Theatre / The Sea Voyage

As the play is Older Than Steam, all spoilers on this page are unmarked.

The Sea Voyage is a play by John Fletcher written around 1622, and first printed in the Fletcher and Beaumont Folio in 1647. A parody of sorts of The Tempest ^note  Fletcher was Shakespeare's successor as play-maker for the King's Men, and some speculate that this play using many of the same tropes as The Tempest was a marketing ploy to drum up interest in the forthcoming First Folio. that also opens with a ship in a storm. The French pirate Albert has kidnapped Aminta, and is carrying her and a group of snobbish nobles when their ship hits the storm. They wreck on a deserted island and meet a pair of castaways: Nicusa and Sebastian, who promptly steal their ship after showing them stores of treasure. The nobles try to eat Aminta, and Albert discovers that the island is also home to a group of would-be Amazons. Hilarity Ensues.

Tropes:

• Black Comedy Cannibalism: Franvile, Lamure, Morillat and the Surgeon haven't even been stranded for a day before they're ready to eat Aminta.
• Deus ex Machina: Raimond arrives with Sebastian and Nicusa just in time to save everybody from being killed by Rosilla, who happens to be Sebastian's long-lost wife.
• Do Wrong, Right: When Tibalt discovers the attempted cannibalism, he has this to say:
  TIBALT: Oh, damn’d villains! —
  Speak; is it true?
  SURGEON: I confess an appetite.
  TIBALT: An appetite? I’ll fit ye for an appetite!
  Are ye so sharp-set that her flesh must serve you?
  Murder’s a main good service with your worships.
  Since ye would be such devils, why did you not
  Begin with one another handsomely,
  And spare the woman to beget more food on?
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Aminta tries to convince Albert to give up on their love so that he can avoid being killed by the jealous Clarinda.