Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

WHITE DUKE

in A Game at Chess — Middleton, Thomas

Metadata

PlayA Game at Chess
AuthorMiddleton, Thomas
Year (catalogued)1625
First performance1624
Decade1620s
GenreComedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyKing's Men
TheaterGlobe;Outdoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)W. D. | VV. D. | WD.
Words239
Characters1326
Typicality0.15 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA07498
BritDrama no.2130
ClusterCluster 16 — Errand servants & brief parts

Important excerpts

Passages from this character's speech that contain the most distinguishing words for Cluster 16 (nat, ningle, chould, numps, terry, dery…). Matches are highlighted.

In that perfidious model of face falsehood: B. Knight Hell is drawn grinning. They are favours that equally enrich the Royal Giver. As the receiver in the free donation.

Full speech

For that work chiefly. Most blessed of Kings, throned in all royal graces, Every good deed sends back it's own rewards, Into the bosom of the enterprizer; But you to express your self as well to be King of munificency, as integrity Adds glory to the gift. I'll undertake That Knight shall teach the devil how to lie. One made against us. Premeditated tuene-coate. The erroneous relish. Or I beshrew my heart: for I fear fatness, The fog of fatness as I fear a Dragon: The comeliness I wish for, that's as glorious. But how shall I bestow the vice I bring, sir, You quite forget me, I shall be shut out, By your strict key of life. Some that are pleased to make a wanton on't, Call it infirmity of blood, flesh frailty; But certain ther's a worse name in your book for't. How? Dissembler, that includes all. Room for a sunburned, Tanzy faced beloved, And Olive coloured Ganymede; and thats all Thats worth the bagging. (Sir) all the Gyns, traps, and alluring snares, The Devil ha been at work since eighty eight, Are laid for the great hope of this Game only. Look would see destruction lie a sunning? In yonder smile sits blood, and treachery basking, Ent. In that perfidious model of face falsehood: B. Knight Hell is drawn grinning. They are favours that equally enrich the Royal Giver. As the receiver in the free donation.

Plot summary

Plot — A Game at Chess
Ignatius Loyola returns to Earth to find that the Jesuits do not yet rule the world — which serves them right for ===== PAGE 93 ===== 1624 having taken so long to canonize him. Error shows him a vision of a chess game between the forces of Catholicism (the Black house) and Protestantism (the White house). The White Queen’s Pawn has broken off her engagement to the White Bishop’s Pawn after the latter was castrated by the Black Knight’s Pawn. Now the Black Queen’s and Bishop’s Pawns attempt to seduce her, in both religious and sexual terms; the Black King also hopes to use her as a way of getting at the White Queen, both to satisfy his lust and as part of the Black house’s scheme for world domination. In the event, however, she rejects the advances of the Black Bishop’s Pawn and he attempts to rape her, but is interrupted. The discovery of his hypocrisy provides ammunition for the White cause. However, the victim loses credence when the Black Knight produces forged documents purporting to show that the Black Bishop’s Pawn was not in the country at the time of the incident. The White King allows the Black house to determine her punishment, but the Black Knight's stratagem is exposed and the pawn vindicated. The Black Knight takes the White King’s Pawn, who turns out to be an agent of Black anyway; he expects to be made a cardinal, but the Black Knight double-crosses him and he ends up in the bag. The Black Queen’s Pawn pretends sympathy for her White opposite number, and tries again to win her for Black by predicting her marriage to an up-and-coming Black gentleman. The White Queen’s Pawn shows interest, and is shown her future husband in a magic mirror; in fact it is a ruse, and the man she sees is the Black Bishop’s Pawn. When they are introduced, however, she refuses to have sex until they are married; but being a Jesuit, he cannot marry. The Black Queen’s Pawn persuades her White equivalent that a contract is enough, but substitutes herself when the sexual encounter takes place; she later reveals this when the Black Bishop’s Pawn is pressing himself on his supposed bedfellow, before both Black pawns are taken. The Black Knight’s Pawn is guilt-stricken at his crime against the White Bishop’s Pawn, but he cannot buy absolution because castration is not included in the Black Bishop’s book of indulgences. Murder, however, is: the penitent pawn must kill his victim if he is to be forgiven, but he is taken when he makes the attempt. The Black Bishop attacks…