in The Humorous Courtier (The Duke) — Shirley, James
Metadata
Play
The Humorous Courtier (The Duke)
Author
Shirley, James
Year (catalogued)
1640
First performance
1631
Decade
1640s
Genre
Comedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
Queen Henrietta Maria's Men
Theater
Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)
Cris.
Words
268
Characters
1451
Typicality
0.31 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A12141
BritDrama no.
2339
Cluster
Cluster 14 — Law & judgment
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
O my good Lord. (Crispino A hair in your honours lock is disordered, 'Tis rectified, Your Lordship's feather waves to much towards the 'Tis now in true point. (East, Your Lordship's cloak discovers not sufficiently the riches of the inside. A hair in your honours lock is disordered. Your Lordship's weapon hangs to much a before. I have herd some say, to hyperbolize Is to lie, and it may be she would not have Your Lordship lie with her. Your Lordship must speak my mother's tongue then. I would seen your Lordship do it ta Dam rum, ta Dam rum. Your Lordship is my pattern. Did she promise you? A little with this lock, and I'll adone your Lordship With a powder; I hope your honour will Not forget Crispino's faithful service when you are Duke. A judge my Lord And cut off capital offenders. Where my good Lord? I humbly thank your grace. It shall be granted. My Lord, I herd your voice in fearful manner Crying treason, are you in preservation. I humbly thank your excellence. I am the terror of the Law. When I look lean, and frown, thou diest, I am A Judge, I say, a Judge in Potentiam. Save you my good Lord, signiour Orseollo, I hope you have and able faith. That you may be saved too. My Lord Volterre, I congratulate Your safety, and your health signiour Contarini? There are certain Judges in the dark And those Judges shall come to light too, when They shall think convenience proper— Then I am no Judge now. Ear I've made my cushion warm!
Plot summary
Plot — The Humorous Courtier (The Duke)
PLOT It is vital that the Duchess of Mantua marries; otherwise the King of Spain will assert his interest in the succession. But the Duchess has turned away three foreign princes proposed by her courtiers, most recently Foscari, who left Mantua annoyed. She declares that she will choose a husband from her own court, which puts the courtiers into a competitive frenzy of ambition. In this they are each abetted by a Florentine visitor to the court, Giotto. Giotto tells Comaccio that the Duchess is interested in his foolish nephew, de Pazzi. At Comaccio’s request, Giotto gives de Pazzi advice on wooing technique designed to make him appear undesirable: he is to talk unchastely and dispraise the other men and women of the court. He composes an offensive poem for the Duchess, but she finds it funny and shows de Pazzi greater favour than before. Comaccio asks Giotto to get de Pazzi out of the way for good, by murdering him; Giotto persuades him to go into hiding until after the marriage is decided. The soldier Orseollo is misled into thinking he is the chosen suitor, and starts to regret his public displays of misogyny. Even after his U-turn, Giotto tells him there is a slight problem: his former attitudes could be taken as evidence of his impotence, perhaps the result of a battlefield injury; so Orseollo attempts to secure his reputation as a stud by revealing the prodigious extent of his secret whoring. Old Contarini regrets his recent marriage to a young wife, which puts him out of the running; so he asks her to commit suicide. When she refuses, he procures Giotto to commit adultery with her in order to provide grounds for divorce. A messenger arrives with the news that the Duchess’s decision is to be announced that night, before the divorce can go through, so Contarini asks Giotto to kill his wife instead, and quickly. When the courtiers gather to hear the Duchess’s decision, de Pazzi denounces Giotto as a traitor for seeking to kill him, the next Duke. He is disabused of his expectations, and the Duchess exposes the corruption and hypocrisy of each of her ambitious courtiers. Her choice is Giotto, who is really Foscari in disguise: the whole exercise has been a ruse to enable him to find out the truth about his new court. All are forgiven.