Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

NORBRET

in The Bloody Brother (Rollo, Duke of Normandy) — Fletcher, John; Massinger, Philip; Field, Nathan (?)

Metadata

PlayThe Bloody Brother (Rollo, Duke of Normandy)
AuthorFletcher, John; Massinger, Philip; Field, Nathan (?)
Year (catalogued)1639
First performance1617
Decade1630s
GenreTragedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyKing's Men
Speech prefix(es)Nor.
Words606
Characters3234
Typicality0.30 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA00958
BritDrama no.1841
ClusterCluster 7 — Pedants, satyrs & Latin wit

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

Pox, he feeds With lechery, and lives upon th'exchange Of his two Eggs and Puddings with the market women. Faith he does w ll, And cuts through the Elements for us, I must needs say In a fine dextrous line. Faith he says reason, Fryer, you must leave Your neat crisp Gla et and fallen to your Syder A while; and you la Fiske, your larded Capons, And Turkeys for a time and take a good Clean Tripe in your way; de Bube too must content him with wholesome two Souz'd pe itoes, no more Crown ordinaries, till we have clothed our Infant. Where is our Scheme, Let's see, dispatch, nay fumbling now, who's this? O, let him be, good even to him, he's a Courtier, I'll spare his Compliment, tell him, what's here? The geniture Nocturnal, Longitude At forty nine and ten minutes? How are the Cardines? I see in, see the Planets, Where, how are they disposed? the Sun and Mercury, Mars with the Dragons tail in the third house, And pars Fortune in the Imo Coeli, Then Jupiter in the twelve, the Cacodemon. I see it, peace, then Saturn in the Fifth, Luna i'th Seventh, and much of Scorpio, Then Mars his Gaudium, rising in that`ascendent, And joined with Libra too, the house of Venus, And Juniu Coeli, Mars his exaltation In the seventh house, Aries being his natural house And where he is now seated, and all these show him To be the Almuter. Why hold your tongue then if you know it; Venus The Lady of the Horoscope, being Libra The other partly, Mars rules: So that the geniture, Being Nocturnal, Luna is the highest, None else being in sufficient dignity, She being in Aries in the Seventh house, Where Solemnizing exalted, 'is the Alchoroden. Why I saw this, and could have told you too. That he beholds her with a Trine aspect Here out of Sagitary, almost partly, And how that Mars out of the selfsame house, (But another Sign) here by a Platique aspect Looks at the Hilege, with a Quartile ruling The house where the Sun is; all this could I Have told you, but that you'll outrun me, & more, That this same Quartile aspect to the Lady of life, Here in the seventh, promises some danger, Cauda Draconis being so near Mars, And Caput Algell in the house of Death. What is the question first? Apparent, & those sudden, when the Hyley Or Alchorodon by direction come To a Quartile opposition of the place Where Mars is in the Geniture (which is now At hand) or else oppose to Mars himself; expect it. Wisdom only That rules the Stars, may do it; for Mars being Lord of the Geniture in Capricorn, Is, if you mark it, now a Sextile here, With Venus Lady of the Horoscope. So she being in her Exilium, which is Scorpio, And Mars his Gaudium, is over ruled by him, And clear debilitated five degrees Beneath her ordinary power, so That, at the most she can but mitigate. No, that the Stars tell us not, they name no man, That is a work, sir, of another place. Let me pause a little, Is he not near of kin unto the Duke? How old is he? His head and beard inclining to be gray. He is somewhat corpulent, is he not? Well, look to him, farewell. Exit Norb. We shall have brave rewards? Mathematicians if it please your Lordship. We know the Gentleman. We are paid already. We do beseech your Lordship, we were hired. I am one, Sir. Ah, good my Lord.

Plot summary

Plot — The Bloody Brother (Rollo, Duke of Normandy)
The old Duke of Normandy has left his dukedom to be shared by his two sons, Rollo and Otto, but the brothers are mutually antagonistic. Civil war is averted by the intervention of their mother Sophia, and they agree to celebrate the new accord at a banquet. Latorch persuades Rollo to renege on the truce, but proposes to dispose of Otto by craft rather than by force, and suborns the kitchen staff preparing the banquet to poison Otto's food. At the feast, however, Otto is off his food and will not eat. Rollo pretends to take offence, claiming that Otto's reluctance is tantamount to accusing him of a poisoning attempt, and leaves the banquet. He later murders Otto in their mother's presence, and sends Latorcb to convince the citizens that he was acting in self-defence. Gisbert and Baldwin, two senior courtiers, are beheaded for refusing to abet his usurpation; a third, Aubrey, recognizes that, the murder notwithstanding, Rollo is the only legitimate heir left. Rollo makes it known that the poisoning plot was instigated by Otto, and has the caterers hanged. Rollo proves to be a tyrant who preys not only on his nobles but also his meaner subjects. Among the latter is Allan , Gisbert's servant, who is condemned to death for burying his executed master; his brother Hamond, the Duke 's Captain of the Guard, cannot persuade Rollo to spare him. Latorch asks permission to have Rollo's horoscope cast; his objective is to get the astrologers to foretell danger to the Duke's life from a courtier identifiable as Aubrey. Rollo does not wait for the results: Aubrey is delegated to carry out a task detailed in a letter, which turns out to be the supervision ofhis own execution; but Hamond will not co-operate. and Aubrey 's head remains on his shoulders. Meanwhile Rollo goes to dinner with Baldwin 's daughter Edith , ,,.ilom he covets, not knowing that she intends to murder him. Her plans are stymied when he seems to repent his misdeeds and promises reformation. Hamond, ordered to attend with the guard, does not share her scruples : he kills Rollo in revenge for the treatment of Allan _and Aubrey, and then himself. Aubrey succeeds to the dukedom, and has Latorch hanged. Edith is sent to a nunnery after she refuses to condemn Rollo 's murder.