Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

ANTIC

in The Old Wives Tale — Peele, George

Metadata

PlayThe Old Wives Tale
AuthorPeele, George
Year (catalogued)1595
First performance1590
Decade1590s
GenreRomance
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyQueen Elizabeth's Men
Speech prefix(es)Anticke. | Ant. | Anticke: | Ant:
Words192
Characters963
Typicality0.25 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA09232
BritDrama no.913
ClusterCluster 16 — Errand servants & brief parts

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

H Owe now fellow Frantic, what all a mort? Does this sad nes become thy madness? What though we have lost our way in the woods, yet never hang the head, as though thou hadst no hope to live till to morrow: for Fantastic and I will warrant thy life to night for twenty in the hundred. Desperately spoken fellow Frolic in the dark: but seeing it falls out thus, let us re hearse the old proverb. Three merry men, and three merry men, And three merry men be we. I in the wood, and thou on the ground, And Jack sleeps in the tree. What do we make dost thou ask? why we make faces for fear: such as if thy mortal eyes could behold, would make thee water the long seams of thy side slops, Smith. Thanks Gammer a good example for the wives of our town. Then must I to bed with the good man, Bonanox Gammer, God night Frolic. This sport does well: but me thinks Gammer, a merry winter's tale would driven a way the time trimly, come I am sure you are not without a score.

Plot summary

Plot — The Old Wives Tale
PLOT Lost in the woods, three pages encounter Clunch the smith, and accept the hospitality of his cottage. One of them goes to bed with him while his wife, Madge, tells the others a tale. Delia, the daughter of the King of Thessaly, has been abducted by the sorcerer Sacrapant, who can only be killed by a dead man, and whose power depends on a light in a glass which can only be broken by a woman who is neither wife, widow, nor maid. Delia's two brothers come to England in search of her, and meet Erestus. They give him alms and he prophesies to them. He too is a victim of Sacrapant, who has transformed him into an old man by day and a bear by night, and driven his betrothed lady, Venelia, out of her mind. The brothers enter Sacrapant's domain, but are imprisoned by Furies and set to work digging for gold. Delia, forgetting her identity under the influence of a potion, is appointed as their overseer. Others are also searching for Delia. One is the wandering knight Eumenides, another the braggart Huanebango; the former gives generous alms to Erestus, but the latter refuses. Eumenides happens upon a fight between Wiggen and the parish officials, who are refusing to bury Wiggen's dead brother Jack; Eumenides resolves the dispute by giving all his remaining money to pay for the funeral. Huanebango attempts to force his way into Sacrapant's cell, and is ejected by the Furies; Sacrapant strikes him deaf and Corebus blind. Lampriscus has two daughters, one ugly in looks and the other in temperament. Erestus advises that they should fetch water from the well of life and there see their fortune. Zantippa, the ill-tempered one, maltreats the well's spirit, a head, but finds the unconscious, newly deaf Huanebango lying beside it: her future husband will be unable to hear her shrewish words. Celanta, the ill-faced one, becomes the blind Corebus' wife. She treats the head in the well better, and is rewarded with corn and gold. The despairing Eumenides meets Jack, and accepts him as a companion. At a tavern, the knight will not eat because he cannot pay, but finds his purse miraculously full of money. He vows to give Jack a half share in everything he gets on his travels. Jack renders Eumenides resistant to Sacrapant's magic by stopping his ears, then invisibly takes the enchanter's sword and garland. Sacrapant falls dead. Eumenides digs up the glass light, but is unable to break it; that falls to Venelia, who, being betrothed but unwed, is neither maid nor wife, and so…