Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

FRANCISCO

in What You Will

Metadata

PlayWhat You Will
Year (catalogued)1607
First performance1607
Decade1600s
GenreComedy
Play typeProfessional;Boys Professional
CompanyChildren of Paul's (second) (?)
Speech prefix(es)Fran. | Fran, | Fra.
Words312
Characters1606
Typicality0.36 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA07081
BritDrama no.1283
ClusterCluster 6 — Battlefield messengers & soldiers

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

For Godsake remember to take special marks of me, or you will never be able to know me. Where is the strumpet, where's the hight vained French, Lives not Albano, hath Celia so forgotten, Albanos love, that she must forthwith wed, A runne-about a skipping Frenchman — And odd phantasma, a beggar, a Sir, a who who who what you will, a straggling go go go gunds, f f f f fut— Celia, open, open Celia, I would enter open Celia. What Celia let in thy husband Albano what Celia Uds f, f, f, fut let Albano enter. B, b, b, bar out Albano, Oh thou matchless g, g, g, giglet. A scraper, scraper. Art not ashamed before Albanos face, To clip his spouze, Oh shamlesse impudent! Dost f, f, flout me. I'll to the Duke I'll p, p, p, past up infamies on every post. My leidge my royal leidge, hear, hear my suit. No troth but Francisco your always perfumer. You would have me take upon me Albano, A valiant gallant Venetian Burgomasco, Well my beard, my feather, short sword and my oath Shall doo't fear not. What I know a number By the sole warrant of a Lapy-beard, A rain beat plume, and a good chop filling oath, With and odd French shrug, and by the Lotd or so, Would leapt into sweet Captain with such ease, As you would-feared not, I'll gage my heart I'll do't, How sits my Hat, would, Jack does my feather wag. Why good faith I scarce know my self already me thinks I should remember to forget my self, now I am so shining brave. Indeed Francisco was always a sweet youth, for I am a Persumer, but thus brave? I am and alien to it, would you make me Like the drowned Albano, must I bear't mainly up, must I be he.

Plot summary

Plot — What You Will
Only three months after her husband Albano was reported dead in a sea battle, Celia has many suitors. Tomorrow she intends to marry Laverdure, a French knight; but Alban.o 's brothers, Randolfo and Adrian, disapprove. After fruitlessly petitioning the noctumal. party-loving Duke to stop the wedding, thcr decide to make it illegitimate by introducing an impostor, a perfumer named Francisco, to pose as Albano, claiming that he did not die after all; but Laverdure's page Bidet witnesses their scheming and warns his master. In fact, Albano survived. On his return to Venice he is unimpressed to hear that his supposedly faithful and loving wife is getting married again so soon; but when he accosts Laverdure, he is taken for Francisco. Even his own brothers take him for the disguised perfumer, so he begins to believe that he has indeed become Francisco by metempsychosis. He interrupts the performance of a play at court to protest at the way he has been treated, and the Duke assures everyone that he really is Albano. He decides to forgive everyone, including Laverdure and Celia. In the sub-plot, Simplicius saves the schoolboy Holofernes Pippo from a thrashing and takes him on as his page. A group of pages trick Simplicius into arranging an assignation with a merchant's wife, who turns out to be Holofemes in disguise.