From Tragicomedy to Opera? John Marston's Antonio and Mellida

Abstract

John Marston’s tragicomedy Antonio and Mellida, written for the St Paul’s boys company, is full of music: seven songs; two ballads; dances; dumbshows; sennets, flourishes, sound effects and musical images all underscore and sometimes prompt stage action. The songs, however, appear merely as stage directions – ‘they sing’. Without words or settings, it is impossible to evaluate them adequately.
This chapter identifies a number of songs whose lyrics closely match the dialogue and scene structures surrounding the song spaces in the play. Composed by Robert Jones (one of the most prolific and popular of Elizabethan song writers, and later a sharer, with Marston, in another boys company, the Children of the Queen’s Revels), they were published shortly after the play appeared. Separately, play and songs can seem incomplete, bizarre, or merely misogynistic. Together, they enhance each other, offering indications of staging, and implications for meaning.
This analysis offers new understanding of the cultural aesthetic of boys company performance, with dramas that exploit the particular sound qualities of their actors’ singing voices and instrumental playing. The extremes of emotion displayed – from sublime to ridiculous – and the integration of words and music suggest an art form that veers towards opera.

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