Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

USURER

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)Vsu.
Words195
Characters1043
Typicality0.25 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA03195
BritDrama no.2098
ClusterCluster 15 — Devils, vices & grotesques

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

That should be Lionells man. After so many friendship olous delays, There's now some hope. He that was wont to shun us, And to absent himself, accoasts us freely; And with a pleasant countenance: Well met Reignald, What's this money ready? Where's your master, young Lionel, it something troubles me, That he should break his day. Tush, Private me no privates, in a word, Speak, are my moneys ready? I will be louder yet; Give me my moneys, Come, tender me my moneys. Home? It's no passed two, and I can stay till three, I'll make that now my business, otherways, With these loud clamours, I will haunt thee still; Give me my Use, give me my Principal. Prevent that trouble, And without trifling, pay me down my cash; I will be fooled no longer. I have been still put off, from time to time, And day to day; these are but cheating tricks, And this is the last minute isle forbear Thee, or thy Master: Once again, I say, Give me my Use, give me my Principal. It's struck three, My money's not yet tendered. It is enough, I have a true men word.

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.…