The Changeling

Abstract

It has been wryly said of the beauty and the beast fable that the prince’s transformation into the frog is obnoxious to all but the frogs who see it as a definite improvement. This sentiment, with some qualification, may well be understood in the context of Middleton and Rowley’s The Changeling. Robert Jordan has demonstrated the mythic qualities of the play and the reversal of its beauty and the beast conclusion.¹ Whereas the fable ends with the frog returning to his true state as the handsome prince, the drama twists the situation ‘to reveal that the princess is in fact a beast’.² It has to be asked further however to whom it is that she appears as a beast. It is certainly not to De Flores since Beatrice has provided him with an ecstasy and purpose of existence. Her bestiality is rather one perceived by herself and the Alicante society to which she belongs: