The Failure of the Classics in John Fletcher’s The Mad Lover

The Mad Lover is a prime example of John Fletcher’s tragicomic brilliancy and yet has attracted little critical attention. In particular, no scholars have dealt with the play’s attitude to classical myth. The play is set in Cyprus, a culturally Hellenised island that was also known as the birthplace of the goddess Venus, and the masque that is brought on stage during the play to cure Memnon from his love madness draws heavily on classical lore, and chiefly on the myth of Orpheus, who is characterised both as a poet and musician and as a cautionary example of death as a potential consequence of love. Additionally, the play features a dea ex machina in the form of Venus appearing on stage and delivering an oracle. Fletcher demonstrates a deep level of knowledge and understanding of the classics, yet his use of classical mythology once again displays a significantly sceptical attitude towards them. As a matter of fact, the classically based masque fails to dissuade Memnon from committing suicide; his brother Polydore is forced to devise a different, and entirely early modern, stratagem to cure him; and Venus’ appearance on the stage does not advance the plot in any way, thus subverting the expected outcome of the classical device of the deus ex machina.