The King, mindful of any potential progeny from this liaison, marries Evadne off to a courtier, Amintor, breaking Amintor's engagement with
Aspatia in doing so.
Further, any reproduction of that voice is inevitably contaminated by its derivative nature, just as Aspatia's complaint in the epigraph to "Sweeney Erect" represents a parasitical cooption of the tale of Ariadne's grief.
The brutal misogyny of "Sweeney Erect" contrasts with the unexpected sympathy for women implicit in the nightingale imagery; the instinctive, animal-like Sweeney of the poems becomes the conscious man of the play; and the beauty of Aspatia's tapestry and of the nightingale's lament are rebuked by the derivative, citational aspects of their artistry.
She was the chaste Aspatia in Fletcher's The Maid's Tragedy (c.
(3.) Even though she was not the first actress to play either Aspatia or St Catherine, it was Mrs.
Amintor and
Aspatia had been expected to marry, but the play's un-named King has, before the play's opening, arranged a substitute bride for Amintor: He will marry Evadne, who, we will later learn, is already the King's mistress.
Significantly, her death is upstaged by Amintor's own suicide, committed because of his grief at having murdered, mistakenly,
Aspatia - the woman to whom he was originally promised in marriage.
By order of the king, Amintor is forced to renounce his beloved
Aspatia and marry Evadne, sister of his closest friend, Melantius, who has just returned a hero from the wars.
The rest of the cast, seemingly the boys since they mostly take the women's parts, are identified as 'saunder' (playing Queen Videna and Procne), 'Nick' (playing the queen's lady), 'R Go' (playing
Aspatia), 'Ned' (playing Rodope), 'Ro' (probably also R.
Downes includes a King's Company cast for early productions of The Maid's Tragedy, which Hume dates from 1663-64 to 1677.(43) These productions featured William Wintersel as the King, Major Mohun as Melantius, Charles Hart as Amintor, William Shatterel as Calianax, Rebecca Marshall as Evadne, and Elizabeth Davenport Boutel as
Aspatia. The play's female sexuality and violent spectacle provided good parts for the new actresses.(44) Pepys particularly praised Rebecca Marshall's acting in the December 1666 production.(45) Charles Hart excelled in his role as Amintor, filling the house each time he performed this role "as at a New Play."(46)
(Robert Gough?):
Aspatia (Sloth); Philomela (Lechery).