Iphis and Ianthe, or Marriage without a Man
William Shakespeare (attrib.) (1613)
Historical Records
Stationers' Register
29 June 1660 (SR2, 2.271, CLIO)
Master Hum. Moseley |
Entred for his copies under the hand of MASTER THRALE warden, the severall plays following that is to say . . . . xiijs
|
Theatrical Provenance
Unknown; presumably it would have been performed by the Lord Chamberlain's / King's men.
Probable Genre(s)
Comedy.
Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues
Book 9 of Ovid's Metamorphoses:
In Crete, Telethusa gives birth to a girl but tells the father, Ligdus, that it’s a son to avoid his wrath. Iphis (a deliberately gender neutral name) is thus raised as a boy, with only the mother and nurse knowing the truth. When Iphis turned thirteen, Ligdus arranged a marriage with the beautiful maid Ianthe. Iphis finds herself attracted to Ianthe and on the verge of marriage, laments her untenable situation, “herself a Mayden with a Mayd (ryght straunge) in loue became” (fol.122). Iphis laments having ever been born:
- …A Cow is neuer fond
- Uppon a Cow, nor Mare on Mare. The Ram delyghts the Eawe,
- The Stag the Hynde, the Cocke the Hen. But neuer man could shew,
- That female yit was tane in loue with female kynd. O would
- Too God I neuer had beene borne. (fol.122)
She notes that even the unnatural pairing of Pasiphae with the bull was female-male, and queries why Juno and Hymen would come to solemnise such an unnatural wedding “where no brydegroome you shall see / But bothe are Brydes that must that day toogither coupled bee?” (fol.122v). Iphis prays to Isis, who is so moved by the maiden’s plight that she turns him into a boy:
- …her face continued not so whyght.
- Her strength encreased, and her looke more sharper was too syght.
- Her heare grew shorter, and shee had a much more liuely spryght,
- Than when shee was a wench. (fol.123)
…and “The vowes that Iphys vowd a wench he hath performd a Lad” (fol.123).
References to the Play
<List any known or conjectured references to the lost play here.>
Critical Commentary
In a variant of the formulation applied to each of the three plays registered by Moseley in 1660, Bentley writes: “It is quite unlikely that this comedy was written by Shakespeare, for no other reference to the title is known. Presumably the story came from Ovid, but I know of no evidence of the date or authorship of the manuscript Moseley had in 1660” (5.1355).
(2.172)
For What It's Worth
<Enter any miscellaneous points that may be relevant, but don't fit into the above categories. This is the best place for highly conjectural thoughts.>
Works Cited
Site created and maintained by David McInnis, University of Melbourne; updated 23 Feb 2015.