Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

CARDONA

in The Wedding — Shirley, James

Metadata

PlayThe Wedding
AuthorShirley, James
Year (catalogued)1629
First performance1626
Decade1620s
GenreComedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyQueen Henrietta Maria's Men
TheaterPhoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)Car. | Car
Words455
Characters2296
Typicality0.54 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA12155
BritDrama no.2184
ClusterCluster 1 — Wives, widows & intimate counsel

Important excerpts

Passages from this character's speech that contain the most distinguishing words for Cluster 1 (nony, tailors, butler, mall, jesu, massinissa…). Matches are highlighted.

To the Tailors man, run. The Wedding clothes not brought Home yet, fie, fie. The arrant Shoemaker too. Prithee Isa c, make hast, how tedious th'art, hast not thou been there yet.

Full speech

To the Tailors man, run. The Wedding clothes not brought Home yet, fie, fie. The arrant Shoemaker too. Prithee Isa c, make hast, how tedious th'art, hast not thou been there yet. As thou goest, call upon Cod the Persumer, tell him he uses us sweetly, has not brought home the gloves yet. — and dost hear? when th'art at the Peacock remember to call for the sprig, by the same token I left my fan to be mended:—and dost hear? when th'art there, 'tis but a little out of the way, to run to the Devil, and bid the V tener make hast with the run lets of Claret, w shall would no time to burn it. Run I prithee. Fie vpon't what a perplexity is about a Wedding, I might have been thus troubled for a child of my own, if good luck had served. —Within. Cardona. I come Ladybird. Exit. Is not the Bridegroom come yet, sure he has over slept himself, there is nothing but wondering within, all the maids are in uproar, one says he is a slow thing, another says, she knows not what to say, but they all conclude, if ever they marry, they'le make it in their bargain to be sure of all things before matrimony, fie upon him, if I were to be his wife, i'de show him a trick for't, ere a year came about, or it should cost me a fallen, I warrant him. Exit. No sir, I did starve with him, and please you: I could not live with him. Sir you sent To speak with me. Help. I'll tell you sir: Marwood — Did viciously affect her: Wone with him gifts and flatteries, I promised My assistance, but I knew her virtue was not To be corrupted in a thought. Therefore— Hold—I would deliver The rest into your ear, it is too shameful To express it louder then a whisper— Untouched. My daughter alive? O my deer heart. H ld, I confess — Y u never did enjoy Gratiana. Let not our sh m be pub icke, sir, you shall Have the whole truth, o that my tears were able To wash my sin away—wone with h your promises, I did, in hope to mark my self a fortune, And get a husband for my child, with much B acke oratoury, woe my daughter to Supply Gratiana's bed, whom with hat Circumstance, you enjoy worser, than you b leeu'd It was the virgin you desired. She with the fear (as I conceive) of her Dishonour, taking a few jewels with her, Went from me, I know not whither, by this time Dead if not more unhappy in her fortune. O my child.

Plot summary

Plot — The Wedding
Beauford is to marry Sir John Belfare’s daughter, Gratiana, but on the eve of the wedding his kinsman Marwood tells him that she is unchaste: he himself has slept with her. Beauford fights a duel with him in the park; Marwood is wounded, but still insists that his story is true. Beauford sends a surgeon to him, but the body disappears before he arrives, taken away for treatment by the park gamekeeper’s wife. Beauford accuses and jilts Gratiana on the day of the wedding. Questioned by. Beauford’s friend Captain Landby, Gratiana insists that she is a virgin, and he offers to help vindicate her. At his instigation, she writes to Beauford pretending to have drowned herself, and shuts herself away in the house of Landby’s uncle, Justice Landby. Milisent, a boy servant, tells Gratiana that Marwood has died insisting on the veracity of his accusation: he slept with Gratiana with the connivance of her guardian Cardona. Milisent then tells Beauford that Marwood was mistaken: Gratiana is innocent, and Cardona is to blame. The boy also claims to have brought him Marwood’s body, but the coffin actually contains the living Gratiana, and the lovers are reconciled. Beauford is arrested for Marwood’s murder arid brought before Justice Landby. Belfare rushes to the judge's house to lay an additional accusation for the rourder of the missing Gratiana, only to find her there alive. The other murder charge proves. equally iiitounded: Marwood too is present in disguise. Cardona admits that she arranged an -assignation between Marwood and Gratiana, but substituted her 1626 own daughter Lucibel, who subsequently disappeared. She too is present: she took on a male identity and became Milisent. Marwood agrees to marry her, and Beauford and Gratiana resume their engagement. In the sub-plot, Justice Landby encourages his daughter Jane to consider two inappropriate suitors, the thin Rawbone and the obese Loadum, in order to test her judgement. She is already in love with Haver, who has got himself a job as Rawbone’s servant in order to have access to her. Loadum and Rawbone consider fighting a duel over Jane; Rawbone agrees when Haver offers to fight in his place, while Loadum is persuaded upon learning that Rawbone is not considered to be much of a duellist - so he gets a surprise when his opponent, Haver in disguise, proves ready and able to fight. Justice Landby finds a love- letter from Haver in Jane’s prayer book and, disapproving of a marriage to the impecunious Haver, decides…