Ghosts and Comedy

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The night-vvalker, or The little theife A comedy, as it vvas presented by her Majesties Servants, at the Private House in Drury Lane. Written by Iohn Fletcher. Gent. , London : Printed by Tho. Cotes, for Andrew Crooke, and William Cooke, 1640.

I want to now go to a play that uses ghosts as a comedy. It is known as The Night Walker, or Little Theefe by John Fletcher. The basics of this story is a woman named Maria to be married off but she loves another. Though she is married to Justice Algrip but doesn’t love him but loves Hartlove, Maria is virtuous and would not cheat on Justice with Hartlove. Maria uses any means she can to keep Hartlove away from her but Justice sees the two together and Maria’s reputation is ruin. She swoons and is thought to be dead.
In the meantime, a man named Lurcher plans to rob the house that Maria is getting married at. He has a boy (Snap) who is working for him to help him with his plan. Both decide it is best to terrify the guards by looking like a spirit. Snap first appears to Tobie (a servant ) and Nurse who is heartbroken as she thinks that Maria has died. They looked through the house to find a chest full of money and instead grabbed a coffin. They are making a lot of noise and everyone thinks the Devil is walking amongst them. Lurcher and Snap open the coffin to find that Maria is lying in it. They decide to bury the coffin but Justice and a Servant are around. They hear Lurcher and Snap and thinks it’s once again ghosts. Snap decides to pretend to be Maria. Justice and the servant leaves and as Snap and Lurcher and Lurcher’s Mistress tries burying Maria’s coffin, Maria begins to stir making the three scared so they run away.
The next scene, WIldbraine and Hartlove is arguing. Wildbraine was the genius behind Hartlove bedding Maria on her wedding night and now everything is going against him. Maria comes upon them fighting and pretends to be her ghost to prevent them from killing one another. Once Maria leaves, both boys make up.
In the meantime, the Lady, Maria’s mother, talks to Justice to restore her daughter’s reputation. Funny thing is, she arranged the marriage between Justice and Maria even though Justice is described as a rotting dog. Now the Lady is calling Justice names as she believed that Justice has Maria’s body. Lurcher and Snap comes in selling books that either one would like, such as a book on wronged maids for the Lady or books or a book of rude malicious women for Justice. They two entered Justice’s place where they gag him and look for the wedding chest.
While Justice is being gagged, the Lady and the Nurse comes upon Maria who is dressed as a country maid. Hartlove comes in apologizes to the Lady saying how much he loved Maria. Maria (as the country maid) keeps blushing and sighing when Hartlove talks and has to leave. The Lady and the Nurse realizes that it is Maria and decides to help Maria get back together with Hartlove.
Lurcher and Snap decides to drug Justice where Justice begins to see furies to fetch his soul. Snap comes in dressed as an angel and Justice begins to repent. In the end, Snap planned everything out and showed the whole group Justice’s first marriage contract which makes his marriage to Maria invalid. He also makes Justice give back Lurcher’s property as Lurcher is a fallen gentleman. It turns out that Snap is in fact Lurcher’s sister and also Justice’s wife.

This play uses the ideas of ghosts to scare people. I find it funny how they use people’s superstitions against one another and I think Fletcher is making fun of how easily scared we can get of the unknowing. It’s a play full of disguises. Though it doesn’t have real ghosts, it’s a nice contrast to Shakespeare’s serious ghosts. It shows the different sides of ghosts and how they are used. Even if the ghosts weren’t real, the fake ghosts in The Night Walker does have some effect on the play as it scares people. The ghosts made Justice to start feeling guilty when they first appeared and Maria’s ghost reconciled Wildbraine and Hartlove.


Fletcher, John, and Francis Beaumont. The Night Walker. Ed. Fredson Bowes. The Dramatic Works in the Beaumont and Fletcher Canon. Vol. VII. New York, NY: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1989. 532-611.