in Supposes — Gascoigne, George, trans.; Ariosto, Ludovico
Metadata
Play
Supposes
Author
Gascoigne, George, trans.; Ariosto, Ludovico
Year (catalogued)
1573
First performance
1566
Decade
1570s
Genre
Comedy
Play type
Inns of Court; Translation
Speech prefix(es)
Ba. | Ba
Words
548
Characters
2764
Typicality
0.48 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A01513.1
BritDrama no.
419
Cluster
Cluster 4 — Constant hearts & virtuous ladies
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Well you jest fair, but I would advise you take heed, I have bidden you a thousand times beware, you will be spied one day talking with Dulippo. I have given you a wherefore for this why many times, but go too, follow your own advise till you over whelm us all with Sudden mishap. Well, look well about you: a man would think it were enough for you secretly to rejoice, that by my help you have passed so many pleasant nights together, and yet by my troth I do it more than half against my will, for I would rather you had settled your fancy in some noble fa milie, yea and it is no small grief unto me, that rejecting the suits of so many nobles and gentlemen, you have cho sen for your darling a poor servant of your father's, by whom shame and infamy is the best dower you can look for to attain. I can not deny, but at the beginning I did recom mend him unto you (as in deed I may say that for my self I have a pitiful heart) seeing the depth of his unbridled affection, and that continually he never ceased to fill mine ears with lamentable complaints. Well you may judge of Nurse as you list: In deed I have thought it always a deed of charity to help the miserable young men, whose tender youth consumeth with the furious flames of love: but be you sure if I had thought you would have passed to the terms you now stand in, pity nor pension, penny nor pater noster should ever have made Nurse once to open ̄ his mouth in the cause. And have I these thanks for my good will? why then I see well I shall be counted the cause of all mishap. Then I am glad you have changed your mind yet. Then I understand you not, how said you? I can not tell, you love to lie with Dulipo very well: this gear is Greek to me, either it hangs not well together, or I am very dull of under standing, speak plain I pray you. How? make you so dainty to tell it Nurse, least she should reveal it? you have trusted me as far as may be, I may show to you, in things that touch your honour if they were known: and make you strange to tell me this? I am sure it is but a trifle in comparison of those things whereof heretofore you have made me privy. I promise you of my honesty, say on. How Erostrato? is it not our neighbour, which? Are there no other Sicylians here: nor none that pass this way, which may discover them? This hath been a strange adventure, but I pray you how hang these things together? that the studente whom you say to be the servant, and not the master, is become and earnest suitor to you, and requires you of your father in marriage? Daughter you have reason, but let us go in before he come any nearer. He must have better eyesight that should marry your Polynesta, or else he may chance to oversee the best point in his tables sometime. Are you sure of this?
Plot summary
Plot — Supposes
Polynesta loves Dulippo, whose suit has been promoted by her nurse, and who is supposed a poor servant. In fact he is not Dulippo at all but Erostrato, who two years ago gained access to Polynesta by swapping identities with his servant and entering her father Damon’s household. Meanwhile Cleander seeks her hand, and the supposed Erostrato (the true Dulippo) becomes his rival for trust with him. Cleander appears to offer the best dowry, but Damon gives ‘Erostrato’ a fortnight’s grace pending his father Philogano’s arrival to underwrite his counter-offer. ‘Erostrato’ duly arranges to produce a false Philogano, recruiting a Sienese gentleman for the role by persuading him that a diplomatic incident has made Ferrara an unsafe place for a Sienese visitor. Overhearing an argument between two women servants, Damon discovers that ‘Dulippo’ and Polynesta have been sleeping together. ‘Dulippo’ is apprehended and imprisoned in the dungeon of his master’s house, and therefore unable to warn his servant of the arrival of the true Philogano: he misses his son and has come to take him back to Sicily. By chance, Philogano meets the true Dulippo, who refuses to acknowledge him. After the locals confirm that they know the young man as Erostrato, Philogano suspects that he has murdered his master and stolen his identity, and seeks legal assistance from Cleander. However, Dulippo turns out to be Cleander’s son, whom he lost as a child when evacuating Otranto during the Turkish conquest; he was later captured by Sicilians and sold to Philogano. The exchange of identities is revealed, allaying Damon’s worries about his daughter’s reputation. Cleander withdraws his suit: he no longer needs to marry and beget an heir now that his lost son has been restored to him. The true Erostrato is confirmed as Polynesta’s future husband.