Penned by an unknown hand towards the end of the sixteenth century, Arden of Faversham is the first surviving drama based on an actual domestic murder. From beginning to end, the play’s eighteen scenes are centered around the motive, planning, and execution of an assassination instigated by a wife against her husband.
The real-life murder took place on Sunday, February 15, 1550, at seven o’clock in the evening. Thomas Arden was a landowner living in the town of Faversham, county of Kent, England. He was a man in his fifties. His wife, Alice, thirty years younger and described as “tall, and well favoured of shape and countenance,” fell in love with one Thomas Mosby, a servant in the household of a neighboring lord. The adulterous relationship became so widely known that even the gullible husband eventually perceived it. Nonetheless, weak-minded and still enamored with his wife, Arden cowed to her vehement denials and even offered his friendship to Mosby.
Alice Arden got in touch with a local painter, who was reportedly versed in the art of poisoning. The painter prepared for her a lethal dose with directions to put it into the bottom of a porridge and pour milk upon it. But Alice, mistakenly, poured the milk first, and then the poison. Arden took a spoonful or two, disliked the taste and vomited, thus temporarily escaping his doom.
Undeterred, Alice continued to hatch schemes to murder her husband, soliciting the help of Arden’s own valet, Michael, and even hiring professional assassins. After several unsuccessful attempts on Arden’s life, his lurid end came in his own home during a stormy night. Sitting down for supper and conversing with Mosby, he was unaware that Black Will, a notorious ruffian, was hiding in the closet. Michael chained the entry’s wicket door and stood behind his master with a candle in hand. Upon a signal by Mosby, Black Will emerged from the closet and threw a towel around Arden’s neck, strangling him. To insure Arden’s death, Mosby struck him with a pressing iron, Black Will slashed his throat, and Alice struck him with a knife seven or eight times in the chest. Black Will took money out of the victim’s pocket, rings off his fingers, demanded his pay from Alice, and rode away on a horse.
Alice Arden and one of her maids cleaned the parlour, wiped off the blood with a cloth, and threw the stained cloth and knife into a courtyard’s well, where they were later found. Simultaneously, Michael and Susan, another maid and Mosby’s sister, carried the dead body into an adjoining field. Under a downpour of snow, they laid the corpse on its back, in its night-gown and slippers. Alice then sent out her servants and maids to the village, supposedly in search of their master, directing them to go to places he frequented. Concerned neighbors came by, and found her in tears.
The Mayor and a search party came at last to the ground where Arden’s body was laid. They noticed footsteps in the snow, leading to the Arden house. The Mayor inquired further and found some of the victim’s hair and blood near his home. Upon the discovery of the bloody knife in the well, Alice Arden confessed to the murder and named her guilty accomplices.
Mrs. Arden, her two maids, and Michael were seized and sent to prison. The Mayor and his men went to a nearby inn, Flower-de-Luce, where they found Mosby in bed. They soon discovered drops of the victim’s blood upon Mosby’s stockings, and he too confessed to the horrid deed.
Several months later, the trial was held in Faversham. All the prisoners were arraigned and convicted. Michael, the errant manservant, was hanged, while the accomplice maid was burned – both executions taking place in Faversham. Mosby and his sister Susan were hanged in Smithfield, near London. Alice Arden, the leader of the pack, was burnt in Canterbury. Black Will was apprehended abroad and burnt on a scaffold in the city of Flushing, Zeeland, the Netherlands.
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Arden of Faversham begins on a cheery note, when the title character learns from his best friend Franklin that the Duke of Somerset has granted him and his heirs “all the lands of the Abbey of Faversham.” Franklin submits to Arden the official deeds, sealed by the king. Despite the good news, Franklin notices that Arden is melancholy and apprehensive. Arden explains that he has discovered love letters exchanged between his wife Alice and a neighbor, Thomas Mosby, and he spied a ring on Mosby’s finger which he had given his wife on their wedding day. Arden cannot comprehend the situation, for while he himself is a gentleman by birth, Mosby is a former tailor who has managed to “creep, by flattery and fawning,” into the services of a next-door neighbor, Lord Clifford, where he became the steward of Clifford’s household. Franklin suggests that Arden not jump to a quick conclusion and try to win his wife back with gentle words.
Arden confronts Alice and accuses her of calling Mosby’s name in her sleep. Alice allays her husband’s fears by reminding him that Mosby was a topic of conversation between them earlier in the evening, so naturally the neighbor became part of her dreams. Arden apologizes profusely. He then notifies his wife that he must travel to London for business affairs; he’ll stay there for a month at most. “A month?” cries Alice. “Ay me! Sweet Arden, come again within a day or two or else I die!”
Arden sends his manservant Michael to fetch the horses, and exits with Franklin to unload some goods. Left by herself, Alice wipes off her congenial demeanor and in a soliloquy wishes “that some airy spirit would, in the shape and likeness of a horse, gallop with Arden across the ocean and throw him from his back into the waves. Sweet Mosby is the man that hath my heart.”
Michael, Arden’s servant, enters. Alice has subverted him by offering him the hand of her maid, Mosby’s sister, Susan. Michael believes that Susan has been promised to a local painter named Clarke, but Alice assauges his fears. Michael vows that Arden will be dead within a week.
Michael exits and Mosby enters. Alice confers with him about their “decree to murder Arden in the night.” Mosby calls in the painter Clarke, who assures them that he can draw a poisoned picture which can be used to kill Arden. Clarke says that he’ll do it for a marriage with Susan, and Mosby promises his sister to him. Alice, however, is skeptical about the picture idea. Clarke subsequently gives her some poison that she can mix with food or drink.
Arden and Franklin enter. Arden confronts Mosby and rebukes him for courting his wife. Mosby says that he loved Alice once, but no longer. He came to the house to see his sister. Arden apologizes, declares that he is “appeased,” and offers Mosby his friendship. Alice brings in breakfast but Arden finds the broth “not wholesome.” Alice dashes his meal to the floor and rants, “There’s nothing that I do can please your taste.” Arden asks for her forgiveness, then departs with Franklin for London. Alice tells Mosby that they can have her husband killed as he walks the streets of England’s capital – “In London many alehouse ruffians keep, which, as I hear, will murder men for gold.”
A man called Richard Greene arrives. He has a claim to some of Arden’s lands but Alice contends that all claims are void as long as her husband is alive. Greene says that he’ll be avenged on Arden for usurping his estate. Alice goads him to hire “some cutter for to cut Arden short,” and gives Greene 10 pounds up front with the promise of 20 more and the return of his possessed lands, after the job is done. Greene promises to leave for London immediately.
In London, Greene meets with Bradshaw, a goldsmith who introduces him to a former comrade-in-arms, the mercenary Black Will. Black Will is described as a ruffian who “for a crown will murder any man.” Greene pays him and his shady associate, George Shakebag, an advance of 10 pounds to murder Arden. “I’ll stab him as he stands pissing against a wall,” promises Black Will.
Here follows a series of failed attempts by Black Will and Shakebag to kill Arden. When the duo is waiting in the corner of a house to ambush Arden, a boy brings down his shop window on Black Will’s head. A bawl ensues, and in the tumult Arden passes by unscathed. On another occasion, taking place at night in a London apartment, the servant Michael leaves the doors unlocked for the two murderers to enter, but before going to sleep Arden tries the doors, rebukes Michael for his negligence, and fastens the bolts.
Next, Black Will and Shakebag are waiting, with pistols cocked, to ambush Arden and Franklin as they are horse riding back to Faversham, but in the nick of time enters Lord Cheiny, a friend of Arden, with his men, and invites Arden and Franklin to lodge with him for the night. The murderers’ follow-up attempt is thwarted by a foggy mist, and when at last Black Will and Shakebag encounter Arden and Franklin face to face, a fist fight ends with the villains, handily beaten, limping away.
Finally, Mosby hatches a plan to kill Arden when he returns home. Black Will will be hiding in a closet. He, Mosby, will play backgammon with Arden and upon saying a watchword, “Now I can take you,” Black Will will stealthily come behind Arden, pull him to the ground, and then “stab him till his flesh be as a sieve.” They will then drag the body to an alley behind the Abbey, so that “those that find him murdered may suppose some slave or other kill’d him for his gold.”
Alice promises Black Will and Shakebag forty more pounds and two fresh horses to ride to Scotland or Wales. Black Will hides in the closet. Michael prepares tables for the game. Mosby greets the arriving Arden and stays for supper. Alice suggests that they play backgammon while she prepares the meal. As they play, Mosby announces, “Now I can take you.” Black Will crosses stealthily to Arden and pulls him down with a towel. Mosby strikes him with an iron.
Shakebag: And there’s for the ten pound in my sleeve (stabs him).
Alice: Take this for hind’ring Mosby’s love and mine (stabs him).
They carry the body out. Alice pays Black Will and Shakebag, and they leave. Susan, Mosby’s sister, helps Alice wash the floor but, in a touch of divine intervention, the women find it impossible to scrub away the blood. “The blood cleaveth to the ground and will not out,” says Susan fearfully. For the first time, Alice expresses some misgivings about the murder of her husband. Mosby tells them to throw some rushes on the stains.
The Mayor and his men arrive on the scene, followed by Franklin, who enters with the news that Arden’s body has been found. He produces the towel and the knife which Michael should’ve disposed of. Alice says that the stains are pig’s blood that they had for supper. Franklin points at the incriminating “print of many feet within the snow.” The Mayor uncovers splashes of blood near Arden’s “place where he was wont to sit.” Some rushes found in the victim’s slippers prove that he was killed at his home.
Confronted with the evidence, Alice and Mosby admit to the murder. Shakebag confides in an aside to the audience that he sought refuge with a former mistress, the widow Chambley. When she spurned him, he killed her. He plans to cross the River Thames and seek sanctuary. Pursued closely, Black Will flees to Flushing in Holland.
Mosby and Alice turn against one another. He calls her “a strumpet;” she says that if it wasn’t for him, none of this would have happened. Susan wonders why she should die since she didn’t know about the murder “till the deed was done.” Michael says that he doesn’t mind dying, as he shares fate with his beloved Susan. The Mayor decrees “speedy executions with them all.”
In a short epilogue, Franklin recounts that Shakebag was murdered in Southwalk; Black Will was burnt on a gallows in Flushing; Greene was hanged at Osbridge, Kent; the painter Clarke fled, his whereabouts unknown.
Franklin adds a curious tid-bit: A print of Arden’s body remained visible in the field’s grass for more than two years after his demise.
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The title page of the play’s first edition, printed in London by Edward White in 1592, states: “The Lamentable and True Tragedie of M. Arden of Feversham in Kent, Who was most wickedlye murdered, by the meanes of his disloyall and wanton wyfe, who for the love she bare to one Mosbie, hyred two desperate ruffians, Blackwill and Shakbag, to kill him. Wherin is shewed the great mallice and discimulation of a wicked woman, the unsatiable desire of filthie lust, and the shamefull end of all murderers.” A second edition was published in 1599, and a third in 1633.
Scholars advanced several theories in an attempt to decipher the authorship of Arden of Faversham. William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and Thomas Kyd were considered, even a collaboration by two or all three of them – but, when matching phrases, style and quality, these assumptions were dismissed.
“Few plays of Tudor times deal with other folk than kings and nobles,” reports theatre historian Joseph T. Shipley. “The drama that finds importance in the lives of ordinary folk, through [George] Lillo and [Henrik] Ibsen to the domestic dramas of today, Tennessee Williams and such popular probing as The Death of a Salesman, has an early forceful forerunner in the tragedy of Arden of Faversham.”1
There are no records of any production of Arden of Faversham until the eighteenth century, but it is believed that the play was performed frequently both before and after its publication in 1592. The first documented showing was in 1730, at Faversham, in Kent. George Lillo’s five-act version was condensed to a one-act by John Hoadly in 1763; it was presented by the Elizabethan Stage Society at St. George’s Hall, Langham Place, London, on July 9, 1897. William Poel directed a cast of ten that included D.L. Mannering (Arden), Paget Bowman (Franklin), Alice Isaac (Alice), and Leonard Outram (Mosby).
In the twentieth century, there were numerous productions of Arden. In 1955, the play was mounted by Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop at the Paris International Festival of Theatre as the English entry. In 1970, the Royal Shakespeare Company of London presented the play under the direction of Buzz Goodbody, with Emrys James as Arden and Dorothy Tutin as Alice. The RSC offered Arden again, with great success, in 1982, featuring Bruce Purchase (Arden), Jeffrey Dench (Franklin), and Jenny Aguttar (Alice). Terry Hands directed “a bold and striking production, a gripping piece of theatre,” according to Shipley.2 In 2001, the play was performed for a summer season in the garden of Arden’s house in Faversham, the scene of the murder. In 2010, it was shown at the Rose Garden in Bankside, London, staged by Peter Darney.
In the United States, Arden of Faversham was presented Off-Broadway by La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, directed by a Romanian, Andrei Sherban, in 1970, and by The Ohio Theatre, directed by Daniel Crozier, in 1990. The University of California at Berkeley produced Arden three years later. The Metropolitan Playhouse of New York City’s East Side presented a notable production of the play in 2004. Its adventurous director, Alex Roe, strayed from the original by treating the relationship between Arden and Franklin in an amorous vein, and the bungling efforts of Black Will and Shakebag in a broad comedic style. “This play – entirely new to me, though it was written more than four hundred years ago by ‘an author or authors unknown’ – is delightful,” opined critic Martin Denton, “an authentic black farce, the kind of thing Blake Edwards would have written if he had been a contemporary of Shakespeare’s… Kudos to Roe and Metropolitan Playhouse for serving up this delectable, little-known romp.”3 Reviewer Nicholas Seeley was somewhat reserved: “Roe’s staging is clear, and the actors play their villainous roles with gusto, but the show doesn’t develop the kind of comic sensibility that could make an audience laugh out loud at the play’s hijinks, hijackings and twists of fate … In the end the play is still a tragedy, and nearly everyone ends up hanged or burned alive, which could lead one to question the wisdom of trying to play this grim fable of human stupidity for laughs – but it’s so tantalizingly close to working.”
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