The Silver Age

The second of four instalments (Ages) declined in five plays, The Silver Age is part of a vast "panorama of Greek myth" (Brooke and Shaaber, II, 544) drawn by Thomas Heywood (c. 1573-1641). An actor-playwright, Heywood was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1591, and had a strong and enduring relationship with classical antiquity throughout his whole life. In particular, the years 1607-1613 mark a development toward a learned type of literature: in these years, Heywood wrote Lucrece (1607, first published in 1608) and Troia Britanica (published in 1609), and most likely brought to the stage the four Ages (see Wiggins and Richardson 2015: 134-46). The dating of the Ages was hotly debated by scholars: even in recent times, an earlier date was proposed for The Silver Age and The Brazen Age, based on the use of props that may be related to the equipment featured in Admiral's Men's inventories in 1598 (Mann 2013), and an attempt was made to connect the Ages with two earlier – and lost – anonymous plays, 1 and 2 Heracles (Arrell 2014).

The Ages drew heavily from Heywood's Troia, which in turn relied strongly on William Caxton's translation of Raoul Lefèvre's 1464 Recueil des Histoires de Troyes (The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, 1473/74), on Ovid's poems (some of which Heywood translated himself, as he claims in the preface of The Brazen Age), an on other Latin and vernacular poetic and mythographical sources. Through the reference to different materials, the Ages seem to presuppose a sort of evolution in the mythical history of antiquity. Such dynamic can be interpreted as a movement from the era of gods to that of men, and eventually to the world's end: as Homer puts it at the beginning of The Golden Age (1.1),

                                Oh then suffer me,
You that are in the world's decrepit Age,
When it is neere his universall grave,
To sing an old song; and in this Iron Age
Shew you the state of the first golden world ...

This movement is mostly a decline (thus, for instance, McLuskie 1994: 22), as Homer explains at the outset of The Brazen Age (B1r):

As the world growes in yeares (‘tis the Heavens curse)

Mens sinnes increase; the pristine times were best:
The Ages in their growth wax worse and worse
The first was pretious, full of golden rest.

Silver succeeded; good, but not so pure:
Then love and harmelesse lusts might currant passe:
The third that followes we finde more obdure,
And that we title by the Age of Brasse.

"The pristine times were best" seems a perfect synthesis of Heywood's agenda in writing the Ages. However, Heywood himself warns us against interpreting this movement solely as a decline: as he declares in the preface to The Silver Age,

Let not the Title of this booke I entreate bee any weakening of his worth, in the generall opinion. Though wee begunne with Gold, follow with Silver, proceede with Brasse, and purpose by Gods grace, to end with Iron. I hope the declining Titles shall no whit blemish the reputation of the Workes (A2r).

The exact aim of the Ages has been long debated. Even though it is not the only possible explanation, that Heywood pursued an encyclopaedic goal seems evident. As Homer summarizes in The Silver Age (1.1), the aim of the poet is "the ruder censures to refine", as well as "to unlocke the Casket long time shut" of Poetry – of which casket "none but the learned keepe the key". This programme is confirmed in The Iron Age, where Heywood emphasises the strong relationship with classical antiquity, which ensures "the antiquity and noblenesse of the history". This is not to say, of course, that Heywood's audience at the Red Bull Theatre, where the Ages were first performed, was utterly illiterate and uninstructed (see Griffith 2013 and Coffin 2017: 74-5). However, it is undeniable that the Ages follow an erudite agenda, with the explicit aim of spreading the knowledge of myths told by ancient poets. This erudite posture also shows from Heywood's work with his sources: the author frequently mixes more versions of the same myth, providing an original telling which is in fact a learned conflation of several sources. This is certainly due to the fact that classical myths did not come to Heywood in a stabilised form; but such plurality was an opportunity for the author, who could then cherry-pick the most useful version, or merge more versions, and by so doing display his own dramatic skills and literary knowledge. An interesting case study is offered by the duration of the night that Jupiter spends with Alcmena in The Silver Age: Heywood has Jove merge three nights, whereas Ovid has him merge only two nights, and Caxton and Plautus's Amphitruo do not provide precise information. Heywood must have found the detail in Lucian's Dialogues of the Gods, excerpts of which he later translated, or in other mythographic compendia (Peyré 2021: 102).

In spite of their erudite aim, we must resist the temptation of reading the Ages as simply a disconnected list of mythical anecdotes. Of course, none of the Ages develops a single plot, but rather works by means of the creation of a network of differing narratives, adopting an open dramatic form. However, as has been rightly shown, a coherent poetic design can be retraced (see Peyré 2021 on The Silver Age). Moving from the golden age of gods, The Silver Age dramatises a number of mythical episodes that feature the problematic erotic interplay between gods and mortals: most prominently, Jove's love for Alcmena and the subsequent birth of Hercules (who will be one of the main characters of The Brazen Age), Semele's death and the rape of Proserpina and her transformation into the moon, as well as some parts of Perseus' and Bellerophon's myths. The overarching theme here is thus the violent exchange between mortals and gods, with the latter exerting a brutal power over the former. This dynamic takes frequently the shape of erotic intercourse – and its dire consequences: in addition to the rape of Proserpina by Pluto, Juno plays an important role throughout the play, relentlessly persecuting Jupiter's favourites. Juno's violence is an exception to the general victimisation of female characters in The Silver Age. Power – and resistance thereto, that is heroism – are consistently in the hands of male characters in the play, whereas women's prerogative is fertility – even universal fertility, the preservation of which is endangered by the kidnapping of Proserpina by Pluto.

Arrell, Douglas. 2014. "Heywood, Henslowe and Hercules: tracking 1 and 2 Hercules in Heywood’s Silver and Brazen Ages". Early Modern Literary Studies. 17: 1-22.

Baugh Albert C. ed. 1967 (1948). A Literary History of England. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Brooke, Tucker and Shaaber, Mathias A. 1967 (1948). The Renaissance, 1500–1660. In Baugh 1967: vol. 2.

Coffin, Charlotte. 2017. "Heywood’s Ages and Chapman’s Homer: nothing in common?". In Pollard and Demetriou 2017: 55–78.

Demetriou, Tania and Valls-Russell, Janice eds. 2021. Thomas Heywood and the classical tradition. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Griffith, Eva. 2013. A Jacobean Company and its Playhouse: The Queen’s Servants at the Red Bull Theatre (c. 1605–1619).Cambridge: CUP.

Mann, David. 2013. "Heywood’s Silver Age: a flight too far?", Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England. 26: 184-203.

McLuskie, Kathleen E. 1994. Dekker and Heywood: Professional Dramatists. Basingstoke: Macmillan.

Peyré, Yves. 2021. "'Interlaced with sundry histories': the open structure of The Silver Age". In Demetriou and Valls-Russell 2021: 99-122.

Pollard, Tanya and Demetriou, Tania eds. 2017. Homer and Greek Tragedy in Early Modern England’s Theatres = Classical Receptions Journal. 9.

Wiggins, Martin and Richardson, Catherine. 2015. British Drama 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Vol. 6: 1609-1616. Oxford: OUP.

The volume of The Silver Age by Thomas Heywood is in quarto and consists of 80 pages. It is held at the British Library.

The frontispiece reads: 

The Silver Age, Including. The love of Iupiter to Alcmena: The birth of Hercules. And The Rape of Proserpine. Concluding, With the Arraignement of the Moone.

Aut prodesse solent aut delectare.

London, Printed by Nicholas Okes, and are to sold by Beniamin Lightfoote at his Shop at the upper End of Graies Inne-lane in Holborne.

1613

At bottom of page, the volume has signatures, starting from A², then from B¹ to L². The last leaf is blank.

Latin and Greek names, stage directions, Homer's lines, songs are in italics. There are no manuscripts notes. Minor inking defects can be spotted at K³ and K⁴. The volume has ornaments at A²r-v, B¹r and L²v, and intricate initials at A²r and B¹r.

The EEBO bibliographical number is Greg, I, 317; STC (2nd ed.) / 13365.