in The World Tossed at Tennis — Middleton, Thomas; Rowley, William
Metadata
Play
The World Tossed at Tennis
Author
Middleton, Thomas; Rowley, William
Year (catalogued)
1620
First performance
1620
Decade
1620s
Genre
Masque
Play type
Occasional; Adult Professional
Company
Prince Charles's Men (first)
Speech prefix(es)
King. | Kin. | K.
Words
306
Characters
1736
Typicality
0.30 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A07525
BritDrama no.
1931
Cluster
Cluster 17 — Intriguers & schemers
Important excerpts
Passages from this character's speech that contain the most distinguishing words for Cluster 17 (nat, leaguer, assyrian, mowche, bashas, andalle…). Matches are highlighted.
you not; And you are the precious ornaments of State, The glories of the world, fellows to virtues, Master's of honest and well-purchased Fortune's, And I am fortunate in your partnership; But if you ever make your Hearts the houses Of falsehood and corruption, ugliness it self Will be a beauty to you; and less pointed at: Spots
Full speech
Thou'st said enough. Let this be called the Sphere of harmony, In which being met, lets all move mutually. What's thy name? What makest thou with so great a charge about thee? Resign it up to me, and be my Fool. As ever Folly had. Thou? hence Base Sycophant, insinuating hellhound, Lay not a finger on it, as thou lovest The state of thy whole body; all thy filthy And rotten flatteries stink in my remembrance, And nothing is so loath some as thy presence. Thou sayest true, fool, the world has a clear water. Thou'st counsel in thee too. Look, what are those? How pleasantly the Countries lie about, Of which we are sole Lord: whats that ith' middle? I, that, that. Peace, who are these approaching? How cheers our noble Captain? Stay, Man of Merit, it belongs to thee, I cheerfully resign it, all my Ambition Is but the quiet calm of peaceful days; And that fair good, I know, thy arm will raise. How blessed am I in Subjects! here are those That make all Kingdoms happy, worthy Soldier, Fair Churchman, and thou uncorrupted Lawyer, Virtues great miracle, that hast redeemed All Justice from her ignominious name. What, Simplicity! Who thinks of virtue, cannot forget thee. Continue but thus watchful oh r your selves, That the great cunning Enemies, Deceit And his too mighty Lord, beguile you not; And you are the precious ornaments of State, The glories of the world, fellows to virtues, Master's of honest and well-purchased Fortune's, And I am fortunate in your partnership; But if you ever make your Hearts the houses Of falsehood and corruption, ugliness it self Will be a beauty to you; and less pointed at: Spots in deformed faces, are scarce noted, Fair cheeks are stained, if never so little blotted. Her love inhabit you.
Plot summary
Plot — The World Tossed at Tennis
The royal palaces of Richmond and St James now have a rival, Denmark House. Richmond is afraid that the newcomer will take all Prince Charles’s attention, leaving them neglected; but Denmark House assures them that each is suitable for a particular season (herself for winter, St James’s for spring, and Richmond for summer), and that the Prince will rotate among them equally. An unemployed scholar and an unemployed soldier consider their options. Their patroness Pallas descends, argues that the complete man combines both their professions, art and arms together, and invokes Jupiter's help. Jupiter presents the Muses and the Nine 1620 Worthies as an illustration of the virtue of former times. Time weeps at the encroaching vice of the present; he finds himself continually abused and hated. Deceit and pride have damaged the world in its latter days, and Jupiter summons the five coloured starches as illustrations of the absurdity of modern fashion. White Starch claims precedence over the others, but Yellow wins acclaim. Simplicity arrives to see what has become of the world (represented on stage by a globe), and is not reassured by his observations. Deceit wants to cozen him of the world, Simplicity to protect it from Deceit’s bad influence. Deceit successively gains the confidence of a series of men with worldly power: a king, a land- captain, a sea-captain, a flamen, and a lawyer. Each in turn is persuaded that the world should belong to him: the King takes it from Simplicity, and the Land- Captain from the King (through a display of superior military power); the Sea-Captain threatens the Land- Captain with naval cannon and they agree to share the world; but the Flamen takes it from them, urging them to look to their souls, and the Lawyer in turn takes it from the Flamen, insisting on his role in maintaining proper social discipline. On each occasion, Deceit asks for his share of the world, and is rebuffed at every turn (though the Lawyer gives him all the money in the world): none of the worldly powers is susceptible to corruption. A dance ensues in which the various powers pass the world between themselves; Deceit and the Devil repeatedly attempt to possess it, and fail. The world ends up in the hands of the King. With the world now at ease, Jupiter tells the Soldier and Scholar that they have only themselves to blame if they are unemployed, and encourages them to go and get jobs. The Soldier goes to war overseas; the Scholar stays in England under its…