Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

ALEXIS

in The Faithful Shepherdess — Fletcher, John

Metadata

PlayThe Faithful Shepherdess
AuthorFletcher, John
Year (catalogued)1610
First performance1608
Decade1610s
GenrePastoral Tragicomedy
Play typeBoys Professional; Adult Professional
CompanyChildren of the Queen's Revels
Speech prefix(es)Alex. | Alexis. | Allexis. | Alex
Words618
Characters3217
Typicality0.51 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA00962
BritDrama no.1582
ClusterCluster 13 — Attendant courtiers & citizens

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

Can such beauty be Safe in his own guard, and not draw the eye Of him that passes on to greedy gaze, Or covetous desire, while in a maze The better partly contemplates, giving rain And wished freedom to the labouring vain? Fairest and whitest, may I crave to know, The cause of your retirement, why you go Thus all alone? me thinks the downs are sweeter And the young company of swains more meeter, Then these forsaken and untrodden places. Give not your self to loneness, and those graces Hide from the eyes of men, that were intended To live amongst us swains. If for me, Thou sweetest of all sweets, these flashes be, Speak and be satisfied, o guide her tongue, My better angel, force my name among His modest thoughts, that the first word may be, If I stay behind, And everlasting dulness and the wind, That as he passes by shuts up the stream, Of Reine or volga while the suns hight beam, Beats back again, cease me, and let me turn To coldness more then ice: o how I burn And rise in youth and fire! I dare not stay. exit. Fly fly thou day, O my fire, How thou consumest me? Cloe answer me, Alexis, strong Alexis, high, and free, Calls upon Cloe : see mine arms are full Of entertainment, ready for to pull That golden fruit which too too long hath hung, TO mpting the greedy eye: thou stayest too long, I am impatient of these mad delays, I must not leave unsought those many ways That led into this centre, till I find Quench for my burning lust, I come unkind. Exit Alexis. Cloe. Where shall we rest, but for the love of me, Cloe I know ere this would weary be. Then boldly here, where we shall never be found, No shepherd's way lies here, 'tis hallowed ground, No maid seeks here her strayed Cow, or Sheep, Fairies and Fawns, and Satires do it keep, Then carelessly rest here, and clip and kiss, And let no fear make us our pleasures miss. Oh yet forbear To take her from me, give me leave to die By her. Oh death O O my heart, My dearest, dearest Cloe Oh the smart, Runs, through my side: I feel some pointed thing, Pass through my Bowels, sharper then the sting, Of Scorpion. Pan, preserve me, what are you, Do not hurt me. I am true, To my Cloe though she fly And leave me to this Destiny, There she stands, and will not lend, Her smooth white hand to help her friend, But I am much mistaken, for that face, Bears more Austerity and modest grace, More reproving and more awe. Then These Eyes yet ever saw, In my Cloe, o my pain: Eagerly Renews again: Give me your help for his sake you love best: Sure I have lost much blood. Is not that Cloe ? 'tis my love; 'tis she: Cloe, fair Cloe. Take not her: take my life first. I have forgotten all vain desires, All looser thoughts, ill temp ed fires, True love I find a pleasant ume, Whose moderate heat can never consume. Eternal thanks to thee, thou holy maid: I find my former wandering thoughts, well stayed, Through thy ise precepts, and my outward pain, By thy choice herbs is almost gone again. Thy sexes vice and virtue are revealed, At once, for what one hurt another healed. If Pan himself should come out of the lawns, With all his troops of Satires and of Fans, And bid me leave I swear by her two eyes, A greater oath then thine, I would not rise.

Plot summary

Plot — The Faithful Shepherdess
Having buried her love, @I6Tifi swears to live a life of chastity ever after, abstaining from her fellow shepherdesses’ amorous sports; instead she will live by his grave and devote herself to herbal medicine. She attracts the attentions of a passing Saji, but he only wants to give her fruit; as her mother always told her, preserving her virginity has protected her from harm. Périgot makes a date with Almoret] and refuses the advances of Almiaryllis} who then plots with a sullen, malcontented shepherd to cross their love. Using herbs and a magic well, she transforms herself into Amoret’s shape, and makes unchaste advances to PeHgOu thinking the worst, Perigot then attacks the real Amoret. After he has gone, the sullen shepherd tries to finish the job by throwing her into the well, but the God of the River rescues her and heals her wounds. GhIGE) eager for sex, propositions a number of boys. [HEHE is only interested in Ql6rin, but(GHIGe manages Daphnis turns out to want a chaste lover, so Chloe sends him off on a fool’s errand looking for a hollow tree, and hopes for better luck with Alexis. She also takes the fancy of the sullen shepherd, who attacks and wounds Alexis; but the confrontation is interrupted by the chance arrival of the Satjr. The sullen shepherd is scared off, and the Satyr brings \ANGRIS to Clorin for medical treatment. Chloe decides that joining Daphiig inside his hollow tree will be better than nothing. Ammaryllis confesses her shape-shifting ruse to a suicidally remorseful Perigot, and offers to prove it by returning in the same disguise. However, the Amoret he next encounters is the real one. Mistaking her for another substitute, he wounds her a second time. The Satyi takes her to Clorin to be healed. Amaryllis thinks better of her lustful thoughts when the sullen shepherd attempts to rape her. Since THEHOElis attracted to Clorin for her chaste fidelity to her dead love, she breaks his infatuation by ===== PAGE 478 ===== pretending to offer herself to him. The Satyr finds Chloe in the hollow tree with Daphnis, so Clorin tests their chastity with a miraculous taper which will burn only the lustful; DapHfiis is proven chaste, but Chloe gets her fingers burnt. P&H6t goes to Clorin for help in getting Amoret’s blood off his hands; there he meets the recovered Amoret, and she forgives him. The Priest of Pan notices that the young people have been out all night, and he too ends up at @l@Hiti’s bower. The lovers are paired off, and the sullen…