The Picture

Synopsis

Matthias, a young knight of Bohemia, goes off to the wars, taking with him an enchanted image of his wife Sophia which - his friend Baptisa assures him - will indicate her constancy. If she is challenged in love in his absence, the picture will yellow; if she succumbs, it will blacken. Matthias’ subsequent martial success is brought to the attention of the King, and he is invited to Court. There, the Queen falls for the soldier and vows both to seduce him and to test his wife’s fidelity... (c.1629).

Our Review:

Simon Cole - 3 November 2010

Philip Massinger was born in Salisbury in 1583 with strong family connections to Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, whose family seat was at nearby Wilton House. In the early years of his career as a poet and playwright, Massinger struggled to earn a living, even enduring a spell in debtors’ prison, and tried to exploit these connections on a number of occasions to gain the patronage of the Herbert family, and alleviate his financial problems. It was not until much later in his career that he attained any kind of financial security through the successes of his works.

First performed in 1629, The Picture was a classic example of Massinger’s work in the decades prior to the English civil war, during the reign of the ill-fated Charles I. Although safely set in a period long before and in a land far away, there are thinly veiled criticisms of the court of King Charles, and Charles himself took an interest in the playwrights work, even demanding...

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