in The Seven Champions of Christendom — Kirke, John
Metadata
Play
The Seven Champions of Christendom
Author
Kirke, John
Year (catalogued)
1638
First performance
1635
Decade
1630s
Genre
Romance
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
Red Bull Company (second)
Theater
Red Bull;Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional;Outdoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)
Al. | Alm. | Almon.
Words
449
Characters
2404
Typicality
0.27 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A04874
BritDrama no.
2432
Cluster
Cluster 23 — Gulls, fops & laughing-stocks
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Why now, just now we have; Have we not still by daring challenges opposed our selves The round world's opposites? Have not our prowesses In stately lifts tossed up the golden ball, and won it? Is not bright honour free in Princes Courts? We have overcome, and now we are overcome, And shall we envy what we ever loved, And were loved for? so thinks the Adder, When his sting is gone, his hissing has the power to venom too. Cast off that coat, it not becomes thee Lenon; It'll wear thy honour threadbare to the bones, And make death seize on thee with infamy. Another charge: A charge and a shout cry Arbasto. What over desperate and life-weary fool Dares meet the couched Lance of this brave Knight, Seeing the foil we took? I now admire and love this venture in him: Well done young twig of a most Royal bough, Thou hast won our losses, which we must allow. I do not Like that found, what ever accident Betides, Arbasto hath not lost but won renown: Now, what news bringest thou? Fallen I believe, but yet I hope not slain. So Honour sprung a bud, and blasted it Before it grew to his maturity; Noble Prince, I pity thy misfortune, more, the Knights; And I for this condemn nimble mischance, But not the Knight at all. And I will second be how to prevent ye. Take comfort Royal sir, Fame stories few are living; more the dead, Death hath but rocked him then on honours bed: Then let him sleep. Lord Lenon, it's most certain he must die: I love my Sovereign well, I loved his son, But dare not say that he deserves to die: This stranger here, came here in honours cause, Staked honour down, and bravely boar it hence: Your self, silence but envies tongue, can witness with me, I have spoke but truth: where lives the Nobleness But in the mind? wild beasts have strength, irrational And rude, but want the sense of reasons government: Let rage hight reins bite upon temperance: The Iron handed Fates wars hard at game, And threw a cast at brave Arbastoes life; But let your sentence pass my Lord, have done, Replied not Like a lover unto either: Your valours's horselike, and it must be tamed, Upon my soul, my Lord, the Knight is clear Of any foul intent against your son. Lenon I dare, and in thy venom blood write He's not guilty. You're gone; false Lenon hath betrayed ye to your death. I that was well said King; Spannell no more. No more, no more, your words are feathers For the wind to play with.
Plot summary
Plot — The Seven Champions of Christendom
Years ago, the witch Calib stole a child, George, intending to bathe in his blood; but she fell in love with the baby and brought him up with her own son, Suckabus. She has always refused to let him know the identity of his real parents, but after much importunity she relents and tells George that he was a bastard whom she saved from infanticide. She asks her diabolic lover Tarpax how long she has to live; the demon prophesies that she will die only when love causes her to lose control of her magical powers. She shows George six Christian champions whom she keeps in her cave, and grants him their ransom. When George feels pity for them but pretends severity, she gives him her magic wand. The ghosts of his parents visit him, and he learns that Calib poisoned them, and that he is really of noble birth. He uses the magic wand to kill Calib, but agrees to take on Suckabus as a servant; Tarpax encourages Suckabus to spread his seed widely around the earth by taking every opportunity for procreation. George joins the six champions, bringing them up to the number prophesied by a Sibyl, seven. They go their separate ways into pagan lands. Trebizond is troubled by monsters: a dragon and a lion terrorize the land and kill knights who attempt to dispose of them. The Emperor proclaims a reward for anyone who will deal with the menace. The champions Andrew and Anthony arrive in Trebizond, and the Princess and Carintha fall in love with them; but their welcome evaporates when the Emperor discovers their religion. An oracle has decreed that any Christians who set foot in Trebizond must convert to paganism or be executed. The Emperor allows them to choose their own executioners; they choose the ladies, who refuse to comply; so they offer to relieve the ladies of the responsibility and execute one another. The Emperor allows them to be rearmed so that they can do so, and this enables them to fight their way to freedom. The champion David accidentally causes the death of Prince Arbasto in a joust. David has helped the King of Tartary, Arbasto’s father, in his war with the Persians, and cannot honourably be executed, so the King offers him a pardon, half the kingdom, and the succession if he will bring back the head of his enemy, Ormandine. The expectation is that Ormandine will kill him. Ormandine was once a duke, but was deposed by the Kings of Tartary and Arabia, and took up magic to avenge himself. A prophecy assures him of his security until the arrival of a British…