Blackfriars;Globe;Indoor Professional;Outdoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)
Arcadia. | 2 Sister. | Arc. | Arcad. | Ar.
Words
332
Characters
1751
Typicality
0.34 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A07238
BritDrama no.
2333
Cluster
Cluster 1 — Wives, widows & intimate counsel
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Would I had been born some masquing La die woman, Only to see strange sights, rather then live thus. I feared she would have read A tedious lecture to us. Enter Phil. with the apple. You are too mortified ister, (With reverence I speak it) for young Ladies To keep you company. I am so tired With your tedious exhortations, doctrines, uses, Of your religious morality, That for my health sake, I must take the freedom To enjoy a little of those pretty pleasures That I was born to: We shall shame Our breeding Sister, if we should go on that S. She frowns, But you'll protect us Madam? But when we are entered, We shall on a good round pace, I will grow too, Upon my knees, unless he bid me rise, And swear he will forgive you. As you are our Sovereign, by the ties of nature You are bound to be a Father in your care To us poor Orphans. It's but this Sir, We have observed the falling out, and in, Between the husband and the wise shows rarely, Their jars, and reconcilements strangely take us. We therefore, brother Most humbly beg you would provide us husbands That we may taste the pleasure of't. Leap to his lips, You will find them the best sanctuary. If the taste Answer the beauty. Speak deer Madam, speak. Your tongue as you are a Woman, while you live, Should be ever moving, at the least the last partly That stirs about you. Sacred Sir, I am happy to behold this, and presume, Now you are pleased, to move a suit, in which My sister is joined with me. 'Twould hardly be Pulcheria walking by. Excused, in civil manners, to her equal, But with more difficulty to you, that are So far above her. There she walks. Open your eyes; the Empress. How! sister: pray you awake, Are you in your wits? She's stark mad, sure. And who is your slave now?
Plot summary
Plot — The Emperor of the East
Paulinus agrees to introduce Athenais at court: she wants to petition the virtuous Protectress Pulcheria after being cheated of her inheritance by her brothers. Pulcheria adopts her as a handmaiden and arranges for her to be converted to Christianity; she also catches-the eye of the Emperor, Theodosius. Urged by his eunuchs, Theodosius declares that his minority is at an end, and takes the reins of power from Pulcheria. She encouragés him to marry, but when he refuses the two diplomatic offers which are under consideration, she presents a third option: Athenais, whom he had been thinking of all along. The eunuchs suspect a stratagem to enable Puicheria to hang onte power by proxy. Theodosius disregards their warnings and insists on marrying as soon as Athenais has been baptised, which also entails her taking 2 new name, Eudoxia. He celebrates the wedding with extravagant largesse. Pulcheria asks the new Empress to use her influence to discourage her husband from prodigality, but Eudoxia contemptuously refuses. Theodosius grants Pulcheria a boon, and he seals it without troubling to find out what it contains. [t turns out to be a deed of gift, conferring ownership of Eudoxia. Pulcheria uses this to teach them beth a lesson, Eudoxia about pride and Theedosius about the dangers of being unwisely bountiful; she then destroys the deed and gives Theodosius back his wife. A countryman presents Theodosius with the gitt of a splendid apple. He in turn sends it to Eudoxia, whe in turn sends it to Paulinus, who is ill. Paulinus decides that only one man is worthy to eat so fine a truit: the Emperor. On receiving the apple back again, Theodosius suspects that Eudoxia and Paulinus are lovers. When questioned. Eudoxia swears that she has eaten the apple, whereupon Theodosius produces it intact. Feeling confirmed in his suspicions, he orders Philanax to have Paulinus killed. Pulcheria argues that Eudoxia is innecent. and Theodosius worries that he might have ordered an uniust execution. He visits the penitent Eudoxia disguised ss a friar, and hears her confession - but it is a confession of perjury, not adultery. It also emerges thal Paulinus was secretly a eunuch, unable to be a woman's lover even if he wanted to. Fortunately Philanax disobeyed his orders and kept Paulinus alive, so no harm has been done. and mutual forgiveness can be the order of the day.