in The Maid's Tragedy — Beaumont, Francis; Fletcher, John
Metadata
Play
The Maid's Tragedy
Author
Beaumont, Francis; Fletcher, John
Year (catalogued)
1619
First performance
1610
Decade
1610s
Genre
Tragedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
King's Men
Theater
Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)
NIG. | NIGH. | NIGHT.
Words
290
Characters
1475
Typicality
0.40 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A06289
BritDrama no.
1650
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
Our reign is now, for in the quenching sea The Sun is drowned, and with him fell the day, Bright Cinthia hear my voice, I am the night For whom thou bearest about, thy borrowed light, Appear, no longer thy pale visage shroud, But strike thy silver horns quite through a cloud, And send a beam upon my swarthy face, By which I may discover all the place And persons that have many longing eyes, Are come to wait on our solemnities. Enter Cinthia. How dull and black am I, can I not find This beauty without thee, am I so blind, Me thinks they show Like to those eastern streaks, That warn us hence before the morning breaks, Back my pale servant, for these eyes know how, To shoot far more and quicker rays then thou. Then let us keep they here, And never more our chariots driven away, But hold our places and outshine the day. Then shine at full pale Queen, & by that power, Produce a birth to fill this happy hour, Of Nymph's and shepherd's, and let their songs discover, Easy and sweet who is a happy lover, Or if thou w'oot thine own Endymion From the sweet lowry bank he lies upon, On La mus brow thy pale beams drawn away And of his long night let him make thy day. O I could frown To see the day, the day that flings his light Upon my kingdom, and contemnes old night, Let him go on, and lame, I hope to see Another wild fire in his ax l ree, And all fallen drenched, but I forget, speak Queen, The day grows on, I dare no more be seen. I'll vanish into mists. Exeunt.
Plot summary
Plot — The Maid's Tragedy
At: the King’s request, Al@minf6f breaks off his engagement to his fiancée AlSpatia and instead marries Evadne) sister of his friend Melantius. After a wedding masque, Evadne prepares for bed. When Amintor arrives, however, she refuses him sex and explains that she is the King’s mistress: the marriage has been arranged as a cover for their continuing relationship, and to provide a nominal father for any bastards that may result; it will never be consummated. Amintor is unable to satisfy his impulse to take revenge, because his wronger is the King, but on learning the truth, Melantius has no similar scruples. A successful rebellion depends upon control of the city’s: defensive fort, but this is in the hands of Melantius’ enemy, ASpatia’sifathier Caliana who partly blames Melantius for the way Aspatia has been treated. Melantius asks Calianax to hand over the fort, knowing this will be reported to the King; but when the King confronts him with the accusation, his bare-faced denial. discredits Calianax and makes the accusation look like senile malice. Calianax is sent away from court and sees no option but to give Melantius the fort after all. M@@lantivis]? threat of violence secures a confession from Bya@méj and she agrees to join the conspiracy. Summoned by the King that night, Evadne ties him to the bed and kills him when he wakes. Melantius retreats to the fort and agrees to come out only once the mew King has granted him a pardon on his own terms. The despairing AlSpatia dresses as a man, visits Amintor, and provokes a fight in which she allows him to give her a fatal wound. Evadne comes to tell Amintor what she has done, but kills herself when he rejects her. On learning that he has killed AlSpatia, the grieving AIMEE takes his own life. Finding him dying, MGIEHTUS too tries to kill himself; he is prevented, but declares his intention to starve himself to death.