in Like Will to Like (Quoth the Devil to the Collier) — Fulwell, Ulpian
Metadata
Play
Like Will to Like (Quoth the Devil to the Collier)
Author
Fulwell, Ulpian
Year (catalogued)
1587
First performance
1568
Decade
1580s
Genre
Moral
Play type
Interlude
Speech prefix(es)
T.Collier | T. Collier. | T. Colliar. | T.Colier
Words
167
Characters
802
Typicality
0.46 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A01353
BritDrama no.
472
Cluster
Cluster 15 — Devils, vices & grotesques
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
¶ By mass God amarcy my vreend Nichol, ¶ Cham glad to zee thee merry my vreend nickol, and how dost thou now a days good nickole. ‡ I pray thee tell me how dost good vreend lick hold. ¶ Nay hold thy tongue nichol till my nose doth come: So thou shalt take partly and I shall take zome. ¶ No marry so I may gain warrant my labour. It is a common trade now a days this is plain. to cut one another's throat warrant lucar and gain. A small vault as the world is now brought to pass ¶ I will never refuse Devil to dance with thee. ¶ To every Bushel cham zolde three pack, Lo here be the empty zacks on my neck. Cham begide the whoresons that of me would bought, But to beguile me was their whole thought ‡ God a mercy good devil cham ̄ glad of thy company. ¶ Var well master Devil vorich must be gone, Exit
Plot summary
Plot — Like Will to Like (Quoth the Devil to the Collier)
The devil commissions the vice Nichol Newfangle to tempt men into a preoccupation with new fashions, which will lead them to hell. The ensuing action turns on the recurrent introduction of similar characters to one another. The vice introduces a dishonest collier to the devil, then Tom Tosspot to Rafe Roister; ina ~ mock trial he judges which is the bigger wastrel ===== PAGE 35 ===== 1568 (the prize, unknown to them, is to be hanged), but considers them equal. A comic drinking scene follows with Tosspot’s followers. He also sets in motion a plot to cozen two cutpurses over an inheritance of land. The vicious characters are driven off stage by the arrival of Virtuous Life, who is enthroned and crowned. Tosspot and Roister lose all their possessions: Roister gambles his away, and Tosspot has to leave his as security for his alehouse bill. Newfangle gives them the equipment to start a mew career as beggars, and they assault him. He is found injured by a judge, Severity, and betrays the two cutpurses; they are led away to execution, and Nichol and the hangman share their clothes. Tosspot’s followers end up in hospital suffering from gout. Lucifer carries the vice away on his back. The virtuous characters pray for the Queen, the Lords, and commons.