in A Looking Glass for London and England — Lodge, Thomas; Greene, Robert
Metadata
Play
A Looking Glass for London and England
Author
Lodge, Thomas; Greene, Robert
Year (catalogued)
1594
First performance
1588
Decade
1590s
Genre
Biblical Moral
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
Derby's (Strange's) Men
Speech prefix(es)
Remilia. | Remi. | Remil.
Words
666
Characters
3596
Typicality
0.56 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A06185
BritDrama no.
829
Cluster
Cluster 24 — Gods, cupids & celestial agents
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Victorious Monarch, second unto Jove, Mars upon earth, and Neptune on the Seas, Whose frown stroys all the Ocean with a calm, Whose smile, draws Flora to display her pride, Whose eye holds wanton Venus at a gaze, Rasni the Regent of great Nineveh, For thou hast foiled proud Ieroboams force, And Like the mustering breath of Aeolus, That overturns the pines of Libanon, Hast scattered Jury and her upstarted grooms, Winning from Cades to Samaria, Remilia greets Thee with a kind salute, And for a present to thy mightiness, Gives Thee a Globe folded within a ship, As King on earth and Lord of all the Seas, With such a welcome unto Nyniuie As may thy sisters humble love afford. My heart does swell with favour of thy thoughts, The love of Rasni makes me as proud As Juno when she wore heavens Diadem. Thy sister born was for thy wife by love, Had I the riches nature locketh up, To deck her darling, beauty when she smiles, Rasin should prank him in the pride of all. 'Tis Alvia, the fair wife to the king of Paphlagonia Fair Queens, yet handmaids unto Rasnes love, Tell me, is not my state as glorious As Juno's pomp, when tired with heavens despoil, Clad in her vestments, spotted all with stars, She crossed the silver path unto her Jove, Is not Remilias far more beauteous, Riched with the pride of nature's excellence? Then Venus in the brightest of her shine. My hairs, surpass they not Apollos locks, Are not my Tresses curled with such art, As love delights to hide him in their fair? Does not mine eyes shine Like the morning lamp That tells Anrera when her love will come? Have I not stolen the beauty of the heavens, And placest it on the feature of my face? Can any Goddess make compare with me? Or match her with the fair Remilia ? I have tricked my trammel's up with richest balm, And made my perfumes of the purest Myrrh: The precious drugs that Egypt's wealth affords, The costly paintings fetched from curious Tyre, Have mended in my face what nature missed. Am I not the earth's wonder in my looks? Look Alvida a hair stands not amiss, For women's locks are trammel's of conceit, Which do entangle love for all his wiles. Fair Alvida, Thy counsel makes Remilia passing wise. Suppose that thou weart Rasnes mightiness, And I Remilia Prince of excellence. Careless and unkind, Talks Rasni to Remilia in such sort As if I did enjoy a humane form? Look on thy Love, behold mine eyes divine, And darest thou twit me with a woman's fault? Ah Rasni thou art rash to judge of me, I tell Thee Flora oft hath wood my lips, To lend a Rose to beautify her spring, The sea-Nymphs fetch their lilies from my cheeks. Then thou unkind, and hereon would I weep. How am I pleased to hear thy pretty prate, According to the humour of my mind? Ah Nymphs, who fairer then Remilia ? The gentle winds have wood me with their sighs, The frowning air hath cléerde when I did smile, And when I tract upon the tender grass, Love that makes warm the centre of the earth, Lift up his crest to kiss Remelias foot, Juno still entertains her amorous Jove, With new delights, for fear he look on me, The Phoenix feathers are become my Fan, For I am beauty's Phoenix in this world. Shut close these Curtains straight and shadow me, For fear Apollo spy me in his walks, And scorn all eyes, to see Remilias eyes. Nymphs, Knancks, sing, for Mavors draws nigh, Hide me in Closure, let him long to look, For were a Goddess fairer then am I, I'll scale the heavens to pull her from the place. Of love and me. Proud & disdainful king, Darest thou presume to touch a Deity, Before she grace Thee with a yielding smile?
Plot summary
Plot — A Looking Glass for London and England
Triumphant over the King of Jerusalem, the Assyrian king Rasni declares himself divine and marries his sister, Remilia; a viceroy who objects is banished and the flatterer Radagon given his place. Inordinately proud of her beauty, Remilia is struck by lightning. Rasni is unable to revive her, and buries her in state; but is encouraged by Radagon to think of the living rather than the dead, and to take Alvida, wife of the King of Paphlagonia. When her husband objects to the adulterous liaison, she poisons him. Alvida continues to be unfaithful: her ambition attracts her to Rasni, but her sexual appetite favours the Viceroy of Cilicia, so she takes both. Thrasybulus and Alcon are both cheated by a usurer to whom they are trying to repay money: he keeps them talking beyond the due hour and then secures possession of Thrasybulus’ farm and Alcon’s cow as a penalty for non-payment. They attempt to sue him, but he bribes both the judge and their lawyer, and they lose their cases. Alcon appeals to Radagon, his son, to help his starving family, but Radagon is too proud to acknowledge his parent, and Rasni has him ejected from the court. Radagon’s mother curses him, and: he is swallowed by subterranean fire. Thrasybulus ard ===== PAGE 473 ===== 1589 Alcon turn to begging and theft in their destitution, and try to pawn stolen clothes to the usurer. Adam, a smith’s man, goes off with some ruffians to get drunk. After a drunken quarrel over a woman, one of them is killed. Rasni finds Adam in a stupor by the body, but decides that murder is ordinary drunken behaviour, and takes no judicial action. Adam and his mistress are having an illicit affair. The smith catches them canoodling, but when he attempts to take reprisals, Adam argues that he is the one who should be beaten for the sin of jealousy. An angel orders Jonah to preach against Nineveh’s wickedness. He is reluctant, and takes a ship to Tarshish instead. The ship encounters a storm, which Jonah identifies as a sign of divine displeasure at his disobedience. He has himself thrown overboard, and the storm abates. A whale swallows him, then belks him up on shore. He goes to Nineveh as ordered. These events are watched and commented on by the prophet Hosea, brought from Jerusalem by an angel. The angel removes him before the Ninevites’ corruption receives its due reward in the city’s destruction, and he returns to preach to the Jews of Nineveh’s wickedness. ‘The city is troubled by apparitions and portents, but…