Critical Responses
Several aspects of the play have drawn special attention from scholars and critics. The portrayal of Earl Lassingbergh as an admirable and aristocratic painter is noteworthy, in a historical era in which artists had not yet fully shaken off their Medieval status as mere artisans or craftsmen. (Lucilia notes that the Earl has humbled his dignity by masquerading as a simple "mercenary painter.") The play's fairies and Enchanter have also drawn attention from critics interested in the occult aspects of English Renaissance theatre.
Individual scholars have proposed that two characters in the play were based on real people of the Elizabethan age. Abraham Feldman argued that the character Haunce was based on the artist Hans Ewouts. (While the stage Dutchman in Elizabethan drama is normally a drunkard and a contemptuous figure, Haunce is clever and speaks English well.) Hersch Zitt proposed that the Doctor Dodypoll character derives from Dr. Roderigo Lopez, the physician who was executed for treason in 1594 — even though Dodypoll is not Jewish, Lopez was not French, and there was nothing particularly funny about Lopez or his case.
Read more about this topic: The Wisdom Of Doctor Dodypoll
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