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Discuss the treatment of both female and male sexuality in Shakespeare's 'Antony and Cleopatra' and Middleton and Rowley's 'The Changeling'.
Introduction
Although Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and Middleton and Rowley's The Changeling show some perceptible similarities in their portrayal of sexuality and romantic relationships, there are also important differences between them. Both plays tend to portray female sexuality as corrupting (as poison in The Changeling and as witchcraft in Antony and Cleopatra), yet the downward spiral of lust and violence in which Beatrice and De Flores are involved is ultimately in complete contrast to the noble and tragic end of Antony and Cleopatra's love affair.
While the threat of female sexuality is present in both plays, the poison of The Changelingcan only lead to disease and death, yet Cleopatra's magic retains its power to charm. In both plays, ideals of feminine behaviour such as silence, obedience, modesty and chastity are ostensibly endorsed. Yet there is a greatness in the unbounded passions of Egypt which, like the overflowing Nile, is fertile and infinitely varied, while the domestic drama of Beatrice's lust is petty and narrowing.
The grand emotional scale of Antony and Cleopatra seems to gesture towards the possibility of more satisfying and reciprocal sexual relationships, but I intend to argue that what appears to be a more pessimistic tone inThe Changeling serves the purpose of offering a critique of sexual relationships in early modern society, while Antony and Cleopatra, because of its treatment of passion on such an epic scale, says less about the particular concerns of early modern society and its attitude to sexuality.
Both of these plays demonstrate a view of marriage as a means of uniting families and serving as a bond between men (Malcolmson, 2001, 147). From this point of view, the woman is merely a tool in the transaction and her sexual desires are not a part of the consideration. In Vermandero's assertion that Alonzo 'shall be bound to me, / As fast as this tie can hold him' (I.1.218-9), he refers to Beatrice as the 'tie' that binds them and Beatrice is in no doubt that this is a matter in which she has no choice when she comments, 'And his blessing / Is only mine, as I regard his name, / Else it goes from me, and turns head against me, / Transform'd into a curse' (II.1.20-3).
Beatrice later echoes the word 'tie' to express her unwillingness to accept this control over her freedom to choose a partner when she says, 'how well were I now / If there were no such tie as the command of parents!' (II.2.18-20)and she is clear that, were she a man, she would not be forced to marry against her desires (II.2.107-13). In Antony and Cleopatra, the woman who epitomises the conventional view of the participant in an expedient marriage that serves as a diplomatic union between men is Octavia, whose marriage to Antony is described as 'an unslipping knot' (II.2.127) and a 'cement' (III.2.29) in the relationship between Antony and Caesar.
Octavia's virtue and her meek submission to her brother's will, however, reveals a lack of passion that Enobarbus describes as 'holy, cold and still' (II.6.119-120). In such circumstances, there are contradictory expectations placed on women, who are required to act as passive instruments and yet be sexually responsive to their husbands' demands.
In The Changeling there appears to be an acceptance that male sexuality is active and that men pursue their desires by a variety of means. Tomazo, Alsemero, Jasperino, Alibius, Lollio, Antonio, Franciscus and De Flores are all actively involved in pursuing their sexual desires. Male sexuality is compared with fingers thrust into gloves and rings (I.1.231-235 and I.2.26-31) and with 'a greedy hand thrust in a dish' (III.4.31). Such overt pursuit of conquest must be defended against and the sub-plot ofThe Changeling focuses on the necessity for men to protect their wives from being preyed upon by other men.
Alibius imprisons his wife and has her constantly watched, putting her on a level with the fools and madmen in the hospital. His metaphorical wish to 'lock' Isabella up in his 'arms and bosom' (III.3.249) is thus played out literally, as Isabella herself is aware (III.3.248). The need to protect Beatrice's virtue is similarly alluded to when her father exhibits care over protecting the secrets of his citadel from strangers (I.1.161-6). As Malcolmson (2002, 150) observes, 'Vermandero fears invasion, and the imagery of penetration and invasion continues throughout the play'.
However, the play also betrays another aspect to male sexuality that Lollio highlights when he draws a parallel between sexual and social control, commenting on how both madmen and women are tamed 'with our commanding pizzles' (IV.3.61-2) - a play on words that 'associates [his] whip with male genitals and links leadership and authority with sexual aggression' (Malcolmson, 2002, 149). In this construction, male (sexual) aggression is not merely a negative force which requires vigilant defence, but also a positive force creating order and control.
Within the scheme ofThe Changeling, therefore, we are presented with a situation where women are subjected to both penetration and enclosure because men seek to penetrate and also to defend women from penetration.
However, it is not sufficient to conclude that women inThe Changelingare the entirely passive subjects of male sexual domination, nor that they are able always to see it objectively and criticise it. Isabella expresses the ambiguity of her situation when, even imprisoned at home, she finds the opportunity to stray and sees herself as simultaneously passive and yet powerful: 'The needle's point will to the fixed north; / Such drawing arctics woman's beauties are' (III.3.216-7). In comparing herself to a magnetic force, she sees herself as having power to draw men to her and she sees men as being as unable to resist as a compass needle is unable to point anywhere other than North.
In a similarly irresistible manner, Antony is inexorably drawn back to Egypt, where his reason and judgement are subject to his passion. That sexual passion and rational judgement are at odds is an argument that may be drawn from both plays. Beatrice make this explicit when she makes a contrast between the eyes, which 'are rash sometimes, and tell us wonders' with judgement's need to 'check the eyes, and call them blind' (I.1.72-6).
Antony is similarly assailed by the action of his eyes that 'now bend, now turn / The office and devotion of their view / Upon a tawny front' (I.1.4-6), and he is later shown to have abandoned judgement, when Enobarbus condemns him because he 'would make his will / Lord of his reason (III.13.3-4). 'Will' in this context is used to mean unrestrained desire and can also be a pun on the word for an erect penis. Enobarbus, who had previously described the ravishing spectacle of Antony's first meeting with Cleopatra, now assesses Antony's folly in allowing passion to override rationality.
Antony's situation exemplifies a condition where men are perceived to be weakened and made effeminate by love (McEachern, 2002, 136-8). Jean E. Howard (1992, 172) comments: 'Men who displayed excessive passion for women were termed effeminate because they became like women in allowing passion to override their reason and self-control.' Antony's ambivalence about this is betrayed when he hears of his wife Fulvia taking to the battlefield and he asks the messenger to report how he is railed against in Rome and invites him to 'taunt my faults / With such full licence, as both truth and malice / Have power to utter' (I.2.102-6).
Later, when Antony follows Cleopatra's retreat from the sea battle, Scarus condemns him: 'Experience, manhood, honour, ne'er before / Did violate so itself' (III.10.23-4) and Antony himself believes that his sword has been 'made weak by [his] affection' (III.11.67). InThe Changeling, when Alsemero allows Beatrice to dissuade him from challenging Piracquo his action in deferring to her judgement has a similar disastrous outcome to that of Antony following Cleopatra from the battle.
Alsemero believes that valour is 'the honourablest piece 'bout man' (II.2.27), but Beatrice's fear leads him to not take the way of male honour and valour, with the tragic consequence that Beatrice becomes obligated to De Flores for murdering Piracquo.
Women's sexuality seems to be regarded not just as needing to be protected from aggressive male intrusion, but also dangerous in itself. InThe Changeling, the infinite possibility of the multiplication of a woman's sexual transgression is described: 'She spreads and mounts like arithmetic' (II.1.62). A woman's sexuality, once aroused, is thus perceived to be insatiable and unrestrained.
Cleopatra is also depicted as a woman whose sexuality is unbounded and inexhaustible (the overflowing Nile is the dominant trope of Cleopatra's sexuality), as when Enobarbus comments, 'Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety' (II.2.235-6). There are two sides to Cleopatra's 'infinite variety': she is capricious, manipulative and deceitful, capable of playing-acting, sulking and feigning emotion, but she also challenges the orderliness of 'Rome's reductive binarisms of West-East, male-female, reason-passion, discipline-pleasure, constancy-inconstancy' (McEachern, 2002, 151-2). Sexual desire, as it is embodied in Cleopatra, threatens political order and stability in its creative and transformative power (Eagleton, 1986, 88).
Egypt is expansive and enriching: it intensifies human experience (McEachern, 2002, 196-201). InAntony and Cleopatra we find a reciprocity in the sexuality of the two main protagonists that does not fall within the accepted conventions and bounds of society (McEachern, 2002, 65-6). Antony says:
Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch
Of the rang'd empire fall! Here is my space,
Kingdoms are clay: our dungy earth alike
Feeds beast as man; the nobleness of life
Is to do thus: when such mutual pair,
And such a twain can do't, in which I bind,
On pain of punishment, the world to weet
We stand up peerless. (I.1.34-39)
Their mutual passion is thus portrayed as ennobling and sufficient in itself. In this,Antony and Cleopatrais not so much representative of a particular place and time as of a singular relationship that assumes mythic proportions. When Cleopatra is referred to as Egypt and Antony enters into marriage with Octavia as a political move to satisfy his quarrel with Caesar, such large themes and the broad sweep of historical and geographical setting tend to distance this play from the context of early modern England and, although it clearly reveals attitudes to male and female sexuality that preoccupied early modern dramatists, nonetheless its grander scale tends to place it somewhat beyond the concerns and attitudes of early modern contemporary society.
The Changeling, in contrast, seems more deeply rooted in its time and more engaged with contemporary preoccupations. It may be said to take its theme from the title of Wilkins's playThe Miseries of Enforced Marriage (1607). The play opens with Beatrice's first sexual awakening and with it her dissatisfaction with her father's choice of husband. This, I would argue, is the trigger of the following tragedy, which is an exploration of how men force and control women's expression of their sexuality.
Renaissance England was changing: the values of a 'warrior society' where women were treated as possessions were beginning to give way to a more romantic view of marital relations in which women could aspire to a greater mutuality in their domestic arrangements and both of these views of sexual relationships were available to an early modern audience (McEachern, 2002, 125-9).
This ambiguity in attitude is reflected in the double plot of the play. The danger of unrestrained female sexuality is ostensibly explored in the main plot, yet this danger is actually exacerbated by the father's desire to force his will upon his daughter in marriage. In the sub-plot we are presented with the injustice of male anxiety and jealousy that imposes unjust restrictions upon a woman who is virtuous. The setting of the hospital is especially pertinent, for in early modern England a visit to a hospital such as that named Bethlehem (or Bedlam) was considered to be entertainment on a par with the theatre or the bear baiting and so would have been a context that was easily understandable to a contemporary audience.
Confined with madmen and fools, Isabella is the innocent victim of the her husband's folly and yet she is powerless to resist it. In spite of her confinement, Isabella is not protected from the intrusion of unwanted suitors such as Antonio and Franciscus and it seems that the play is a critique of those social structures that purport to protect women, yet continue to expose them to humiliation and danger. The embrace of Isabella's husband does not make them, like Antony and Cleopatra, a 'mutual pair': it is, instead, a prison.
The imprisonment of Isabella prefigures the climax of the main plot of the play, when Alsemero puts Beatrice and De Flores in his closet (V.3), with the instruction: 'rehearse again / Your scene of lust' (V.3.114-5). This, again, is an imprisonment that does not protect the woman, but creates greater danger. When the ambiguous sounds of 'Oh, oh, oh' (V.3.139) are heard it is impossible for the audience to know whether this is the sound of sexual intercourse or death. Yet in Beatrice's final words to her father she regards her death as a kind of purging that will contribute to his ultimate health. With the corruption of her honour, which in women was specifically connected with chastity and modesty, her life is ultimately forfeit.
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Conclusion
Sexuality in early modern England was a subject of anxiety and concern. In an increasingly mobile society, where traditional roles and hierarchies were threatened, the issue of social control was a complex one. Sexuality was perceived as a vehicle by which conventional relationships may be threatened and normal restraints overthrown. Because of this, sexual relationships became the subject of many plays on the public stage, Antony and Cleopatra and The Changeling being only two among many.
Antony and Cleopatra can be seen as a portrayal of a relationship that, while founded on mutual passion and esteem, is also threatened by its inability to fit into the categories available from the world around it. In this way, it is a challenge to prevailing attitudes, but in the exceptional nature of its protagonists could be seen as divorced from present reality.The Changeling, in contrast, seems to present a more barbed attack on early modern conceptions of love and sexuality in its presentation of Beatrice, a woman who is corrupted by passion that, because of her father's strictures, cannot find legitimate outlet, and Isabella, who is persecuted without just cause because of her husband's folly.
In this way, it may be said that The Changeling holds up a mirror to a society that condemned without understanding women's sexuality while Antony and Cleopatra holds out a possibility for passion fulfilled, but doomed by the misunderstanding of a wider world.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Middleton, Thomas & Rowley, William, 1958.The Changeling, London: Methuen.The Revels Plays edited by N.W. Bawcutt.
Shakespeare, William, 1984.Antony and Cleopatra, London & New York: Methuen.The Arden Shakespeare edited by M.R. Ridley.
Burks, Deborah G., 1995. 'I'll Want My Will Else:The Changeling and Women's Complicity with Their Rapists', in Simkin, 2001, 163-189.
Drakakis, John (ed), 1994.Antony and Cleopatra, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Eaton, Sarah, 1984. 'Beatrice-Joanna and the Rhetoric of Love', in Kastan & Stallybrass, 1999, 275-289.
Eagleton, Terry, 1986.William Shakespeare, Oxford: Blackwell.
Holdsworth, R.V. (ed), 1990.Three Jacobean Revenge Tragedies, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Jean E. Howard, 'Sex and Social Conflict: The Erotics of The Roaring Girl', in Zimmermand, 1992, 170-90.
Kastan, David Scott & Stallybrass, Peter (eds), 1999.Staging the Renaissance: Reinterpretations of Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama, London: Routledge.
Loomba, Ania, 1989. 'Women's Division of Experience', in Simkin, 2001, 41-70.
Malcolmson, Cristina, 1990. 'As Tame As the Ladies: Politics and Gender inThe Changeling', in Simkin, 2001, 142-162.
Marshall, Cynthia, 1993. 'Man of Steel Done Got the Blues: Melancholic Subversion of Presence inAntony and Cleopatra',Shakespeare Quarterly 44:4, 385-408.
McEachern, Claire (ed), 2002.The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Tragedy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Simkin, Stevie (ed), 2001.Revenge Tragedy, Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Zimmerman, Susan (ed), 1992.Erotic Politics: Desire on the Renaissance Stage, London: Routledge.
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