Arden of Feversham

The New Mermaids edition of Arden of Faversham deserves five stars: four stars for the play itself and one more for the helpful introduction, footnotes, and appendix. While scholars agree that Arden of Faversham deserves critical praise, there is little consensus on the question of authorship. Marlowe, Kyd, and Shakespeare are the front runners, clearly suggesting that this lesser known play warrants your attention. Arden of Faversham (1592) is a dramatic adaptation of an actual event, a scandalous murder that occurred some forty years earlier. Much like Shakespeare and other Elizabethan playwrights, the anonymous author altered the characters and the details of events to achieve dramatic impact. The result is an entertaining, suspenseful play. The editor, Martin White, adopted the practice of other recent editors to divide the play into eighteen scenes and an epilogue. The introduction focuses primarily on the merits of the play itself, but it also offers some background on historical sources and on the authorship issue. An appendix provides a lengthy historical account of Arden's murder found in Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1587). The killing of Arden on stage proves remarkably difficult. Mischance and ineptitude plague the villains while coincidence and an abundance of good fortune favors Arden himself. From the very first scene we become aware of a plot by his wife to have Arden murdered. Leaving nothing to chance Alice manufactures one plot after another, adding more and more conspirators. Although her illicit lover Mosby is increasingly worried by Alice's rashness in engaging too many others in her plots, Alice herself remains largely oblivious to the danger. Arden is not without his faults. In later scenes we learn that through legal manipulations he has gained title to land that others in the local community have lived on for generations. He shows no sympathy to a man pleading to retain a little acreage to support his wife and children. Martin White discusses the play from three perspectives: an exciting thriller culminating in some actual Elizabethan detective work; a portrayal of complex personalities and relationships; and a commentary on how individual greed threatens local traditions and social relationships. Arden of Faversham operates quite effectively on all three levels, and in my view this offers substantial credence to the argument that the anonymous author must surely have been an experienced, talented playwright. I highly recommend adding this anonymous author's work to your bookshelf.