in The Noble Spanish Soldier (The Noble Soldier, or A Contract Broken Justly Revenged) — Dekker, Thomas
Metadata
Play
The Noble Spanish Soldier (The Noble Soldier, or A Contract Broken Justly Revenged)
Author
Dekker, Thomas
Year (catalogued)
1634
First performance
1622
Decade
1630s
Genre
Tragedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
Unknown
Speech prefix(es)
Poet.
Words
243
Characters
1283
Typicality
0.24 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A11145
BritDrama no.
2028
Cluster
Cluster 1 — Wives, widows & intimate counsel
Important excerpts
Passages from this character's speech that contain the most distinguishing words for Cluster 1 (nony, tailors, butler, mall, jesu, massinissa…). Matches are highlighted.
Madam: Books, Music, Wine, brave Company, and good Cheer, Make Poets to soar high, and sing most clear. Yes. O never die. Two sorts, Lady: The great Poets, and the small Poets. No: but such as have great heads, which emptied forth Fill all the world with wonder at their lines; Fellows which swell big with the wind of praise: The
Poets. No: but such as have great heads, which emptied forth Fill all the world with wonder at their lines; Fellows which swell big with the wind of praise: The small ones are but shrimps of Poesy. Emulation. Necessity. Selflove. Opinion. Our pen shall honour you.
Full speech
Madam, my love presents this book unto you. Of the soilemne Triumphs Set forth at Coronation of the Queen. alas Madam! I dare mix gall and poison with my Ink. And every line must be A whip to draw blood. And to dare The stab from him it touches: he that writes Such Libels (as you Call) must launch wide The fores of men's corruptions, and even search To'th quick for dead flesh, or for rotten cores: A Poets Ink can better cure some sores Then Surgeons Balsum. Madam I le doo't: But I must have the parties Character. I do not love to pluck the quils With which I make pens, out of a Lions claw: The King! shoo'd I be bitter against the King, I shall have scurvy ballads made of me, Sung to the Hanging Tune. I dare not, Madam. Yes, Madam, best of all; for Poesy Is but a feigning, feigning is to lie, And women practice lying more than men. Thus, Madam: Books, Music, Wine, brave Company, and good Cheer, Make Poets to soar high, and sing most clear. Yes. O never die. Two sorts, Lady: The great Poets, and the small Poets. No: but such as have great heads, which emptied forth Fill all the world with wonder at their lines; Fellows which swell big with the wind of praise: The small ones are but shrimps of Poesy. Emulation. Necessity. Selflove. Opinion. Our pen shall honour you.
Plot summary
Plot — The Noble Spanish Soldier (The Noble Soldier, or A Contract Broken Justly Revenged)
The King of Spain claims to have doubts about the legality of his marriage: he was pre-contracted to Onaelia and had an illegitimate son by her. He sends the Cardinal to Onaelia with an offer to have the marriage annulled; she will then be instated as Queen of Spain and her son legitimized. She accepts, and hands over her marriage contract for redrafting. But it is only a ruse to get hold of the document, and the King burns it in the presence of his council. Meanwhile, having heard that the King is considering renewing his contract to Onaelia, Queen Paulina feigns pregnancy; any divorce will thus entail the unpopular step of bastardizing his unborn child. Onaelia’s uncle, the Duke of Medina, swears revenge on the King and begins to assemble a faction. The despised soldier Balthazar offers his services to assassinate the King, but when Onaelia refuses, says that he was only testing her. With the King’s complicity, Paulina engages Balthazar to murder Onaelia and her son Sebastian, but he betrays the plot to Medina, to whom he owes allegiance. Medina counter-plots: Balthazar is to report back that Sebastian has been killed but that Onaelia was too well protected; in reality, Sebastian will be hidden in a monastery. Medina tests Balthazar’s fidelity and the King’s malice by disguising himself as a French doctor and offering the King his services as a poisoner; the King’s acceptance of the offer as a second murder option should Balthazar fail, and Balthazar’s outrage, both tell him what he wants to know. Unable to dispose of Onaelia, the King formally marries her. Paulina plans to poison her at the wedding banquet, but the poisoned wine is served to the King by mistake. The ‘friar’ summoned to hear his dying confessions turns out to be Sebastian, which the King initially takes to be a guilty hallucination. Sebastian is proclaimed the rightful heir and Paulina sent back to Florence with her dowry trebled in compensation. The King dies, and Onaelia and Balthazar are appointed Sebastian’s joint guardians during his minority.