in A Trick to Catch the Old One — Middleton, Thomas
Metadata
Play
A Trick to Catch the Old One
Author
Middleton, Thomas
Year (catalogued)
1608
First performance
1605
Decade
1600s
Genre
Comedy
Play type
Boys Professional
Company
Children of Paul's (second)
Speech prefix(es)
3.
Words
225
Characters
1142
Typicality
0.27 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A07511
BritDrama no.
1467
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 match, if it be a match? Young Wit-good will be a gallant again now. Four hundred a year they say in very good land. He owes me a hundred pound, and I protest I near looked for a penny. It cannot indeed? I would lost a ring i'faith, isle follow you presently—but you shall find it sir, I know your youth and expenses have disfur nisht you of all Jewels, ther's a Ruby of twenty pound price sir, bestow it upon your widow, —what man, 'twill call up her blood to you, beside if I might so much work with you, I would not have you beholding to those bloodsuckers for any money. The'ar a brace of cutthroats? Send a note of all your wants to my shop and isle sup lie you instantly. Shall I carry it away from e'm both then. Troth then I thank you sir. I boasted least, but it I joined their hands, Hang him prodigal, he's stripped of the Widow. Here's mine of fifty. O 'tis a Secret delight we have amongst us, we that are used to keep birds in cages, have the heart to keep men in prison, I warrant you. Mass partner and now you remember me on't, there's Master Muligrubs sister newly fallen a widow. I have paid for't I know't. Why well said:
Plot summary
Plot — A Trick to Catch the Old One
The spendthrift Witgood has mortgaged all his lands to his uncle, Lucre, but he is still in debt, and fear of his creditors keeps him away from London. Nevertheless he must go there if he is to make his fortune by marrying Joyce, the wealthy niece to Lucre’s enemy Walkadine Hoard. He conspires with Jane, a courtesan, to give the impression that he now has good prospects: she poses as a rich country widow who plans to marry him. Lucre’s attitude to his nephew is immediately transformed: hoping to acquire the widow’s lands too after the wedding, he denies the existence of the mortgage and lends Witgood money for new clothes. News of the widow also attracts Witgood’s creditors, but he persuades them that if they are over-attentive they will break his engagement, and thereby wreck their chances of repayment: the widow must continue to believe him to be financially secure. To that end, they eagerly agree to lend him even more money. Meanwhile Jane herself is a magnet for suitors, including the young men who were earlier trying to woo the reluctant Joyce, who is only interested in Witgood. Hoard throws his hat in the ring, bringing gentlemen to give Witgood a bad testimonial and discredit Lucre’s claims that there is no mortgage. Jane denies that she has any lands, but Hoard takes it for winsomeness and insists that her love is all that matters. They arrange an elopement; she absconds from Witgood at a tavern and marries Hoard. Lucre intervenes, not knowing he is too late, and gets her to promise that she will not change her marital status until he has made matters good by returning his nephew’s mortgage, which he duly does before witnesses. On discovering that he has been tricked, he initiates a law-suit, alleging that the widow’s marriage to Hoard is invalidated by a pre-contract to Witgood. Hearing that he has lost the widow, Witgood’s creditors have him arrested. Jane persuades Hoard to pay his debts and secure his release in exchange for his signature on a legal document renouncing any marital claim on her. Hoard drives a hard bargain with the creditors, but Witgood is duly freed. He secretly marries Joyce and delights his uncle with the truth that Hoard has married a whore. Hoard himself learns this when his brother comes from the country to attend the nuptial celebrations, and recognizes Jane. Jane points out that Hoard has only his own avarice to blame: she never misrepresented herself as having ===== PAGE 206 ===== 206 | 1467.A Trick to Catch the Old…