Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

SIR MARTIN

in The Hollander (Love's Trial) — Glapthorne, Henry

Metadata

PlayThe Hollander (Love's Trial)
AuthorGlapthorne, Henry
Year (catalogued)1640
First performance1636
Decade1640s
GenreComedy
Play typeBoys Professional
CompanyQueen Henrietta Maria's Men
Theaterbefore the Court;Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)Sir Mar. | Sir Mart. | Sir. Mar. | S. Mar. | Mart. | M • rk.
Words1122
Characters6271
Typicality0.50 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA01773
BritDrama no.2536
ClusterCluster 22 — Ghosts, curses & horror voices

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

This Doctor is dishonest, speaks untruth, My jealousy is just, that any man Should so undo his reason; in belief Of women's goodness, as on their lose souls, To venture his creation; nay transform His essence by them: for a cuckold is Nam ures huge prodigy, the very abstract Of all, that is wonderful: contempt and shame, are accidents as Proper to his brow, as baire and whiteness. I nephew that's the monster. At it so close, so now he wrings her hand, And she smiles on him: and her sister laughs At the lascivious posture, that I could Command a flash of lightning, or usurp A minute the prerogative of death That I might force a ruin on them, sudden As water falls from mountains, yet so wretched, They might despair and damn themselves, what say they? I see it nephew, So violent rain weeps or the purple heads Of smiling Violets, till its brackish drops Insmuate among the tender leaves, And with its weight oppress them: these are tears, Such as distil from henbane full of poison, And craft as she they come from: tell me woman, Who hast not shame enough left in thy cheeks To cause a blush, darest thou usurp the name Of good or virtuous, when these ears can witness Thou didst solicit yesterday this youth, To fate the ravenous heat of thy desire, With all the eloquence well worded lust Could borrow to adorn its painted fow lenesse. If I stay, my rage Will hurry me to mischief, better leave her To certain ruin, then betray my self To danger of it, when strong tides meet tides In a contracted channel, they theirforce, Resign to the wearing of the troubled waves A frothier livery, then when Ocean's Encounter with full liberty, the winds Imprisoned in the Caverns of the earth, Break out in hideous earthquakes, passion so Increase by opposition of all scorns, 'Tis most opprobrious to be armed with horns. Well Master Doctor you'll remember me, And have and eye unto my nephew, I trust Her with you. Farewell sir. It shall be so, the holy law of heaven Made us one individual; the strict league 'Iwixt man and wife, ought to confine both souls To a most constant union, injured woman. 'Tis misery of customary sinners when they mean A real truth, then their precedent ills, Deprive it credit, Madam not that night, That sacred night which spread its starry wings, (Like Curtains shadowing the Altar) over Our Hymeneal couch, could witness more Sincerity of indissolving love'twixt us, Then does this minute, if your soul, (Which is so passive it may justly challenge A Martyrs temper) can dispense with passed Absurd distastes, and Like a Saint for humane Condition is too vengeful freely pardon What I amiss have acted. She offered first too, and me thought she kissed As she would eat my lips, the ravenous touch Of her hight flesh has seared me up Like grass In summer time, and her fowl breath Like blasts Of Southern winds, has quickened my dead fire Of jealousy, nay raised it to a greater Heat then my former. Viper, toad, out of my presence, ere my just waked Rage, get to its height, whence Like a Falcon towering At full pitch over the trembling fowl, it will seize on thee. Oh Urinal. Oh no, she is Like a too ripe, so extremely sweet, She poisons Like the honey which small Bees Suck from the Aconite, the Panther so Breathes odours precious as the Sarmaticke gums Of Eastern groves, but the delicious sent not taken in at Distance chokes the sense with the too musky savour. Can there be such monsters? Do that, and be my genius Urinal. What of this? According as my soul could wish. Nor I Hope's of trial, fare you well, A jealous man has in his heart his hell. Now he comes to the purpose. Flames rise on flames successively, the sphere Has no such fire as I do arbour here. Thank thee my friend, there's for Thy pains, depart. Nephew stand clear, observe. Again, why strait, If I stand still, they'll to the very act, I shall behold my self transformed to beast, And Like and innocent lamb, when the keen knife's Prepared to slit his weasand never bleat But in calm silence perish; villain devil Hadst thou as many lives as thou hast sins. This should invade them all with the swift rage Of fire or whirlwinds. He is your champion, and you his Ladies. His prostiutes I might have said Oh creature, Who art so bade, the present age will question The truth of history, which do's but mention A virtuous woman; with what impudence Canst thou behold me, and a shivering cold, Strong as the hand of winter, casts on brooks Not freeze thy spirits up, congeal thy blood. To and ere'lasting le hargy. The stars Like stragglers, wander by successive course, To various seats yet constantly revisit The place they moved from: the Phoenix whose sweetness Becomes her sepulcher, ascends again Vested in younger feathers from her pile Of spicy ashes, but men honour lost Is irrecoverable the force of fate cannot revive it. Yes just so the green Willow and shady Poplar love the brook, Upon whose banks they're planted, yet infect By frequent dropping of their withered boughs, Its wholesome waters; that thou shouldst be fair And on the white leaves of thy face bear writ The character of foulness, swallow up In thy abyss of sin, thy native pureness, As the high seas that do with flattering curls Entice the spotless streams to mix their waves With the insatiate billows, that entomb the innocent rivers. Shame and confusion seize me. Impudent strumper. Life sheel tell me straight She will retain before my face some slave, Some strong backed monster to perform her hight Desires with able activeness, the slow Motion of snails that carry on their heads Their shelly habitations to the pace Of my dull rage, is swift as erring flames, Which had it not been leaden winged; as sleep, Ere this had seized the monster. Dost not believe I am? a hideous cuckold. She shall not escape me were she Fenced with fire, strumpet thou diest. Amazement and my shame hinders my utterance, Let me breath in sighs my true repentance, And henceforth That jealousy in man if't be injust Is ill, nay worse then in a woman's lust. Oh that's the ages bawd to lustful contracts, Hell seize them, may their lips, Like twins In mischief grow together, that their foul breath May have no vent, least Like some poisonous fog, It do infect the air. A vous brother Knockdown.

Plot summary

Plot — The Hollander (Love's Trial)
Dr Artless has grown rich by taking in resident lady patients, and is concerned that his house should keep its good name. One of his current guests has a jealous husband, Sir Martin Yellow, who believes the house is really a place of assignation, and sends his nephew Popinjay there in search of evidence. Popinjay meets Artless’s daughter, Dalinea, and falls in love. Meanwhile, the apothecary Mixum has sent Artless a young man, Sconce, as a potential son-in-law; Artless is unconcerned that he is a fool because he is also rich. Sconce’s main preoccupation is with Mixum’s weapon-salve which will cure any wound if applied to the weapon that made it. When Sir Martin wounds him in a jealous rage, he takes away Sir Martin’s sword but finds the salve ineffectual and concludes that there must be something wrong with his blood. Another visitor to Artless’s house is Freewit, a suitor to Mistress Know-worth, but she breaks up with him, having heard from Lovering, her servant, that he has slept with the servant-girl Martha and got her pregnant. When he proves reluctant to marry Martha, Mistress Know-worth gives him an alternative: she will consider his suit if he can persuade Martha to release him from his prior obligation. Artless’s servant Urinal offers to prove to Sir Martin that Lady Yellow is chaste: he is to visit his wife in her bedroom, incognito, while the rest of the household is out at Dalinea’s wedding. The problem is that Dalinea doesn’t want to marry Sconce, to her parents’ annoyance. Sconce is interested in the order of the Knights of the Twibill, which allows its members to marry but will not admit anyone who is already married; he is duly determined to be inducted before his marriage. The ceremony requires him to drink heavily and remove his clothes; but the arrival of a constable causes the Twibills to break it off before it is finished, and Sconce is left without his clothes. Dalinea appears to change her mind about Sconce and goes off to marry him alongside another couple. When they return, however, it emerges that there has been some confusion of identity: Dalinea has married Popinjay, dressed in Sconce’s clothes (acquired by Urinal from the Twibills), while the other couple turn out to be Lovering and the drunken Sconce, cross-dressed as a woman. Lovering, moreover, is really Martha (so the marriage to Sconce is valid after all), inveigled into Mistress Know-worth’s service to test her loyalty to Freewit by giving him the undeserved reputation of…