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The Iconography of Food and the Motif of World Order in Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay Cecile Williamson Cary Robert Greene’s Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay celebrates Elizabethan conceptions of world order, the happy state, de­ corum, and temperance. It has not been recognized that the play’s numerous references to food are perfectly in keeping with the iconographical tradition and help Greene dramatize what has been called the “Elizabethan World View.” My purpose in this study is to examine Greene’s use of food in the light of this iconographical tradition, not to establish “sources,” but to dem­ onstrate the iconographical and intellectual background of the connections Greene makes between food and world order in the play. It is true that Greene characteristically closes scenes with invitations to eat or drink. Waldo F. McNeir notes that “in no other group of early Elizabethan plays is the device so consis­ tently used.”l Professor Assarsson-Rizzi points out that nine of the sixteen scenes in Friar Bacon end with such invitations and comments that “in no other play does the feature recur as many times.”2 The usual reason given for the prevalence in Greene’s works of such scene endings is that he finds this a convenient way of underlining “their status as self-contained units.”3 How­ ever, in Friar Bacon Greene uses the device for point as well as convenience. To be sure, the references to food are so plentiful—and not just at the ending of scenes—as not to have escaped attention altogether. There are comments in Assarsson-Rizzi’s full-length study which are suggestive. For instance, she remarks that “Margaret’s readiness to share her ‘butter and cheese’ is a mani­ festation of her generosity which is associated with the village. 150 Cecile Williamson Cary 151 Furthermore, not only Fressingfield but all of England becomes associated with the same quality after we have seen the Kang’s generous attitude toward his visitors.” In addition, “on several occasions the wealth, learning, and beauty of England are men­ tioned as a cause of national pride . . . truly based on a plenti­ fulness of ‘butter and cheese, creame, and fat venison’.” Finally, in stating that the play celebrates the Elizabethan World View, she points out Prince Edward’s lines accepting butter and cheese (“Tis cheer lord Lacie for an Emperour,/ If he respect the per­ son and the place”) as a major thematic statement stressing decorum .4 I find it significant that this explicit thematic statement should be made in the context of a conversation about food. Such dialogue is appropriate to a play celebrating decorum, for decorum is achieved by the individual practicing self-control and temperance. In the following quotations, Lacy, Margaret, and the Prince all see control as a major value: Lacy. Lacy, love makes no exception of a friend, Nor deems it of a prince but as a man. Honor bids thee control him in his lust; His wooing is not for to wed the girl, (vi.158-61) Prince. So in subduing fancy’s passion, Conquering thyself, thou get’st the richest spoil. (viii.19-23) Margaret. You are very hasty; for to garden well, Seeds must have time to sprout before they spring; Love ought to creep as doth the dial’s shade, For timely ripe is rotten too too soon. (vi. 83-86) A perfect emblematic representation of Margaret’s statement can be found in George Wither’s A Collection of Emblemes, which depicts a garden carefully being watered by a hand com­ ing out of the sky and states: “Things, to their best perfection come,/ Not all at once; but, some and some.” He applies the maxim to Wealth, Honors, and Hopes, stressing action “by de­ grees” and “leisurely-proceeding.”5 Margaret, like Wither, is laying emphasis on temperance and decorum. If the Prince in the love plot has temporarily abandoned these values in seeking to seduce Margaret, it is also time that Friar Bacon in the magic plot, in seeking to “countervail his God” (xiii.97), needs equally to repent. Ultimately, the Prince shows self-control and decorum in his choice of mate, Margaret exemplifies a mean...

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