Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

NURSE

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)Nur. | Nur | N • r.
Words554
Characters2832
Typicality0.50 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA04658
BritDrama no.2263
ClusterCluster 21 — Old fathers & plain counsel

Important excerpts

Passages from this character's speech that contain the most distinguishing words for Cluster 21 (gar, shillings, alii, yongrave, ogenes, nat…). Matches are highlighted.

him you, for nothing, gladly. Forgive the lie of my mouth, it was to save The fruit of my womb. A parents needs are urgent. And few do know that tyrant over good nature's. But you relieved her, and me too, the Mother, And took me into your house to be the nurse, For which heaven heap all blessings on your head, While there can
Lordship, and your peers that think so, If any be: if not, God bless them all, And help the number o'the virtuous, If poverty be a crime. You may object Our beggary to us, as and accident, But never deeper, no inherent baseness. And I must tell you, now, young Lord of dirt, As and incensed mother, she hat more, And be ter

Full speech

He is descended of a right good stock, Sir. Trot I am not content: in fait' I am not. He tauk so desperate, and so debausht, So baudy Like a Courtier, and a Lord, God bless him, one that tak'th Tobacco. Nay, nothing to the purposh, Or very little, nothing at all to purposh. I did tell him of Sir Was a great family come out of Ireland, Descended of Oh Neal, Mac Con, Mac Dermot, Mac Murrogh, but he marked not. No fait and trot, sweet Master, I shall sleep; I fait, I shall. Er grae Chreest. Tower een Cuppan D'vsque bagh done. Hang thee thou Parasite, thou son of crumbs, And ottes, thou hast undone me, and my child, My daughter, my worser are daughter. Oh Sir, my daughter, my deer child is tuin'd, By this your Fly, here, married in a stable, And sold unto a husband. I did good M r , and I rave your pardon. But it's my daughter, and a g rle. Because you were a charitable man I eared, good Mr, and would br ed him well, I would have given him you, for nothing, gladly. Forgive the lie of my mouth, it was to save The fruit of my womb. A parents needs are urgent. And few do know that tyrant over good nature's. But you relieved her, and me too, the Mother, And took me into your house to be the nurse, For which heaven heap all blessings on your head, While there can one be added. So I am, God help me. Nay then my Lord, Its not enough, I see You are licentious, but you will be wicked. You are not alone content to take my daughter, Against the law; but having taken her, You would repudiate, and cast her off, Now, at your pleasure, Like a beast of power, Without all cause, or colour of a cause, That, or a noble, or and honest man, Should dare except against, her poverty. Is poverty a vice? God help your Lordship, and your peers that think so, If any be: if not, God bless them all, And help the number o'the virtuous, If poverty be a crime. You may object Our beggary to us, as and accident, But never deeper, no inherent baseness. And I must tell you, now, young Lord of dirt, As and incensed mother, she hat more, And be ter blood, running i'those small veins, Then all the raze of Beauforts have in mass, Though they distil their drops from the left rib Of John OF Gaunt. The daughter and coheir to the Lord Framp ll, This Ladies sister! Laetitiam. The true Latitia. I am, deer daughter. And to the author Of that blessed light, I open my other eye, Which hath almost, now, seven year been shut, Dark, as my vow was, never to see light, Till such a light restored it, as my children, Or your deer father, who (I hear) is not. I may look up, admire, I cannot speak Yet, to my Lord. So did I you, Till stealing mine own daughter from her sister, I lighted on this error hath cured all. I'tish a naughty pract sh, a lewd practish, Be quiet man, dou shalt not leip her, here. Cramo-cree! what meansh' tou? Gram hreest!

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.…