in Fuimus Troes (The True Trojans) — Fisher, Jasper
Metadata
Play
Fuimus Troes (The True Trojans)
Author
Fisher, Jasper
Year (catalogued)
1633
First performance
1625
Decade
1630s
Genre
History
Play type
University
Theater
at University;
Speech prefix(es)
Them.
Words
480
Characters
2539
Typicality
0.30 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A00760
BritDrama no.
1890
Cluster
Cluster 21 — Old fathers & plain counsel
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
All thanks I render: your will shall guide ours, With treble-twisted love we'll strive to make One Soul inform three Bodies, keeping still The same affections both in good and ill. Now am I for a hunting match. You thickets Shelter a Boar, which spoils the ploughman's hope: Whose jaws with double sword, whose back is armed With bristled Pikes; whose fume inflames the air, And foam be-snowes the trampled Corn. This Beast I long to see come smoking to a feast. Exit. Themant. I do confess, You may complain aloud, And tear the Element with a dolorous note: Call down Astraea from her crystal chair, Or call up Nemesis from the direful deep, To expiate your wrongs. Else would the Manes of your father slain, In a white sheet come sliding to your Bed: And be revenged on you. He gave you life; How can you better spend it, than to wreak His death and slaughter? But our case and Cause, Brother, is not the same: Eulinus slew His innocent friend; And we defend the fact; With hostile noise drowning Lawes' reverent voice: But Murder outcries Both. Give me then leave To be a Neutral: My young years unfit For any desperate course, can but complain: The King our Uncle does not use us well. Exit. I, we have made a Rod for our own backs: Fetters of gold are fetters. No gap worse To let destruction in by, than to call A foreign aid: who having seen our weakness, And tasted once the fatness of our land, Is not so easily thrust out, as admitted. Such medicine is worse than the malady, Fretting the bowels of our kingdom. Oh, do not so, deer Brother. So to partly, Were to divide one Individual Soul. Nor think me so ambitious: I can live A private life, and see a regal Crown, With no more entry than I see the Sun, Glitter above me. Let not Lud's two sons Be parted by a Sea: I hold your presence, At higher price than a whole kingdoms pomp. Keep then your right: Like those admired twins, Let us rejoice, mourn, live, and die together. And lose a Brother. A body politic must on two legs stand: I'll bear a partly, so to diminish envy. If to your self unkind, be kind to me: For my sake stay at home: why will you fly? Think you a stepdame soil gives sweeter sap? And I'll count men but stocks, when they do so. And by that kiss May I transfuse my soul, or quite expire? Brother's have often for a kingdom fought: We strive to lose it. This is holy strife. But here I vow, if ere that sacred Lace Shall gird my Temples: Room must keep her bounds, Or fish for Tribute in the dreadful deep. This trump gives warning of the Kings approach.
Plot summary
Plot — Fuimus Troes (The True Trojans)
The Romans have invaded Gaul. Caesar reaches the northern shore and thinks himself at the edge of the world, until he sees the white cliffs across the Channel: a new land to conquer. To justify a war, he sends Volusenus to make an offer of peace, expecting the Britons to refuse; Volusenus will also spy out the country in preparation for the Roman assault. News of the Roman invasion plans reaches King Cassibelan, who mobilizes his troops and allies. When Volusenus presents the terms, which require the Britons to pay tribute and send hostages, Cassibelan is advised to reject them, and does. Commius the Gaul makes a last effort to encourage him to come to terms, but is imprisoned for his pains. Caesar invades Britain, but sustains heavy casualties trying to get his troops ashore. Duke Nennius defeats Caesar in the battle, but is killed by Caesar’s poisoned sword. The celebration of the British victory is offset by Nennius’ state funeral. Cassibelan came to power by murdering a previous king and depriving his son Mandubrace of his throne. Seeking revenge, Mandubrace allies himself with Caesar, who agrees to launch a second attack on Britain. Against advice, Cassibelan decides to allow the Romans to land and face them in an inland battle. A storm wrecks forty of Caesar’s ships, and initially the Briton army has the upper hand. The tide turns after many of the British petty kingdoms switch their allegiance to Mandubrace, and Cassibelan realizes that the island will be conquered. The Romans capture a druid, who warns Caesar to concentrate on foreign wars, avoid the Senate House, and beware of Brutus, who will avenge his treatment of the British descendants of Trojan Brute. Using Commius as an intermediary, Cassibelan sues for peace. Caesar dictates terms: Mandubrace is to be restored to his birthright, Cassibelan to pay tribute to Rome, and a tower to be built in Troynovant as a monument to the conquest. With Britain part of the Roman empire, a time of universal peace comes to the world. In the sub-plot, Eulinus loves Landora, who in turn loves his kinsman Hirildas and invites him into her bed. Hirildas bribes her servant Rollano to admit Eulinus instead. At Nennius’ funeral, the two friends fall out during a bout of sword-play and Eulinus kills Hirildas. This leaves him with a problem: he will not now be able to go to bed with Landora posing as Hirildas. Stricken with grief at Hirildas’s death, Landora poisons herself, and when he hears of this Eulinus too…