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)
Cap. | Capt.
Words
445
Characters
2474
Typicality
0.18 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A04604
BritDrama no.
2488
Cluster
Cluster 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
Womanish my Lord, womanish. But they showed other Cards before they won it, too. Yet they had more. Why their tongues, which fill houses, as the bustling of Winds do Climates: they overturn Families, and States, as winds do Trees, Towers, Ships. And for your diversity of winds you have your diversity of women: for your whirlwinds that clasp and carry a thing in the air, till it fallen dashed to pieces; you have of your Females that will clasp and bear you, till at your next fallen you will think one piece will scarce hang by another. For your freezing winds, you have them that will breed such a frost in your bones, that change of weather will make them as rotten as the ground after a sudden thaw: And for your blitting and burning winds, you have of them too, that will blast and scorch most ambidextrous. Only the difference is, that there be but sixteen points in the Carded, where the wind can be unprofitable to a man: but a woman has for the most partly, the whole compass of her Carded unprofitable, which contains two and thirty points at least. The Gram ̄ marians my Lord were mere Scholars, & mere Scholars be mere fools, and mere fools are easily deceived in matter of Gendering. Prithee speak not in enigmas; be understood. This amazes me, done so suddenly. Come, lets to the the Litto, and set our helps to find the Body. Right my Lord: so they all study Riders Dictionary, and therefore become excellent Horsemen. We will attend your Grace. Tush Navarchus, our commonwealth is among fish, and our policy with the winds, and therefore no marvel if Courtiers tricks savour not on our palates. Faith no; for you shall have a Courtier of the first Velvet head, when the tide runs low, and in a place unknown, will fa miliarly turn you to his old trade, accoutre his palfrey most neat lie, and thank obscurity for drowning the unfit honour he had lately slipped on and off. Tut, they be wise in that, for their conception being pre cipitate, and their births rash, they knew their glories birth would be Like the flies I have seen by a River in Egypt, that begin to live in the morning, are at full age by noon, and die before Sun set: and therefore their honour feeds Like moths upon apparel, and objects merely present—flashes—flashes. It's true, and therefore peradventure parsimony invites him to this obscurity, for I'll assure you, that to be miserable, and not fight, are grown to be two right honourable qualities,— Who? my Lord the Prince? By whom?
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…