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)
Semei.
Words
429
Characters
2322
Typicality
0.56 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A09228
BritDrama no.
870
Cluster
Cluster 22 — Ghosts, curses & horror voices
Important excerpts
Passages from this character's speech that contain the most distinguishing words for Cluster 22 (broom, tiff, loathsome, snakes, hercles, dismal…). Matches are highlighted.
hath graced, And consecrated King of Israel: Or would my breath were made the smoke of hell, Infected with the sighs of damned souls, Or with the reeking of that serpents gorge, That feeds on adders, toads, and venomous roots, That as I opened my revenging lips To curse the shepherd for his Tyranny, My words might cast rank poison
Full speech
The man of Israel, that hath ruled as King, Or rather as the Tyrant of the land, Bolstering his hateful head upon the throne, That God unworthily hath blessed him with, Shall now I hope, lay it as low as hell, And be deposed from his detested chair. Oh that my bosom could by nature bear, A sea of poison to be powr'de upon His cursed head that sacred balm hath graced, And consecrated King of Israel: Or would my breath were made the smoke of hell, Infected with the sighs of damned souls, Or with the reeking of that serpents gorge, That feeds on adders, toads, and venomous roots, That as I opened my revenging lips To curse the shepherd for his Tyranny, My words might cast rank poison to his pores, And make his swollen and rankling sinews crack, Like to the combat blows that break the clouds, When Jove's stout champions fight with fire, See where he comes, that my soul abhors. I have prepared my pocket full of stones To cast at him, mingled with earth and dust, Which bursting with disdain, I greet him with. Come forth thou murderer and wicked man, The Lord hath brought upon thy cursed head The guiltless blood of Saul and all his sons, Whose royal throne thy baseness hath usurped, And to revenge it deeply on thy soul, The Lord hath given the kingdom to thy son, And he shall wreak the traitorous wrongs of Saul, Even as thy sin hath still importuned heaven, So shall thy murders and adultery Be punished in the sighed of Israel, As thou deservest with blood, with death, and hell. If then thy conscience tell thee thou hast sind, And that thy life is odious to the world, Command thy followers to shun thy face, And by thy self here make away thy soul, That I may stand and glory in thy shame. A murderer, and hope for mercy in thy end Hate and destruction fit upon thy brows To watch the issue of thy damned ghost, Which with thy latest gasp theile take and tear, Hurling in every pain of hell a piece. Hence murderer, thou shame to Israel, Foul lecher, drunkard, plague to heaven and earth. What dost thou fret my soul with sufferance Oh that the souls of Isboseth and Abner, Which thou sentest swimming to their graves in blood, With wounds fresh bleeding, gasping for revenge, Were here to execute my burning hate: But I will hunt thy font with curses still, Hence Monster, Murderer, Mirror of Contempt.
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.