While the date of the play's origin cannot be fixed with certainty, Philaster must pre-date 1611, based on its mention by John Davies in his Scourge of Folly. Scholars generally assign the play to the 1608–10 interval, with "the middle to late summer of 1610" as perhaps the most likely specific period. The play was acted by the King's Men at both the Globe and Blackfriars theatres, and was performed at court twice in the winter of 1612–13.
Publication
The play was first published in 1620 by the bookseller Thomas Walkley, in a seriously defective text; Walkley issued a second quarto two years later, which he termed "The second impression, corrected and amended." A third quarto was printed in 1628 by Richard Hawkins, followed by subsequent editions in 1634, 1639, 1652, and 1687; there was also an undated quarto that may date to 1663. Scholars have debated the cause of the differences between Q1 and the subsequent editions; the modern critical consensus favours censorship as the most plausible explanation. The villain in the original version of the play was a Spaniard, the favourite stage villain in English drama at least since the Spanish Armada. King James I, however, favoured a pacifistic foreign policy and improved relations with Spain, so that the play needed to be revised for Court performance, primarily in the opening and closing scenes
Authorship
Traditional critics recognised that Beaumont's share in the play is dominant over Fletcher's. Cyrus Hoy, in his sweeping examination of the authorship problems in Fletcher's canon, produced this division of authorship in the play:
Adaptations
Philaster was revived during the Restoration era in an adapted form, as were many of the plays in the canon of Fletcher and his collaborators; but the 1695 adaptation by Elkanah Settle was not a success. Another adaptation followed, though, by George Colman. The version by George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham was unperformed in his era.
Synopsis
The play is set in a fictionalised version of the Kingdom of Sicily, ruled by an otherwise-unnamed king. This king's father and predecessor, the ruler of Southern Italy, had conquered the island of Sicily and displaced the native royal house; but the heir of that house, and rightful king of Sicily, is Philaster, who lives as a nobleman in the royal court. The king fears him, but cannot kill him, because of the passionate loyalty of the people. The king has a plan, however: with no son of his own, he will marry his daughter Arethusa to a Spanish prince named Pharamond, and make the Spaniard his heir. Arethusa, however, is in love with Philaster, and disdains the Spaniard. Philaster reciprocates the princess's affections, and sends his page Bellario to serve her and to be their intermediary. Arethusa is able to frustrate her father's plan by exposing Pharamond's affair with Megra, a loose gentlewoman of the court; but the Spaniard seeks revenge, by spreading reports that Arethusa is having an affair with Bellario. The passionate Philaster is deceived by the slander, and accepts it as true. During a hunt, Philaster confronts Arethusa; the overwrought protagonist stabs the princess. Philaster is interrupted by a passing countryman; they fight, and both men are wounded. Philaster crawls off, and Arethusa is discovered by nobles of the court. Arethusa's and Philaster's wounds are not fatal; both recover. Philaster is found, arrested, and sentenced to death. The king places Philaster in Arethusa's custody; she quickly marries him, which causes the king to decree her death as well. The executions are frustrated when the rebellious citizens capture Pharamond and hold him hostage. The falsehood of Pharamond's accusation against Arethusa is exposed when Bellario is revealed to be a disguised female. Pharamond retreats to Spain. Since the rightful ruler of Sicily is now the king's son and no alternative presents itself, Philaster is restored to his crown. In creating the play, Beaumont and Fletcher were influenced by the works of Sir Philip Sidney, especially the Arcadia. The play bears relationships with a range of contemporaneous works, including The Faithful Shepherdess and Cymbeline.
