Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

JEFFREY

in Look About You — Anonymous

Metadata

PlayLook About You
AuthorAnonymous
Year (catalogued)1600
First performance1599
Decade1600s
GenreComedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyAdmiral's (Nottingham's) Men
Speech prefix(es)Dra. | Draw. | Within Dra,
Words367
Characters1766
Typicality0.33 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA06333
BritDrama no.1184
ClusterCluster 0 — Clowns, beggars & street sellers

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

Anan sir. God bless your worship sir, you shall have the best in London sir. Oh Lord Sir Richard, the man, the man. Here's a key sir, and one of our folk to help. Anan, anan sir. Yes and please ye. No I protest. No by my holydam. Why a Pursuivant. At the Alderman's. A pyg new stickt. Oh my Lord the house is full of holberts, and a great many Gentlemen ask for the room where Prince John is? I thank you my Lord. Exit. I know not who it sir, he said he was Prince John, he took away my aprone and a pottle pot with him, and all to bloodied his head and face. I am a poor boy sir, your worship may say your plea sure, our maids have had a foul hand with him, you said he would be sick: so he is with a witness. And I should be brought to my book oath sir: Anan, anan. I an't please you sir. If I be posed upon a book sir, though I be a poor prentice, I must speak the truth, & nothing but the truth sir. Marry sir this Knight, this man of worship. Marry you came into the Bel, our room next the Bar, with this honest man as I take it. And there he called for a pint of Sack, as good Sack (I'll be posed upon all the books that ever opened and shut) as any is in all Christendom. And you called then for Sugar sir, as good Sugar and as wholesome, as ever came in any cup of Sack: you drunk to this man, and you do well God be thanked, but he no sooner drunk: Marry sir it's lost, & 'tis well known my Master keeps no thieves in his house, Oh there was none but you and he. But my Master hath taken many a fair pound of your man Block; he was here to day sir, and filled two bot tles of nippitate sack. Sir, my Masters guess be none of my copesmates, Marry here's a pursuivant, that this Gentleman sir Richard Faukenbridge left sick even now. Speak in the Crown there.

Plot summary

Plot — Look About You
Before the start of the action, Queen Eleanor had her rival, Rosamund, poisoned by Skink, and was imprisoned for it; Skink escaped and has taken the identity of a fortune-telling hermit. Her son Henry and his brothers attempted a coup, and there are now two kings in England, father and son. At a parliament, the younger King Henry offers to split the kingdom with the elder, but alienates his supporters by his readiness to seize their lands. Skink, summoned to the parliament by Prince Richard, is rewarded with Gloucester’s lands, and Gloucester imprisoned when he protests and strikes Skink. Richard, who has an interest in Gloucester’s sister, Lady Falconbridge, promises to free him. Eavesdropping on a meeting between them, Sir Richard Falconbridge sees his wife reject the Prince’s advances. Pursued by the watch, Skink evades arrest by swapping clothes with Redcap, but is taken to the Fleet prison for identification by Redcap’s father, the porter. Gloucester swaps clothes with him in turn and escapes, and finally Skink too gets away by purloining Prince John’s clothes. Lady Falconbridge disguises Gloucester as her husband, fooling the watch sent to search for him. The substitutions cause misunderstandings when Skink (as John) is given a chain by Falconbridge and Gloucester (as Falconbridge) is given John’s sword; in each case the real man denies what his doppelganger has done. The porter of the Fleet is to be hanged for Gloucester’s escape, but the old King is persuaded to reprieve him. Gloucester intercepts the pursuivant, gets him drunk, steals the pardon, and ensures that it reaches its destination. Skink evades capture at the tavern by swapping clothes with the drawer and pretending to have been assaulted by the escaped Skink. John and Falconbridge consult the hermit: John wants to locate Gloucester, and Falconbridge to know for sure whether his wife is committing adultery. Lady Falconbridge also goes there in disguise, leaving Robin Hood standing in for her at home, cross-dressed. She too wants to locate Gloucester, to save him from the malice of John and his mother; John and Falconbridge both arrange assignations with her. Skink resumes the hermit’s identity, tells them how Gloucester escaped, and predicts that they will be able to catch Skink committing a robbery nearby; he then changes his disguise, induces them to fall in a hole, and steals their purses. While he is away, Gloucester finds his hermit costume and puts it on, convincing the robbed…