in The Roaring Girl, or Moll Cutpurse — Dekker, Thomas; Middleton, Thomas
Metadata
Play
The Roaring Girl, or Moll Cutpurse
Author
Dekker, Thomas; Middleton, Thomas
Year (catalogued)
1611
First performance
1611
Decade
1610s
Genre
Comedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
Prince Henry's Men
Theater
Fortune;Outdoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)
Gosh. | Gosh,
Words
937
Characters
4884
Typicality
0.42 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A07524
BritDrama no.
1633
Cluster
Cluster 13 — Attendant courtiers & citizens
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
I Like the prospect best. I stoop to your lure sir. So sparing and so wary, What then could vex his father so. Is that she. O sir 'tis many a good woman's fortune, when her husband turns bankrout, to begin with pipes and set up again. Come th'art familiarly acquainted there, I grope that. Go th'art a mystical lecher. May take up and ell of pure smock; away go, 'tis the closest striker. Life I think he continued ̄ mits venery 40 foot deep, no men aware on't, I Like a palpable smockster go to work so openly, with the tricks of art, that I'm as apparently seen as a naked boy in a vial, & were it not for a gift of treachery that I have in me to betray my friend when ̄ he puts most trust in me (mass yonder he is too—) and by his injury to make good my access to her, I should appear as defective in courting, as a Farmers son the first day of his feather, that does nothing at Court, but woe the hangings and glass windows for a month toga there, and some broken waiting woman for ever after. I find those imperfections in my venery, that were't not for flattery and falsehood, I should want discourse and impudence, and he that wants impudence among women, is worthy to be kicked out at beds feet.—He shall not see me yet. Rich smoke; that's 6. pence a pipe is't? O what else sir, he's perfection it self, full of man- But not and acre of ground belonging to they. But above all religious: he prayeth daily upon elder brother's. Thou hast the cowardliest trick to come before a men face and strangle him ere he be aware, I could find in my heart to make a quarrel in earnest. He were ill to make a lawyer, he dispatches three at once. Shall we taste a pipe on't? What not Jack dapper. No your a horder, you ingrose bith ounces. What say you to this gear. Life yonders Mol. honest Mol. A pipe of good tobacco Mol. Nay Moll puh, prithee hark, but one word i'faith. Now thy judgement Moll, is't not good? Why Mol, Mol. 'Tis the maddest fantasticalst girl:—I never knew so much flesh and so much nimbleness put together. No trouble at all, 'tis a pleasure to me to join things together. Nay more I tell you in private, he keeps a whore ith suburbs. I had rather see your legs, and begin that way. There's ways enough to cry quite with him, hark in thine ear. Hark the bell rings, come Gentlemen. Jack Dapper where shals all munch. Is your wife ill sir? Yes sweet Master Tiltyard; sirrah Rosamond I hold my life Gallipot hath vexed his wife. We shall have your face painted with the same read soon at night, when your husband comes from his rubbers in a false alley; thou wilt not believe me that his bowls run with a wrong bias. What if I bring thee, where thou shalt see him stand at rack and manger? Shall thou and I ride our journey then. No more; come Master Tiltyard, shall we leap into the stirrups with our women, and amble home? How now, are you ready? Us? why, must she make one i'the voyage? 'Foot, how shall I find water, to keep these two mills going? Well since you'll needs be clapped under hatches, if I sail not with you both till all split, hang me up at the main yard, & duck me; it's but lickering them both soundly, & then you shall see their cork heals fly up high, Like two swan's when their tails are above water, and their long necks under water, diving to catch gudgions: come, come, oars stand rea die, the tide's with us, on with those false faces, blow winds and thou shalt take thy husband, casting out his net to catch fresh Salmon at Brainford. So, so, follow close, pin as you go. Come, ha'you done? Sfoot Rosamond, your husband. welcome, Silence if you love me. S'footeyov'l spoil all. Are you both mad? As you regard my credit. Belike sir she's not well; best leave her. I sweat, wo'ld I lay in cold harbour. S'heart will you undo me? Keep thee there girl:—then! O brave girls: worth Gold. What do you mean sir? By heaven that man I know not. Will you not have all out? By heaven I know no man beneath the moon Should do you wrong, but if I had his name, I'de print it in text letters. Mine own shame me confounds: Pardon me. No:—you teach me a trick for that. No. Laxton is't not?—what fagary is this? He has had the better Chirurgeon, Master Greenewit, is your wit so raw as to play no better a partly then a Somners? It's impossible. They marry close, thei'r gone, but none knows whither. In vain you flatter him sir Alexander. Will you undo your self by doing, And show a prodigal trick in your old days? Of and old knight faith. Life, here's Mol. How dost thou Jack? Why sir, take comfort now, there's no such matter, No Priest will marry her, sir, for a woman, While that shape's on, and it was never known, Two men were married and conjoined in one: Your son hath made some shift to love another. Say he should take a wench with her smock-dowry, No portion with her, but her lips and arms? A proper lusty presence sir. Zounds now hell roars.
Plot summary
Plot — The Roaring Girl, or Moll Cutpurse
Sebastian Wengrave was contracted to marry Mary Fitzallard until his father, dissatisfied with the dowry, cancelled the arrangement; Sebastian plans to reverse 1611 his father’s decision by pretending infatuation with Moll Cutpurse. Sir Alexander employs Trapdoor to enter Moll’s service as a spy and agent provocateur. Trapdoor forewarns Sir Alexander of an assignation between Sebastian and Moll, and they plot to entrap her in.a false charge of theft. In fact, Moll uses the meeting to bring Sebastian together with Mary. Sir Alexander eavesdrops on them and gives Moll counterfeit coins. Moll recognizes Trapdoor as a spy and sacks him. He turns to begging, posing as an discharged soldier, but she sees through his disguise and buys his true allegiance. Sir Alexander hears that Sebastian has absconded with Moll to get married, but is stymied when Trapdoor brings him additional, contradictory (and false) information about their movements. This enables Sebastian to carry out his clandestine marriage with Mary unmolested. Relieved that his son has not married into the criminal classes after all, Sir Alexander settles lands on the couple and forgives Moll. In the second plot, Laxton and Goshawk are having adulterous affairs with the citizen wives, Mistress Gallipot and Mistress Openwork. Laxton also has a date with Moll, but changes his mind about it when she turns up cross-dressed. He sends Mistress Gallipot a love-letter and asks her for money. Gallipot catches her reading it, and she lies that Laxton had a prior claim to marry her but was thought to be dead. She persuades him to buy off his rival with the money Laxton had asked for. As a practical joke, Laxton pretends to use the deception to extort further money, but then repays the thirty pounds he first received from Gallipot. Meanwhile, Openwork outmanoeuvres Goshawk by claiming to be an adulterer himself. Goshawk tells Mistress Openwork, but she sees through it as merely a seduction gambit, proving her fidelity and enabling her husband to shame the rake into penitence. In the third plot, Sir Davy Dapper attempts to discipline his son’s prodigality by having him arrested and imprisoned, but Moll and Trapdoor help him to escape. Afterwards Moll saves him and his friends from being robbed by some cutpurses, whom she recognizes. She explains that her knowledge of petty criminals and their practices does not make her a cutpurse herself.