Citizen Comedy: Genre
English Renaissance comedies were modeled from Roman dramas. Early English comedies, written in the early 1500's, generally consisted of free floating components and structure. Later dramas of the genre gained form from the academy but by 1550 they returned to their "Roman models" and "reintroduced the miscellaneousness that would distinguish Renaissance comedy (Levenson 11)."
The Shoemaker's Holiday (1599) was written during Queen Eliazabeth's reign when the Citizen Comedy was one of the most popular genres.
Generally, the plot of the Citizen Comedy is based on questions of morality within the middle class (Twyning). Morality is explored on a personal and public level within Thomas Dekker's drama. First, the question of morals and loyalties is raised between Lacy's proposed rebellion and his uncle's conventional expectations. There is the question of Rose and Lacy's obligation to society but also their obligation to themselves. Lacy decides that on a personal level, for example, he does not feel defamed or demoralized by refusing the call to war. G.K. Hunter describes this moral tension, "There is thus a comic disparity between the view of self that the protagonist holds and what we are given to understand about the nature of the society (9)." Citizen Comedy, then, derives its humor from challenging moral frameworks. Citizens are allowed to push the envelope and test their own morality against societal morality. It is for this reason that it is humorous when Lacy takes on the role of Hans, a shoemaker of a lower class than he. It is also why Firk, a lower class journeyman, is a source of comic relief. Although Firk in only a journeyman to the shoemaker Simon Eyre, he feels justified to meddle in the business of the nobility. The conjoining of Eyre, the King, and the happy couple at the end of the drama furthers the fantasy of total social mobility and interaction.
Dekker relies on his characters to create the comedy within his plays. In the case of The Shoemaker's Holiday, Dekker casts the working class and Lacy (the rogue nobleman) as the entertainers while the upperclass nobility only interrupt the fun.
Dekker's workaday people are a rollicking, exuberant, mad, merry crew, abounding in piquant phrases and comparisons, quaint paragrams, and trenchant observations on life and their fellows, full of rational common sense, ever pricking the bubble of pretentiousness, destroying shams, unveiling vices. (Gerrard 7) |
Placing the emphasis on the people, rather than the upperclass or the activities they do, caters to Dekker's audience. Fun can be found in everyday life and everyday citizens.