Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

SIR DAVY

in The Roaring Girl, or Moll Cutpurse — Dekker, Thomas; Middleton, Thomas

Metadata

PlayThe Roaring Girl, or Moll Cutpurse
AuthorDekker, Thomas; Middleton, Thomas
Year (catalogued)1611
First performance1611
Decade1610s
GenreComedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyPrince Henry's Men
TheaterFortune;Outdoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)S. Dap. | Sir Dap. | S, Dap. | Dap. | Sir Da. | S. Dauy. | S. Dauy | S. Da. | S. Dauy:
Words554
Characters2961
Typicality0.30 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA07524
BritDrama no.1633
ClusterCluster 18 — Chronicle statesmen & prelates

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

When bounty spreads the table, faith t'were sin, (at going of) if thanks should not step in. A very fair sweet room. I have but two in mine A Monster, 'tis some Monster. Fie, fie. 'Tis but and easy gift, And yet I thank you for it sir, I'll take it. Good tales do well, In these bade days, where vice does so excel. Fantastical, would, would. Does this concern him. 'Tis well done Master Laxton. He shall be weaned I warrant you. Had he such a son, Why sir, 'tis thought, sir Guy Fitz-Allards daughter Shall wed your son Sebastian. Nay: if he be a knave sir, hold him fast. My son Jack Dapper then shall run with him, All in one pasture. As villainy can make him: your Sebastian Doares but on one drab, mine on a thousand, A noise of fiddlers, Tobacco, wine and a whore, A Mercer that will let him take up more, Dice, and a water spaniel with a Duck: o, Bring him a bed with these, when his purse gingles, Roaring boys follow at's tale, fencers and ningles, (Beasts Adam never gave name to) these horseleeches suck My son, he being drawn dry, they all live on smoke. Here's the sprindge Iham set to catch this woodcock in: and Actium In a false name (unknown to him) is entered. I'th Counter to arrest Jack Dapper. Think you the Counter cannot break him? I'll make him sing a Counter tenor sure. He's bridled there. Say they trust him not, There Gallants study hard. 'lies bith' heals faith, thanks, thanks, I would sent For a couple of bears shall paw him. They look Like puttock's, these should be they. My good knights. Leave me, you see I'm haunted now with spirits. Come hither you mad varlets, did not my man tell you I watched here for you. You'll watch then fot ten thousand, what's thy name honesty? And excellent name for a Seriant, Curtilax. Sergeants indeed are weapons of the law, When prodigal ruffians far in debt are grown, Should not you cut them; Citizens were orethrowne, Thou dwellest hereby in Holborne Curtilax. And what young towards welp is this? Yeoman Hanger. One pair of sheeres sure cut out both your coats, You have two names most dangerous to men's throats, You two are villainous loads on Gentlemens backs, Dear beware, this Hanger and this Curtilax. Spoke Like a noble Cerberus, is the Actium entered? What book's that? You know the unthrift Jack Dapper. And you know his father too, Sir Davy Dapper? What toads are these to spit poison on a man to his face? do you see (my honest rascals?) yonder gray-hound is the dog he Hunt's with, out of that Tavern Jack Dapper will sally sa, sa; give the counter, on, set upon him. Take no bail, put mace enough into his caudle, double your files, traverse your ground. There boy, there boy, away: look to your prey my true English wolves, and and so I vanish. Right, but I have in my brain A windmill going that shall grind to dust The follies of my son, and make him wise, Or a stark fool; pray lend me your advise. Be as dogged to him as your office allows you to be. Cry arm, arm, arm.

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.