in Locrine, the Eldest Son of King Brutus — S., W. (?)
Metadata
Play
Locrine, the Eldest Son of King Brutus
Author
S., W. (?)
Year (catalogued)
1595
First performance
1594
Decade
1590s
Genre
Tragedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
Unknown
Speech prefix(es)
Ghost.
Words
318
Characters
1892
Typicality
0.62 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A11262
BritDrama no.
885
Cluster
Cluster 22 — Ghosts, curses & horror voices
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
I traitorous Humber, thou shalt find it so, Yea to thy cost thou shalt the same behold, With anguish, sorrow, and with sad laments, The grassy plains that now do please thine eyes, Shall ere the night be coloured all with blood, The shady groves which now enclose thy camp And yield sweet savours to thy damned corpse, Shall ere the night figured all with blood, The profound stream that passes by thy tents, And with his moisture serveth all thy camp, Shall ere the night converted be to blood, Yea with the blood of those thy straggling boys, For now revenge shall ease my lingering grief, And now revenge shall glut my longing soul. Behold the circuit of the azure sky, Throws forth sad throbs, and grievous suspirs, Prejudicating Locrines overthrow, The fire casts forth sharp darts of flames, The great foundation of the triple world, Trembleth and quaketh with a mighty noise, Presaging bloody massacres at hand. The wandering birds that flutter in the dark, When hellish night in cloudy chariot sea ed, Casts her mists on shady Tellus face, With sable mantels covering all the earth, Now flies abroad amid the cheerful day, Foretelling some unwonted misery. The snarling curs of darkened Tartarus, Sent from Avernus's ponds by Radamanth, With howling ditties pester every wood, The watery ladies and the light foot fawns, And all the rabble of the woody Nymphs, All trembling hide themselves in shady groves, And shroud themselves in hideous hollow pits. The boisterous Boreas thundereth forth revenge. The stony rocks cry out on sharp revenge. The thorny bush pronounceth dire revenge. Now Corineus stay and see revenge, And feed thy soul with Locrines overthrow. Behold they come, the trumpets call them forth. The roaring drums summon the soldiers. Lo where their army glistere h on the plains, Throw forth thy lightning mighty Jupiter, And pour thy plagues on cursed Locrines head.
Plot summary
Plot — Locrine, the Eldest Son of King Brutus
Brutus, the conqueror of Britain, is dying. He gives his eldest son Locrine the crown and betrothes him to Gwendoline, and assigns his other sons, Camber and Albanact, the south and north respectively. His funeral is swiftly followed by Locrine’s royal wedding. Strumbo is in love with Dorothy, and persuades her to marry him. However, he is impressed into Albanact’s army when the Scythians invade northern Britain, and Dorothy is killed when the Scythians burn his house with her inside. The Scythians win the battle, and Albanact takes his own life rather than submit. To avenge his death, Locrine, Camber, and the peers give battle and defeat the Scythians. Humber’s wife Estrild is captured by Locrine’s soldiers, and Locrine is attracted to her. Strumbo is caught having sex with Margery. Initially he refuses to marry her, but is forced to agree after she beats him up. He encounters the defeated and starving Humber, but the ghost of Albanact stops him from feeding the Scythian. Humber eventually drowns himself. Locrine is unable to put away Gwendoline and install Estrild as his queen because Gwendoline’s father, Corineus, proves inconveniently long-lived despite being wounded in the battle with the Scythians. Locrine hides her in an underground pleasure- chamber and visits her in secret; they have a child, Sabren. After Corineus finally dies, Gwendoline goes to Cornwall to arrange the funeral, and Locrine takes the opportunity to bring Estrild out of hiding. Gwendoline and her brother raise an army, and defeat Locrine in battle; he and Estrild kill themselves. Sabren finds their bodies but is physically too weak to use the sword on herself. Gwendoline finds her and promises her a lingering, unusual death, so Sabren drowns” herself; the river is named after her, Severn. Gwendoline arranges to bury Locrine as befits a king - and to leave Estrild ignominiously unburied.