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)
Tear-Cat. | T. Cat. | T Cat.
Words
305
Characters
1585
Typicality
0.33 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A07524
BritDrama no.
1633
Cluster
Cluster 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
I had rather have a cow heel. Alla corago then. Ick mine Here. Ick been den ruffling Teare-Cat. Den, brave Soldade, Ick been doric all Dutchlant. Gueresen: Der Shellum das mere Ine Beasa Ine woert gaeb. Ick slaag vin strokes ou tom Cop. Dastick Den hundred touzun Devil hall, Frolic miue Here. A man beaten from the wars sir. I am called by those that have seen my valour, Tear-Cat. No indeed Captain Mol (for I know you by sighed) I am no such nipping Christian, but a maunderer upon the pad I confess, and meeting with honest Trap-door here, whom you had cashiered from bearing arms, out at elbows under your colours, I instructed him in the rudements of roguery, and by my map made him sail over any Country you can name, so that now he can maunder better then my self. Brother to this upright man, flesh and blood, ruf fling Teare-Cat is my name, and a ruffler is my style, my title, my profession. Pure rogues? no, we scorn to be pure rogues, but if you come to our lib ken, or our stalling ken, you shall find neither him nor me, a choir cuffin. No, but a been cave, a brave cave, a gentry cuffin. Is Benar then a Caster, Peck, pennam, lay or popler, Which we mill in deuse a vile. O I would lib all the lightmans. O I would lib all the darkmans, By the sollamon under the Ruffemans. By the sollamon in the Hartmans. And scour the Choir cramp ring, And couch till a pallyard docked my dell, So my bousy nab might skew room bouse well Avast to the pad, let us bing, Avast to the pad, let us bing. Thanks heroical Captain. I prae, sequor, let us go mouse. In both our nether limbs.
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.