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)
Sal. | Salo.
Words
297
Characters
1655
Typicality
0.43 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A09228
BritDrama no.
870
Cluster
Cluster 7 — Pedants, satyrs & Latin wit
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
My royal father, if the heavenly zeal Which for my welfare seeds upon your soul, Were not sustained with virtue of mine own, If the sweet accents of your cheerful voice Should not each hour Beatrice upon mine ears As sweetly as the breath of heaven to him That gaspeth scorched with the Summer's sun, I should be guilty of unpardoned sin, Fearing the plague of heaven, and shame of earth: But since I vow my self to learn the skill And holy secrets of his mighty hand Whose cunning tunes the music of my soul, It would content me (father) first to learn How th'eternall framed the firmament, Which bodies led their influence by fire? And which are filled with hoary Winter's ice? What sign is raignie, and what star is fair? Why by the rules of true proportion The year is still divided into months, The months to days, the days to certain hours? What fruitful raze shall fill the future world? Or for what time shall this round building stand? What Magistrates, what Kings shall keep in awe Men's minds with bridles of th'eternall law? A secret fury ravisheth my soul, Lifting my mind above her humane bounds, And as the Eagle roused from her stand, With violent hunger (cowering in the air) Seizeth her feathered prey, and thinks to feed, But seeing then a cloud beneath her feet, Lets fallen the foul, and is emboldened With eyes intentive to bedare the sun, And stieth close unto his stately sphere: So Salomon mounted on the burning wings Of zeal divine, lets fallen his mortal food, And cheers his senses with celestial air, Treads in the golden starry Labyrinth, And holds his eyes fixed on Jehovah's brows, Good father teach me further what to do.
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.