Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

DELIA

in The Shepherds' Holiday — Rutter, Joseph

Metadata

PlayThe Shepherds' Holiday
AuthorRutter, Joseph
Year (catalogued)1635
First performance1634
Decade1630s
GenrePastoral
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyQueen Henrietta Maria's Men
Theaterbefore the Court;Whitehall;
Speech prefix(es)Del. | De.
Words531
Characters2736
Typicality0.49 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA11205
BritDrama no.2402
ClusterCluster 20 — Conjurers, witches & physicians

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

Madam, you're overheard. Madam, I have no life, but what I wish May be employed to do your beauty's serice; My tongue is ruled by yours: what you would have It speak, it shall; else further then my thoughts Nothing shall venture, that you leave to me: And those my thoughts, I'll keep to such restraint, As they shall never come within my dreams, Lest they betray your counsels: this I vow Religiously by— Madam, I have, And wished that they had sorted to your wishes. I guess the cause sweet Madam, but that's passed And now forgotten: if you clear your looks, Your Father will enlarge you, and never think On what you did, but that you are his daughter. Madam, has not the Court more pleasure in it, Then the dull Country, which can represent Nothing, but what does taste of solitude? 'Twas something else that carried you away. Love Madam? sure it is impossible You should find any thing there worth your love. Your state is better Madam as you are. 'Tis strange, but Madam, though in that disguise, How could you hope, a stranger, to be loved Of him you held so deer? Alas, I would I could Invent the way to cure you; I should soon Apply my help: yet stay, this day it is The shepherd's come to Court. Let me alone To work out that. I'll undertake it, but how shall I know him Without inquiring, which must breed suspicion. These are silent marks: Yet will I not despair to find him out. Give me but leave to use my mother wit, You would be gone together, would you not? If you could crown me with your virtues Madam, I should be a Queen indeed; in the mean time, As I am Delia, I'll do this business. Madam withdraw, I hear your keepers coming. This is the garden, which I saw him go to, And that is he, for all the marks she gave me To know him by, he bears. How if I be deceived, and this should prove Another man: what then? I can excuse it; He's laid already, and I fear, asleep, I'll stay until he wake, but then suppose That any body come, and take me here, What will they think of me? Best wake him: shepherd: It is a handsome youth, see what a grace Shows it self in his feature, such a face Might take the heart of any Lady living, I, though she were a Princess: shepherd: what Not yet? his sleeps are found. He must not sleep again: shepherd look up. Sent to thee, from thy Sylvia, shepherd rise And follow me. Stay, hold thy hand, I live, thy Sylvia lives To make thee happy, if thou wilt go to her. His griefs have made him wild, I have no time Left me to use persuasions, or to make This truth apparent to you; on my word You shall be safe, and if you dare believe me, I'll bring you where your love is; follow me. Yes, you mean Cleander, Son to Eubulus, who is now your keeper: What Star directed him to find you out?

Plot summary

Plot — The Shepherds' Holiday
Thyrsis, who was found by Montanus as a baby with a mysterious inscribed circlet around his neck, is distraught. He left his girlfriend Sylvia in a grove, and she has disappeared; he self-reproachfully worries that she has been raped by a passing satyr, and neglects his flocks. The oracle of Apollo reassures him that he will get her back, but only when they cease to be Thyrsis and Sylvia. Sylvia is really the Princess, Calligone. She fell in love with Thyrsis when the shepherds last came to court with some musical entertainment, and went into the country in pastoral disguise to be with him; she was also hoping to escape the amorous attentions of Cleander, but he found her in the grove and took her home. Her father, Euarchus, suspects the reason she absconded, and summons the shepherds to perform at court again, in the hope of identifying one of them as her lover. They prepare a masque. Cleander is warned off Calligone by his father, Eubulus. Before she was born, the oracle foretold that King Euarchus would see his only son after having a child who is not really his own, that he would twice condemn that son to death, and that the son would marry Euarchus’ daughter. The King took this to mean that, should the pregnant Queen produce a baby boy, it would be a bastard, so he ordered Eubulus to have the infant killed if male. When the child was indeed a boy, Eubulus plotted with the Queen to swap it for his own new-born daughter, who grew up to be Calligone. He then left the baby boy in the forest with money for his education and an identifying necklet inscribed in a diplomatic code known only to him and the King. Calligone is therefore Cleander’s sister. ‘Sylvia’ sends for Thyrsis, but Cleander sees her with him and reports the fact to the King, who orders their execution: Calligone dishonours herself in romantic entanglement with a mere shepherd. The shepherds arrive at court, but are sent away with their masque unseen. When Thyrsis removes his doublet to be strangled, however, Cleander sees the necklet, realizes that this is the long-lost Prince, and arranges for him to marry Calligone instead. The oracle is fulfilled, and King Euarchus gives his blessing to his son and daughter-in-law. In the sub-plot, Dorinda loves the wealthy Daphnis, but he only has eyes for Nerina and, moreover, has her father’s favour. Nerina loves only Hylas, but finds herself caught between love and duty. She tells both Hylas and her father that she prefers not to marry at all, but…