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)
L. Capt. | L. Cap.
Words
294
Characters
1581
Typicality
0.45 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A07525
BritDrama no.
1931
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
There thou hast nam Afflictions sharper then the enemies swords. A Reverend shape. A divine one. No more, I'll be my self; I that uphold Countries and Kingdoms, must I halt down right, And be propped up with partly of mine own strength, The least partly too? Why, have not I the power To make my self stand absolute of my self, That keep up others? Our own Captain, No more a hireling; your great Foe's at hand, Seek your defence elsewhere, for mine shall fail you, I'll not be fellow-yoak't with death and danger All my life time, and have the World kept from me, March in the heat of Summer in a both, A furnace girded about me, and in that agony, With so much fire within me, forced to wade Through a cool river, practising in life The very pains of hell, now scorched, now shivering, To call diseases early into my bones, Before I've age enough to entertain they: No, he that has desire to keep the World, Let him ee'n take the sour pains to defend it. Though now and absolute master; yet to thee Ever a faithful servant. In a false kind I grant thee: How many vild complaints from time to time Has been put up against thee? they have wearied me More then a Battle sixteen hours of fighting, I've herd the ragged Regiment so curse thee, I look't next day for Leprosy upon thee, Or puffs of pestilence as big as Wens, When thou wouldst drop asunder, Like a thing Inwardly eaten, thy skin only whole Avant, defrauder of poor soldiers rights, Camp-caterpillar, hence; or I will send thee To make their rage a breakfast. Proud Salt-rover, thou hast the salutation of a thief. Hold.
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…