The Unnatural Combat

rdf:langString The Unnatural Combat

rdf:langString The Unnatural Combat is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragedy written by Philip Massinger, and first published in 1639. No hard data on the play's date of origin or initial theatrical production has survived. Scholars estimate a date in the early 1620s; "There is a strong case for a late 1624 or early 1625 date for the play." The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on 14 February 1639, and published in quarto later that year by the bookseller John Waterson; the title page states that it was acted by the King's Men in the Globe Theatre. The quarto also bears Massinger's dedication of the play to a personal friend, Sir Anthony St. Leger (or "Sentleger"). In search of a source for Massinger's plot, critics have considered the story of Beatrice Cenci and a passage in Jonson's Catiline that refers to "incest, murders, rapes...incestuous life." Yet it is clear from the thinness of these connections that the plot of the play is "Massinger's own." Scholars have studied The Unnatural Combat for resonances with the events of its era; it has been argued that the play's portrait of its villain Malefort Senior alludes to the sex scandals and witchcraft allegations surrounding George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. Also, in another possible anti-Buckingham thrust, the play may refer to the failed English expedition to Cádiz (1625); the dedicatee's brother, Sir William St. Leger, was instrumental in the expedition and was critical of Buckingham's conduct of it. The play's theme of incest has prevented it from gaining any status as a popular or often-revived drama. Nineteenth-century critics tended to condemn The Unnatural Combat for its sensational aspect; but T. S. Eliot praised the play's "deft handling of suspense" and its "theatrical skill."