23 October, 1594 - A Knack to Know an Honest Man

Here's what the Admiral's Men performed at the Rose playhouse on this day, 424 years ago...

Henslowe writes: y^e 22 of octobȝ 1594 ... ne ... R at the knacke to know a noneste ... xxxx^s

In modern English: [23^rd] October, 1594 ... New ... Received at The Knack to Know an Honest ... 40 shillings.

Today, the Admiral's Men performed a brand new play with a familiar name. Those of you with long memories will recall that back in 1593, Lord Strange's Men performed a play called A Knack to Know a Knave. Today's title may suggest a sequel, but that is not so: A Knack to Know a Knave is a morality play set in northern England, whereas A Knack to Know an Honest Man is a comic romance set in Venice. There is only one obvious connection between them: both feature an allegorical figure who represents the concept of honesty and moralises on the other characters' sins. It seems likely, then, that the author of today's play simply borrowed the title of a popular old play for marketing purposes.

The title page of the
printed text, 1596

If so, the ploy did not work, because the box office is remarkably unimpressive. Premieres normally drew huge audiences to the Rose, but today the theatre was barely more than half full. And although the play survives in a printed text published in 1596, it's not an easy read: the grammar is messy and the publication may have been assembled by actors remembering - or misremembering - their lines.

But don't feel sad for this play. Keep your eye on it because there will be some surprises in the future...

The play

A Knack to Know an Honest Man is a tale of wrongful arrest in Venice. Lelio fights a duel with Sempronio, who had attempted to seduce his wife, and wounds him. But a group of peasants mistakenly think Lelio is a murderer and chase him away, leaving Sempronio to die. At the instigation of the evil Servio, who wants his property, Lelio is pronounced a murderer, but his father-in-law, Brishio, helps him escape on a ship (leaving his wife and daughter behind in charge of his property).

Two  Young Venetian Men (anon., 1515)

But Sempronio is not really dead! He has been nursed back to health by an old hermit named Philip, and is now a reformed man. The hermit magically disguises Sempronio as an old man named Penitent Experience and he returns to the city, where he utters moralistic commentaries on the evils of Venetian society, unable to reveal his true identity. He becomes a servant to Fortunio, Prince of Venice.

Fortunio and his friend Marchetto desire Lelio's daughter Lucinda and his wife Anetta respectively, but the women rebuff their aggressive approaches (Penitent Experience, observing, tells the audience, "Here's first a knack to know an honest lady"). The young men plot to return and rape the women (yes, this is still supposed to be a comedy), but they are prevented by Brishio's sons and after various shenanigans the end result is that Fortunio is a repentant man.

When Brishio proudly confesses to having helped Lelio escape, Penitent Experience observes "Why, here's a knack to know an honest man!" and Fortunio helps him escape the city. Ultimately, Lelio ends up in Florence and Brishio in Milan, but the cities are at war and the two men somehow end up being chosen as their warrior champions. When they recognize one another, they are unable to fight, and the Dukes of the two cities are so moved that they resolve to end their dispute.

Marino Grimani, Doge of Venice, 1596-1605

Lelio returns to Venice and offers himself up to justice in the hope that Brishio will be forgiven and allowed to go home. More shenanigans ensue, the main result of which is that Lelio is sentenced to the death for the murder of Sempronio. The members of his extended family all offer their lives in his place, and when Brishio proposes the state should execute all or none of them, Penitent Experience observes - yup - "Here is a knack to know an honest man". However, Lelio nobly rejects their offers.

The play ends when Philip the hermit appears at exactly the right moment to release Sempronio from his disguise. Sempronio marries Lucinda and nasty old Servio gets nothing, so everything works out in the end. In the conclusion, Sempronio utters advice on how to tell the difference between a knave and an honest man, none of which is particularly earth-shattering ("An honest man on love and faith relies; / A knave makes lust his love, respects no friend"). The Duke of Venice gets the last words:

Thanks, good Sempronio, for this worthy skill.
To register the memory of this,
Henceforth, where'er this history is heard
The world shall praise thee, in whose life began,
The perfect knack to know an honest man.

If you would like to read A Knack to Know an Honest Man, your only option is the Malone Society's old-spelling text from 1910.

What we learn from this

Once again, Venice is the setting for a play at the Rose. We have already seen a Venetian Comedy on the stage, and there may have been a Venetian character in The Love of an English Lady too. The Admiral's Men are putting a lot of effort into Italian-style comedy, but there's still no evidence that it is scoring with audiences.

In the only detailed study of this play, Tom Rutter points out some more subtle connections with plays in the Rose repertoire. He draws connections between the avaricious Servio and Barabas in The Jew of Malta, and to the idealised male friendships in other plays of the era (including, perhaps, the recently performed Palamon and Arcite). He also connects the play's style, which partly descends from old-fashioned morality plays, with The Jew of Malta, in that both contain figures who appear based on allegorical figures (of virtue or of and vice), but are individualized. And looking forward, Rutter suggests that the Venetian setting, the theme of friendship in opposition to an evil usurer, and the courtroom scenes could all have inspired Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. This play may be more important than its obscurity today might suggest.

FURTHER READING

A Knack to Know an Honest Man information

• G.K. Hunter, English Drama, 1586-1642: The Age of Shakespeare (Clarendon Press, 1997), 368-9.
• Martin Wiggins, British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2013), entry 969.
• Tom Rutter, Shakespeare and the Admiral's Men: Reading Across Repertories on the London Stage, 1594-1600 (Cambridge University Press, 2017), 24-53.

Henslowe links

• Transcript of this page of the Diary (from W.W. Greg's 1904 edition)
• Facsimile of this page of the Diary (from the Henslowe-Alleyn Digitisation Project)

Comments?

Did I make a mistake? Do you have a question? Have you anything to add? Please post a comment below!