Time is. Time was. Time is past.

Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay by Robert Greene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If only from brief references to it, as in Shakespeare in Love ("Is this the face that launched a thousand ships...") or in Tombstone (with Dana Delaney playing the devil in the theater scene), most of us know something about Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. (The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, in full.) And it's interesting in its own way. However, Friar Bacon, which is similar to it in many ways, is a more substantial and more satisfying play, even if it's by an author I have never heard of before.

Both plays can be understood to have been exciting special-effects plays for Elizabethan audiences, an excuse to show them something amazing on stage--characters performing magic, traveling through time and space, speaking with famous people, and so on. Seeing such marvels would be the main draw for the audience, and both supply plenty of it. But Friar Bacon, as I was promised, is a better play, boasting a more sophisticated plot, more interesting characters, and a more modern approach to conflict.

Dr. Faustus is an odd story, without a traditional plot structure; the story peters out in the end with a conclusion that was ordained from the beginning, like a train taking you from one station to the other, exactly as you expected from the start. Friar Bacon offers more than that, with numerous characters having their own conflicts which they try to resolve in ways more familiar to modern readers.

In short: the prince wants to attract a certain young woman, a commoner, and sends one of his men to woo her for him. (She also is being fought over by a couple of local squires.) Inevitably, his man falls in love and wants the young woman for himself. This plot includes disguises and sword fights and jealousy and revenge, already putting us in Shakespeare territory. But it also has a subplot, with Friar Bacon, a sorcerer, trying to complete some very difficult magic which will protect England from invasion. His subplot also includes marvels and magic, including a contest where he defeats foreign sorcerers. It almost seems that the two plots couldn't be connected in any way, but they come together in a way that I thought worked well. Also, the sorcerer's apprentice offers some pretty good comic relief, especially riding off to hell in the end. Well done.

More so than the Marlowe play (which I rather liked, actually) this story is interesting and satisfying enough that I'd like to see it performed someday. And I wonder why I never read it in school anywhere. Hmm.

A friend at Elizabethandrama.org recommended I take a look at this, and I am pleased I did. I was also informed it had the coolest stage prop ever, and I find I agree. A talking brazen head? Seriously? How awesome is that!

This is not a difficult read, especially if you get an annotated version like I did. Entertaining and recommended.

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