in The Elder Brother — Fletcher, John; Massinger, Philip
Metadata
Play
The Elder Brother
Author
Fletcher, John; Massinger, Philip
Year (catalogued)
1637
First performance
1625
Decade
1630s
Genre
Comedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
King's Men
Theater
Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)
Cow.
Words
408
Characters
2197
Typicality
0.26 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A00960
BritDrama no.
1866
Cluster
Cluster 2 — Allegory, Nature & pageant voices
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
And will report your bounty in the Court. Nay to the King. Nay certainties. All courtly, courtly. They are the sneaking'st things, and the contemptiblest; Such small beer brains, but aske'em any thing Out of the Element of their understanding, And they stand gaping Like a roasted Big; Do they know what a Court is or a Council, Or how the affairs of Christendom are managed? Do they know any thing but a tired hackney? And they cry absurd as the Horse understood'em. They have made a fair youth of your elder brother, A pretty piece of flesh. It will do well, love those that love good fashions, Good clothes and rich, they invite men to admire'm, That speak the lisp of Court, O it's great learning! To ride well, dance well, sing well, or whistle Courtly, Th'are rare endowments; that have seen far Countries And can speak strange things, though they speak no truths, For then they make things common. When are you married? That's true, wee'll be Knights then, Some wandering Knights, that light here on a sudden. You must not say so. You are a man of peace, Therefore we must give way. Oh blessed travail! How much we owe thee for our power to suffer? We have no quarrel to you, that we know on, Sir. Yet bear it not Like you With such dejection. Pish, that's nothing, 'Tis Damnum reparabile, and soon recovered. Flattery rubs out, But since great men learn to admire themselves, 'Tis something crestfallen. It is a faith, That we will die in, since from the black guard To the grim Sir in office, there are few Hold other Tenets. You're the wiser. A mere bubble, For what's grown common is no more regarded. Yes, and a good one, A Milan hilt, and a Damasco blade, For ornament, no use the Court allows it. I never tried this, Yet I have worn as fair as any man, I'm sure I've made my Cutler rich, and paid For several weapons, Turkish and Toledo's, Two thousand Crowns, and yet could never light Upon a fighting one. 'Tis at your service Sir, A lath in a velvet scabbard will serve my turn. Sure hee'll Beatrice us, I see it in his eyes. We honour the Court As a most sacred place. Yes, we are all these, and more, If you will have it so. Here's a cold breakfast After a sharp nights walking.
Plot summary
Plot — The Elder Brother
Louis wishes his lazy daughter Angelina would take more exercise, but her woman Sylvia has a better idea: she should get married. Unfortunately Angelina has high standards: when Louis proposes one or other of Brisac’s sons, Charles the scholar and Eustace the courtier, she objects that neither will have the money to keep her as she would wish. Louis pursues the idea anyway, but the bookish Charles, who has only ever seen one woman, his mother, has been put off marriage by the bad examples of antiquity. Louis is willing to accept Eustace, the younger brother, so long as Brisac agrees to disinherit Charles. Much to the disgust of Charles’s uncle, Miramont, a legal instrument is drawn up for the purpose. Charles seems unconcerned by his father’s plans, until he sees Angelina, whereupon he changes his mind about women, refuses to sign away his birthright, and woos the girl himself. She finds him more attractive than Eustace, and the wedding is aborted. Brisac throws him out; Angelina goes with him, and they live together in unmarried chastity. Spurred on by his father, Eustace visits them at night and tries to seize Angelina, but Charles puts up a fight and takes Eustace’s sword from him. Brisac has arranged for Charles’s servant Andrew to marry Lily, and given the couple a farm; but in reality Lily is his mistress and, on the same night as the brothers fight, he visits her for sex. Andrew brings Miramont to the farm to see the liaison for himself, and intervenes as Brisac is undressing for bed. Brisac tries to buy Andrew’s silence with a larger grant of land before realizing that there is a second witness. Eustace borrows a sword and confronts Charles, but Charles will not give up Angelina, and they fight. The bout is interrupted by the arrival of news that Brisac has been arrested by Louis, who insists on the return of Angelina (in the same condition as before). The brothers join forces to rescue their father. Miramont points out that, if he pursues the case, Louis will both ruin Angelina’s reputation and put himself in the control of lawyers; so Louis drops the matter. Miramont pays off the officers and insists that, as a penance, Brisac should abide by his offer to enlarge Andrew’s farm.