Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

DELLO

in Midas — Lyly, John

Metadata

PlayMidas
AuthorLyly, John
Year (catalogued)1592
First performance1589
Decade1590s
GenreComedy
Play typeBoys Professional
CompanyChildren of Paul's (first)
Theaterbefore the Court;
Speech prefix(es)Del. | Dell.
Words377
Characters1868
Typicality0.46 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA06621
BritDrama no.835
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

I am glad I have herd the wags, to be quittance for overhearing us. We will take the vantage, they shall find us quick Barbers. I'll tell Motto my master, and then we will have Quid pro quo, a tooth for a beard. Well. No lie. In good time. True. I confess you have taught me Tully de or atore, the very art of trimming. Oh sir, you know I am a Barber, and cannot tittle tattle, I am one of those whose tongues are swelde with silence. Oh master, he that is your patient for the tooth ach, I warrant is patient of all aches. I sir and why not? My master is a Barber and a Surgeon. My master is mild and merciful: and merciful, because a Barber, for when he hath the throat at come maund, you know he takes revenge but on a silly hair. Oh sir, if you will, I will sing to them, your mouth being the instrument. Out villain, thou bitest. I cannot tune these vir ginal keys. A bots on your Jacks and Jaws too. You cannot pose my master in a beard. Come to his house you shall fit upon twenty, all his cushions are stuffed with beards, I will. Master, take heed, you will blab alanone, these wags are crafty. I told you master, you have made a fair hand; for now you have made your lips cizars to cut off your ears. Not so hard as he bit me. They be half a yard broad, and a nail, three quarters long, and a foot thick; so sir shall you find them stufte enough, and soft enough. All my mi stres lines that she dries her clothes on, are made on lie of Mustachio stuff. And if I durst tell the truth, as lusty as I am here, I lie upon a bed of beards; a bots of their bristles, and they that owe them, they are har der than flocks. My master could tickle you with diseases, and that old ones, that have continued in his Ancestors bones these three hundred years. He is the last of the family that is left uneaten. A pox of those saucy worms, that eat men before they be dead.

Plot summary

Plot — Midas
Offered anything he wishes by way of reward for entertaining Baéehus) KingiMidas seeks advice. Two of his lords suggest that he request love and empire respectively; the third proposes gold, which can buy both, so Midas asks that everything he touches should turn to gold. The gift proves to be an inconvenience, turning Midas’s food and even his beard to gold. (A BaBE steals the golden beard from the FSyalibarber, but the barber gets his own back by giving him toothache.) Regretting his folly and his imperialistic designs on other nations, Midas seeks a remedy from the oracle, and washes off the golden touch in a nearby river. On the way home, Midas goes hunting in the woods, gets lost, and encounters Ajpoll6 and Pan ‘The two gods are in dispute over which is the best musician; Midas is asked to judge, and, perversely, chooses Pan. Apollo gives him ass’s ears in reprisal, and he becomes reclusive while rumours spread; even the reeds whisper about his ears. Meanwhile his empire begins to disintegrate and he is unable to achieve his overriding objective, the conquest of Lesbos. Finally he seeks a remedy from the oracle of Apollo, and also proclaims that any further talk about his ass’s ears will cost the speaker his own. The pages inveigle Motto the barber into flouting the edict, and thereby force him to return the golden beard. Midas makes his obeisance at Apollo’s oracle, and is ordered to give up his imperial ambitions; in particular, his ears will only get longer if he continues to covet Lesbos. He agrees, and promises to make annual sacrifices at the oracle. The ass’s ears fall off, and the play ends with praise for Apollo.