Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

BERRY

in The Fair Maid of the Exchange — Anonymous (?)

Metadata

PlayThe Fair Maid of the Exchange
AuthorAnonymous (?)
Year (catalogued)1607
First performance1602
Decade1600s
GenreComedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyUnknown
Speech prefix(es)Berry | Ber. | Berry. | Berr. | Maister Berry
Words543
Characters2865
Typicality0.45 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA03197
BritDrama no.1326
ClusterCluster 9 — Boon companions & bluff banter

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

By your leave master Flower. No trouble at all sir, shall we be going? Stay Fiddle with thy torch, Gentlemen, good even. Master Barnard, to morrow is your day Of payment sir, I mean the hundred pound, For which I have your bound, I know 'tis sure, You will not break and hour; then if you please To come to dinner sir, you shall be welcome. Thanks Fiddle, and master Flower, I am much be holding to your courtesy. And I am glad of it with all my heart; Hold friends, theres somewhat more for you to drink, Away with him to prison. What bail? where is your bail? heres none I know Will be thy bail, away with him to prison. How, thy husband! But isle undo this contract on my blessing, Daughter, come from him, he's a reprobate. But thou shalt not have him. What think you master Flower? Well Barnard, since I see my daughter loves thee, And for I hope thou wilt be kind and loving, Regard thy state, and turn and honest man, Here, take my daughter, isle give thee in thy bound, Redeem thy lands, and if thou please me well, Thou shalt not want all that I have is thine. I, when you please, you see the matter ended, The debt discharge, and I can ask no more. How! forbear my money? Your reason, why I should forbear my own? How! I may forbear; Sir, I have need of money: I may indeed fit monilesse at home, And let you walk abroad spending my coin. This I may do, but sir you know my mind, If you do break your day, assure your self, That I will take the forfeit of your bound. I sir, the forfeit; 'tis no charity To favour you that live Like Libertines: Here's a Crew! A crew of unthrifts, careless dissolutes, Licentious prodigals, vild tauern-tracers. Night watching money-wasters, what should I call ye? Oh I want words for to define you rightly; But this I know, London never fostered such As Barnard, Bowdler, and this paltry crutch. Dost thou so Fiddle, speak, hold, take thou that speak of his shame, speak freely, isle protect thee. A shilling Fiddle. Why dost thou ask? Oh ther's another shilling for thee, now let me hear what villainies thou canst charge the Cripple with. There is another shilling; now Fiddle speak. And honest man! Fiddle, thou art a knave, and so is he: Come let us home; Barnard, look to thy bound, If thou do break thy day, I do protest, By yond chaste Moon. How provest thou that? Cripple, 'tis known I am and honest man; But for thy words, Barnard shall fare the worse: As for thy self. What dost thou mean? In troth sir, you are too blame. Now may you see, what fell impatience Begets upon such tender plants as these. Now M. Flower how Like you this conceit, Hath she not over reached you? Then by my life I swear, isle clap him up Where he shall see neither the sun nor moon, Till I be satisfied the utmost penny, And so farewell. Exit. Oh sir, be patient gentle mistress Flower, Cross not your husband, let him have his will.

Plot summary

Plot — The Fair Maid of the Exchange
Phyllis and Ursula are assaulted by two ruffians as they go to deliver wares to a customer at night. A cripple rescues them, and a second assault is foiled by the intervention of Frank Golding; the cripple promises to help Frank if ever he can. Frank's two brothers are both in love with Phyllis, and, though he scorns amorous passions, Frank has fallen for her too. Phyllis, however, loves the cripple, and woos him by giving him a handkerchief to embroider “for a friend’. Meanwhile, Bobbington poses as a sailor going on a voyage, and borrows money from Phyllis’s father, Flower, leaving a diamond ring with him as security. Ferdinand and Anthony overhear one another's plans to woo Phyllis, but neither knows that Frank is also a rival. Ferdinand writes to her; Anthony plans to intercept the letter and substitute his own, but Ferdinand disguises Frank as a porter and gets him hired as Anthony's messenger. Planning to double-cross them both, Frank enlists the cripple's help. The cripple supplies him with two rejection letters to take back to his brothers, as from Phyllis. They each enlist the help of one of Phyllis’s parents, ===== PAGE 378 ===== who then quarrel over which brother shall marry their daughter. _ Knowing Phyllis loves him but thinking himself unworthy, the cripple lends Frank his clothes. Frank courts Phyllis in disguise, and she gives him her ring; then. he brings the parents forged letters from his brothers withdrawing their suits. Each parent decides to:spite the other by offering Phyllis to Frank instead of the other’s favoured son-in-law. The thwarted brothers realize what has happened, but Phyllis asks to be allowed a say in her.own marriage — and chooses Frank. As the play ends, Flower is arrested for receiving stolen property — Bobbington’s ring — and sent for trial. In the sub-plot, Mall Berry is in love with Barnard, but suffers the unwanted attentions of Bowdler. Barnard is surety for a £100 debt to Mall’s father; the original borrower is dead and the debt about to fall due, but Berry refuses to allow Barnard any more time to find the money. Bowdler persists in his pursuit of Mall, using lines he remembers from Venus and Adonis. Berry engages sergeants to arrest Barnard. Mall agrees to marry Bowdler, but the cripple points out that, through a party wall, he has overheard her talking about Barnard in her sleep: he is the man she truly loves. Barnard is arrested, but the sergeants allow him and Mall to get married before bringing him to…