George Chapman, Ben Jonson and John Marston’s Eastward Ho

reflections of another early modern airy agency are revealed in the theatrical cooperation of three different playwrights in Eastward Ho, which will be brought to the forefront in the following discussion.

4.2. GEORGE CHAPMAN, BEN JONSON AND JOHN MARSTON’S

the Indians are so in love with ‘em that all the treasure they have they lay at their feet”

(III. iii. 71). This kind of humanist discourse, used as an excuse for colonial enslavement of both the people and the land itself, is important in spreading the English ideals toward the New World. However, “[p]erformed for the first time in 1605, after two unsuccessful English attempts at establishing a colony in Virginia” (Bach 277), the play turns into a parody of these attempts, embodied in Petronel’s failure in his voyage to Virginia, hence “treat[ing] Sir Petronel’s voyage as comedy rather than as commerce” (Kay 420). Perceiving the New World simply as an economic source and market, the tradesmen fail in their attempts to do business on that land since they are countervailed with a lack of knowledge about that area.

Apart from the lack of information about that environment, another major problem encountered by tradesmen is an unpredicted airy agency retaining, or even destroying, their plans. In this context, meteorology is highly functional in making plans for voyages in accordance with the movement of the windy formations. In the play, Security draws attention to the crucial role air plays not only on transmarine voyages but also on daily life saying that

one prays for a westerly wind, to carry his ship forth; another for an easterly, to bring his ship home; and, at every shaking of a leaf, he falls into an agony, to think what danger his ship is in on such a coast, and so forth. The farmer, he is ever at odds with the weather: sometimes the clouds have been too barren; sometimes the heavens forget themselves. Their harvests answer not their hopes: sometimes the season falls out too fruitful, corn will bear no price, and so forth. … Where we that trade nothing but money are free from all this; we are pleas’d with all weathers. Let it rain or hold up, be calm or windy, let the season be whatsoever, let trade go how it will, we take all in good part. (II. ii. 36-37)

Weather conditions, indeed, occur independent from human agency. The unpredictability of air even through scientific discourses reminds human beings of their helplessness against the vast subjective activity of the airy movements, thus shattering the anthropocentric privilege of human beings. Michael Allaby contends in this regard that “[s]ince people first learned to cultivate plants and raise domesticated animals, they have been at the mercy of the weather. A single hailstorm can destroy a crop. A drought can cause a famine that perpetuates itself as livestock die and starving people eat their crop seeds” (Atmosphere xii). Weather functions as a mediator between life and death.

Meteorology, however, represents anthropocentric impulse to limit a vast substance to discursive formations in order to take air under human control. Nonetheless, no matter how hard we try to control airy formations around us, as Macauley explicates, air

“exercises a strong aesthetic and emotional influence on us through the ever-changing weather, affecting our daily feelings and dispositions” (29). Thus, as unpredictability generally brings about destruction for human beings, agential activity of weather turns into a target for the ecophobic psyche.

Interestingly though, ignoring the agential impact of weather conditions on human beings, Sir Petronel insists on his voyage to Virginia although he has been warned in advance by the Drawer in the Blue Tavern: “Sir Petronel, here’s one of your watermen come to tell you it will be flood these three hours; and that ‘t will be dangerous going against the tide; for the sky is overcast, and there was a porpoise even now seen at London Bridge, which is always the messenger of tempests, he says” (III. iii. 77).

Nevertheless, Petronel cannot fully comprehend the dangers of a possible storm at sea simply because he gets drunk in celebration for his long-desired voyage to Virginia. As a result, “they embark in a skiff to go out to Sir Petronel’s boat located in Blackwall;

caught in a violent storm, they are variously cast up at different locations along the banks of the Thames. This action is narrated by a butcher’s apprentice who has climbed the pole at Cuckold’s Haven to post the bull’s horns in celebration of St. Luke’s Day”

(Blaisdell 13). The butcher’s apprentice, Slitgut, gives a pictorial and horrific description of the situation after the shipwreck. He even depicts corpses swimming in the river:

What desperate young swaggerer would have been abroad such a weather as this, upon the water? – Ay me, see another remnant of this unfortunate shipwrack! – or some other. A woman, i’ faith, a woman; though it be almost at Saint Kath’rine’s, I discern it to be a woman, for all her body is above the water, and her clothes swim about her most handsomely. (IV. i. 84)

This catastrophic result, that is shipwreck, invokes ecophobia in the human pscyhe since the agential power of air, demonstrating itself via a storm, is immediately linked to the destruction. Yet still, this devastating result does not emanate from the wrath of air towards human beings since air is just a neutral element with its own elemental formations influencing the physical environment as well as the human realms. Thus, to

blame air for being responsible in casting this tragedy upon humanity is pointless. This psychological state is a direct result of ecophobia for the uncontrollable air is labelled as a scapegoat for attempting to annihilate human beings. As a consequence of ecophobia, fear and hatred are directed towards air itself. Normally air signs condition sailors to postpone their plans until the weather is suitable enough to sail across the ocean.

However, Petronel ignores these signs, and canalises all his vigour to flee from London with Gertrude’s dowry as soon as possible. Therefore, Petronel himself is responsible for this catastrophe for not taking the signs into consideration.

In this case, though, their dreams about engaging in trade in Virginia following a succesful voyage fade away. This disappointment of being shipwrecked due to the already-forecast storm is declared by Quicksilver as following:

… [M]y wicked hopes

Are, with this tempest, torn up by the roots.

Oh, which way shall I bend my desperate steps, In which unsufferable shame and misery Will not attend them? I will walk this bank, And see if I can meet the other relics

Of our poor shipwrack’d crew, or hear of them. (IV. i. 87)

Storm is a material phenomenon on which the sustainability of the current ecosystem is based. As John P. Rafferty contends, “[s]torms are violent atmospheric disturbances, characterized by low barometric pressure, cloud cover, precipitation, strong winds, and possibly lightning and thunder. Storm is a generic term, popularly used to describe a large variety of atmospheric disturbances” (73). In other words, storms are outcomes of the constant movement of the Earth since the formation of a storm is triggered by certain happenings such as changes in heat and the rotation of the Earth. Therefore, storm is just a method of air to manifest its powerful activity on the human and nonhuman domain. We sense its aliveness when hit by stormy formations. Quicksilver directly blames the storm for shattering the hopes for a new life in the New World.

Hence, discursive articulations of storm depicting it as an evil happening in retribution to human beings are indicators of ecophobic categorisations of the physical environment.

That is to say, human beings do not acknowledge the independent agency of air unless it soars its so-called destructive force onto the human domain via storms. On the contrary, when air reveals its activity in helpful formations, it means that airy formations can be easily controlled and tamed in accordance with the civilised order. Similar to other elemental forces, “air forms both twisting storm and its calm eye” (Allen 85), hence illustrating its two sides (destructive and constructive) at the same time. Ironically, when airy agency is uncovered in storms, it is blamed for being vengeful against human beings, and expelled from the civilised order and cultural norms. Yet, on the other hand, once air is in harmony with the daily lives of human beings, then its elemental existence is celebrated as its agency does not threaten to overthrow that of human beings. Human beings, in this vein, acknowledge the existence of a natural entity once they allegedly have ultimate control over it. As opposed to this binary categorisation of air, air extends its intra-activity into the human realm in every form. That is to say, air is efficient in altering discursive and societal formations just as cultural practices change the quality of air.

Moreover, by means of references to Virginia the play hints at the growth of industry and mercantile power overseas. However, the play also indicates the industrial growth at home as it includes various references to the use of coal which can be considered as the first step towards the industrialisation of the country. Eastward Ho, in this sense, reveals a periodic change in the concept of the city from small Medieval towns to more industrial Renaissance cities. The early modern period witnessed the early phases of the industrialisation of a metropolitan city, yet this industrialisation is mainly based on the consumption and trade of coal. As Ken Hiltner also depicts, “[b]ecause London’s damp winters were associated with a range of illnesses and a warm fire was believed to be among the best ways of fending them off, the cheap appeal of coal proved irresistible”

(“Coal” 317). Hence, coal became an indispensable part of early modern daily life and was utilised in many ways.

Furthermore, the use of coal can be considered a national mark England left on the world, and the use of coal has been associated with its national improvement. Within this framework, Barbara Freese notes that

Britain [is] the first nation to be thoroughly transformed by releasing the genie of coal. For centuries, Britain led the world in coal production, and largely as a result, it triggered the industrial revolution, became the most powerful force on the planet, and created an industrial society the likes of which the world had never seen. (13)

However, high consumption of coal leads to air pollution since coal burning releases high proportions of sulphur which inevitably deranges the balance of the gaseous formations in the atmosphere, and this consumption was gradually increasing in the course of time. Ken Hiltner marks the statistics of the growth in the consumption of coal around London, and underscores that “the total consumption of sea coal in the Thames Valley was just beginning to rise: from 1575-80 it was a mere 12,000 tons, by 1651-60 it grew to 275,000, and by 1685-99 it reached a staggering 455,000 tons” (What Else 98). In the play, these problems of air pollution are touched upon by Getrude who complains about the polluted atmosphere in Newcastle to her father: “Body a’ truth!

chitizens, chitizens! Sweet knight, as soon as ever we are married, take me to thy mercy out of this miserable chity; presently carry me out of the scent of Newcastle coal and the hearing of Bow-bell; I beseech thee, down with me, for God sake!” (I. ii. 18-19).

More importantly, Gertrude’s reference to Newcastle is of importance to indicate it as a place where trade in coal takes place, that is “the centre for the coasting trade in coal”

(Gibbins 144). J. R. Leifchild mentions Newcastle as “the metropolis of coal – old and new” and furthers that “Newcastle is not built upon coal, but it may be said to be built by coal” (58). Therefore, such cities as Newcastle and London have always suffered from severe air problems emanating from coal consumption. On similar grounds, exemplifying London, Christine L. Corton contends that

London has never enjoyed a particularly clear atmosphere. The Thames basin, hemmed in by low hills, has always been prone to lingering dampness and mist, and as the city grew slowly during medieval and Tudor times, complaints were voiced with increasing frequency about the pollution of the air by the smoke coming from wood fires, notably those used for the extraction of lime, and by the burning of ‘sea- coal’ brought to London by boat from Newcastle and used for domestic and commercial fires alike. (1)

Due to its alteration of industrial urban atmosphere, “[t]he unfamiliar smell of coal smoke led to early fears about health risks through the belief that disease was carried in malodorous air (miasmas)” (Brimblecombe, “Urban” 5). It was a common belief that

the plague spread by means of polluted air. This is the main reason why Gertrude is worried about her health and desires to move somewhere else away from Newcastle.

This urban air problem was such a topical debate in the early modern period that most of the eminent thinkers and writers touched upon this problem in their writings. For instance, “John Graunt, Margaret Cavendish, Sir Kenelm Digby, and others had theorized that sea coal smoke was especially noxious; Tundale, Shakespeare, Milton and many other writers had imagined Hell as engulfed in coal-smoke pollution; and John Evelyn had penned the first tract to take as its subject modern air pollution”

(Hiltner, What Else 120). The health risks resulting from the consumption of coal resulted in othering airy agency by the way of labelling it as a malignant entity venomous for the human beings, and this points to ecophobic hatred in the human psyche.

Furthermore, the rapid industrialisation of the Renaissance cities consecutively made them desirable destinations to dwell in with various job opportunities for the lower classes. This situation created a problem of overpopulation. In other words, the more people resided in London, the more polluted air became as a result of the coinciding increase in the consumption of coal. This polluted air, in the end, affects the health of human bodies in that neighbourhood, the glimpses of which can be tracked in the city comedies of early modern period, including Eastward Ho. The unhealthy situation is due to the imbalance in the atmosphere, stemming from the consumption of coal which results from overpopulation. In this sense, although Ian Munro specifies overpopulation as “the infection of the individual by the city” (197), it is, indeed, the infection of the city by the individual as the sources of the problems are human-induced. That is to say, human beings induce their own destruction by overpopulating a specific area. Ian Munro further explicates the common belief in the role played by overpopulation on the fast spread of the plague by correlating the crowd to air pollution, and states that “the crowd is also referred to in terms that refer to the insubstantiality (if also pungency) of air, suggesting a further linkage. As plague is unknowable except through the manifestation of its tokens, so the city seems unknowable except through its manifestation in the anonymous bodies of the crowd” (Munro 197). This problem of overpopulation is mentioned by Quicksilver in the epilogue of the play: “Stay, sir, I

perceive the multitude are gatherd together to view our coming out at the Counter. See if the streets and the fronts of the houses be not stucke with people, and the windowes fild with ladies, as on the solemne day of the pageant!” (Epilogue 142). Representing the city with its crowd, Quicksilver invites the readers and the audience to observe the streets and fronts of the houses filled with masses of people, hence pointing to a pseudo-invasion of London.

Throughout the play, air as an existent and lively entity adumbrates itself through a number of agential formations in a wide range. Portraying atmospheric signs as a precondition for regulating daily practices, the play hints at the significance of weather conditions on the human realm. Moreover, the play also touches upon the destructive force of airy agency by enlarging the effect of storms on Petronel, Quicksilver and Security in terms of discursively blocking their future dreams as well as bearing material influences on their bodies. In addition to these pictorial descriptions of the agency of air, urban air problems are also at issue throughout the play.

Similar to the first two plays of the Ho trilogy, Northward Ho by Thomas Dekker and John Webster is significant in mirroring the environmental problems of the early modern period in terms of encapsulating urban air pollution. In this vein, the play analyses the extensions of the airy agency into the human realm, as well. These extensions are to be analysed in the following discussion of the play.