in The Fatal Dowry — Field, Nathan; Massinger, Philip
Metadata
Play
The Fatal Dowry
Author
Field, Nathan; Massinger, Philip
Year (catalogued)
1632
First performance
1619
Decade
1630s
Genre
Tragedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
King's Men
Theater
Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)
Lila. | Lilad. | Lil. | Lila • | L • la.
Words
897
Characters
4604
Typicality
0.29 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A07251
BritDrama no.
1883
Cluster
Cluster 23 — Gulls, fops & laughing-stocks
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
A good dumb mourner. Heres more. I grant you, Sir, we are, and you would have us Stay and be more abused. With a hair breadth's error, ther's a shoulder piece cut, and the base of a pick dille in puncto. True my Lord, as if any thing your Lordship could say, could be otherwise then true. O that I were the Infanta Queen of Europe, Who (but thy self sweet Lord) shouldst marry me. Aim. Humph— God's-foot, Colbran, the low giant. A most uncivil Groom? Let him alone, let him alone, thou shalt loose to y arm, fellow: if we stir again st thee, hang us. Let's leave the mad Ape. WHy it's both most unconscionable, and untimely to arrest a gallant for his clothes, before He has worn them out: beside you said you asked My name in my Lords bound but for me only, And now you'll lay me up for't. Do not think The taking measure of a customer By a brace of varlets though I rather wait Never so patiently, will prove a fashion Which any Courtier or nes of court man Would follow willingly. Plague on' , You have provided for my entrance in: That coming forth you talk of, concerns me. What shall I do? you have done me a disgrace In the arrest, but more in gi king cause To all the street, to think I cannot stand Without these two supporters for my arms: Pray you let them lose me: for their satisfaction I will not run away. Why do you call them fellows? do not wrong The r reputation so, as you are merely A Taylor, faithful, apt to believe in Gallants You are a companion at a ten crown supper For cloth of bodkin, and may with one Lark Eat up three manchets, and no man observe you, Or call your trade in question for't. But when You study your debt-book, and hold correspondence With officers of the hanger, and leave swordmen, The learned conclude, the Taylor and Sergeant In the expression of a knave are these To be Synonima. Look therefore to it, And let us partly in peace, I would be loath You should undo y r e e. God's lid, I will put him to't: I can be but denied: or what say you? His Lordship owing me three times your debt, If you arrest him at my suit, and let me Go run before to see the Actium entered. 'Twould be a witty jest. O my Lord, O my good Lord, deliver me from these furies. Nor you, Captain. And now I think on't better, I will, brother, your hand, your hand, sweet brother. I am of your sect, and my gallantry but a dream, Out of which these two fearful apparitions Against my will have waked me. This rich sword Grew suddenly out of a tailors bodkin; hese hangers from my vails and fees in Hell: And where as now this beaver sits, full often A thrifty cape composed of broad cloth lists, Here kin unto the cushion where I sat Crosse-leg'd, and yet ungartered, hath been seen, Our breakfasts famous for the buttered loaves, I have with joy been oft acquainted with, And therefore use a conscience, though it be Forbidden in our hall towards other men, To me that as I have been, will again Be of the brotherhood. And from thence brought by my young Lord, now dead, Unto Dijon, and with him till this hour Hath been received here for a complete Mounsieur. Nor wonder at it: for but tithe our gallants, Even those of the first rank, and you will find In every ten, one: peradventure two, That smell rank of the dancing school, or fiddle, The pantofle or pressing yro : but hereafter Weel talk of this. I will surrender up My suits again: there cannot be much lose, It's but the to rning of the lace, with ones Additions more you know of, and what want I will work out. Friends, you mistake The way to win my Lord, he must not hear this, But I, as one in favour, in his sighs , May harken to you for my profit. Sir, I pray hear em. Observe him now. Uds light, my Lord, one of the purles of your band is (without all discipline fallen) out of his rank. His Colonel looks fienely Like a drover, We'll wait on you. How is it? Faith, your Lordship may do well, To help him to some Church-preferment it's Now the fashion, for men of all conditions, How ever they have lived, to end that way. His back Appears to me, as it would tire a B adl , And then he has a knotted brow, would bruise A court Like hand to touch it. Nay, my Lord, we will not offer to dishonour you so much as to stay by you, since he's alone. You are rude. I say, he shall not pass. Exit Nouall. Char: and Advocates. Look upon me better, Are these the ensigns of so course a fellow? Be well advised. But that this man is lawless; he should find that I am valiant. Truth, I have born my partly already, friends. In the Court you shall have more. Exit. Was there ever so base a fellow? Magpies? what d'ee take me for?
Plot summary
Plot — The Fatal Dowry
. Before the start of the action, the Marshal Charolais bankrupted himself to pay the army, and died in a debtors’ prison. Now his creditors seek to detain his body, preventing it from being buried. His son appeals in the courts, but the measure is pronounced legal; however, the creditors accept Young Charolais’s offer to be imprisoned himself, and the funeral takes place. Being poor, Charolais has no hope of ever being released, but Rochfort pays the debt and, in return, asks that Charolais marry his daughter Beaumelle. Before the marriage, Young Novall paid Beaumelle’s waiting-woman Bellapert to help him seduce her. Despite now being Charolais’s wife, Beaumelle proves receptive to his continued courting, but their meeting is witnessed by Charolais’s friend Romont. He intervenes and sends Novall packing, much to Beaumelle’s displeasure, then accuses her, first to Rochfort and then to her husband, but neither will believe him. Finally he confronts Novali and forces him at gunpoint to sign a confession and undertake never to see or contact Beaumelle again. Novall does not keep his word: Charolais catches him with Beaumelle and kills him. He then presents his wife to her father as the accused in an adultery trial. As a judge, Rochfort is obliged to condemn her to death, a sentence Charolais readily carries out; but as a father, he takes her part and accuses Charolais of ingratitude. The young man is arrested and tried for Novall’s murder. He admits the killing, but pleads that the adultery extenuates it. The court accepts the argument after Romont produces the confession signed by Novall. Private revenge takes over: Charolais is killed in open court by Pontalier, Novall’s kinsman, who is himself killed in turn by Romont, whom the court banishes for the crime.