Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

KATHERINE

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)Kate. | Kate
Words616
Characters3099
Typicality0.32 (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

Yes faith Father, with all my heart. So could not Kate. On my life 'tis so. Thou art not so unworthy to believe him, If I did think thou didst, I would not open My lips, to satisfy so base a thought, Sprung from the slander of so base a Slave. Sir you shall not: What stain my Honour hath received by this Base Villain, all the world takes notice of, Mark what I Vow, and if I keep it not, May I be so given over, to let this Rogue Perform his slander; Thou that Wertenberg ordained, And in thy Cradle marked to call me wife, And in that Title made as my defence, Yet sufferedest him to go away with life, Wounding my Honour dead before thy face. Redeem it on his head, and his own way, Even by the sword his long profession, And bring it on thy neck out of the field: and set it clear amid the tongues of men, That all eyes may discern it slandered, Or thou shalt near enjoy me as a wife: By this bright Sun thou shalt not; Nay I'll think As a biectly of thee, as any Mongrill Bred in the City; Such a Citizen as the Plays flout still, and is made the subject Of all the stages. Be this true or no, 'Tis thy best course to fight. Pray pardon me, none seels the smart but I, 'Tis thy best course to fight, if thou be'st still, and Like and honest Tradesman eatest this wrong: O, may thy Spirit and thy state so fallen, Thy first born child may come to the Hospital. Sister, inform your self, I have no Ladyship To guild my infamy, or keep tongues in awe: If God love Innocence, I am sure he shall not Lose in this Actium. This month or two. This month or two, de'e love me, not before, It may be I will live so long Fame's Whore. Exit Kath. In thy State is happier much then ours, Were never two (Like us) unfortunate. Lost, lost intruth, to morrow I shall hear, I make account he's gone some five years voyage, Till this disgrace of ours be overblown, and for my Captain Pouts, by this time he Is ten mile on the River towards Graves end. Life, I am not married then in earnest. O my Divining Spirit, he's gone to Sea. Of all men living I could marry thee, Were not my heart given to another man, Sir you did speak of Strange. To marry me, no villain I do hate him On this report, worse then I do thy self, And may the plagues and Tortures of a Land Ceize me, if this be not and Innocent hand. O my deer Strange. Discovers himself. Why Captain, though you be a man of war, you cannot subdue affection; you have no alacrity in your eye, and you speak as if you were in a Dream, you are of so melancholy and dull a disposition, that on my Conscience you would never get Children; Nay nor on my body nei there: and what a sin were it in me, and a most pregnant sign of Concupiscence, to marry a man that wants the mettle of Generation; since that is the blessing ordained for Marriage, procreation the only end of it. Beside, if I could love you; I shall be her at home, and you in Cleeve land abroad; I among the bold Britons, and you among the hight shots. Would, Godamercy old Hieronimo. The Hose are comely. I must not eat nor sleep, weep till't be done. O Sister, here's the Villain slandered 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…