing. Some of the essays question if Dryden is a classic, explore Dryden and the “staging of popular politics,” and describe the dissolution evident in his later writing.

Hopkins, David. John Dryden. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986. Within this updated assessment of Dryden’s place among English writers, Hopkins provides an introduction to The Spanish Friar for new readers. He includes a plot summary and focuses on Dryden’s preface.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. John Dryden. Tavistock, England: Northcote House/British Council, 2004. Concise and up-to-date overview of Dryden’s life and work. Hopkins demonstrates that Dryden not only was a man of his times but also continues to have significant ideas to express to a twenty-first century audience.

Lewis, Jayne, and Maximillian E. Novak, eds. Enchanted Ground: Reimagining John Dryden. Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto Press, 2004. Collection of essays that apply twenty-first century critical perspectives to Dryden’s work. The first section focuses on Dryden’s role as a public poet and the voice of the Stuart court during Restoration; the second explores his relationship to drama and to music.

Loftis, John. “Chapter Two: Dryden’s Comedies.” In Writers and Their Background: John Dryden, edited by Earl Miner. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1972. Carefully differentiating between the play’s comic and serious plots, this discussion calls attention to the English political context, especially the anti-Catholic bias and the Exclusion Controversy.

Rawson, Claude, and Aaron Santesso, eds. John Dryden, 1631-1700: His Politics, His Plays, and His Poets. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2004. Contains papers presented at a Yale University conference held in 2000 to commemorate the tercentenary of Dryden’s death. The essays focus on the politics of Dryden’s plays and how his poetry was poised between ancient and modern influences.

Ward, Charles E. The Life of John Dryden. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1961. This biography puts the play in the context of Dryden’s career and details the play’s political background, performances, and audience. Ward interprets the main character, Friar Dominic, as a satirization of Catholicism rather than of the clergy.

Wasserman, George R. John Dryden. New York: Twayne, 1964. Wasserman gives an overview of Dryden’s life and works. He fits The Spanish Friar among the tragicomedies and draws heavily on Dryden’s interest in Ben Jonson’s comedy of humours prototype in discussing style and theatrical context.

Zwicker, Steven N., ed. The Cambridge Companion to John Dryden. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Among these seventeen essays are discussions of Dryden and the theatrical imagination, the invention of Augustan culture, patronage, and Dryden’s London and the “passion of politics” in his theater.