Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

BELLAFRONT

in A Woman Is a Weathercock — Field, Nathan

Metadata

PlayA Woman Is a Weathercock
AuthorField, Nathan
Year (catalogued)1612
First performance1609
Decade1610s
GenreComedy
Play typeBoys Professional
CompanyChildren of the Queens Revels (Children of the Whitefriars) (?)
Theaterbefore the Court;Whitefriars;Whitehall;Indoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)Bell. | Bella.
Words709
Characters3734
Typicality0.56 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA00725
BritDrama no.1599
ClusterCluster 19 — Grieving nobles & tragicomic sufferers

Important excerpts

No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).

Full speech

You are insolent, nay strangely saucy Sir, To wrong me in this public fashion. Then this Cross accident does relish ours. Sister, this resolution is not good, Ill thrives that Marriage that begins in blood. Letter: Would? What dost thou mock me? Here is nothing writ. O Basilisk, remove thee from my sighed, Or thy hearts blood shall pay thy rash attempt. Ho, Who attends us there? O, I am sick of my corruption, For Godsake do not speak a word more to me. O peace, for you speak sharpness to my soul More torturous, then hels plagues to the damned, For love sake hear me speak. Tyrant, my knees shall beg, Till they get liberty for my tongue to speak, Drowned almost in the Rivers of mine eyes. Alas I was inforced, first by the threats Of a severe Father, that in his hand Did gripe my Fortune's; next to that, the fame Of your neglect, and liberal tongue, Which bred my honour and eternal wrong. O! still retain her, deer Scudmore hear me. O rather shoot me friend, Then let me hear thee speak such bitterness. O pity me, redeem from the hell That in this Marriage I am Like to feel, I'll rather fly to barren wildernesses, and suffer all wants with thee Scudmore, then Live with all plenty in this husbands arms, Thou shalt perceive I am not such a woman, That is transported with vain dignities, O thy deer words have knocked at my hearts gates, and entered: They have plucked the Devils Vizard. (That did deform this face, and blind my soul) Off, and thy Bellafront presents her self, (Laved in a Both of contrite Virginal tears,) Clothed in the Original beauty that was thine: Now for thy love to God, count this not done, Let time go back, and be as when before it, Or from thy memory raze it for ever. Hear me, and thou shalt go: I do confess I do deserve all this, Have wounded all the faith my sex does owe, But will recover it, or pay my life: Strive not to go, for you shall hear me first, I charge thee Scudmore, thou hardhearted man, Upon my knees: thou most implacable man, since penitence and satisfaction to, gets not thy pardon, I charge thee use some means to set me free, Before the Revels of this night have end, Prevent my entering to this marriage bed; Or by the memory of Lucretia's knife, Ere Morn I'll die a Virgin, though a wise. Exit. Titles and State de'e call it: O Content! Thou art both beauty, means, and all in marriage: Joy dwells not in the Princes Palaces, They that envy em do not know their cares, Were I the Queen of Gold, it could not buy And hours ease, for my oppressed heart. O, were this Wedlock knot to tie again, Not all the State and glory it contains, Joined with my Father's fury, should enforce My rash consent; but Scudmore thou shalt see, This false heart (in my death) most true to thee. My Lord, my Father, all the Company Did note my sudden sadness now at Supper, Yet came I out, and put on feigned mirth, And mean to fit out this nights Revels too, To avoid all suspect may grow in em, Least my behaviour should my intent reveal: Our griefs (Like love) we hardly can conceal, Yond comes my Sisters: Are the Maskers ready? Would? Even to death. In short know, that I am married to this Gent. To whom I was contracted long ago: This Priest the inviolable knot hath tied, What ease I find being vn-Ladifyed. Yes, by my troth, what are your eyes to me, But grey ones, as they are to every body, The Gentleman I do a little know: He's frantic sure, forward a Gods name there. Believe me my deer friend, I was enforcst: Would, I had a Dream as strange as thou art fellow, How camest thou hither? What's thy business? Sister, I wonder you will name a man, I think not on, he was no match for me, Why de'e blame me, that should rather blame Your wandering eye, to love a man loved me,

Plot summary

Plot — A Woman Is a Weathercock
Scudmore is in love with Bellafront, and his friend Nevill persuades him, with difficulty, to show the love- letter he has received from her. There is a slight complication: Nevill is on his way to .Bellafront’s wedding. She is to marry Count Frederick that morning. The whole family is mired in matrimonial competition. Bellafront’s sister Lucida also loves Frederick, and has sworn never to marry for his sake; but she is being courted by the foolish Sir Abraham Ninny, who has got himself knighted expressly to make himself a more eligible son-in-law. The youngest daughter, Katherine, is also to be married that morning, to Strange the merchant, but she too has another admirer, Captain Pouts. Unbeknown to Scudmore, Nevill impersonates the parson who is to officiate at the wedding. Scudmore tries to catch Bellafront at the church door, but she refuses him; this convinces him that all women are perfidious. After the wedding, Pouts publicly declares that Katherine has slept with him on many previous occasions. Strange seems reluctant to seek legal redress for this slander, but only because he doesn’t want anyone to stop him secretly taking a more immediate revenge. He tries to see Pouts at his lodging, but Pouts assumes he has come to serve a writ and will not let him in. Pouts then prepares to flee England and his creditors, but Strange intercepts him disguised as a soldier, claiming that Katherine engaged him to murder her new husband and that she loves only Pouts. Pouts admits that he slandered her; Strange wounds him in a fight and forces him to sign a document affirming her innocence. By a pretext, Scudmore gets in to see Bellafront, rebukes her, and returns her love-letters. She tells him that her father forced her to marry Frederick, and that she will kill herself rather than consummate the marriage. He mistrusts her, but Nevill arranges for him to participate in a wedding masque that evening. He and Bellafront sneak away during the dancing and are married, this time by the right parson. Suspicions of polyandry are dispelled when Nevill explains that the parson that morning was really him, so that the marriages are invalid. Strange brings Pouts to apologise to the gathering, but is almost arrested for his own murder until he reveals his identity. Pouts returns to the war, abjuring women. Strange is confirmed as Katherine’s husband, and Frederick will marry Lucida. In the sub-plot, Wagtail is pregnant, but wants to ensure that the child has a wealthier…