Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

DAPHNE

in Jupiter and Io — Heywood, Thomas

Metadata

PlayJupiter and Io
AuthorHeywood, Thomas
Year (catalogued)1637
First performance1635
Decade1630s
GenreClassical Myth
Play typeCloset/Unacted (?)
Speech prefix(es)Daphne. | Daph.
Words316
Characters1728
Typicality0.29 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA03241.1
BritDrama no.2508
ClusterCluster 7 — Pedants, satyrs & Latin wit

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

And how much are we bound unto the gods, (Fair Io) to be Nymphs, not generated From marish Meres, nor yet from standing Lake's, From sedgy brooks, thick pools, or shallow fords, Nor yet from violent and robustuous seas. Their waters keep a smooth and gentle course, Not moved to fury by the warring winds; Nor when loud fluxes fallen to swell their bounds, And make deep inundations on the meads: Nor can the parching drought so dry their springs, But that their channels keep a temperature: Their modest shallows serve us for cool baths In summer time to play and wanton in: Their depths, to bore our hooks with worms and flies Fastened to lines made of small twisted silk, And so betray the creatures of the flood. Their crystal waves are Myrrhors, in the which We dress our heads, and put these curls in form, Sometime so cunningly, as if that Art Had power to exceed Nature: and again, With careless, but so curious a neglect, As if mere Chance did antecede them both. This makes us of the Satyrs so admired, And of the Fans and Swains so much beloved. Beside such, For these my father, by whose will I am swayed) Accounts as mean) of Gallants I have change; oath City and the Court. By what dream, r rather by what brainsick fantasy ath Io been deluded? Hath your Beauty worser amongst men such long and strange neglect, at Io would to colour such disgrace, ccuse the gods of weakness? Now by what gods, for Heavens sake? He of whom You have learned to thunder these impossible braves. Io, I am ashamed. Strange wonder sure, To look upon that face in which we Mortals, And valve it at best, can nothing spy, Breed admiration in a Deity! Fly, fly, lest we be thunderstruck, away; Let's seek our safety, danger's in our stay.

Plot summary

Plot — Jupiter and Io
Io boasts of her superiority to her fellow nymphs: they only have mortals for their suitors, whereas she is loved by a god, Jupiter. The nymphs think this an idle vaunt until Jupiter appears and confirms Io’s story. Jupiter conjures up a fog to shroud their love-making, but this makes jealous Juno suspicious. Jupiter turns Io into a cow to conceal his adultery, but Juno asks him to give her the cow, for use as a sacrificial offering. Jupiter has no choice: he hands over the cow, and Juno sets Argus to guard her and treat her harshly. Io’s disappearance worries her father Inachus. He and his friends see Argus maltreating the cow, and notice that she weeps like a human being; she also uses her hoofs to write her name on the ground. Hearing Inachus’ laments, Jupiter sends Mercury to release Io. Argus boasts to Mercury about the tricks his cow can do. Mercury sings him to sleep and decapitates him; Juno finds his body and turns him into a peacock. Jupiter and Juno reach a compromise: Juno will release Io, who will then go into exile in Egypt; Jupiter will leave her alone, but the Egyptians will worship her as a goddess.