Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

PINNACIA

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)Pin. | Pi. | Pin
Words455
Characters2257
Typicality0.40 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA04658
BritDrama no.2263
ClusterCluster 1 — Wives, widows & intimate counsel

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

He is a foolish fellow, I pray you mind him not, He is my Protection. You ee what your entreaty, and pressure still Of gentlemen, to be civil, does bring on? A quarrel? and perhaps manslaughter? You Will carry your goose about you, still? your plam king Your tongue to smooth all is not here fine stuff? Your wife? ha'not I for iden you that Do you think I'll call you husband this gown, Or any thing, in that jacket, but Protection? Here tie my shoe; and show my vellute petticoat, And my silk stocking! why do you make me a Lady, If I may not do Like a Lady, in fine clothes. ; I knew that at home; what to do with you; But why was I brought hither? to see fashions? Why do you bring me in wild Company? You'd have me tame, and civil, in wild Company? I hope I know, wild Company are fine Company, And in fine Company, where I am fine my self, A Lady may do any thing, deny nothing To a fine party, I have herd you say't. —To them Pierce. Are they fine Ladies? As fine as I? Spoke, Like a fine fellow! I would thou Wertenberg one; I'de not then deny thee: But, thank thy Lady. —To them Host. This's a fine old man! I'd go with him and he were a little finer! Stum You may sweet heart, it is mine Host. mine Host! Do then. I'll be aduil'd by you, yes! What more then Thracian Barbarism was this! As new, as Day. I put it on, since Noon, I do assure you, He' S one, in truth, I title my Protection: Bid him come up. Countess Pinnaccia. Why, upon your knees? Is this your Lady Godmother? To make a fool of him self And of me too. Nay it shall out, since you have called me wife, And openly dis-Ladied me! though I am dis-Countess'd I am not yet discountenanced. These shall see. It is a foolish trick Madame, he has; For though he be your Tailor, he is my beast. I may be bold with him, and tell his story. When he makes any fine garment will fit me, Or any rich thing that he thinks of price, Then must I put it on, and be his Countess, Before he carry it home unto the owners. A coach is hired, and four horse, he runs In his velvet I ackat thus, to Rumford, Croyden, Hounslow, or Barnet, the next bawdy road: And takes me out, carries me up, and throw's me Upon a bed. My Fashioner is a certain man of mine own, He' is i'the house: no matter for his name.

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.…