Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

LATIMER

in The New Inn, or The Light Heart — Jonson, Ben

Metadata

PlayThe New Inn, or The Light Heart
AuthorJonson, Ben
Year (catalogued)1631
First performance1629
Decade1630s
GenreComedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyKing's Men
Speech prefix(es)Lat.
Words547
Characters2926
Typicality0.25 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA04658
BritDrama no.2263
ClusterCluster 9 — Boon companions & bluff banter

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

what? Then of this Parasite? here comes mine host. And merry I swear. We never yet felt such a fit of laughter, As your glad heart hath offered us, since we entered. He'is fitted with a name. Is he a scholar? What calling has' he? The glorious Colonel Tipto, Host, I fear a taint here i'the Mathematics. They say, lines parallel do never meet; He has met his parallel in wit, and school-craft. At all, why not? The air's as free for a fly, as for and Eagle. And Indice. So are all smatterers, insolent, and impudent. T'is my wonder! Two animals should hawk at all discourse thus! Fly every subject to the Mark, or retrieve— T'is foam folks fortune! Well acted Pru. How he commends him! Some inginous strong words! A fair remove at once, of two impertinents! Excellent Pru! I love thee for thy wit, No less then State. Excellent Princess! Brave Sovereign. It S well for you, you have so happy expressio S. Had it been easier, I should have suspected The sovereigns justice. I am not jealous! Beaufort— At what Bar? Bring't into the Sovereignty: It is the nobler Court, afore Judge Pru, The only learned mother of the Law! And Lady of conscience, too! And a rare States-woman. I admire her bearing In her new regiment. Content. You have rea son, You had it on the by, and we observed it. And stands with the prerogative of loves Court! And she will act them subtly. I shake, and am half jealous. Sure she is serious! I shall have another fit of jealousy! I feel a grudging! But what a glorious beast our Tipto showed! He would not discompose himself, the Done! Your Spaniard, never, does discompose himself. For all's Done Lewis! Or fencing after Euclid! And Like a Lover! She answers Like a fishwife. 'Tis a quaint one! M r Nic. Stuff! He lies With his own Succuba, in all your names. This gown was then bespoken, for the Sooner aig Tear all her tackle, And let her Footman Beatrice the basin afore her. For his own hell! though he run ten mile for't. It is a question Fit for the Court, to take true knowledge of, And hath my joust assent. But men, when they are heated, and in passion, Cannot consider. He holds the right. According to Done Lewis! You are not concerned. Yes, and often greater. I fear she means it, Pru, in too good earnest! Or our interpreting it to be such. Excellent! Shelee-neen. Runs Like a Heyfar, bitten with the Brieze, About the court, crying on Fly, and cursing. Yo'were best hear that from her, It is no office, Fly, fits my relation. Here come the happy couple! Joy, Lord Beaufort. It will, my Lord, and carry it. I do not see, how any storm, or tempest Can help it, now. He is either a good Baud, or a Phyfician. Raise all the house in shout, and laughter, a boy! But I must do the crowning act of bounty! Give her my self, By all the holy vows of love I do, Spare all your promised portions, she is a dowry which here So all sufficient in her virtue and manners, That fortune cannot add to her.

Plot summary

Plot — The New Inn, or The Light Heart
Before the start of the action, the aristocratic Framipul family disintegrated. The younger daughter, |. actitia, ===== PAGE 357 ===== 1629 disappeared. Her mother, believing her husband had fallen out of love with her because of inability to produce a son, went mad. Lord Frampul too then vanished and his title devolved to his elder daughter, Frances, who is now enjoying herself spending her inheritance. Lady Frances and her crew of suitors descend on the Light Heart, a country inn, on pleasure bent. Lovel, a melancholy guest at the inn, decides to leave, but Goodstock the jovial host persuades him to stay. He agrees so long as he doesn’t have to meet Frances, and explains that he loves her but is honourably trying to leave the field clear for another suitor, his ward Beaufort. Unfortunately for him, Frances insists that he joins in with the day’s planned entertainment. Her maid Prudence has been appointed to preside over the revels as the mock-queen, even though the new gown she was to wear for the occasion has not arrived. She awards Lovel two hours of the Lady’s undivided attention in which to woo her, and to be rewarded with two kisses. Prudence also borrows Goodstock’s son Frank, dresses him as a woman, and induces Beaufort to fall in love with ‘her’. For the first hour, he discourses of the nature of spiritual love; Beaufort is more interested in love of the physical kind, but Frances is inspired with a new respect for the emotion, and gladly pays Lovel the kiss she owes. Another suitor, Tiptoe, is an admirer of all things Spanish. He fraternizes with the inn’s servants, tries to organize them on the lines of the Spanish army, and hears about their methods of cheating the guests. A fight breaks out when a visitor refuses to drink to the honour of Spain, but it is broken up by Lovel, and Tiptoe and his associates drink themselves into a stupor and out of the play. Pinnacia, an apparently noble lady, arrives at the inn with her footman, who is really her husband, Stuff the tailor. His sexual fetish is connected with his profession: after making a gown for a titled lady customer, and before delivering the garment, he likes to dress his wife up in it and have sex with her, pretending that she is herself an aristocrat. Today is not his lucky day: his customer is on the premises. Frances recognizes the gown Pinnacia is wearing as the one she ordered for Prudence to wear at the revels. Stuff is tossed in a blanket and Pinnacia sent home in her underwear.…