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)
Au. | Aud. | Aud :
Words
261
Characters
1345
Typicality
0.40 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A07511
BritDrama no.
1467
Cluster
Cluster 9 — Boon companions & bluff banter
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Master Dampit, one may hear you, before they see you, you keep sweet hours Master Dampit, we were all a bed 3 hours ago. O yare a fine Gentleman. Call you this early Master Dampit. Here, I have warmed your Nightcap for you master Dampit. You have drunk the more Master Dampit, You might, and you would Master Dampit. May I ask you how you do Master Dampit? I never knenw you do otherwise, Take this warm Napken about your neck sir, while I help to make you unready. What say I Master Dampit ? I say nothing but that you are very weak, Why Master Dampit I never deceiu worser you in all my life? I care not what you say Master Dampit ? Fie Master Dampit, a Gentleman and have such words. No, master Dampit, and there's a Gentleman comes a wooing to me, and he doubts nothing but that you will get me from him: Come will you rise and go to bed sir? They be the stinking nails of his trampling feet, and he talks of burning of horns: Would, would, would. Why Master Dampit if you hold on as you begin, and lie a little longer, you need not take care how to dispose your wealth, you'll make the Vintner your heir. Good words Master Dampit, to speak before a maid and a virgin. Sweet terms, my Mistress shall know e'm. Pray Gentlemen depart, his hours come upon him, sleep in my bosom, sleep. Fooh— How now Master Dampit ? It waits for you above sir?
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…