Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

VIRGINIA

in Fedele and Fortunia (Two Italian Gentlemen) — Munday, Anthony, trans. (?); Pasqualigo, Luigi

Metadata

PlayFedele and Fortunia (Two Italian Gentlemen)
AuthorMunday, Anthony, trans. (?); Pasqualigo, Luigi
Year (catalogued)1585
First performance1584
Decade1580s
GenreComedy
Play typeBoys Professional; Translation
CompanyChildren of the Chapel (first) (Oxford's Boys)
Theaterbefore the Court;
Speech prefix(es)Virginia.
Words307
Characters1559
Typicality0.23 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA09134
BritDrama no.747
ClusterCluster 19 — Grieving nobles & tragicomic sufferers

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

¶How canst thou tell? ¶If it been so, then is he justly plagued from above, And feels that hell of mind, which all forsake ̄ Ghosts do prove Yet can I not believe it Pamphila, before I see, And gather by his answer, that he hath forsaken Me. Therefore go seek him out again. ¶Step to him Straight. ¶I never thought Fedele to have found, Your show of faith in promises forgotten: Your liking dead, and buried in the ground, My self cast off as though you knew me not. To love in jest and turn it to a scorn, Is not the nature of a Gentle born. ¶Ah Pamphila, I find thy words are true, The more in liking I did think him bound: The looser he, and hunts after new, His talk was nothing but and empty found. Those virtues now, I see he does despise: That once did paint my picture in his eyes. If Justice Palace stand above the skies, And angry gods do look into our life: Some plague no doubt, for him they will devise, And scourge him with some storm of bitter strife. Although he vaunt of conquest here a while, T'is not praise worthy a woman to beguile. Come Pamphila I'll learn to set him light, That so dissembles with a double tongue, Help to convey me straight out of his sighed, Whose wandering choice hath done me double wrong. Farewell Sir, as we met, we mean to part. ¶Ah wretch that am I alas, and half undone, ¶Alas I never knew the man, he never touched me yet, I love Fedele, and he alone is for Virginia fit? ¶I thank you Sir, in that it pleases you to use me so, My promise was nigh granted to Fedele long ago. ¶Then if you love I will be yours.

Plot summary

Plot — Fedele and Fortunia (Two Italian Gentlemen)
Bedelé and Bortunid, rivals for the affections of WWictoria, are both melancholy for love. Victoria once favoured Fedele, who still loves her; but he has been away, and she now loves Fortunio instead. A third would-be suitor is @aptain§@rmekstenée, whom Fortunio has asked for help. Fedele in turn is loved by Mirginia, his original love whom he jilted when he fell for Victoria. Victoria seeks M@@USA’s magical help to compel Fortunio’s love. Both Fedele and Crackstone see her going to raise spirits at night. They throw candles into a tomb, but Crackstone has hidden inside it; his emergence convinces them that they have raised the devil, and they run away, leaving behind a wax image which was to be used in the spell. Crackstone sends the incriminating image to Fedele, who confronts Victoria and tells Fortunio everything. Victoria engages Crackstone to kill Fedele. Meanwhile P@danté has been promoting Fedele’s cause through Victoria’s maid, Alttilia, and has fallen in love with her. He visits Victoria’s house disguised as a beggar. Fedele shows this to Fortunio, convincing him that Victoria has a lover. Attilia leaks the murder plot to Pedante, who tells Fedele. Crackstone pretends to kill Fedele, fighting with the air, with the intention of telling Victoria that he is dead and marrying her before she discovers the truth. However, Fedele catches him in a net, and Victoria mocks him and pours urine over him. Crackstone swears revenge, and Pedante offers to help; but for his part Fedele accepts that Victoria’s behaviour towards him is just retribution for his mistreatment of Virginia, with whom he now seeks to make his peace. However, Fortunio too now turns his attentions to Virginia, and enlists Medusa’s assistance: she arranges for him to be caught in her room half-naked, so that he will have to marry her to silence scandal. Fedele is content, not wanting a second-hand wife; and Medusa explains that there has been no sexual misconduct. Pedante arranges an assignation between Attilia and Crackstone, who expects to meet the mistress in the maid’s clothes, and wears the beggar’s disguise so that Attilia will take him for Pedante. The scheme goes wrong when Victoria has Attilia arrested on suspicion of theft, and the couple’s true identities are revealed. Crackstone tries to force Pedante to marry Attilia, but has to take her to wife himself. Victoria decides to accept Fedele after all, and he bestows Pedante on Medusa.