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)
Coo.
Words
228
Characters
1232
Typicality
0.46 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A00960
BritDrama no.
1866
Cluster
Cluster 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
Ex' Lent, good cheer Andrew. But why should he not be familiar and talk sometime, As other Christians do, of hearty matters, And come into the Kitchen, and there cut his breakfast? Now thou talkest Of immortality, how do's thy wife Andrew? My old Master Did you no small pleasure when he procured her And stocked you in a fame. If he should love her now, As he hath a Colts tooth yet, what says your learning And your strange instruments to that my Andrew? Can any of your learned Clerks avoid it? Can you put by his Mathematical Engine? Adieu good Andrew, And send thee manly patience with thy learning. I have forgotten to eat and sleep with reading, And all my faculties turn into study, 'Tis meat and sleep, what needs I outward garments, When I can cloth my self with understanding, The Stars and glorious Planets have no Tailors, Yet ever new they are and shine Like Courtiers, The seasons of the year find no found parents, Yet some are armed in silver Ice that glisters, And some in gawdy green come in Like Masquers, The Silkworm spins her own suit and her lodging, And has no aid nor partner in her labours; Why should we care for any thing but knowledge, Or look upon the world but to contemn it? Would you have anything?
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.