Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

ROBIN

in The English Traveller — Heywood, Thomas

Metadata

PlayThe English Traveller
AuthorHeywood, Thomas
Year (catalogued)1633
First performance1627
Decade1630s
GenreTragicomedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyLady Elizabeth's Men
TheaterPhoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)Rob.
Words358
Characters1904
Typicality0.53 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA03195
BritDrama no.2098
ClusterCluster 16 — Errand servants & brief parts

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

Shall I be beat out of my Master's How e thus? But the old man lives, That shortly will depose you. And why so? Yet your fellow. Prank it, do, Waste, Riot, and Consume, Misspend your Hours In drunken Surfeits, loose your days in sleep, And burn the nights in Revels, Drink and Drab, Keep Christmas all year long, and blot lean Lent Out of the Calendar; all that mass of wealth God by my Master's sweat and thirsty care, Havoc in prodigal uses; Make all fly, Powr't down your oily throats, or send it smoking Out at the tops of chimneys: At his departure, Was it the old men charge to have his windows Glister all night with Stars? his modest House Turned to a common Stews? his Beds to palates Of Lustest and Prostitutions? his Buttrey hatch Now made more common then a Taverns bar, His Stools that welcomed none but civil guests, Now only free for Panders, Whores and Bawds, Strumpets, and such. But when both our services are questioned. Farewell Musk-Cat. They say my old Master's come home; I'll see if he will turn me out of doors, as the young man has done: I have laid rods in piss for somebody, escape Reignald as he can, and with more free dome then I dust late, I boldly now dare knock. O Sir, you are welcome home; 'Twas time to come Ere all was gone to havoc. Are they gone Sir? 'Twas well yet they have left the house behind; For all the furniture, to a bore bench, I am sure is spent and wasted. Country Sir? It's a thing they know not; Here they Feast, Dice, Drink, and Drab; The company they keep, Cheaters and Roaring-lads, and these attended By Bawds and Queans: Your son hath God a Strumpet, On whom he spends all that your sparing left, And here they keep court; To whose damned abuses, Reignald gives all encouragement. Last week I am sure, so late, and the other day, Such Revels were here kept. Yes, and his servant Reignald. Save Sir with such Sprights. That's my fear too. And I.

Plot summary

Plot — The English Traveller
Geraldine has recently returned from foreign travels, to find that, during his absence, a childhood friend, whom he was expected to marry, married old Wincott instead; she did not seek the marriage, but has no complaints. Having no children of his own, Wincott treats Geraldine as a close friend, and is trusting enough to leave the young man alone with his wife. Geraldine agrees with her that, should they both survive Wincott, he will be her second husband, and he agrees to remain single until then. Dalavill spreads rumours that Geraldine and Mistress Wincott are lovers. Concerned at the possible scandal, Old Geraldine tests his son by proposing that he should marry; Geraldine’s refusal is taken as confirmation of the affair. Geraldine protests his innocence, but to prove it, and silence the gossip, his father insists that he should never again visit the Wincotts. His absence grieves Wincott, and Geraldine agrees to explain himself at a secret midnight meeting. He is pressed by Wincott to stay the night but, unable to sleep, decides to pass the time looking innocently at Mistress Wincott in her bed. Outside her room he overhears her talking to Dalavill: they are lovers. Disillusioned, Geraldine plans to leave England. Wincott lays on a feast to mark his departure, and everyone is invited. At the party, Geraldine confronts Mistress Wincott with what he knows. She is mortified, rejects Dalavill, faints, and dies, having written to her husband a confession. Dalavill flees the house. Wincott confirms Geraldine as his heir. In the other plot, Young Lionel lives with riotous prodigality while his father is away, abetted by some of the servants, and fills the house with whores and drunken gallants. When Old Lionel returns unexpectedly, intending to stay at home in future, Young Lionel and his associates panic and hide inside the house - leaving themselves with the problem of how to get out before Old Lionel finds them. The steward Reignald takes matters in hand, and tells them to make no sound, and pretend the house is deserted. Old Lionel finds his house apparently shut up, and Reignald explains that it has been abandoned: a previous owner committed a murder there, and now the house is haunted. When the former owner denies this, Old Lionel attempts to have him arrested. Meanwhile, Reignald is harried by a usurer to whom Young Lionel owes money. Old Lionel overhears this, and Reignald explains that the money was borrowed to 1624 buy alternative accommodation.…