in Adrasta, or The Woman's Spleen and Love's Conquest — Jones, John
Metadata
Play
Adrasta, or The Woman's Spleen and Love's Conquest
Author
Jones, John
Year (catalogued)
1635
First performance
1635
Decade
1630s
Genre
Tragicomedy
Play type
Closet/Unacted
Speech prefix(es)
Bar. | Barb.
Words
298
Characters
1604
Typicality
0.26 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A04604
BritDrama no.
2488
Cluster
Cluster 23 — Gulls, fops & laughing-stocks
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Come out you unpolled Stoic, it's time you had the cur tesie of my Razor. I'll force it on you sir: as I am Pluto's Barber in Ordinary I will trim you, come, I long to do it, therefore fit down, and make your Beard ready for dissection—we must have help I see; Constable come hither, come I say, and fear not, but do your Office, force him to fit, if your Authority be strong enough: you trembling slave come help. So, hold him there. Now Damasippus before my mortal Razor seize your moral Beard, what can you say to save it? Yet know Damasippus, though it keep your face lukewarm, then; it breeds a frost in your Liver, devours the radical humour of your body, and endangers you to a Consumption: But in Sum mere, especially the Dogdays, such a Dung-mix of hair, and vast foregrowne Beard as this, were enough to keep your Chin swea ting, nine days together, and turn every hair of these to Snakes. Be not angry Damasippus: now the Antependium of your face is off, you have a more Sibiline aspect a great deal. That your heads may be exalted Like a brace of Bucks— Impossible that hair should argue wit; I rather think it does eclipse a good disputative face, and makes you look more Like a Traveling Greek, then and Italian Stoic. How! Numquam tondenti Barbam cadebat? Why then sir the antiquity of this your primitive Beard shows you to have been a rank enemy to our Profession. Now Saturn, Vertumnus, and the God of Sheep-sheare guide my hand— He cuts off his Beard. Hold, I have almost done. So, let him rise. Now Damasippus, in hope that you'll hereafter be a reformed man, I'll be no more a Devil.
Plot summary
Plot — Adrasta, or The Woman's Spleen and Love's Conquest
Adrasta, Duchess of Florence, objects to the amours between her son Lucilio and Althea, a woman of lower rank. She forges a letter from Lucilio to Althea which describes a plan to murder the Duke; Althea’s reply provides evidence to have her arrested for treason. Lucilio visits her in prison, convinces her that the original letter was a fake, and arranges her escape. Dressed in women’s clothes, he takes her place in the cell, stands trial as her, and is sentenced to death. The substitution is discovered only just before the execution; Lucilio attempts to kill himself anyway, but is prevented by his friend Antonio. He leaves Florence, fearful of his parents’ reprisals, and asks Antonio to assume his name and go to Greece, hoping that his father’s agents will follow this false trail and so leave him in peace. Worried that he may yet take his own life, Antonio passes on the responsibility to the villainous servant Alastor, and shadowys Lucilio in disguise. Consulted by Adrasta, the witch Micale conjures up spirits, who locate Althea living as a shepherdess in the mountains and supply poison to dispose of her. Micale is magically transported there and tries to share food with her, but Althea is melancholy and only her friend Camilla will drink the poisoned wine. Micale’s second strategy entails getting her to despair and kill herself, so she claims that both Lucilio and Althea’s mother Julia have been executed. Camilla dies, and Althea covers her face with a scarf she was given by Lucilio. Shepherds find and bury her body, and show the scarf to Antonio, who infers that the dead girl is Althea and duly notifies Julia. Julia blames Lucilio for her daughter’s death and hires Assassino to murder him. Assassino tracks Lucilio to the port where he is about to take ship for Greece, not knowing it is really Alastor whom he is following; he kills the supposed Prince and disposes of the body in the sea, but is arrested and sent back to Florence for trial. The corpse is later recovered, but is so decomposed that only the clothes are identifiable. Assassino confesses, and implicates Julia in the hope of being spared himself. Antonio offers Julia his help to lie low, but plans to attend Assassino’s execution with her in disguise. Althea goes to the place of execution, intending to throw herself off the rock and be reunited with Lucilio in death; but on the edge she sees the living Lucilio coming with the same intention. They are found together when Assassino is brought…