Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

DOL

in The Alchemist — Jonson, Ben

Metadata

PlayThe Alchemist
AuthorJonson, Ben
Year (catalogued)1612
First performance1610
Decade1610s
GenreComedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyKing's Men
Speech prefix(es)DOL. | DOL | Dol. | DAL.
Words1417
Characters7607
Typicality0.23 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA04636
BritDrama no.1621
ClusterCluster 8 — Martial kings & Roman gravity

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

Ha'you your wits? Why Gentlemen! for love— Nay, look you! Sovereign, General, are you Madmen? Will you have The neighbours hear you? Will you betray all? Hark, I hear some body. Gentlemen, what mean you? Will you mar all? Will you undo your selves, with civil war? Do'you know who hears you, Soon reign? Nay General, I thought you were civil. o, this'll overthrow all. Are you found? Ha'you your senses, Master's? Will you be Your own destructions, Gentlemen? Oh me. We are ruined lost. Ha'you no more regard To your reputations? Where's your judgement? Slight, Have yet, some care of me, o'your Republic. You'll bring your head within a coxcomb, will you? And you S r , with your Menstrue, gather it up. 'Sdeath you abominable pair of Stinkards Leave off your barking, and grow one again, Or, by the light that shines, I'll cut your throats. I'll not be made a prey unto the Marshal, For never a snarling Dogbolt o'you both. Ha'you together cossen'd all this while, And all the world, and shall it now be said Yo'haue made most courteous shift, to cossen your selves? You will accuse him? You will bring him in Within the Statute? Who shall take your word, A whoreson, upstarted, Apocryphal Captain, Whom not a Puritane, in Blackfriars, will trust So much, as for a feather? And you, too, Will give the cause, forsooth? You will insult, And claim a primacy, in the divisions? You must be chief? as if you, only, had The poulder to project with? and the work Were not begun out of equality? The venture tripartite? All things in common? Without priority? 'Sdeath, you perpetual Curs, Fallen to your couples, again, and cossen kindly, And heartily, and lovingly, as you should, And lose not the beginning of a Term, Or, by this hand, I shall grow factious too And, take my partly, and quit you. Why, if your partly exceed to day, I hope Ours may, to morrow, match it. May, murmuring Mastiff, I, and do. Gods will! Help me to thrattell him. Because o'your Fermentation, and Cibation? Your Solemnizing & Luna: help me. Will you S r . do so then, and quickly. Swear. To leave your faction S r . And labour, kindly, in the commune work. I hope we needs oh spurs S r . Doewe? Yes, and work close, and friendly Why so, my good Baboons! Shall we go make A sort of sober, sc ruy, precise Neighbours, (That scarce have smiled twice, sin'the King came in) A feast of laughter, at our follies? Rascals, Would run themselves from breath, to see me ride, Or you to-have but a Hold, to thrust your heads in, For which you should pay Eare-rent: No, Agree. And may Done Provost ride a feasting, long, In his old velvet ierken, and stained scarves, (My noble Sovereign, and worthy General) Ere we contribute a new cruel garter To his most worsted worship. A fine young Quodling. Oh, let him in. And what shall I do? Yonder Fishwife Will not away. And there's your Giantess, The Baud of Lambeth. Not, afore night, I have told'hem, in a voice, Through the Trunk, Like one of your Familiars. But I have spied Sir Epicure Mammon. Coming along, at far end of the lane, Slow of his feet, but earnest of his tongue, To one, that's with him. Why, what's the matter? Oh, let me alone. I'll not forget my raze, I warrant you. I'll keep my distance, laugh, and talk aloud; Have all the tricks of a proud scurvy Lady: And be as rude 'as her woman. I know him not. He looks Like a Gold-end man. What? Yes, say Lo: General, how fares oh ̄ ur Camp? What is he, General. No. Neither. Dapper, Your Clerk. Yonders your Knight, Sir Mammon. Here, hard by. H'is at the door. I'the Privy. My Lord, my Brother is, though I no Lady, Sir. Rather your Courtesy. Blood we boast none, Sir, a poor Baron's Daughter. Sir, although We may besaid to the gilded, and trappings, The of ; yet we stri e to keep. The eedes, and the . Troth, and I have been likened To all these Princ S. Oh, you play the Courtier. In faith, I may not, To mock me, Sir. Nay, now you court, the Courtier, and destroy What you would built. This Art Sir, i'your words Calls your whole faith in question Nam Oaths are made o'the same air, Sir. Particular, Sir? I pray you know your distance. Yes, Sir. I study here the M thematiques, And distillation. I, and for his Physic, Sir. Troth, I am taken, Sir, Whole, with these studies, that contemplate Nature: Yes. In chains of Adamant? You are contented, Sir? Say you so, Sir Epicure? You mean no treason, Sir? How Sir, have you that? You are pleased, Sir, To work on the ambition of our sex. I could well consent, Sir. But, in a Monarchy, how will this be? The Prince will soon take notice, and both seize You, and your Stone, it being a wealth unfit For any private subject Your self do boast it, Sir. Oh, but beware, Sir. You may come to end The remnant of your days, in a loathed prison, By speaking of it. That Perdicca's and Antigonus were slain, The two that stood, Seleuc', and Ptolemy — Made up the two legs, and the fourth Beast. That was Gog-North, and Egypt-South: which after Was called Gog Iron-leg, and South Iron-leg — And then Gog-horned. So was Egypt, too; Then Egypt Clay-leg, and Gog Clay-leg — And last Gog-Dust, and Egypt-dust: which fallen In the last link of the fourth Chain. And these Be Stars in Story, which none see, or look at— For, as he says, except We call the Rabbines, and the Heathen Greeks — To come from Salem, & from Athens, And teach the people of great Britain — To speak the tongue of Eber, and Javan — We shall know nothing— Where, then, a learned Linguist Shall see the ancient used communion Of Vowels, and Consonants — A Wisdom, which Pythagoras held most high— To comprise All sounds of voices, in few marks of Letters — And so we may arrive by Talmud skill, And profane Greek, to raise the building up Of Helens house, against the Ishmaelite, King of Thogarma, and his Habergeons Brimstony, blue, and firy; and the force Of King Abaddon, & the Beast of Cittim: Which Rabbi David Kimchi, Onkelos, And Aben-Ezra do interpret Room. Yes, but another is come, You little looked for. Your Master: The Master of the House. Look out, and see. God's-light Forty o'the Neighbours are about him, talking. It'll proueill day, For some on us. Lost, I am afraid. Nephew, we thought to have been angry, with you; But that sweet face of yours, hath turned the tide, And made it flow with Joy, that ebbed of Love. Arise, and touch our velvet Gown. Let me now stroke that head. Much, Nephew, shalt thou win; much shalt thou spend; Much shalt thou give away, much shalt thou Lend. Give me the Bird. Here is your Fly in a Purse, about your neck, Cousin, Wear it, and feed it, about this day seu' night, On your right wrist. No. And Kinsman, Bear your self worthy of the blood you come on. Nor break his fast, In Heaven, and Hell. No: But come, and see me often. I may chance To leave him three or four hundred Chests of Treasure, And some five thousand Acres of Faery Land: If he Game well, and comely, with good Gamesters. Yes. A good dull Innocent. It's direct Against our Articles. No, but I will do't. Content. I'am weary of him, I'll pluck his Bird as bore as I can. Yes. You are hight upon it Face, what ere it is. Hee'll now marry her, instantly. Let me alone to fit him. The Jewel of the waiting Maids, That stole it from her Lady, to know certain— Yes. Yes; and the whistle, that the Sailors wife Brought you, to know, and her Husband were with Ward. Why you the Keys? No? Hang you— Pox upon you, Rogue, Would I had but time to beat thee. Sir, I were uncivil If I would suffer that, my lip to you Sir. Pray heaven, The Master do not troublevs, this quarter. How does it? Do not we Sustain our parts?

Plot summary

Plot — The Alchemist
With his master absent to avoid the plague in London, Face has set up an occult consultancy in his house in association with the formerly itinerant rogues Subtle and Doll Common: Face fetches in the clients and Subtle poses as the alchemist. They quarrel over the relative merits of their contributions to the enterprise, but resolve to collaborate competitively in the day’s ===== PAGE 80 ===== business. They are visited by successive clients: Dapper, who wants a familiar to help him win at gambling; Drugger, who wants advice on the most auspicious layout for his shop; Sir Epicure Mammon, who seeks the philosopher’s stone to fulfil his fantasies of wealth, luxury, and voluptuousness, and who brings along with him the sceptic Surly; and the religious sectarians Ananias and Tribulation, who want both the stone and Subtle’s claimed expertise in counterfeiting foreign coins. Dapper is persuaded that he is the Fairy Queen’s nephew and heir, and is promised an introduction to her. Mammon brings various domestic articles for aurification, which Subtle then sells on to Ananias and Tribulation, saying they belong to orphans. Clients come thick and fast. Drugger introduces his neighbours, Kastril (who wants te learn how to quarrel) and the wealthy widow Pliant (who wants her fortune told and whom Face and Subtle both want to marry). They are sent away so that the tricksters can deal with Dapper, who in his turn is secreted in the privy while they attend to Mammon. The knight courts Doll, who is presented to him as a lord’s sister prone to religious mania, which he activates by ill-chosen words; but he is then told that his lust has caused a setback in the alchemical process, which demands moral purity. Meanwhile, Surly returns, disguised as a Spanish count seeking sexual favours; but, since Doll is busy with Mammon, he is foisted on Dame Pliant, who is tempted with the chance of becoming a Spanish countess. His attempt to tell her the truth is outmanoeuvred when Face and Subtle convince her that he is an impostor and that the real Count is on his way; Drugger is persuaded to impersonate him and sent off to borrow a Spanish suit for the role. Lovewit, the master of the house, returns to hear Tumours of strange goings-on. Face’s explanation is confuted by the cries of Dapper, forgotten in the privy, so he confesses everything. Dapper is presented to the Fairy Queen (impersonated by Doll) and goes away the owner of an imaginary magical fly, with instructions not to look…