Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

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in Hyde Park — Shirley, James

Metadata

PlayHyde Park
AuthorShirley, James
Year (catalogued)1637
First performance1632
Decade1630s
GenreComedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyQueen Henrietta Maria's Men
TheaterPhoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)Pa. | Pa ▪
Words407
Characters2128
Typicality0.39 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA12140
BritDrama no.2367
ClusterCluster 0 — Clowns, beggars & street sellers

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

Sir, my Lord saw you enter, and desires To speak with you! Below Sir! You and I had better stay, and in their absence Exercise one another. I'll teach you away that we may follow em, And not remove from hence. Shall I beg your lip? I'll give you both mine. Because I have no upper lip, dee scorn me? I would kissed Ladies before now, and have Been sent for to their Chambers. Yes, and been trusted with their Closets too! We are such pretty things, we can play at All hid under a Fardingale; how long Have you been a waiting creature? Nay then I cannot blame your ignoranc , You have perhaps your maidenhead. O lamentable! away with it for shame, Chaffer it with the Coachman, for the credit Of your profession, do not keep it long, 'Tis fineable in Court. Ere since I was in Breeches, and yowl find Your honesty so troublesome. When you have trucked away your Maidenh and, You have excuse lawful, to put off gamesters, For you may swear, and give em satisfaction, You have not what they looked for, beside the benefit Of being impudent as accasion serves, A thing much in r Queen st, with waiting cr atures, We Pages can instruct you in that quality, So you be tractable. And you will lead me a Chase, ill follow you. What mean you? Master Venture you are expected. This half hour my Lord. I am young Lady, I hope you do not take me for a Dwarf. Four summer's since my life was questioned, And then a Jewry of years did pass upon me. A game at Noddy. I hope Ladies you will pardon me, my Lord Commanded me to wait upon you, and I can do you no better service, than To make you laugh. He has left Virgo sir, to go to Libra, To see the horsemen weighed. My Lord I am employed in a devise; Room for the melancholy wight, Some do call him willow Knight, Who this pains hath under taken, To find out lovers are forsaken, Whose heads, because out little witted, Shall with Garlands straight be fitted. Speak who are tossed on Cupid's Billows, And receive the Crown of willows, This way, that way, round about, Keep your heads from breaking out. I shall spoil your game Ladies, for if there be sack In't it may make you flush a three.

Plot summary

Plot — Hyde Park
In one plot, Carol has three suitors and, claiming to be averse to marriage, torments them all. Venture gives her a chain of pearl, and she gives it to his rival, Richer. Richer gives her a diamond ring, and she gives that to Venture. She agrees to grant a request from the third suitor, Fairfield, on condition that he is not asking her to love him, marry him, or have sex with him. In fact, he asks her not to love him, and not to desire his company. They try to avoid one another on a visit to Hyde Park, but she becomes jealous on seeing him with his sister, sends for him, and sparks fly. Venture writes her a letter threatening suicide on account of unrequited love. She forges Fairfield’s signature on it, confronts him with it, and offers marriage to save his life. He denies the letter, refuses marriage, and proposes to castrate himself instead. Finally they admit that they love one another, and become engaged. In a second plot, Trier is courting Julietta, but leaves her alone with the roué Lord Bonvile, who promptly tries to court her. His advances continue in Hyde Park, and she continues to resist them, hoping to convert him from loose living. Her admonitions begin to take effect, and Bonvile reflects critically on his way of life. Trier admits that he used Bonvile as a way of testing her chastity. Disgusted, she discomfits him by demanding corresponding proofs of his fitness to be her husband. She is more willing to entertain a newly modest proposal from Bonvile. In a third plot, Bonavent the merchant has not returned from a sea voyage, and now is presumed dead: he asked his wife to wait seven years for him, and his time is up. She agrees to marry Lacy, her suitor. After the wedding, her husband arrives in disguise and witnesses the celebrations. In Hyde Park, he picks a fight with Lacy, then privately tells his wife who he really is and what happened to him: his return was delayed by pirates, and he has only now been rescued from captivity. Later, he hands out willow garlands to the four disappointed lovers, Venture, Richer, Trier, and Lacy, and reveals his identity, thereby invalidating Lacy’s marriage.