64Prose and Verse Lineation

The quarto compositor/s set the majority of the play as prose, excepting lines at TLN 153-154 and couplets at TLN 1928-1929, TLN 1933-1934, and TLN 1956-1957. However, as previous editors have identified, passages of verse are discernable amongst the prose. Although Chapman tends to write in blank verse for this play, the iambic pentameter is at times rather loose and occasionally difficult to distinguish from prose. Sometimes the looseness of the metre suggests that perhaps Chapman was intending to return to these passages for further work. Another possibility is that the play was written as prose in Chapmanʼs manuscript and that the compositor was not so much saving space and paper as copying exactly the manuscript in front of him.

65The intention has been to set as verse any passage that appears to scan metrically, although sometimes the metre is very loose iambic pentameter. Passages set as verse by Parrott and rejected by Holaday have been reintroduced where considered appropriate. Examples of difficult passages, in particular Scenes 4 and 6, have been annotated in the notes. Edelman offers a useful discussion of the options open to editors and resists converting the quartoʼs prose to verse in many cases.^[193] Edelman concludes that ‘characters usually speak in verse when they are “humorous”ʼ and uses this as his ‘guiding principle in editing the textʼ.^[194]

66Chapman allocates prose to higher status characters, such as the King, a feature uncommon in plays of this period, except perhaps in Lylyʼs prose plays. In Shakespeareʼs Henry IV plays, the prose/verse lineation serves as a social indicator: tavern scenes are set in prose while court scenes are written in verse. In An Humorous Dayʼs Mirth the allocation of verse and prose seems to signify difference between characters and their relationships with each other in more complex ways.

67Of particular note is the relationship between Florila and Labervele. In Scene 4, Florilaʼs first appearance, the control she exercises over her emotions, senses, actions and thoughts, manifests itself in her language, which is delivered in verse. When her husband enters, the dialogue continues in verse, reflecting the high style of Florilaʼs histrionic response to the jewels. Even when he enters the stage on his own, Labervele speaks in verse, as in Scene 1. The tight control of the verse begins to break down into prose when Laberveleʼs suggestion that Florila have more of a social life is met with eager response. Laberveleʼs aside at TLN 250-252 is in prose, and the pairʼs subsequent lines until TLN 268 are conducted in prose, indicating Laberveleʼs loose power over his wife, and Florilaʼs willingness to embrace society, despite her usually feisty words against it.

68At the entry of Catalian, Labervele once again reverts to verse, almost as if trying to gain control over the situation. Catalianʼs persistent prose suggests that the control is gradually being wrested from Labervele, and also indicates the slipping of Florila from a woman of extreme morals to the hypocritical Puritan who willingly succumbs to temptation. By the time of Lemotʼs entrance at TLN 310, Labervele does not attempt to confront the new intruder with a barrage of verse, after which point Lemot is allowed private but overlooked access to Florila and the opportunity to tempt her with vain suggestion.

69The content of Scene 6 is almost entirely regulated by Laberveleʼs watchful eye and the verse in which the scene is written. This suits both the high wooing style of Lemotʼs words to Florila and the regulatory style of the content in which the testing of Florila is key. The verse is the controlling mechanism of the test, without which the words spoken by either character would be liberated. Despite this, the verse is still more relaxed than the Marlovian style. The fact that Florila reinterprets the signs, another safety measure designed to control the test and give Labervele greater confidence in his wife, and the manipulation of language by Lemot, ensures that the rules of the test are followed, but Labervele is verbally cuckolded right in front of his eyes.

70Scene 6 is almost entirely in verse, apart from a confused five line section, which has been treated differently by each previous editor. This section, TLN 722-728, has been set as a mix of verse and prose detailed in the annotations accompanying the text at this point.

71Two other characters who notably speak in verse appear in the next scene. Scene 7 opens with the Kingʼs melancholic reflection on kingship. Lemot quickly changes the tone to prose revelation of a ‘royal sportʼ (TLN 801). The contrast is made between metrical, melancholic philosophy and unruly, illicit intrigue. Dowsecer, similarly melancholic and contemplative, speaks almost entirely in verse in this scene, apart from his attempt to court the picture at TLN 918-922. Labervele, whose fondness for verse has been noted earlier, conducts a conversation with his son in verse. The verse itself is not precisely metrical, but rather loose, with too many syllables in certain lines, prompting the possibility that Chapman intended to rework these passages.

72Chapman also chooses to write some of Scene 12, particularly Lemotʼs lines, in verse. In this scene he artfully chooses words to mislead the Queen into thinking her husband no longer fancies her and that his penis is about to be amputated. The clever game of predicting other charactersʼ words which has been practised in Scene 8 is more expertly contrived in this scene, prompting Foyes, Labervele and the Countess each to inquire after a particular person in Lemotʼs narrative, only to discover the person is their daughter, son and husband. Lemotʼs use of verse signifies his control over metre, language, content and other charactersʼ reactions. Occasional lapses into prose are made by the Countess, who rants in isolation about her husbandʼs infidelity, and the Queen, who is shocked by Lemotʼs purposefully misleading revelations.

73The King regains control from Lemot after the play, and soothingly wraps up the action with suggestion of a party to celebrate the misunderstandings and smooth over any wounds. The rhyming couplet with which the play concludes is a standard feature of the ending of Renaissance plays, but also contains the numbing effects necessary to tranquilize any fiery tempers and ensure a joyful celebration of mirth.