in The Brazen Age (The Age of Brass) — Heywood, Thomas
Metadata
Play
The Brazen Age (The Age of Brass)
Author
Heywood, Thomas
Year (catalogued)
1613
First performance
1611
Decade
1610s
Genre
Classical Myth
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
Queen Anne's Men
Speech prefix(es)
Deia. | Dei. | Deyan. | Deian. | Deyn. | De •… .
Words
450
Characters
2464
Typicality
0.28 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A03189
BritDrama no.
1653
Cluster
Cluster 5 — Romantic leads (high style)
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
We know it: my love must be bought with blows, Not Oratory wins me, but the sword: He that can braueliest in the lists contend, Must Deianeira's nuptial bed ascend. But that strumpet more. Lychas, he dotes upon her tempting looks, And is so much with her enchantments bleared, That he's turned woman: woman Lychas, spins, Cards, and does chare-work, while his mistress sits And makes a cushion of his Lyons skin, Makes of his club a rock. I lose my self In thismy sorrow, and forget the means; I still keep by my me, to restore my love, Lychas, fetch me the shirt within my chamber, I have bethought me now. This shirt (in blood of Centaur Nessus dipped, And since washed out) Il'e send my Hercules, Which hath the power to make his hight love die To any stranger, and revive to me. This (as his last) the dying Centaur spoke, To this Il'e trust, all other Hope's forsake. This as my best and dearest, Present me (trusty Lychas ) to my Lord, Entreat withal, that if he have not quite Put off my love, he'll dame to put on this. If he despise my gift, return it back, And in it my death. I have my prayers, Alcides his desires, Both meet in love. Help Her less. The Traitor Nessus Seeks to despoil mine honour, Jove, you Gods: Out traitorous Centaur: Help great Hercules. O, o. Help Hercules (out dog) Alcides help. Teach me to rate it truly. Centaur, I will. Though I my love mistrust not, yet this counsel I'lenot despise: this if my Lord should stray, Shall to my desolate bed teach him the way. Behold him grovelling on the senseless earth, His wounded breast transfixed by Hercules. He's forgotten in Greece. Greece that was wont to clangor with his fame, Is now all silent, who but Jason now, And Telamon, that scaled the walls of Troy, Alcides is a name for God amongst us, And Deianeira too forgotten with him. O! that I had the tempting strumpet here That keeps my Lord away, confining me Unto the coldness of a widowed bed. Were't gainst the Lyons in Chimera bred, Or those rude Bears that breed in Caucasus: The Hyrcan Tigers or the Syrian Wolves, Nay gainst the Giants that assaulted heaven And with their shoulders made those bases shake That prop Olympus: lived Enceladus With whom love wrestled: even against those monsters, I'de think me safe encircled in these arms. Farewell, prove as thou speakest. If my gift fail, I have sentenced all my sorrows to one death, While Deianeira hath a hand to use, Shee'l not live hated where she once did choose.
Plot summary
Plot — The Brazen Age (The Age of Brass)
Hercules and the shape-changing Achelous fight for the hand of Dejanira; Achelous transforms himself into a series of monsters, but Hercules retains the upper hand, and Achelous concedes defeat after one of his bull’s horns is pulled off (later to become the cornucopia). Hercules takes Dejanira home, and en route they meet Nessus, the only survivor of Hercules’ massacre of the centaurs. Feigning friendship, the vindictive Nessus offers to carry Dejanira across the river on his back; but when he gets to the other side, he attempts to abduct her. Hercules shoots him and, dying, he tells Dejanira that his blood is a love-charm, which she should use on Hercules if he ever seems interested in another woman; in fact, it is poisonous. Hercules travels to Egypt, where King Busiris sacrifices foreigners, and kills him on his own altar, but refuses to accept his crown. During his absence, Diana, offended that King Oeneus has sacrificed to all the gods but her, sends a boar to ravage the Calydonian countryside. The lords of Greece gather to hunt the boar. One of them is Adonis, and Venus falls in love with him; he insists on hunting, the boar kills him, and she transforms him into a flower. Atalanta joins the hunt, and Meleager falls in love with her; when the boar is killed, he is awarded its head, but he offends his companions by presenting it to her. In the ensuing fight, Meleager kills his uncles. His mother Althea is torn between her duty to her brothers and to her son. Meleager’s life is in her power, for, when he was born, the Fates visited her, pointed out a brand in the fire, and foretold that the child would live until the brand was burnt up; she rescued it and has kept it safe ever since. Now she burns the brand, and he dies; in remorse, she kills herself with his sword. Hercules joins Jason and the Argonauts on their quest to retrieve the golden fleece from Colchis. On the way they stop off at Troy, where King Laomedon faces an unwelcome obligation to sacrifice his daughter Hesione: he accepted a loan from Neptune’s priests to finance building the city walls, but failed to repay it when the work was complete, and retribution came in the form of a sea monster who must be appeased with the monthly sacrifice of a young Trojan woman; this month the fatal lot has fallen on Hesione. Laomedon offers Hercules a reward for rescuing her, but reneges after Hercules does so. Jason insists they defer Hercules’ revenge until their return from Colchis. The golden…