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)
Corp. | Corpe. | Corpor. | Cor. | Corp
Words
408
Characters
2253
Typicality
0.33 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A11264
BritDrama no.
1509
Cluster
Cluster 15 — Devils, vices & grotesques
Important excerpts
Passages from this character's speech that contain the most distinguishing words for Cluster 15 (ang, hunc, fleire, shillings, chil, sblood…). Matches are highlighted.
make our Blades noon, Though it be after Supper. More news? I; by you Bear at Bridge-foot in hea ven shalt thou. A clock? why passed seventeen. I, thou art not angry with the figures art thou? I will prove it unto thee, 12. and 1. is thirteen hope, 2. fourteen, 3. fifteen, 4 sixteen, and 5. seventeen, then passed seventeen,
Full speech
Why how now? we three? Putitanicall Scrape-shoes, Flesh a good Fridays? a hand. Why Niche las Saint-Tantlings, Simon Saint Marry Oue rises, ha the De'ele possessed you, that you swear no better, you half-christened Katomites, you vngod-motherd Varlets, do's the first lesson teach you to be proud, and the second to be Cocks-combes; proud Cocks-combes? not once to do duty to a man of Mark. Sirrah, thou Hollow-book of Waxe-candle. I swear by the— I must and will swear: you quivering Cocks-combes, my Captain is imprisoned, and by Vulcans Leather Codpiece point— Hoh Bully? Fuh. Let us alone to make our Blades noon, Though it be after Supper. More news? I; by you Bear at Bridge-foot in hea ven shalt thou. A clock? why passed seventeen. I, thou art not angry with the figures art thou? I will prove it unto thee, 12. and 1. is thirteen hope, 2. fourteen, 3. fifteen, 4 sixteen, and 5. seventeen, then passed seventeen, I will take the Dials partly in a joust cause. I'll swear it's passed seventeen then dost thou not know numbers, canst thou not cast? I, and in the Market place. Zounes: who am I? covered with Snow? I marvel? Sfoot Hostess—some hot Porridge,—o, o, lay on a dozen of Faggots in the Moon parler, there. A Corporal, a Commander, one of spirit; that is able to blow you up all dry with your Books at your Girdles. With these my Bully-feet, I will thump open the Prison doors, and brain the Keeper with the begging Box, but I'll set my honest sweet Captain Idle at liberty. I, thou Church-peeling, thou Holy-pa king, religious out side thou? if thou hadst any grace in thee, thou wouldst visit him, relieve him, swear to get him out? Why do it now then, Marmaset? bring forth thy yearly-wages, let not a Commander perish! A lie? may you lie then? O, and excellent Tag of religion? Keeper? let the key be turn'dl In prison honest Captalne? this must not be? Who he? he shall relieve thee, and supply thee, I'll make him doo't; Pax, I'll thump they to't. Here's no notable gullery? Mass I cannot blame him then, poor Church-spout? A dainty Bully. In to oath he does. 'Twill be good for thee Captain, that thou hast such and egregious Ass to thy Cozen. Shloud, let me see, where was I drunk last night, heh— What ere it be, weel manage it.
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…