The Lovers' Progress
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Lovers' Progress, also known as The Wandering Lovers, or Cleander, or Lisander and Calista, is an early seventeenth-century stage play, a tragicomedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. As its multiple titles indicate, the play has a complex history and has been a focus of controversy among scholars and critics.
Synopsis
The play is set in France. Its plot depends on an unusual narrative structure: a standard romantic triangle, tripled. There are three female characters, and each enjoys (or suffers) the romantic attentions of two men. Two, Calista and Olinda, are gentlewomen. Calista has already made a choice between her two suitors, and is married to Cleander; but her other suitor, Cleander's close friend Lisander, is still in love with her, and she still loves him. Calista's friend Olinda, however, cannot choose between Lidian (who is Calista's brother) and Clarange. (Lidian and Clarange are also close friends.) In despair, Olinda sends both her suitors away, and states that she will marry the man who returns to her last. The two men, applying their own culture's standard of judgement to this odd stricture, decide to settle the matter quickly — with a duel. The survivor will marry Olinda.
The third woman is a servant, Calista's waiting woman Clarinda. She is identified as "a lustful wench," and in modern terms could be called a sexually liberated woman; but the prevailing norms of her society, and her dependent social place, force her to conceal her active sexuality. Clarinda's subplot inverts and mocks the conventions of courtly love that the main-plot characters take seriously; she has a foolish suitor named Malfort that she manipulates — allowing him to kiss her foot, and later, her hand — while she enjoys a sexual relationship with Leon, her pretended cousin.
Lisander is not only Cleander's friend, but becomes something of a hero to his family. Lisander saves Calista's father Dorilaus when the old man is set upon by bandits; and he later resolves the duel between Clarange and Calista's brother Lidian. (Serving as Clarange's second, he fights along with, and is wounded with, the others; but he then brings the duel to a halt by appealing to the long-standing friendship between the principals.) Lisander asks for a clandestine meeting with Calista, and Clarinda facilitates it, for her own reasons. Calista and Lisander meet quietly in the night; Calista is still in love with Lisander, and he tries to steer their relationship toward a sexual culmination — but Calista stands upon her honor and refuses. Cleander almost catches the two together; and while Lisander is sneaking out of the sleeping house, he trips and discharges his pistol, waking everyone; but he is not caught.
Dorilaus and Cleander visit a familiar inn, and are surprised to learn that their old acquaintance, the inn's Host, has recently died. Yet they hear him sing a song, and then meet his ghost. Cleander is superstitiously moved and frightened by the incident, and sees it as a malevolent omen; he asks the ghost to warn him if he is soon to die — and the ghost agrees.
Calista suspects Clarinda's lapse from chastity, and confronts her; but Clarinda boldly responds by threatening to expose her mistress's meeting with Lisander. Calista is deeply distressed — but decides again to stand upon her honor. She dismisses Clarinda from her service, and dares her to do her worst. This contradicts Clarinda's plans and expectations; but she manages to retain her place by appealing to Cleander's brother Beronte. (Clarinda says that "Monsieur Beronte my Lords Brother is / Oblig'd unto me for a private favour"...leaving the audience to speculate of the nature of that favor.)
Lisander gets involved in serious trouble: he kills two men in another duel, one of whom is a favorite of the King; and he must flee for his life. He leaves his broken sword behind him on the "field of honor;" it is picked up and repaired by Leon. The ghost of the Host comes to Cleander and warns him that his time has come. Cleander becomes aware of the affair between Leon and Clarinda; in a confrontation, Leon kills Cleander with Lisander's sword. Clarinda has him leave the sword behind, so that Lisander will be suspected; and Clarinda moves to revenge herself on Calista by exposing her meeting with Lisander. Calista must face the law as an apparent accessory to her husband's murder.
Lidian has endured a change of heart after being wounded in the duel with Clarange (a feature typical of the dramaturgy of Fletcher and Massinger). He is now living in the countryside as a hermit. Clarange comes to him disguised as a friar, and convinces him that he, Clarange, is dead. Lidian goes to Olinda to give her the news and comfort her; Clarange follows, and by being the second to arrive claims Olinda's hand by her own stricture. Lidian is outraged, feeling he's been tricked.
The whole plot comes to a head in the final trial scene. The King of France himself has come to rule on Calista's case. Clarinda present her false accusation; but Lisander surprises everyone by appearing in person to defend Calista's reputation. And Leon, captured and now repentant over his killing of Cleander, confesses everything. The evidence indicates that Lisander was the wronged party in the duel with the King's favorite, and King is convinced to pardon him; he "sentences" Lisander to marry the widowed Calista after a year of mourning. Olinda's fate is also resolved; it turns out that Clarange is not just a pretended friar but a real one. Having chosen the religious life, he yields his claim on Olinda to Lidian. Clarinda and Leon are left to their fates before the law.
