in The Scottish History of James the Fourth — Greene, Robert
Metadata
Play
The Scottish History of James the Fourth
Author
Greene, Robert
Year (catalogued)
1598
First performance
1590
Decade
1590s
Genre
Romance
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
Unknown
Speech prefix(es)
Diu. | Diuine.
Words
317
Characters
1714
Typicality
0.44 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A02168
BritDrama no.
854
Cluster
Cluster 14 — Law & judgment
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Oh Lawyer, thou haste curious eyes to pry, Into the secrets maims of their estate, But if thy veil of error were unmasked, Thy self should see your sect, do maim her most: Are you not those that should maintain the peace, Yet only are the patroness of our strife? If your profession have his ground and spring, First from the laws of God, then countriees right, Not any ways inverting nature's power, Why thrive you by contentions? Why devise you Clawses, and subtle reasons to except: Our state was first before you grew so great, A Lantern to the world for unity: Now they that are befriended, and are rich, Or press the poor, come Homer without quoin, He is not herd: What shall we term this drift? To say the poor men cause is good and joust, And yet the rich man gains the best in law: It is your guise, (the more the world laments) To quoin Provisoes to beguile your laws, To make a gay pretext of endue proceeding, When you delay your common pleasant for years: Mark what these dealings lately here have wrought: The crafty men have purchased greatmens lands They powle, they pinch, their tenants are undone: If these complain by you they are undone, You fleece them of their quoin, their children beg, And many want, because you may be rich, This scar is mighty master Lawyer, Now man hath got head within this land, Mark but the guise, the poor man that is wronged, Is ready to rebel: he spoils, he pills, We needs no foes to forage that we have, The law (say they) in peace consumed us, And now in war we will consume the law: Look to this mischief, Lawyers conscience knows You live amiss, amend it, least you end. Thanks gentle scout, God mend that is amiss, And place true, zeal whereas corruption is.
Plot summary
Plot — The Scottish History of James the Fourth
Bohan has shut himself up in a tomb and scorns the world. He is visited by GB@FGn, who gives blessings to his sons: preferment for Nad, and for Slippér the promise of fairy help when he is in danger. Bohan shows him a story of King JameSEIV to justify his misanthropy. During the action, Oberon falls asleep. The King of Scots marries the English princess Dorothea, but in the church his eye lights on [da and he falls in tove. Al@iiKin offers to help him with his affair, hires servants (among them Slipper), and woos Ida on James’s behalf. Although Dorothea assumes the King’s pursuit of Ida is only a sham to test her own love, his behaviour and his liking for flatterers is ===== PAGE 35 ===== 1590 driving the nobles away from his court; James secretly welcomes this, since their absence gives him greater freedom of action. Ateukin attributes his lack of success with Ida to the adulterous nature of the proposal: if she had an expectation of marriage, she would be more pliable; therefore Dorothea must die, and Ateukin engages Jaqwes to murder her, with the promise of promotion at court. Ateukin uses his influence at court to sell favours. His own servants are equally corrupt: Sir Bartram bribes Slipper to steal a lease from Ateukin’s pocket, but what Slipper actually takes is the murder warrant. When the document is missed, Ateukin orders Andrew to find it; because reporting Slipper will expose his own malfeasance, Andrew instead robs him of the bribe- money to teach him a lesson. Sir Bartram shows the stolen warrant to Dorothea, and prevails upon her to escape dressed as a squire; but Jaques catches up with her, wounds her, and leaves her for dead. She is taken in by Sir GWEHBEMNAMAERSGh, whose wife, mistaking her for a young man, falls in love with ‘him’. Things go badly for the King of Scots. To insure himself against the possibility of Ateukin’s fall, Andrew secretly informs the Kinglefllngland of Dorothea’s fate. This precipitates an English invasion of Scotland in reprisal. Ateukin goes to resume the wooing of Ida, but on arrival finds her just married to Lord Eiistace; unable to persuade Jaques to kill Eustace too, he goes into hiding. Corruption, poverty, and lawlessness spread through Scotland, and the price of peace with England is ‘dead’ Dorothea’s return. When James proclaims a reward, the Queen reveals her identity to the disappointed DaayNAMGersGn, and goes to court. James puts a price on Ateukin’s head and orders Slipper and Andrew imprisoned…