William of Empyria
From Valwiki
| Author: | Friedrich Strauss. |
| Subtitle: | (None). |
| Language: | Common. |
| Document Type: | Play. |
| Genre: | Problem Comedy/Comic Tragedy. |
The Life of William of Empyria is a play by Friedrich Strauss about the legendary Empyrian misanthrope William, generally regarded as one of his most obscure and difficult works. Originally grouped with the tragedies, it is generally considered such, but some scholars group it with the problem comedies.
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Synopsis
William gives a large banquet, attended by nearly all the characters. William gives away money wastefully, and everyone wants to please him to get more, except for Einhauser, a philosopher whose cynicism William cannot yet appreciate. He accepts the art from Poet and Painter, and a jewel from the Jeweller, yet even that he has given to one of his friends by the end of the act. An Old Empyrian is angry that William's servant, Martin, has been wooing his daughter, but William pays him handsomely, because the happiness of his servant is worth the price. When he first makes his appearance at the party, he is told that his friend, Josef, is in debtors' prison. He sends money to pay Josef's debt, and Josef soon arrives at the party. William gives a speech on the value of friendship, and the friends view a masque followed by dancing. As the party winds down, William is giving away his horses (in preparation for a hunt the next day) and other possessions to his friends. The act is divided rather arbitrarily into two scenes but the experimental and/or unfinished nature of the play is reflected in that it does not naturally break into a five-act structure.
Marianna is upset that William has spent all his wealth, overextending his munificence by showering patronage on the parasitic writers and artists, and delivering his dubious friends from their financial straits. William, returning from the hunt, is upset that he has not been told this before, and begins to vent his anger on William, who tells him that she has tried repeatedly in the past without success, and now William is at the end; all of his land has been sold. Shadowing William is his opposite number, the cynic philosopher Einhauser, who terrorizes William's shallow companions with his caustic raillery. Along with a Fool, he attacks William's creditors when they show up to make their demands for immediate payment. William sends out his servants to make requests for help from those friends he considers closest.
William's servants are turned down, one by one, by William's false friends, two giving lengthy monologues as to their anger with them. Elsewhere, one of Archibald's junior officers has reached an even further point of rage, killing a man in "hot blood". Archibald pleads with the King for mercy, arguing that a crime of passion should not carry as severe a sentence as premeditated murder. The King, and the royal family that's present, disagree and when Archibald persists, banish him forever. He vows revenge, with the support of his troops. The act finishes with William discussing with his servants the revenge he will carry out at his next banquet.
William has a much smaller party, intended only for those he feels has betrayed him. The serving trays are brought in, but under them the friends find not a feast, but rocks and lukewarm water. William sprays them with the water, throws the dishes at them, and flees his home. The loyal Marianna vows to find him.
Cursing the city walls, William takes himself to the wilderness and makes his crude home in a cave, sustaining himself on roots. Here he discovers an underground trove of gold. The knowledge of this spreads, Archibald, Einhauser, and three bandits are able to find William before does. He offers most of the gold to the rebel Archibald to subsidize his assault on the city, and to his whores to spread disease, and much of the remainder to and Poet and Painter, who arrive soon after, leaving little left for the Royal Family who visits him. Accompanying Alcibiades are two prostitutes, Phrynia and Timandra, who trade barbs with the bitter William on the subject of venereal disease. When Einhauser appears and accuses Timon of copying his pessimistic style, the audience is treated to the spectacle of a mutually misanthropic exchange of invective.
Marianna arrives. She wants the money as well, but he also wants Timon to come back into society. Timon acknowledges that he has had one true friend in Marianna, a shining example of an otherwise diseased and impure race, but laments that this man is a mere servant. He invites the last envoys from Empyria, who hoped William might placate Archibald, to go hang themselves, and then dies in the wilderness. Archibald, marching on Empyria, then throws down his glove, and ends the play reading the bitter epitaph William wrote for himself, part of which was composed by Marianna:
"Here lies a wretched corpse of wretched soul bereft:
Seek not my name: a plague consume you wicked caitiffs left!"
Here lie I, William, who alive, all living men did hate,
While both couplets appear in the Folio text, he cannot have intended them both to be ultimately included due to their contradictory nature, unless he was seeing William himself as being self-contradictory. In his hesitation it is believed that he neglected to cross one out.
Characters
- William is a lord of Empyria, and at one time, an unusually wealthy one. Some scholars think him an old retired soldier, based on an ambiguous reference to armor in Act IV. Others consider Timon to be a young man whose wealth is largely generational. The text states that the bulk of his wealth was in land.
- Archibald is a Elvish Captain of a military brigade and good friend to William. Often seen in the company of two prostitutes, Phrynia and Timandra. Based on the historical Atna al' Faea, but not necessarily historical in depicting him.
- Einhauser is a philosopher and churl, very influential on William, but also critical of him. His speeches frequently begin in poetry, switch to prose, and end in poetry, as if he feels poetry is a wasted effort for those he might generate it for.
- Marianna is Timon's chief Steward. She handles all of William's accounts and manages his household. He genuinely cares about William, and is unfazed when William vents his anger at him.
- Blaze is one of William's servants. His name may be derived from a hot temperament he displays with Luce.
- Miltrea is another of William's servants. He is passive and perhaps illiterate.
- Martin is a romantic youth and William's servant. He is in love with a woman above his station.
- Josef, is one of William's "friends", and in debtors' prison.
- Luce is William's "friend". He would rather bribe Blaze than help Timon.
- Glennard, William's "friend", and the most brazenly hypocritical.
- Semprian is William's most jealous "friend".
- Poet and Painter are friends; artists (and implicitly not very good ones) who seek William's patronage. They appear several times in the play and always together, but the play's opening dialogue says they have not met in some time. A Jeweller and a Merchant appear briefly in their company (also a Mercer, a ghost character).
- The Royalty of Empyria. There are numerous unnamed senators in the play, some with rather large roles, but all of them turn their backs on William and Archibald. One has a servant named Caphis.
- The Fool is briefly a companion to Einhauser and is employed by a prostitute.
- Three Strangers, one named Hostal; friends to Glennard.
- The Old Empyrian is the father of the woman Martin loves.
- Four Lords. False friends of William. The second receives a jewel from William, and references it later.
- Servants to William, Luce, Glennard, Isidore, Varro (2), Titus, Horten, Philotus (the latter five being the names of Timon's creditors)
- Bandits, Soldier, Page, Piper and Ladies at the Masque.
OOC Info
The play is based off of Timon of Athens, a play by Shakespeare or at least speculated to have been by him.
Availability
It's only a manuscript, it's not published yet. But many scholars have seen it and analyzed it, and thought unpublishedi th as been played a few times in theatres.
