Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

PUTTOCK

in The Puritan, or The Widow of Watling Street (The Puritan Widow) — Middleton, Thomas

Metadata

PlayThe Puritan, or The Widow of Watling Street (The Puritan Widow)
AuthorMiddleton, Thomas
Year (catalogued)1607
First performance1606
Decade1600s
GenreComedy
Play typeBoys Professional
CompanyChildren of Paul's (second)
Speech prefix(es)Put. | Put, | Puttock. | Puttock ▪
Words708
Characters3692
Typicality0.22 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA11264
BritDrama no.1509
ClusterCluster 7 — Pedants, satyrs & Latin wit

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

His Hostesses where he lies will trust him no longer, she has feed me to arrest him; and if you will accompany me, because I know not of what Nature the Scholar is, whither desperate or swift, you shall share with me Seriant Raven-shaw, I have the good Angel to arrest him. I and spitefully to; troth I have wounderd how the slaves could see into our breasts so much, when our doublers are buttond with Pewter. Is he in the Pothecaryes shop still, Have and eye, eye. No, no, he wears no weapon. Hoh. Peace, peace be not to greedy, let him play a little let him play a little, weel erke him up of a sudden, I would fished in my time. I arrest you sir. They say your a scholar, nay sir—Yeoman Dogson, have care to his arms—yowl rail again Sariants, and stage they: you, tickle their vices. You a Gentleman? thats a good Jest i'faith; can a Schol ler be a Gentleman,—when a Gentleman will not be a Schol ler;—look upon your wealthy Citizens sons, whither they be Scholars or no, that are Gentlemen by their father's trades: a Scholar a Gentleman. Go, Yeoman Dogson before, and Enter the Actium 'ith Counter. O he's tame let him lose seriant. Why at your Hostisses suit where you lie, Misters Cun nyburrow for bed and board, the some four pound five shil lings and five pence. Come, come away. Well we must be paid for this waiting upon you, this is no pains to attend thus. Sfoot how many yards are in thy Gatters, that thou art so long a tying on them? come away sir. Slid how shall me come by our fees then. Why how far hence dwells that Gentleman? Speak, if it be not far— Slid we have waited upon you grievously already if yowl say yowl be liberal when you would e, give us double ees, and spend upon's, why weel sho that kindness, and go along with you to the Gentleman. And excellent Scholar I'faith; has proceeded very well alate; come, weel along with you. O dog-holes toot, Oh it stand very pleasantly for a Scholar. A simple . I warrant he likes it rarely. Oh there's no talk on't, he's and excellent Scholar, and especially for a Mask. Puh, we know he could not choose but Like it: go thy ways thou art a witty fine fellow i'faith, thou shalt discourse it to us at Tavern anon wilt thou? Go, go little villain, fetch thy chinck, I begin to love thee, I'll be drunk to night in thy company. Faith Like enough Seriant? I never marked so much be before? Sirran Seriant, and Yeoman, I should love these Maps out a cry now, I we could see peep out of door in em, o we might have em in a morning to our Breakfast so finely, and never kn ke our heals to the ground a whole day for em. Why I would call thee King of Sergeants, and thou shouldst be Chronicled in the Counter book for ever. He tarries long indeed, may be I can tell you upon the good liking ont the Gentleman may prove more bountiful. Nay be sure of it weel search him! and make him light enough. No, not with your worship sir, only we are bold to stay for a friend of ours that went in with your worship. Yes even he and it please your worship? Backdoor? He was our prisoner sir, we did arrest him. Sfoot has he gulled us so. Sup now, ate Porridge for a month; Well, we cannot impute it to any lack of goodwill in your Worship,—you did but as another would have done, it our hard Fortune's to miss the purchase, but if ere we clutch him again, the Counter shall charm him. Whist, whist, whist, Yeoman Dogson, Yeoman Dogson. And excellent device he says; he likes it wone derfully. Sir ah Seriant, these Maps are Pretty painted things, but I could never fancy they yet, me thinks they're too busy, and full of Circles and Conjurations, they say all the world's in one of them, but I could never find the Counter in the Poultry.

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…