Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

PHILIPPA

in The Rebellion — Rawlins, Thomas

Metadata

PlayThe Rebellion
AuthorRawlins, Thomas
Year (catalogued)1640
First performance1638
Decade1640s
GenreTragedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyKing's Revels Company
Speech prefix(es)Phil. | Phi.
Words709
Characters3755
Typicality0.18 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA10495
BritDrama no.2413
ClusterCluster 6 — Battlefield messengers & soldiers

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

My honoured Lord, Duty commands, I pay it back again, It'll waste me into smoke else, Can my body retain that breath, that would Consume and Army, dressed in a rougher habit. Play deliver (come I'm a gentle thief) The breath you stole. Lords spare your praises till Like Bradament, The mirror of our Sex, I make the foe. Of France and us, crouch Like a whelp, Awed by the heaving of his Master's hand; My heart runs through my arm, and when I deal A blow, it Sinks a soul: My sword flies nimbler than the bolts of Jove, And wounds as deep: Spain ; thy proud host shall feel Death has bequeathed his office to my steel. Ray. Come on brave Lords, upon your Generals word, Philippa loves no parley, Like the sword. Exeunt. Canst thou proud man think that Philipa's Heart, is humbled with her Fortune's, (no didst thou Bring all the rough tortures From the world's Childhood) to this hour invented, And on my resolute body, proof against pain, Practised Sicilian tyranny. My Giant thoughts should Like a cloud of wind, Contemning smoke, mingle with heaven: And not a look so base, as to be pitied, shall Give you cause of triumph. 'Twas the epitome of Hercules : No big Colossus, yet for strength far bigger: A little person great with matchless Valour. 'Twere sin to rob him, that has wasted so His blood for praise: this noble Soldier, he 'Twas made me captive; nor can he boast 'Twas in and easy combat; for my good Sword, now ravished from mine arm, forced crimson Drops, that Like a gory sweat, buried His manly body in oblivion: those that were Skilled in his Effigies, as drunk with Lethe, had Forgotten 'twas he; till by the drawing of the Rueful curtain they saw in him their error. My Lord, you must strike quick and sure Erect thy head my Raimond, be more tall Then daring Atlas, but more safely wise: Sustain no burden but the politic care: Of being great; till thou atcheive the Cities Axletree, and wave it as thou list. You do not doubt me? My Lord you know my temper, and how to Win upon my heart. Oh it's and age, I'de rather have it said, Philippa then a prisoner were dead. Exit. Nay Monsieur to deprive desert of praise, is unknown Language, troth I use it not nay it is very well. You're too proud on't Welcome my Lord, Shall I still long, yet loose my longing still? Is there no Art to mount the lofty seat? No Engine that may make us ever great? Must we be still stiled Subject's, and for fear Our closest whispers reach the owing care, Not trust the wind? Ray. Be calm my love, Would, who have we here and eves dropper. My Tailor, Sick, sick at heart. Health waste upon this Royal company. I cannot stay; Oh I am sick to death. Exit. I come, I come; nay fly not, for by Hell I'll pluck thee by the Beard, and drag thee thus Out of thy fiery Cave. Would, on yonder hill Stand troops of devils waiting for my soul: But I'll deceive they, and instead of mine, Send this same spotted Tigers. Stabs Auristellae. So, while they to hell Are posting with their prize, I'll steal to Heaven: Wolf dost thou grin? would, is my Raimond dead? So ho, so ho: come back You sutty Fiends that have my Raimond's soul, And lay it down, or I will force you do't: No, won't you stir? by Stix I'll bait you for't: Where is my Crown? Philippa was a Queen, Was she not would? Why so, where is my Crown: Oh you have hid it—would, wast thou Over throws the Table. That robbed Philippa of her Raimond's life? Nay I will nip your wings, you shall not fly; I'll pluck you by the guarded front: and thus Sink you to hell before me. Stabs the Brave. What down, ho, ho, ho: Laugh, laugh, you souls that fry in endless flames; Would, whence this chilnesse—must I die —nay then, I come, I come, nay weep not for I come: Sleep injured shadow, Oh death strikes dumb. die.

Plot summary

Plot — The Rebellion
Machvile envies Antonio his popularity and also covets the crown. When the French, under Raymond the Moor, lay siege to Seville, Machvile engineers Antonio’s downfall at a council of war: he speaks for a military strategy, Antonio responds with a proposal to make peace, and the city’s Governor accuses Antonio of treason and cowardice; this provokes Antonio into killing the Governor. Antonio flees to his home, where he is appalled to find his sister Evadne kissing the tailor Giovanno. Before he can do more than protest, he is arrested by Machvile, who has succeeded to the governorship; but Giovanno and other tailors rescue him and he goes into hiding among them. Despite Giovanno’s help, Antonio is unable to sanction his love for Evadne, being bound by a deathbed promise to his father only to allow her to marry a nobleman. Machvile’s aggressive strategy is put into effect: the Spanish break out of their besieged city and defeat the French; Giovanno captures Raymond, but Machvile takes charge of the prisoner and banishes the heroic tailor. Planning to seize the Spanish throne, he proposes an alliance with Raymond to divide the country between them, planning all the while to kill the Moor once his object is achieved. Meanwhile the captive Raymond looks for a way to communicate with France and ask for additional troops. Antonio is told in a dream to flee, but is found, arrested, and sentenced to be ground to death in a mill. Aurelia, daughter of the captain of the mill, falls in love with him at first sight, asks for the privilege of execution herself, and helps him to escape in disguise. Evadne is banished, but Giovanno meets her and rescues her from rape at the hands of bandits. Antonio finds them together, but Aurelia, fleeing with him, identifies Giovanno as her brother Sebastiano: he has adopted the guise of a tailor in order to woo Evadne. The King comes to Seville incognito and stays with an old tailor, Giovanno’s employer, who has overheard Machvile’s plotting. Antonio and Sebastiano get confirmation in disguise, Antonio as a physician attending Machvile’s wife and Sebastiano as a French cobbler whom Raymond engages as a messenger to the court of France, giving him his ring for authentication (which Sebastiano uses to dismiss the remaining French troops). The grateful King pardons Antonio and agrees to his marrying Aurelia. The plan is to give Machvile enough rope to hang himself. The King witnesses, in hiding, a meeting at which the army colonels,…