Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

HACKNEYMAN

in Mother Bombie — Lyly, John

Metadata

PlayMother Bombie
AuthorLyly, John
Year (catalogued)1594
First performance1591
Decade1590s
GenreComedy
Play typeBoys Professional
CompanyChildren of Paul's (first)
Speech prefix(es)Hack. | Hack ▪ | Hack
Words288
Characters1408
Typicality0.32 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA06622
BritDrama no.826
ClusterCluster 15 — Devils, vices & grotesques

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

He arests you at my suit for a horse. I think in two days he was never baited. I mistake none of you when I take you for fools, I say thou never gavest my horse meat. Why, dost thou think and horse can speak? Well, thou shalt pay sweetly for spoiling him, it was as lusty a nag as any in Rochester, and one that would stand upon no ground. I lent him thee gently. But why didst thou boar him through the ears? He would never tire, it may be he would be so weary he would go no further, or so. Do you think I'll be jested out of my horse, Sergeant wreak thy office on him. So he shall when I make him a bargen. Alas poort Ant, thou bound in a statute mar chant: a brown thread will bind thee fast enough: but if you will be content all four jointly to enter into a bound, I will withdraw the Actium. Well call the Scrivener. You must take a note of a bound. Agreed. Nay soft, take us with you, and seek redress for our wrongs, or weel complain to the Mayor. I arrested Memphios boy for and horse after much mocking, at the request of his fellow wags, I was content to take a bond jointly of them all, they had me into a tavern, there they made me, the Scribe ner, and the Sergeant drunk, paunde his maze for the wine, and sealed me and obligation nothing to the pur pose, I pray you read it. I'll cry quittance with thee. Tush, I hired him a horse. I mean he never gave him bait. I am sure he had no diseases.

Plot summary

Plot — Mother Bombie
Menmiphio and Stellig each has a fool for his only child, — a son and a daughter respectively, but both have managed to conceal the fact from the neighbours. Each plans to marry his offspring to the other’s without disclosing the heir’s mental debility, and each tasks his servant to make the arrangements. Meanwhile, @amidiliis and [ivid are in love with one another, but their parents disapprove, wanting them to marry wealth instead: Candius is made to woo Stellio’s daughter Sil@mla, and Livia is intended for Memphio’s son Al@GiiS] The four fathers’ boy servants conspire to frustrate these various . marital plans, and go off to drink at the tavern. Candius meets Silena as she sneaks out to hear her fortune, and offers to read her palm. He is momentarily struck by her beauty, but quickly discovers that she is an idiot, a legitimate impediment to marriage. Mother Bomibié tells Silena’s fortune in cryptic terms: she is not the child of her parents. The fortune teller is also consulted by the siblings M@eStiiS and Sérénaj] who have developed an incestuous passion for one another; Mother Bombie tells them that they shall be married and each will displace a fool. The boys arrange for Candius and Livia to swap apparel with the two idiots, and they are married in disguise, with their own fathers as witnesses. Accius and Silena court one another in disguise, but their marriage prospects take a turn for the worse after each father identifies the other’s child as a fool. DE@Rilio is arrested for failing to feed a horse he hired; the other boys enter a bond to pay off his creditor, but then get the hackneyman, sergeant, and scrivener drunk, and pay for the wine by pawning the sergeant’s mace. Early the next morning, three fiddlers, advised of the wedding, struggle to identify the right house to serenade. Prisils and Spérantus discover that Candius ===== PAGE 465 ===== 1589 and Livia are married. The four servants confess their part in the affair, and the four fathers are content: Prisius and Sperantus accept the fait accompli, and Memphio and Stellio are willing to marry the fools to one another after all. Wi€inid intervenes to prevent an incestuous marriage: eighteen years ago, she swapped them for her own children, counterfeiting their distinctive birthmarks; the true heirs of Memphio and Stellio are Maestius and Serena. Mother Bombie has Predicted everything accurately. Nobody is to be punished or left dissatisfied: Vicinia is pardoned, the hackneyman paid, and the…