in The Late Lancashire Witches — Heywood, Thomas; Brome, Richard
Metadata
Play
The Late Lancashire Witches
Author
Heywood, Thomas; Brome, Richard
Year (catalogued)
1634
First performance
1634
Decade
1630s
Genre
Comedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
King's Men
Theater
Globe;Outdoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)
Greg. | Gre. | 〈◊〉 . [Gregory]
Words
554
Characters
2824
Typicality
0.49 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A03258
BritDrama no.
2441
Cluster
Cluster 14 — Law & judgment
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
I wonder at your confidence, and how you dare ap pear before me. It is right reverend council, I thank you for it, I shall study patience shall I, while you practice ways to beggar me, shall I? I have taken your word too often sir and neither can nor will forbear you longer. Whats that to you sir? Why, if it grieve you, you may look of ont, I have seen more than this twice twenty times, And have as often in deceived by his dissimulations I can see nothing mended. Yes, for a new one to morrow. Well Sir, you now shall be a Judge for all your jeering. Was it a fatherly partly think you having a son To offer to enter in bonds for his nephew, so to endanger My estate to redeem his mortgage. He does nothing but practice ways to undo himself, and me: a very spendthrift, a prodigal sire, he was at the Ale but tother day, and spent a fourpenny club. Can you hold your peace sir? And not long ag at the Wine he spent his taster, and two pence to the piper, That was brave was it not? Your civility have you not? For no longer ago than last holiday evening he gamed away eight double ringed tokens on a rubbers at bowls with the Curate, and some of his idle companions. 'Tw re good you would meddle with your own mat ters ir. Sir, Sir, as I am not beholden to you for house or Land, for it has stood in the name of my ancestry the Seelyes above two hundred years, so will I look you leave all as you found it. Oh Laurence, welcome, Thou wilt make all well I am sure. 'Twas but so, truly Laurence; the peevish old man vexed me, for which I did my duty, in telling him his own, and Doughty here maintains him against me. And I the meat: I'll get choice music for the merriment. I had a Pie that is not opened yet, I'll see what' in that—live Birds as true as I live, look where they fly! Fear not you that sir, for look you I obey my Father. Oh Father twenty times a day is too little to ask you blessing. Dear Father. Now sir, i'll talk with you, your champions are all gone. Sir, if a contrite heart struck through with sense Of it's sharp errors, bleeding with remorse The black polluted stain it had conceived Of foul unnatural disobedience May yet by your fair mercy find Remission; You shall upraise a Son out o'the gulf Of horror and despair, unto a bliss That shall for ever crown your goodness, and Instructive in my after life to serve you, In all the duties that be fit a son. Sir I have herd, that Witches apprehended under hands of lawful authority, do lose their power; And all their spells are instantly dissolved. What do you bring your spokesman now, your advocate, What fee goes out of my estate now, for his Oratory? I know it very well, but your dotage had done it, If my careh worser not prevented it. Pax, I think but some of m Father and Mother's oguery, this is a Law-day with they, to what they list.
Plot summary
Plot — The Late Lancashire Witches
Arthur hopes for a subvention from his uncle, Seely, to help him redeem a mortgage, but strange things are going on in the Seely household: the father is dominated by the son, Gregory, who is mastered in turn by his servant, Lawrence; there is a similar inversion of hierarchy among the women of the house. Gregory disapproves of his father’s plans to help Arthur, so the money is not forthcoming; but fortunately Arthur’s friend Generous helps out instead. The truth is that the Seelys have been bewitched in reprisal for some harsh words spoken to an old woman. Many other supernatural events are going on. Mall Spencer, owner of an amazing self-propelled milk-pail, gives Generous’s groom Roberta a high-speed horse so that he can fetch wine from his master’s favourite London tavern in a single overnight journey. Anyone who spends the night in a haunted mill is assaulted, so Gretty the miller gives up his tenancy, and Generous gives it to a poor, demobilized soldier. A witch and her spirit take the form of greyhounds; when Gretty’s son tries to whip the dogs, they scare and then abduct him. Lawrence marries his fellow servant Parnell, but a spirit turns the wedding cake into crumbs, and the rest of the meal magically becomes even less appetizing; the real food is taken to supply the witches’ feast. Mall Spencer gives Lawrence a codpiece point, which makes him impotent, causing marital difficulties. He and Parnell are mocked with a skimmington, but the relationship returns to normal when they burn the codpiece point. Mistress Generous has developed the habit of riding out alone at night. Acting on her husband’s orders, Robert refuses her a horse, so she rides him instead. It turns out that she is meeting with the witches: she is their leader. Gretty’s son escapes from their feast and tells his father about them. The new miller has a bad night, but cuts off the paw of one of the cats who are attacking him. What is found on the ground, however, is a severed human hand wearing rings identifiably belonging to Mistress Generous. She falls sick, and is found to have a stump where her hand should be. Generous orders her arrest. The witches are rounded up, confronted with their magical misdeeds, and sent for trial.