in A King and No King — Beaumont, Francis; Fletcher, John
Metadata
Play
A King and No King
Author
Beaumont, Francis; Fletcher, John
Year (catalogued)
1619
First performance
1611
Decade
1610s
Genre
Tragicomedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
King's Men
Theater
Globe;Outdoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)
1 Cit. | 2 Cit.
Words
352
Characters
1716
Typicality
0.46 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A06207
BritDrama no.
1636
Cluster
Cluster 16 — Errand servants & brief parts
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Lord, how fine the fields be, what sweet living 'tis in the Country. My Husbands cousin would have had me gone in to the Country last year, Wertenberg thou ever there? And what kind of creatures are they for love of God? Wilt thou go with me down this summer, when I am brought abed? Why prithee? No? Nor milk, how do they? Good Lord: but the people there I think will be very dutiful to one of us? Do they not, alas? In good faith I cannot blame them: for we do not greatly care for them our selves. Philip I pray choose us a place. By your leave good people a little: Look if one have not struck Philip, come hither Philip, why did he strike thee? Why didst thou lean on him? As God save me law, thou art as wild as a Buck, there is no quarrel, but thou art at one end or other of it. Well stripling, I shall meet with you. I'll give a crown to meet with you I, you are full of your rogery; but if I do meet you it shall cost me a fallen. Out upon him. Away, you haltersack you: Yowl be hanged sirrah: Come Philip, walk afore us homeward; did not his Majesty say, he had brought us home Peaes for our money? They are the first I herd on this year by my troth, I longed for some of um; did he not say we should have some? I, poor souls, God help um; they live as conten tedly as one of us. I, poor souls, I was amongst um once. Very good people, God help um: Alas, 'tis no place for us. Why, you can have nothing there; theres no body cries brooms. No truly, nor milk. They are feign to milk themselves ith Country. I, God knows will they, and yet they do not great lie care for our Husbands. How he looks. Yes marry did he. Yes, and so we shall anon I warrant you, have every one a peck brought home to our houses.
Plot summary
Plot — A King and No King
Arbaces has been away from his kingdom for many years fighting a war with Armenia, which he has just won. He has received reports from his Lord Protector, Gobrias, about the virtue and accomplishments of his younger sister Panthea, whom he has not seen since she was nine years old. He offers her hand in marriage to Tigranes, the vanquished Armenian King, but Tigranes demurs. Arbaces takes him back to Iberia to see her for himself. Tigranes’ objection lies in the fact that he already has a girlfriend, Spaconia, and he bribes the cowardly Bessus to bring her along and place her in Panthea’s household. Once there, she begs Panthea not to marry Tigranes, and Panthea agrees. Arane, Arbaces’ mother, has been trying to assassinate him since he came to the throne. Another attempt is foiled, but he pardons her when he returns in triumph. She clearly has an ulterior motive which is known to Gobrias, but both are discreet about its precise nature. Arbaces’ first meeting with Panthea as an adult proves unsettling: he falls in love with her. So does Tigranes. Identifying a rival, Arbaces imprisons him. Torn between desire and conscience, he also imprisons Panthea. Panthea gives Spaconia a token authorizing her to visit Tigranes in prison. He rejects her, but Arbaces finds them together and assumes that she is a go-between. Gobrias importunes him to release Panthea, who persuades him that his suspicions are unfounded: she loves him, and would act upon that love if to do so were not incestuous. The Armenians send Spaconia’s father as an ambassador to negotiate for Tigranes’ release. He believes his daughter has eloped with Bessus, but his denunciations of her bring Tigranes to his senses: he will make Spaconia his Queen. When Arbaces decides to kill Gobrias for corrupting him to incest, the truth comes out. Arbaces is not of royal blood. The old King married Arane when he was old and impotent, and, fearful about the succession, Gobrias and Arane conspired to produce an heir: Gobrias gave Arane his new-born son, and she faked his birth. Later, it proved that the King was not so impotent after all, and he died leaving Arane pregnant with Panthea, but by the time this was known, the young Arbaces had already succeeded to the throne. Since then, Gobrias and Arane have both been trying to put matters to rights, Arane with her murder plots and Gobrias by encouraging Arbaces to marry his putative sister and so establish the legitimacy of his teign. Arbaces publicly announces…