in The Golden Age, or The Lives of Jupiter and Saturn — Heywood, Thomas
Metadata
Play
The Golden Age, or The Lives of Jupiter and Saturn
Author
Heywood, Thomas
Year (catalogued)
1611
First performance
1610
Decade
1610s
Genre
Classical Myth
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
Queen Anne's Men
Theater
Red Bull;Outdoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)
Diana. | Dian.
Words
423
Characters
2398
Typicality
0.35 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A03205
BritDrama no.
1637
Cluster
Cluster 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
These sports, our Fawns, our Satyrs and our selves; Make (fair Calisto) for your entertain: Pan the great God of Shepherds, and the Nymphs Of Meads and Fountains, that inhabit here, All give you welcome, with their Rural sports, Glad to behold a Princess of your birth A happy Citizen of these Meads and Groves. These Satyrs are our neighbours, and live here, With whom we have confirmed a friendly league And dwell in peace. Here is no City-craft. Here's no Court-flattery simpleness and sooth The harmless Chase, and strict Virginity Is all our practice. You have read our order, And you have sworn to keep them, Fair Calisto. Speak, how esteem you them? Soft, what intruder's that? Command her hither. A manly Lass, a stout Virago, Were all our train proportioned to thy size, We needs not fear men's subtle treacheries. Thy birth and Fortune's? Welcome Lady. Her largeness pleases me, if she have courage proportioned with her limbs, she shall be Cham pion to all our wronged Ladies. You Atlanta, present her oath, What can you do? Now your're ours, you're welcome, kiss our hand, You promise well, we Like you, and will grace you. And if with our election your's agree. Calisto here your bedfellow shall be. Then hand each other and acquaint your self And now let us proceed in the pursuit, Of our determined pastimes, dedicate To the entertainment of these beauteous maids. Satires and fawns ring out your pleasing choir, This done, our Bugles shall to heaven aspire. Follow, pursue, the Stag hath took the Mountain, Come let us climb the steep cliffs after him, Let through the air your nimble javelins sing. And our free spoils home with the evening bring. We will not of your sorrows make recital So lately suffered by the hand of chance: We are from the world, & the blind Goddess Fortune We dare to do her worst, as living here Out of her reach: Us, she of force must spare, They can lose nothing, that for nothing care. Where's Atlanta? Is there no princess in our train, As yet unmatched to be her Cabin-fellow, And sleep by her? You must be single till the next arrive, She that is next admitted of our train, Must be her bed-companion, so 'tis lotted. Come Fawns, and Nymphs, and Satires, girded us round While we ascend our state, and here proclaim A general hunting in Diana's name. We'll chase the Stag, and with our Beagles shrill, The neighbouring Forests with loud echo's fill.
Plot summary
Plot — The Golden Age, or The Lives of Jupiter and Saturn
King Uranus of Crete is dead. Titan is the eldest son, but his younger brother Saturn is the popular choice to ascend the throne. Titan agrees to make way for him provided that he agrees to settle the succession on Titan’s issue and kill his own sons as soon as they are born. Saturn is declared a god, and under his benevolent rule, the people learn agriculture, ship- building, and architecture, and begin to make weapons for hunting. His wife, Sibylla, becomes pregnant, but Saturn keeps his promise to Titan and kills the baby. During a second pregnancy, an oracle foretells that the child will depose Saturn. This time Sibylla demands the privilege of killing her own child; but neither she nor her women can bring themselves to do it, so the baby is sent to a foster mother, the Princess of Epirus, and Saturn is deceived with the blood of a goat. Jupiter grows up in the court of King Melisseus of Epirus, and is sent as an envoy to conclude a peace with King Lycaon of Pelasgia; but Lycaon has murdered the Epirote hostage and offers his limbs to Jupiter as a cannibalistic banquet. Jupiter deposes Lycaon and the people elect him their King. During the conflict, he encounters Callisto, Lycaon’s daughter, and is attracted to her. She asks him to grant her a boon to prove his love; he promises, but her request is to live a chaste life as a nymph of Diana. She joins Diana, but the nymphs are already paired off, so she must await the next recruit to have a bedfellow. This turns out to be Jupiter in female disguise. During a stag hunt, he diverts her, reveals his identity and rapes her. Months later, the nymphs undress to bathe together; Callisto is reluctant, and is forcibly stripped. She is found to be pregnant. and expelled from the order. Titan learns that Saturn’s sons are alive, and marches on Crete to seize the throne. Saturn learns that Sibylla has deceived him, and sends to Jupiter for help. Meanwhile, Jupiter is curious about his parentage. He meets Callisto, pursued by their son Archas, whom she has brought up among beasts in a remote cave. Saturn’s ===== PAGE 135 ===== 1611 message arrives, confirming Jupiter’s origins, and he goes to Crete, leaving Archas as King in his stead. Meanwhile Titan and his sons have taken Saturn prisoner. Jupiter frees them after defeating Titan in battle, and is granted his sister, Juno, in marriage. Saturn worries about the oracle, and attempts to kill Jupiter, but the plot backfires: Saturn is deposed and sent into exile, and…