in The Puritan, or The Widow of Watling Street (The Puritan Widow) — Middleton, Thomas
Metadata
Play
The Puritan, or The Widow of Watling Street (The Puritan Widow)
Author
Middleton, Thomas
Year (catalogued)
1607
First performance
1606
Decade
1600s
Genre
Comedy
Play type
Boys Professional
Company
Children of Paul's (second)
Speech prefix(es)
Frail. | F • ail. | Frai. | Frayl. | Fray. | Frail | Fra. | Fra • .
Words
657
Characters
3325
Typicality
0.33 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A11264
BritDrama no.
1509
Cluster
Cluster 11 — Tosspots & tavern railers
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
A man of Mark, quatha, I do not think he can show a Beggars Noble. o, you lie Nicholas; for here's one strong enough; blow us up quatha, he may well blow me above twelvescore off and him? I warrant if the wind stood right, a man might smell him from the top of Newgate, to the Leads of Ludgate? If he should chance to break it, the poor men Breeches would fallen down about his heals, for Venus allows him but one point to his hose? Oh Mistress Moll, Mistress Moll. The Knight your uter, sir John Penny-Dub. He's walking in the Gallery. Oh no, she's—spitting in the Kitchen. That's joust Like running a Tilt; but I hope heel break nothing this time. Forsooth Madam? there are two or three Archers at door, would very gladly speak with your Ladyship. Who do you not see they before you, are not these Ar chers, what do you call they Shooters: Shooters and Archers are all one I hope. I, I knew by their shuffling Clubs would be Trump; mass here's the Knave, and he can do any good upon they: Clubs, clubs, clubs? Madam, he was carried to the superior, but if he had no money when he came there, I warrant he's dead by this time. Oh no Madame, he's above at breakfast, with sir reue rence a Conjurer. O, a wondrous ra e fellow Mistress, very strongly made upward, for he goes in a Buff-jerkin: he says he will fetch Sir Godfreys Chain again, if it hang between heaven and earth. Fooh—he's neither smoke-dried, nor scorched, nor black, nor nothing, I tell you Madame, he looks as fair to see to, as one of us; I do not think but if you saw him once, you worser take him to be a Christian. Oh Mistress, Gentlemen, there's the bravest sighed come ming along this way. O here they come, here they come! Oh me Master Edmund we shall would rare doings. Here's run, run, run— Fagh and hour ago I help they my self. Away, away, away then There is none of us I can tell you, but shall be soundly whipped for swearing. Si rah Saint? my Mistress sends a way a l her suitors and puts eas ears? Why do you take us to be Jack at'h Clockhouse? Passed seventeen? nay ha met with his match now, Corporal Oath will fit him. O, one going to burying, & another going to hanging. Not I neither, I cannot abide to handle a Ghost of all me. Why, we're as fearful as you I warrant you—o— Had it so sir: sure it cannot be lost then; I'll put you in that comfort. Why if your chain had so many Links, it cannot choose but come to light. Oh I, we may lie, but me must not swear. Oh I, I have seen him eat up a whole Pig, and after ward falls to the pettitoes? Put off all their suits quam than? I, that's the best wooing of a Widow indeed, when a man's Nonsuted, that is, when he's a bed with her. I should laugh now, if this blunt fellow should put they all by side the sti rop, and vault into the saddle himself, I have seen as mad a trick. Oh Mistress, he may well be called a Corporal now, for his corpses are as dead as a cold Capons? Your chain sir? I would he were hanged in chains that has it then for me? Alas sir, I saw none of your chain, since you were hung with it your self? Oh Madam Madam. Yet Simon, many widows will do't, what so comes on't. What all ready Master Edmond. What more yet? Ther's none but Master Pilfer the Tailer: he's a above with Sir Godfrey pra king of a Doublet: and I must trudge anon to fetch Master Suds the Barber!
Plot summary
Plot — The Puritan, or The Widow of Watling Street (The Puritan Widow)
Lady Plus has just been widowed, but her son Edmond. does not grieve appropriately at the funeral. She mourns a good, liberal husband, who strove to make his family rich by fair means and foul; she swears not to remarry, and her elder daughter Frances renounces marriage too. Not so her younger daughter, Moll, who entertains a suitor. The other two Plus women are also being pestered by unwanted suitors, one of whom has bribed Lady Plus’s brother-in-law, Sir Godfrey, to recommend him. Captain Idle is taken to prison for highway robbery; there he is visited by his puritan kinsman Nicholas, one of. the Plus household’s servants, and also by Skirmish and Pieboard, two tricksters who plan to get him out. To that end, they persuade Nicholas to steal Sir Godfrey’s chain. Pieboard visits Lady Plus posing as a fortune teller, and tells her that her husband is in purgatory, from which he can be released only if both she and her daughters reverse their marital intentions (which he has overheard): she and Frances must marry, and Moll must not. As a puritan, Lady Plus doubts the theology of this, so he establishes his authenticity by predicting that, before the day is out, there will be bloodshed outside her door and Sir Godfrey will suffer a loss, with worse to follow for the women of the household. The first two events are prearranged: Nicholas steals Sir Godfrey’s chain, and Skirmish and Corporal Oath feign a street-fight which results in a wound for Oath and arrest for Skirmish. Pieboard gives Oath a medicine which is actually a sleeping potion, so that he appears to have been killed. Nicholas tells Sir Godfrey that Idle is a conjurer who can get his chain back for him; so Sir Godfrey arranges for Idle to be released and the charges dropped. On his way to brief Idle, Pieboard is arrested for failing to pay his rent, but he escapes by pretending that he must deliver a masque device to a gentleman, who will pay him enough to settle the debt. On arrival at the gentleman’s house (chosen at random), he escapes through the back door while the officers wait for him in the front room. The next day, Idle undertakes his fake conjuring at Lady Plus’s house, and claims that the devil has delivered the lost chain in the garden (where in reality it has been hidden all the time). He also pretends to render Edmond invisible, which gets the young man into trouble when he takes the opportunity to buffet his uncle. Two processions pass the house, taking Oath to his funeral and…