Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

COCKSTONE

in Michaelmas Term — Middleton, Thomas

Metadata

PlayMichaelmas Term
AuthorMiddleton, Thomas
Year (catalogued)1607
First performance1606
Decade1600s
GenreComedy
Play typeBoys Professional
CompanyChildren of Paul's (second)
Speech prefix(es)Cock:
Words187
Characters1010
Typicality0.20 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA07505
BritDrama no.1444
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

Young master Easy, let me salute you sir, when came you? You seldom visit London master Easy, But now your Father's dead 'tis your only course, Here's gallants of all sizes, of all lasts, Here you may fit your foot, make choice of those Whom your affection may rejoice in: Master Rerrage? One master Isaiah, has good and in Essex, a fair free-brested Gentleman, somewhat too open, bade in man, worse in woman, the Gentrye-fault at first, he is yet fresh and wants the City powdering, but what news? I'st yet a match betwixt master Qomodoes the rich Drapers daughter and your self. Vildly? by whom. Yet the mother's side being surer than the Father's, it may prove, men plead for money best, women for love. How then, afraid of a woollen draper. What news in yonder paper. Salute him, hang him. Taste it. First dogs take pains to make it fit for men, Then men take pain to make it fit for dogs. Why this is kindness, a kind Gallant, you, And love to give the dogs more than their endue, We shall attend you sir.

Plot summary

Plot — Michaelmas Term
Rearage and Andrew Lethe are rivals for the hand of Quomodo’s daughter: her mother favours Rearage and her father Lethe. Lethe has assumed gentry status, and is concerned when his plebeian mother arrives from the country; but she does not recognize him, and he employs her as a go-between. Hellgill brings a country wench to London, promising to pass her off as a gentlewoman. He dresses her up and she begins to attract gallants, including Lethe. Her father comes looking for her, and, not recognizing him, she takes him on as a servant. A third visitor from the country is Richard Easy, who is entrapped by Shortyard and Falselight, the agents of Ephestian Quomodo. Shortyard gambles with Easy, persuading him to keep on betting in the hope of breaking his losing streak. In consequence, he needs money to fund his social life, and seeks to borrow it from Quomodo. He is induced to take the loan in cloth, which he can sell on to realize the money; ===== PAGE 155 ===== 1604 posing as the fictitious ‘Blastfield’, Shortyard also signs the bond. Quomodo and his accomplices engineer a downturn in the market: the cloth has to be sold for less than half its true value. When the bond falls due for repayment a month later, Blastfield cannot be found, and Easy is arrested. Quomodo’s accomplices pose as wealthy citizens and stand bail for Easy, so long as he signs over all his possessions to them. When Blastfield still cannot be found, the bailsmen give Quomodo Easy’s lands in lieu of the bail they owe him. Easy is ruined, but Quomodo’s wife Thomasine, who has witnessed the cozenage, takes pity on him and lends him money. Concerned about his son Sim’s possible prodigality, Quomodo feigns his own death to see how people will take it. He attends his own funeral disguised as a beadle, but nobody has a good word to say about him. Thomasine quickly marries Easy, who learns how he was duped. Shortyard cozens Sim of Easy’s lands, but is forced to restore them to Easy to cover himself; but Easy still has him arrested. Still in disguise, Quomodo collects his fee for attending the funeral; Thomasine has him sign a document renouncing any further claim on the household, and for a joke he signs his own name. When this is noticed, he reveals his identity and institutes legal proceedings against Thomasine and Easy. On the day of his marriage to Susan, Lethe is arrested for lewd behaviour with the country wench. All the cases come before a judge, who will only accept Quomodo’s identity when…