in The Insatiate Countess — Machin, Lewis; Barkstead, William; Marston, John
Metadata
Play
The Insatiate Countess
Author
Machin, Lewis; Barkstead, William; Marston, John
Year (catalogued)
1613
First performance
1607
Decade
1610s
Genre
Tragedy
Play type
Boys Professional
Company
Children of the Queen's Revels (?); Children of the King's Revels (?)
Theater
Whitefriars;Indoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)
Cap. | Capt.
Words
490
Characters
2723
Typicality
0.26 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A07067
BritDrama no.
1605
Cluster
Cluster 21 — Old fathers & plain counsel
Important excerpts
Passages from this character's speech that contain the most distinguishing words for Cluster 21 (gar, shillings, alii, yongrave, ogenes, nat…). Matches are highlighted.
I'll have none of my Band refrain to search a venerial house, though his Wives sister be a lodger there: nor take two shillings of the Bawd to save the Gentlemens credits that are aloft: and so Like voluntary Panders leave them, to the shame of all Halberdiers. If you meet a Sheuoiliero,
Full speech
I'll have none of my Band refrain to search a venerial house, though his Wives sister be a lodger there: nor take two shillings of the Bawd to save the Gentlemens credits that are aloft: and so Like voluntary Panders leave them, to the shame of all Halberdiers. If you meet a Sheuoiliero, that's in the gross phrase, a Knight, that swaggers in the street, and being taken, has no more ney in his Purse to pay for his fees; it shall be a partly of your duty to entreat me to let him go. What groan is that? bring a light. Who lies there? It is the Lord Mendosa, kinsman to our Duke. Speak good my Lord, relate your dire mischance: Life Like a fearful servant flies his Master, Art must atone them, or'th' whole man is lost. Convey him to a Surgeons, then return: No place shall be unsearched until we find The truth of this mischance. Make haste again. Exit the Watch. Manet Captain. Whose house is this stands open? in, and search. What guests that house contains, and bring them forth. This Nobleman's misfortune stirs my quiet, And fills my soul with fearful fantasies. But I'll unwind this Labyrinth of doubt, Else industry shall loose partly of it selves labour. Enter the Watch, with Claridiana and Rogero taken in one another's How ses, in their shirts and night-gowns, they see one another. Who have we there? Signiors cannot you tell us How our Princes kinsman came wounded to the death Nigh to your houses. Make answer Gentlemen, it does concern you. Do you hear sir? Are you mad? answer my demand. Are you deaf, you make no answer? Away with them to prison; they'll answer better there. Murder of the Dukes kinsman, Signior Mendosa. Take heed Gentlemen what you confess. You do confess the murder? To prison with them, we will hear no further, The tongue betrays the heart of guilty murder. Come on my hearts, we are the Cities security, I'll give you your charge, and then Like Courtiers every man spy out: let no man in my company be afraid to speak to a Cloak lined with Velvet, nor tremble at the found of a gingling Spur. Between the widows house & these cross neighbours, Beside and Artificial ladder made of ropes Was fastened to her window which he confessed He brought to rob her of Jewels and coin. My knowledge yields no further circumstance. The Pistol was shot here seize him, Enter Captain. with a band of Soldiers. Bring lights, what Done Sago Colonel of the horse? Ring the Alarm bell, raise the whole City, His Troops are in the town, I fear treachery: Whose this lies murdered, speak bloodthirsty Spaniard. It's Count Rogero, go convey him hence. Thy life proud Spaniard, answers this offence, A strong guard for the prisoner, less the cities powers Rise to rescue him. Begirt him with soldiers.
Plot summary
Plot — The Insatiate Countess
Suitors visit Isabella, who is in open mourning for her dead husband, but secretly glad to be free of his jealousy and restrictions. She accepts Count Roberto’s suit and they are married the following day; but when she dances with Count Rogero in the wedding masque, her affections turn. She woos Rogero by letter and elopes with him to Pavia; Roberto enters holy orders. At Pavia, Rogero is visited by his friend Gniaca; Isabella falls in love with the newcomer, and feigns illness to give herself an opportunity to seduce him. After bedding Gniaca, she then feigns penitence to free herself from Rogero. The spurned lover takes his revenge by circulating bitter satires on Isabella’s promiscuity, so she sets on Gniaca to kill him. In the attempt, Gniaca is reconciled with his former friend, so Isabella seduces Don Sago, colonel in the Spanish power occupying Pavia, to murder both Rogero and Gniaca. Sago kills Rogero, and is arrested, but pardoned by the Duke of Medina. Isabella’s attempt to bribe the Duke fails to secure her freedom, and she is beheaded after a scaffold reconciliation with Roberto. In the sub-plot, the enemies Claridiana and Mizaldus are both married on the same day. They quarrel when they meet, and Mizaldus’s wife Abigail and Lady Lentulus, who are close friends, compare notes and swap places: each receives her own husband in the other’s bedroom. Meanwhile their friends Mendosa and Lady Lentulus, attracted to one another, try to circumvent the latter’s vow not to admit a man through her front door: he climbs up to her window by rope ladder, but falls into the street, where the watch find him injured and send him to a surgeon. Claridiana and Mizaldus are arrested in each other’s house; appalled at the thought of being cuckolded, they both confess to murdering Mendosa. Mendosa in turn tries to save Lady Lentulus’s honour with a false confession that he was attempting to burgle her house. In court, the Duke establishes that Claridiana and Mizaldus are telling incompatible stories about the ‘murder’, and they are sentenced to death in jest; in Mendosa’s case, however, the sentence is genuine. Claridiana and Mizaldus are determined to die until confronted with evidence of their wives’ chastity; with reconciliation comes reprieve.