Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

PEDRO

in All's Lost by Lust — Rowley, William

Metadata

PlayAll's Lost by Lust
AuthorRowley, William
Year (catalogued)1633
First performance1619
Decade1630s
GenreTragedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyPrince Charles's Men (first)
TheaterPhoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)Ped.
Words212
Characters1129
Typicality0.31 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA11155
BritDrama no.1895
ClusterCluster 12 — Wooers, gallants & courtly love-talk

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

I do not Like this match, this gay outside Is cloth of gold, within a ragged lining. Cedars and shrubs cannot grow up together. Happy sayest thou? o it's as distant as the Moon from earth, And has the Like effects, it changes oft, So with a silver brow, greatness looks on us Promising and lovely, but once grown full, It brings swelling billows to overwhelm us. It'll well become her, what arms shall I give to make her gentle by? Away, away Thy talks impertinent, what should a Capon Do with a Leman? I, this thou touchest by a forced figure, The perfect sense of all, thence grows my fear: This love was first , and born in lust How long has he laid and unlawful liege Against her Virgin honour, which had she yielded, And been so lemond, she never had been proffered The style of wife. Mine is wrought out through rocks of doubt and scare, She is your own, I send her pilots Like Into and Argosey beyond her steerage. She will be hated when the disdainful brows Of noble greatness shall be shot against her, The scorns and flouts she shall endure, will be Fa less content, then is the humble quiet she enjoys. Oh happy prove.

Plot summary

Plot — All's Lost by Lust
Spain is threatened by an invasion of Moors, but an ancient curse prevents King Roderick from opening his treasury to pay his troops. Julianus is appointed general and goes to the war. Roderick’s intention is to get Julianus out of the way while he attempts to seduce Jacinta, his daughter; Lothario engages a professional bawd to help. Jacinta resists Roderick’s advances, so he rapes her. She is then imprisoned in Lothario’s custody, but she escapes while he is asleep. Meanwhile, Antonio is in love with the base-born Margaretta, and procures her family’s consent to marry her before he leaves for the war. At the front, the Moors are reluctant to give battle, and seem undermanned. Antonio is attracted to Dionysia, the Castellan’s pugnacious daughter, and she encourages his advances. Lazarello advises him to keep quiet about his existing marriage, and pay Margaretta off. Margaretta learns that Antonio has married Dionysia bigamously, and sends her brother to the wars with a letter for him. Antonio is in a dilemma: he loves both women. Lazarello proposes that he should take Antonio’s place at the consummation of his marriage with Margaretta: she will mistake him for Antonio in the dark, and afterwards will be too ashamed to claim her husband. The plan is successful only to the extent that Lazarello is taken to be Antonio by the vindictive Margaretta: she strangles him in his bed. Julianus returns from war victorious, but Roderick orders him to stay away from court, and demands that he give up his prisoners. Jacinta tells him about the rape, and he allies with his generals.and Moorish prisoners to seek revenge. To cement the alliance, the Moorish King Muly Mumen asks for Jacinta as his wife; Julianus will not force her against her will, but gives him permission to woo her. With his army in revolt, Roderick needs to hire mercenaries, and breaks open the cursed treasury. There he sees a vision of his own defeat and deposition by the Moors. Lothario persuades Jaques the clown to hang him, and, after the battle goes against him, Roderick flees. Muly Mumen becomes King of Spain. Antonio criticizes Julianus for allowing the Moors in, and Julianus kills him. He leaves two grieving widows: Margaretta stabs herself and, not to be outdone, Dionysia wills herself to die too. Jacinta refuses to marry Muly Mumen, so he has her tongue cut out and Julianus blinded. He agrees to meet Julianus in single combat, giving the blinded man the advantage of a ‘weapon; but in the fight…