Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

WHITE KING

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. Ki. | W. Ki | W. K. | VV. K.
Words550
Characters3055
Typicality0.25 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA07498
BritDrama no.2130
ClusterCluster 4 — Constant hearts & virtuous ladies

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

This ha been look't for long. A rape? that's foul indeed, the very found To our ear fouler then the offence it self To some Kings of the earth. When we find desperate sins In ill men's company, We place a charitable sorrow there; But custom and their leprous inclination, Quits us of wonder: for our expectation Is answered in their lives, but to find sin Under a robe of Sanctity, is able To draw all number to that monster only, And leave created monsters unadmired, The pride of him that took first fallen foe pride, Is to be Angel shaped, and imitate The form from whence he lell; but this offendor, Far, baser then sins master, fixed by vow To holy order which is Angels method, It grieves me that my knowledge must be tainted, With his infested name, O rather with thy finger point him out. Can you make this appear? Step forth and reach those proofs. Behold all, How they were in one: I always held a charity so good To holiness professed I ever believed rather, The accuser false you the professor vicious. Set free that virtuous pawn from all her wrongs, Let her be brought with honour to, the face, Of her malicious Adversary. Noble chased Knight, a title of that Candor, The greatest Prince on earth without impeachment May have the dignity of his worth comprised in, This fair delivering act virtue will register, In that white book of the defence of Virgins, Where the clear fame all preserving Knights, Are to eternal memory consecrated; And we embrace as partner of that honour, This worthy Duke, the counsel of the act, Whom we shall ever place in our respect. Thy deserts claim it, Zeal and fidelity appear, thou beauty Of truth and innocence, best ornament Of patience, thou that madest thy sufferings glorious I'm wonder strocke. This black Knight Will never take any answer, it's a victory To make him understand, he does amiss, When he knows in his own clear understanding, That he does nothing else, show him the testimony Confirmed by good men, how that foul attempter, God but this morning to the place from whence He dated his forged lines six days passed, Then thou hast herd the violence intended? Does it appear to you, yet clear as the Sun. Most dangerous Hypocrite You have him, we can spare him, and his shame Will make the rest look better to their Game. I'll say, thy heart then justifies thy books, I long for thy discovery. It's clear and so acknowledged royoll (Sir.) Has my goodneesse, Clemency, love, and favour gracious raised thee From a condition next to popular labour, Took thee from all the dublitable hazards Of Fortune? her most unsecure adventures? And grafted thee into a branch of honour, And dost thou fall from the top bough by the rottenness Of thy alone corruption, Like a fruit That's ouer-ripned by the beams of favour, Let thy own weight reward thee, I have forgotten thee, Integrity of life is so deer to me, Where I find falsehood, or a crying trespass, Be it in any whom our grace shines most on, I'de tear em from my heart. Monster near matched him. What a pain it is For Truth to feign alittle?

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…