Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

PECUNIA

in The Staple of News — Jonson, Ben

Metadata

PlayThe Staple of News
AuthorJonson, Ben
Year (catalogued)1631
First performance1616
Decade1630s
GenreComedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyKing's Men
Speech prefix(es)PEC.
Words547
Characters2858
Typicality0.40 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA04633.3
BritDrama no.1810
ClusterCluster 4 — Constant hearts & virtuous ladies

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

Why do you so my Guardian? I not bid you, Cannot my Grace be got, and held too, Without your selfe-tormentings, and your watches, Your macerating of your body thus With cares, and scantings of your diet, and rest? But my Reputation. May suffer, and the worship of my family, When by oh servile me nes they both are sought. Oh no! I could endure to take a great deal more (And with my constitution, were it left) Unto my choice, what think you of it, Statute ? Wait you here. Broker. Nay, of my lips, Sir, To him. And I have my desire, Sir, to behold That youth, and shape, which in my dreams and wakes I have so oft contemplated, and felt Warm in my v ynes, and native as my blood. When I was told of your arrival here, I felt my heart Beatrice, as it would leap out, In speech; and all my face it was a flame, But how it came to pass I do not know. I will do all grace To my new servant. You are a Courtier, Sir, or somewhat more; That have this tempting language! Yes, Lickfinger, Lickfinger is challenged by Madrigal of and argu meant. And we shall thank you for't and reward you. Who hath changed my servant? Sweet Cousin Madrigal, and Cousin Fitton, My Cousin Shunfield, and my learned Cousin. Indeed therein, I must confess, deer Cousin, The Gallants are all about Pecuniam. I am a most unfortunate Princess. Why do you this, Sir? spill the wine, and rave? For Brokers sleeping? No Guardian, I do Like them very well. Nay, say her jail. Never unfortunate Princess, Was used so by a Jailer. Ask my women, Band, you can tell, and Statute, how he has used me, Kept me close prisoner, under twenty bolts— No, he would have done, That lay not in his power: he had the use Of our bodies, Band, and Wax, and sometime Statutes : But once he would ha'smother'd me in a chest, And strangled me in leather, but that you Came to my rescue, then, and gave me air. My Pedigree? I tell you, friend, he must be a good Scholar, Can my dissent. I am of Princely raze, And as good blood, as any is i'the mines, Runs through my veins. I am, every limb, a Princess! Duchess of mines, was my great Grandmother. And by the Father's side, I come from Solemnizing. My Grandfather was Duke of Or, and matched In the blood-royal of Ophyr. I know it, if I hear the Blazon. What be these? Besants? That is our Coat too, as we come from Or. What line's this? This? But this, this little branch. The Welsh-myne that. I have Welsh-blood in me too, blaze, Sir, that Coat. Well, at better leisure, We'll take a view of it, and so reward you. I will, if you will have it. Cousin Pyed-mantle. And so Pecuniam her self does wish, That she may still be aid unto their uses, Not slave unto their pleasures, or a Tyrant Over their fair desires; but teach them all The golden mean: the Prodigal, how to live, The sordid, and the covetous, how to die, That with found mind; this safe frugality.

Plot summary

Plot — The Staple of News
. _ Pug the junior devil is keen to visit earth. Satan svarns him that his ideas of effective devilment are half a century out of date, but grants him leave to spend the day in London, made flesh and subject to all the frailties and limitations of the human body. A ready-made body is available, in the shape of a recently hanged cutpurse, but Pug will have to make his own arrangements for clothes. Another proviso is that he must serve the first man he meets. Unfortunately for Pug, he turns out to be a twit: Fabian Fitzdottrel. Fitzdottrel longs to see the devil, and agrees to accept Pug as an unpaid servant because he gives his mame as Devil. The same obsession makes Fitzdottrel eager to see a new play, The Devil is an Ass, but he needs some finery to show off as he sits on the stage. Wittipol is eager to sleep with Fitzdottrel’s wife, and offers him a suitable cloak in exchange for fifteen minutes’ uninterrupted conversation with the lady. He uses the time to proposition her, and engages her interest even though she has been forbidden to reply. Fitzdottrel is introduced to Merecraft, a purveyor of imaginative financial schemes, who offers to make him rich and a duke through land reclamation in the eastern fens. Fitzdottrel agrees to meet with him, leaving Pug to ensure that nobody attempts to visit his wife. Pug instead brings her a follow-up message from Wittipol, then makes advances to her on his own account, but is caught by Fitzdottrel and gets a beating. Wittipol’s friend Manly has a room which abuts Mistress Fitzdottrel’s gallery, which he uses to have a second meeting with her. This is much more intimate than the first, despite being conducted through the windows of adjacent buildings. Pug gets back into favour by tipping off Fitzdottrel, who puts a stop to the assignation and threatens to take up another woman to share his expectations and be his Duchess. Merecraft suggests that what Fitzdottrel’s wife needs is to be taught proper manners, and recommends a widow who knows the ways of the Spanish court, who might be persuaded to undertake the task if sent an expensive ring as a gift, and who is entirely fictitious. His accomplice Engine proposes hiring an actor to impersonate her, but Merecraft worries that his business methods might be leaked to a playwright and end up on stage; in the event, Engine finds a gentleman to take on the role instead, who happens to be Wittipol. Fitzdottrel cannot get his wife to part with a ring of her own, so…