Dryden and Holland

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Appendix I
Short summary of Amboyna.

As Amboyna is not a play that is favoured with an occasional reprint¹, a synopsis of it is offered here.

Act I. The scene is laid in the castle of Amboyna.

The Dutch governor Harman van Spelt, the fiscal (a lawyer also acting as public prosecutor in courts of justice) and a merchant, van Herring, discuss letters recently received from Holland. They rejoice at the news that damages done to the English to an amount of half a million pounds had been redeemed by the Dutch for a small sum. Yet the fiscal is by no means satisfied. He fears that the heavy charges incurred by the Dutch company in the East-India trade will lead to its ruin. As long as there are English spice traders in Amboyna, it will be impossible to get the monopoly necessary to raise the profits. He has already a plot in ‘pericranio’ to cut the throats of the English ‘rascals’. The merchant van Herring has some qualms of conscience, but is soon overruled. They agree to treat the English with feigned kindness till the time is ripe to draw the net over them. Now Beamont and Collins, two English merchants, come in to announce the arrival of Towerson, chief English factor in Amboyna. When Towerson himself enters, he is accompanied by the governor's son, Harman junior, whom he had recently rescued from pirates at sea. In a dance, the natives of Amboyna show their jubilation at Towerson's arrival. The Dutch merchants feign a cordial welcome in ambiguous terms. Ysabinda meets Towerson, her fiancé, and the governor promises a feast in honour of the English merchant and his bride. In this act we become acquainted with all the chief characters but one (Perez), and the purpose of the plot is clearly exposed.

Act II. Young Harman falls head over heels in love with Ysabinda. Of course his advances meet with a rebuff. When Towerson himself enters, the two lovers quarrel and young Harman challenges his rival to a duel. The latter refuses because he feels responsible for his compatriots; if he should kill Harman, he would endanger the position of all the English in the island. The disappointed Harman consults the fiscal,

1 Though of course it is to be found in the Scott-Saintsbury edition and in Montague Summers' edition of Dryden's dramatic works. Recently a photo-copy appeared.

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who advises him not to be too hot-headed, but nevertheless promises to find means of killing Towerson even before he can lay hands on the other Englishmen. A fit instrument is found in Perez, a Spanish captain in the Dutch service. Perez's desire for money and a grudge he bears Towerson on account of unrewarded services, induce him to accept the fiscal's proposal to try and murder the chief English merchant. While Perez is away to obtain the governor's permission for his murderous scheme, both the fiscal and Beamont try to win over Julia, Perez's wife, to become their mistress. In her presence they make fun of the Spaniards, especially of their attempts to keep up the appearance of gentlemen living in luxury despite their poverty. When Julia invites her lovers also to give their opinions about their own respective nations, the Dutch fiscal takes the lead. He scoffs at England for bad management of the fisheries in the narrow seas - always a thorn in the flesh of those who wanted to improve England's economic position¹ - for the heavy charges incurred in trading, which made their merchandise dear and the profits small, and even, most cynically, for the stupidity of giving up the cautionary towns in Holland (1616). At last Julia becomes impatient to hear the Dutch reviled. Beamont ridicules them for not being gentlemen, though ‘they have stolen the arms of the best families of Europe’. But his main theme is the Dutch ingratitude: ‘We have set you up, and you undermine our power....’. As to religion, the Dutch are only tolerant to those who can pay for it. He admits that the English cannot compare with the Dutch for economy in trading. But then the English merchants live like noblemen, whereas Dutch gentlemen - if there are any - live like boors. The much praised liberty in Holland is a hoax. They are ten times more taxed than any people in Christendom. Julia cleverly puts an end to the heated dispute by inviting both to supper.

Act III. Perez, dagger in hand, enters Towerson's house and finds the latter sleeping on his couch. On the table is a memorandum: Towerson had remembered his debt to Perez and intends to pay him 500 pounds as a testimony of gratitude for honourable service done to him. Perez, full of shame, leaves the room after writing on the paper: ‘Thy virtue saved thy life’. Towerson awakes and his friend Beamont calls on him, intending to accompany the bridegroom to the wedding. Almost at the

1 Cf. G. Edmundson, Anglo-Dutch Rivalry, Oxford 1911.

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same time the governor and the fiscal arrive; in order to lay any suspicions on the part of the English, they have come to apologize for young Harman's rashness and insolence. They try to persuade Towerson to celebrate the wedding at the castle. After some hesitation Towerson consents and the wedding takes place with songs and dance. In the midst of the festivities a captain, called Middleton, comes in with an English woman in a deplorable physical condition. She accuses the merchant van Herring of treacherously sinking her husband's ship, but the Dutch governor refuses to hear complaints against the Hollanders and the feast goes on as if nothing had happened.

Act IV. Scene: A wood near the castle.

At night young Harman and the fiscal lurk in the wood, waiting for an opportunity to kill Towerson before the wedding is over. They had asked him for a meeting on an urgent business. When Towerson fails to come, the fiscal promises to try and find him. The conversation is overheard by Perez and his lieutenant and the indignant Spaniard at once attacks the assassin. Towerson arrives only just in time, to save young Harman from inevitable death and receives a ring as a reward. Young Harman hurriedly disappears to find his accomplice, the fiscal. They meet Ysabinda who cannot find her bridegroom, but young Harman politely offers to take her to him. On their way he rapes her and Towerson finds his bride, gagged and bound to a tree. When young Harman and the fiscal return to the spot of the crime, a fight follows in which young Harman is killed and the fiscal, now left to himself, pleads with the indignant Towerson for his life. But when the governor and his guard appear on the scene, the tables are turned. The fiscal accuses Towerson of robbery (he is possessed of Harman's ring!) and murder. The governor feigns to believe the fiscal's story and all the English are apprehended, charged with murder and with a conspiracy to take the castle.

Act V. A tribunal is set up and before the trial of the English merchants the fiscal explains how he will make away with them. He has tortured a Japanese soldier, whose confession is sufficient ground for accusing all of them. First Beamont and Collins are led in; they do not confess anything. Next Towerson's page, another boy, and a woman are tortured. Towerson himself is the last victim; he makes a spirited defence, but of course all to no purpose. In the mean time Julia succeeds in persuading the fiscal to spare her lover Beamont, which he only grants if she will be

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his mistress¹. Needless to say, there are scenes of cruel torture to produce the necessary effect on the audience. The English merchants are condemned to death and led away to execution, but not before Towerson had prophesied the total ruin of Holland. Only the Dutch judges remain on the stage, drinking ‘with joyful hearts to the confusion of all English Starts’.

1 Dryden seems to have been puzzled by the fact that two Englishmen, Beamont and Collins, were pardoned; he ascribes the escape of Beamont to the fiscal's sensuality.