Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

SERVANT

in The Disobedient Child — Ingelend, Thomas

Metadata

PlayThe Disobedient Child
AuthorIngelend, Thomas
Year (catalogued)1570
First performance1560
Decade1570s
GenreMoral
Play typeInterlude
Speech prefix(es)¶ Seruaunte.
Words435
Characters2202
Typicality0.56 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA04027
BritDrama no.213
ClusterCluster 16 — Errand servants & brief parts

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

¶ Master there is a Stranger at home He would very fain with you talk: For until that to him you do come Forth of the doors he will not walk. ¶ Let them go both, and do what they will And with communication fill their bealy: For I by Saint George will tarry here Still, In all my life I was never so weary. I have this day filled so many Pots With all manner wine, Ale, and Beer: That I wished their bealyes full of Bottes Long of whom was made such cheer. What kinds of meat, both flesh and Fish Have I poor knave to the table carried? From time to time dish after dish, My legs from going never ceased. What running had I for Apples and Nuts? What calling for Biskettes, Cumfettes and Caroweies? A vengeance said I, light on their guts That makes me to turn so many ways. What crying was there for Cards and Dice? What coystynge, what ruffling made they within? I counted them all not greatly wife. For my head did almost ache with dyn. What babbling, what jangling was in the house? What quaffing, what bybbyng with many a Cup? That some say along as drunk as a Mouse Not able so much as their heads to hold up. What dancing, what leaping, what jumping about From bench to bench, and stool to stool? That I wondered their brains did not fallen out When they so out ragiously played the fool. What juggling was there upon the boards? What thrusting of knives through many a nose What bearing of Forms? what holding of Swords? And putting of Botkyns through leg and hose? Yet for all that they called for drink, And said that they could not play for dry That many at me did nod and wink Because I should bring it by and by, How so ever they sported the pot did Still walk If that were away, then all was lost: For ever anon the Jug was their talk, They past not who bore such charge and cost. Therefore let him look his Purse be right good, That it may discharge all that is spent, Or else it will make his haere grow through his hood There was such havoc made at this present, But I am afeard my master be angry That I did abide thus long behind: Yet for his anger I pass not greatly, His words they be but only wind, Now that I have rested so long in this place Home ward again. I will buy me apase.

Plot summary

Plot — The Disobedient Child
A rich man's son, afraid of corporal punishment, refuses to go to school. He also rejects his father's suggestion that he find gainful employment, perhaps as a soldier; instead, against his father's advice, he insists on marrying. His father disinherits him. He leaves his home in London for St Albans, gets into debt, and marries a young woman. They have a lavish and expensive wedding feast. His father refuses to pay the money he owes. When he proves reluctant to go out to earn a living, his wife becomes shrewish, beats him, and sends him on domestic errands. He regrets his marriage, and goes home to his father. Satan reveals that the marital discord was his doing. The rich man refuses to take in his son and insists that he return to the wife he chose, but promises him a little money. The moral is explained in a peroration: spare the rod and spoil the child.