Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

JAMES

in Tottenham Court

Metadata

PlayTottenham Court
Year (catalogued)1638
First performance1638
Decade1630s
GenreComedy
Play typeAdult Professional;Professional
CompanyPrince Charles's Men (second) (?); King's Revels Company (?)
TheaterSalisbury Court;Indoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)Iam.
Words554
Characters2949
Typicality0.41 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA07978
BritDrama no.2405
ClusterCluster 23 — Gulls, fops & laughing-stocks

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

Now my parrat of froth, whose mouth is lined with tapestry; what company is in the house? Will Changelove? prithee call him hither. How shall we spend the day Same? Exit. Hang cases and books that are spoiled with them. Give me Johnson and Shakespeare ; there's learning for a gen tleman. I tell thee Same, were it not for the dancing-school and Play-houses, I would not stay at the Inns of Court for the h pes of a chief Justiceship. Formality; a grave youth in a gown. Thou thinkest it's becoming to walk thus to Totenham-Court, and at home so punctual in confo mity. I had rather a French con sumption should wear my hair off then a round cap. Hang state: I took no pains to get, why then should I take any to keep it? if it will stay, so it's: if not, Shopkeepers that will trust, shall be paid when they can get it. A law of necessity Same, and always in force with Gallants. Will Changelove, well met at Totenham-Court. What made thee rise so early? It must be more then thy Taylor. What shall we drink? Ale? Ale's muddy : what think you of Beer? Shall we hunt to day Will? I herd the common cry abroad. Is there Music with the company you left? Would thou wouldst enter me into their acquain tance; we might have a dance. Please you t'admit us; we would feign partake Your worth and company. Shall we dance gentlemen? Musicknesse, and let activeness freeze! Shall I use you sweet Mistress? Please that gross gentleman? Do you know him then? You see Mistress I am for their comp nigh any way. Come sweet Mistress, the other dance. It seems this gentleman loves not the company of women. The Taylor's paid. What Gentlewoman? Thanks honest Robin. Here's for thee. I'll take the first opportunity. What gentlewoman? It's shut again sweet Mistress. If it offend you, I will buy my pardon at your own rate. A little pleasure Sweet. Come, come, what's your price? As if I had not practised wenching sum iciently to understand a dissembled modesty: because I am a stranger, I'll come to your lodging when I know where it's. But say your price? half a crown? Let me have it; I'll double his reward. And my young valour dare not encounter him. Would I were safe. A handsome convenience. When he's gone, re lease me. If he be gone sweet heart, let me out. I am almost stifled. They take him out of the Trunk. I beseech you Gentlemen kill me not, I have been sufficiently mortified; and I believe you may smell, the effects of my fear. I think upon that Port S shoulders. I'll tell you sir. Bargaining for a little sport with the Gentlewoman, whom I thought to be a wanton, she possessed me with scare, (to which cowardice is always apt, and I must acknowl dge in my self) that a Gentleman (one of you two I take it) had dealt with her for her Maidenhead, and that she expected him. He came: and I fearing lust as well as love would brook no rival, made use of this for my safety. Wh re being heavy headed with Ale, I have slept till your noise waked me.

Plot summary

Plot — Tottenham Court
Worthgood and Bellamie intend to marry, and have absconded to London with her uncle in pursuit. Bellamie is separated from Worthgood in Marylebone Park. She meets the censorious Cicely, and faints when Cicely voices her suspicions of sexual impropriety. She dreams that she will have Worthgood that very day, and is revived by Cicely's father, the park-keeper, who takes her home and seems interested in the name Worthgood. Worthgood meets the keeper, who promises to reunite him with Bellamie; but she and Cicely have already left for London, exchanging clothes to deceive any pursuers. Worthgood and the keeper follow them. Bellamie and Cicely arrive at an alehouse in Tottenham Court. Bellamie unexpectedly meets her brother, Sam, but denies her identity when recognizes her; he infers that she has become a common prostitute. Also at the alehouse is Cicely's unwanted admirer, Frank, who intends to seduce the tailor's wife, Mistress Stitchwell, and has piqued her interest by posing as a misogynist. Mistress Stitchwell intends to cuckold her husband in his presence, but the first attempt backfires: alone in the alehouse bathroom with her, Frank's friend George hides in the tub when Stitchwell arrives, and has water poured over him. Sam's friend James visits Cicely, thinking her a prostitute too, but hides in a trunk when others arrive. Importuned by Frank, Cicely proposes having herself smuggled to his room in the trunk; she and Bellamie then send it there, with the sleeping James locked inside. Intending to enjoy Cicely himself, George diverts the trunk to his own room. He and Frank fight over it, only to find that it contains James, not Cicely. Changelove woos Mistress Stitchwell while her husband is in a drunken stupor, but Stitchwell dreams he is being cuckolded and assaults Changelove. The gallant leaves the tailor to pay an inflated alehouse bill when he wakes up. Mistress Stitchwell assures him she was only amusing herself with the gallants, not committing adultery. Sam tries to engage Bellamie's supposed professional services and, shocked, she admits her identity. Rebuked by her brother, she faints. Worthgood and the keeper locate her, and she wakes to the sound of his voice. Bellamie's uncle also traces her to the alehouse, but when he arrives he finds not only his niece but his nephew planning marriage: Bellamie has interested Sam in Cicely, and he has approved Worthgood as a brother-in-law. The keeper reveals that Cicely is Worthgood's sister, and so of…