in The Love of David and Fair Bathsheba — Peele, George
Metadata
Play
The Love of David and Fair Bathsheba
Author
Peele, George
Year (catalogued)
1599
First performance
1594
Decade
1590s
Genre
Biblical History
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
Queen Elizabeth's Men (?)
Speech prefix(es)
Achi. | Achip. | Ach.
Words
308
Characters
1712
Typicality
0.24 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A09228
BritDrama no.
870
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.
pleasure there, Hereon depends Achitophel's delights, And in this circle must his life be closed. The wise Achitophel, whose counsel proved Ever as found for fortunate success, As if men asked the Oracle of God, Is now used Like the fool of Israel, Then set thy angry soul upon her wings, And let her fly into the shade of death,
Full speech
Let me choose out twelve thousand valiant men, And (while the night hides with her sable mists The close endeavours cunning soldiers use) I will assault thy discontented fire, And while with weakness of their weary arms, Surcharged with toil to shun thy sudden power, The people fly in huge disordered troops To save their lives, and leave the King alone, Then will I smite him with his latest wound, And bring the people to thy feet in peace. Now hath Achitophel ordered his house, And taken leave of every pleasure there, Hereon depends Achitophel's delights, And in this circle must his life be closed. The wise Achitophel, whose counsel proved Ever as found for fortunate success, As if men asked the Oracle of God, Is now used Like the fool of Israel, Then set thy angry soul upon her wings, And let her fly into the shade of death, And for my death, let heaven for ever weep, Making huge floods upon the land I leave, To ravish them, and all their fairest fruits. Let all the sighs I breathed for this disgrace, Hang on my hedges Like eternal mists, As mourning garments for their masters death. Open earth, and take thy miserable son Into the bowels of thy cursed womb, Once in a surfeit thou didst spue him forth, Now for fell hunger suck him in again, And be his body poison to thy veins, And now thou hellish instrument of heaven, Once execute arrest of Jove's joust doom, And stop his breast that curseth Israel. Exit. Let not my lord the King of Israel Be angry with a silly woman's threats, But with the pleasure he hath erst enjoyed, Turn them into their cabinets again, Till David's conquest be their overthrow. Ill shall they fare that follow thy attempts, That skornes the counsel of Achitophel.
Plot summary
Plot — The Love of David and Fair Bathsheba
PLOT King David sees Bathsheba bathing and falls in love, but she resists his advances. To check his desires, he recalls her husband, Uriah, from the war, where his army has just conquered a town. Uriah returns, refuses to see his wife, and becomes embarrassingly drunk at a royal feast. David sends him back to the war, with orders that he should be placed in the vanguard. Uriah is killed in battle, removing the obstacle to David's liaison with Bathsheba; but he is rebuked by the prophet Nathan and the child of their union falls sick and dies. David believes that this removes Bathsheba's shame, and enables him to legitimize their relationship and beget another child. Amnon falls in love with his half-sister Tamar and feigns sickness in order to be alone with her. He rapes her and then throws her out. She complains to her brother Absalom, who plots revenge. Despite David's injunction to leave justice to the crown, Absalom goes to Amnon's pastoral feast and has him murdered. Now that Israel is about to conquer the Ammonite enemy, Joab asks David to come to the war, so that the triumph will belong to him rather than to his general. The Israelites are celebrating their victory when David hears of Amnon's murder. He banishes Absalom. A widow tells him how she stands to lose both sons because one murdered the other; he pronounces in favour of the surviving son, then applies the case to his own circumstances and recalls Absalom — which is what Joab intended in sending the woman to him. Absalom becomes ambitious and rises in rebellion. His associate Ahitophel encourages him to send men to kill David by night, but Hushai advises raising a much larger army so that he can overwhelm David by force of numbers; Absalom prefers Hushai's advice. In fact, Hushai is a spy seeking to drive a wedge between Absalom and Ahitophel; he reports Ahitophel's assassination plans to David, and advises him to withdraw out of harm's way across the Jordan. Having lost his influence with Absalom, Ahitophel hangs himself. The rebellion is crushed in battle. Absalom gets his hair caught in a tree as he flees, and is trapped hanging between heaven and earth. Although David has ordered that Absalom be spared, Joab kills him where he hangs. David is distressed, but takes comfort in the new heir he has begotten on Bathsheba, Solomon.