The Performance of “Pious Fraud”: Reading Passive Obedience in Dryden’s Don Sebastian (1689)

Abstract

Th is essay examines how obedience to authority structures John Dryden's Don Sebastian, a tragicomedy produced after William of Orange deposed James II in the Revolution of 1688. Because Dryden resigned his position as Poet Laureate after the Revolution rather than swear an oath of allegiance to the new monarch, scholars have interpreted Don Sebastian as the work of a defeated loyalist hoping for the return of the exiled James II. Th e depiction of obedience in the play, however, goes beyond the question of who should pos- sess the throne to comment more broadly on the agency available to individu- als in relations of submission. Specifi cally, the subplot in which the rebel Dorax becomes an obedient subject shows Dryden continuing to engage with passive obedience and non-resistance, a Stuart doctrine associated with divine right ideology and the established church. Dryden affi rms this extreme form of obe- dience, I argue, not to call for the return of absolutism but to respond to con- temporary charges that submission posed grave dangers to the self. Th rough a contextual reading, this essay shows how Dryden imbues submission with the potential for ethical transformation. Dorax receives praise for performing a pi- ous fraud that both confi rms his submissive will and conveys his disagreement with the sovereign. In this, Don Sebastian proves useful for engaging recent attempts to explore how individuals may demonstrate autonomy by willingly accepting limits on their freedom.