Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

PENEUS

in Apollo and Daphne — Heywood, Thomas

Metadata

PlayApollo and Daphne
AuthorHeywood, Thomas
Year (catalogued)1637
First performance1635
Decade1630s
GenreClassical Myth
Play typeCloset/Unacted (?)
Speech prefix(es)Peneus. | Pen. | • nach.
Words231
Characters1255
Typicality0.31 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA03241.2
BritDrama no.2509
ClusterCluster 2 — Allegory, Nature & pageant voices

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

WHy lovely Daphne, will you loose the Youth, And let your best hours pass the Well you know, Beauty's a Flower, which not being cropped in time, Soon withers on the stalk, and then (alas) Will neither serve for use nor ornament. You owe me sweet grandchildren, pretty babes, Even for your birth you do: it is a debt That I would see discharged: I to my parents Paid it in thee; it is a Bound stands firm, Till canceled in thy sweet posterity. See, I have brought thee Suitors, choice ones too, Two noble Rivers, both residing near, Amphrisus, and still-flowing Appidans, Young, and of means, both active and of strength To wrestle against barrenness, and give The hug the foil. Being dead, I live in thee: Live thou too in thine issue; so successively Our Line and memory shall never perish, But last as long as Time. What needest thou fear? Found timorous Girl, did not thy mother this Long time before thee? Not I, Child; I would not hurry on my joys too fast, Having such hope of them. And yet, sweet Daphne, The more thou hasts their harvest, the ripe crop Shall be to them more welcome. For this time It's best to leave her to her privacy: More leisure that she hath to meditate, Less time you have in which to be resolved, It'll shorten expectation.

Plot summary

Plot — Apollo and Daphne
Peneus encourages Daphne to marry and procreate, and introduces two suitors. Evasive and unwilling to commit herself, she asks for a few months’ respite to study men and marriage. In his role as the sun, Apollo has revealed Venus’ adultery with Mars, and she has sworn vengeance. At her instigation, Cupid makes him fall in love with Daphne. Daphne runs away, and Apollo gives chase; but Daphne prays to the chaste goddesses, and is transformed into a laurel tree before Apollo can catch her. Apollo’s infatuation has affected his work as the sun-god, and time has gone haywire: Aurora has to get up early (which displeases her husband), the seasons are beginning to meld into one another, and Day and Night are not getting their proper quota of hours. Apollo asserts his authority over them, but promises to do a better job in future.