in The School of Compliment (Love Tricks) — Shirley, James
Metadata
Play
The School of Compliment (Love Tricks)
Author
Shirley, James
Year (catalogued)
1631
First performance
1625
Decade
1630s
Genre
Comedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
Lady Elizabeth's Men
Theater
Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)
1. Shep.
Words
156
Characters
847
Typicality
0.32 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A12152
BritDrama no.
2158
Cluster
Cluster 2 — Allegory, Nature & pageant voices
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
O son, you would say so, When our pleasures all you know: We are not oppressed with care, With which you in Cities are, A Shepherd is a King, whose Throne Is a mossy Mountain, on Whose top we fit, our crook in hand, Like a Sceptre of command, Our subjects, sheep grazing below, Wanton frisking to and from. Walk unto the silver brook, You shall needs no other hook, To catch the dancing fish withal, But a song, or Madrigal. We thank you, gentle boy, gooden, We must to our Flocks again. I will make thee amends and marry, prithee sweet Mopsa, beautiful Mopsa. Post hence Satires and give way, For fairer souls to grace the day, And this presence, whip the air With new ravishings, hence with care, By the forelock hold Time fast, Lest occasion slip too fast Away from us, joys here distil. Pleasures all your bosoms fill. Disdain not, gentle sir.
Plot summary
Plot — The School of Compliment (Love Tricks)
Selina and Hilaria have each attracted the attention of several suitors. Selina’s brother Antonio is one of those interested in Hilaria; and Hilaria’s recently widowed father Rufaldo, who disapproves of Antonio and would rather she married the wealthy Bubulcus, would nevertheless like Selina for his second wife. Antonio has his friend and servant distract Rufaldo while he sneaks in to visit Hilaria; they do it by persuading Rufaldo that he has been miraculously rejuvenated. Selina’s father is happy to let her have her own way in ===== PAGE 140 ===== her love-life, because her sister Felice absconded after he interfered in hers. He proposes that she should be cautious about marrying Rufaldo, but she declares enthusiasm for the idea and asks for a hasty wedding; on the appointed day, however, she disappears and goes to live in the country disguised as a shepherd. Felice’s abandoned suitor Gasparo sets up a school of compliment to teach people refined behaviour. His clients include: Bubulcus, who wants to learn how to woo Hilaria and scorn Antonio; Delia, a chambermaid keen to brush up her etiquette: a judge who wants to learn how to address the jury; Medulla, a social-climbing widow; an old countryman who wants to turn his oafish son into a courtier; a quarrelsome gentleman; Ingeniolo, a justice’s clerk in love; and Jenkin, an amorous Welshman in search of poetry to turn a shepherdess’s head. The search for Selina sends several people off to the country, including her true love Infortunio. Antonio pretends to go too, and appears not to return; in fact he impersonates Selina and ‘marries’ Rufaldo. On the wedding night, the old man is horrified to learn that his new ‘wife’ will not sleep with him, and also has the physical strength to enforce ‘her’ will on him. Anxious not to lose ‘her’ altogether, he asks ‘her’ at least to live in his house and sleep with Hilaria; Antonio readily agrees. Bubulcus boasts to ‘Selina’ and Hilaria that he has killed the missing Antonio in a duel, stupidly forgetting that Selina is Antonio’s sister; ‘she’ fetches officers, and Bubulcus is arrested for murder. The real Selina has fallen in with a community of shepherds. Among them is her missing sister Felice, who uses herbal remedies to cure Infortunio of his love-melancholy for Selina. Gasparo too has travelled to the country, and recognizes his love Felice. Selina reveals herself to Infortunio, but he has been told of her marriage to Rufaldo and wants proof of her identity. She…