in Cynthia's Revels, or The Fountain of Self-Love — Jonson, Ben
Metadata
Play
Cynthia's Revels, or The Fountain of Self-Love
Author
Jonson, Ben
Year (catalogued)
1640
First performance
1600
Decade
1640s
Genre
Satire
Play type
Boys Professional
Company
Children of the Chapel (second)
Speech prefix(es)
PER. | P • R.
Words
307
Characters
1698
Typicality
0.21 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A04632.3
BritDrama no.
1269
Cluster
Cluster 20 — Conjurers, witches & physicians
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Taste, smell; I assure you sir, pure benjamin , the only spirited sent, that ever awaked a neapolitane nostril. You would wish your self all nose, for the love oh to. I frotted a jerkin, for a new-reuenu'd gentleman, yielded me threescore crowns, but this morning, and the same titillation. I am a nullifidian , if there be not three thirds of a scruple more of samp uchinum , in this confection, then ever I put in any. I'll tell you all the ingredients, sir. Simple? why sir? what reck I to whom I discover? I have in it, musk, civet, amber, pheenicobalanus , the decoction of turmeric, sesama, nard, spikenard, calamus odoratus, stacte, opobalsamum, amomum, storax, lad num, aspalathum, opponax, oenanth. And what of all these now? what are you the better? Tut, it is the sorting, and the dividing, and the mixing, and the tempering, and the earcing, and the decocting, that makes the fumiga cion, and the uffumigation. I will, sir. I, sir. Oh yes, sir, I have and excellent mineral Fuc , for the purpose. The gloves are right, sir, you shall bury them in a muckhill, a draught, seven years, and take them out, and wash them, they shall still retain their first sent, true spanish. There's ambre i'the umbre. Give me what you will, sir: The Signior pays me two crowns a pair, you shall give me your love, sir. I come, sir. There's and excellent diapasme in a chain too, if you Like it. We'll agree, Monsieur ; I'll assure you, it was both decocted, and dried, where no sun came, and kept in and onyx ever since it was balled. Nay, the ucus is exorbitant, sir. Nought, but sublimate , and crude Mercury , sir, well prepared, and dulcified, with the jawbones of a sow, burned, beaten, and searced.
Plot summary
Plot — Cynthia's Revels, or The Fountain of Self-Love
Cynthia proclaims a revels at which all are welcome. Mercury and Cupid, who is usually banned from her court, go disguised as pages. Resurrected by Mercury, Echo curses the fountain beside which Narcissus died, so that all who drink of it will be afflicted with self-love. Amorphus does so and reports its wonders, so that the water is much in demand. He undertakes to make Asotus, a citizen’s heir, into a courtier, and gives him intensive training in courtly behaviour and the practice of wooing, but Asotus’ plebeian tastes keep betraying him. While the court ladies impatiently await the arrival of the fountain-water, Asotus courts his father’s old love, Argurion. He accepts her gifts, but then gives them away to the other courtiers in an effort to ingratiate himself. Argurion faints, then transfers her affections to the page Morus. The water arrives and is eagerly consumed. Arete brings the courtiers Cynthia’s instructions that they are to prepare an entertainment for her that evening. They 1600 suggest a masque, but are offended when Arete decides to ask the scholar Criticus to write it: they will only be the performers. Cynthia makes her appearance, and the masque is performed: Anteros (played by Cupid ) introduces four virgins, and a page ( played by. Mercury ) introduces four brothers, all of them representing virtues associated with Cynthia. Cupid attermpts to make the masquers fall in love with one another, but his arrows cannot counteract the influence of the fountain- water. The revels ended, Cynthia is annoyed to find that the masquers are people who are not usually welcome in her court, and calls them to account for. usurpin Zz virtues they do not have in their own persons. Criticus sentences them to sing a palinode, and to wash off their self-love in Helicon, the well of knowledge. B-Text Asotus is to prove his skill as a courtier on: the evening of the masque, by challenging all comers to compete with him in courtly behaviour. Mercury persuades Crites to accept the challenge, to punish him and his associates for bringing the name of courtier into disrepute. Posing as a courtly Frenchman, Mercury competes with Amorphus and defeats him. Crites continually bests Asotus until he withdraws from the contest, unable to go on. _