My large coarse issue!

Hopefully this will be neither large nor coarse.

A King, and No King

Taking my cue from last week's discussion regarding the unstable subject-positions of women in Renaissance drama, I started thinking about the way this idea seems to work with the male characters in this play. In IV.ii.pg. 329, Spaconia says that Tigranes is "More unconstant / Than all ill women ever were together." Like him, Arabaces often speaks kindly to Panthea but then is immediately quite harsh with her. Similarly, Arabaces promises not to treat Tigranes like his prisoner, but ends up putting Tigranes in jail anyway. Both these men speak "With equal conviction from incompatible subject-positions" (Belsey). Do the problems in the play, especially those that complicate ideas of kingship and the proper treatment of prisoners, arise because of the male characters' eschewing of stable subject-positions? Is the unconstant male a common figure in Tragicomedy?

Philaster

This plays seems more comic and less tragic, even with all the wounding going on (is anyone else surprised by how many people are stabbed or wounded or offer to stab themselves, yet still no one dies?). With this in mind, I began thinking about the political and economic reasons behind some of the characters' desires. The two people that appear to end the play with the least advantage are Pharamond and Bellario. Can this be because their desires are, at heart, carnal rather than economic or political? Pharamond loses the chance to join politically Sicily and Calabria as well as Arethusa's hand in marriage. The King, ever true to his first promise, says "'Twas your faults that lost you her, / And not my purpos'd will" (V.v.pg. 194). Maritally and politically, Pharamond appears to have lost out because he was caught sleeping with Megra. In the same speech, the King sends Bellario away from the court, "But leave the court; / This is no place for such." This, too, appears to result from her desire to be close to Philaster, even though she recognizes that they cannot be married. Thus, can we ascribe Pharamond and Bellario's fate to their carnal desires? Is erotic desire worse than political or economic desire? Or are they too hard to separate most often?