“A Magazine of all perfection”: Mathematics in the Early Modern Satire Histrio-Mastix – Conclusion

The title of this article includes a quotation from Marston’s Histrio-Mastix, spoken by Chrisoganus just after he has given his mathematical lecture and attempted to explain the movements of the Sun. The four gentlemen reply to his explanation: “Good faith, these knowledges are very rare, And full of admiration; are they not?”, to which Chrisoganus answers, “The Mathematicques are the strength of truth, A Magazine of all perfection” [Marston 1610, Act I, Scene i]. In his statement, Chrisoganus, the master of all the liberal arts and sciences, elevates the prominence of mathematics to more than just the fixed muses of geometry and arithmetic. As we have seen in this and other Early Modern plays, when mathematicians were presented as named characters, they exhibited a view of mathematics as a truth-seeking discipline and a way to gain certain knowledge. In turn, the mathematician was represented as possessing privileged access to this knowledge and truth, and this talent provided him with the opportunity to manipulate his surroundings or led him to frustration when he sought to apply his knowledge, because it was simply too difficult for other people to understand.

It is worth noting that the Early Modern plays depicting mathematicians all belong to the category of comedies as they were neither tragedies nor historical plays. This circumstance fits well with other fictional portraits of scientists during the period, which also most often were found in comic writing. Indeed, if any scientist appeared in a tragedy, such characters generally represented a more ancient form of scholar (for instance, a magus), and not one of the new types of scientist that emerged in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.