Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

SECRETARY

in Jack Straw — Anonymous

Metadata

PlayJack Straw
AuthorAnonymous
Year (catalogued)1593
First performance1591
Decade1590s
GenreHistory
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyUnknown
Speech prefix(es)Secretarie.
Words211
Characters1162
Typicality0.46 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA13062
BritDrama no.855
ClusterCluster 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

My Lords, because your words not worthless are, Because they stand on reasons surest ground, And tend unto the profit of the King, Whose profit is the profit of the Land, Yet give me leave in reverence of the cause, To speak my mind touching this question: When such as we do see the peoples hearts, Expressed as far as time will give them leave, With hartines of their benevolence, My thinks it were for others happiness, That hearts and purses should together go: Misdeem not good my Lords of this my speech, Sith well I wot the Noble and the slave, And all do live but for a Common weal, Which Common weal in other terms, is the Kings. See here the peril that was ate foreseen, Ready to fallen on this unhappy Land: What barbarous minds for grievance more than needs, Unnaturally seeks wreak upon their Lord, Their true anointed Prince, their lawful king: So dare this blind unshamefast multitude, Lay violent hands they wot not why nor where: But be thou still as best becomes thee, To stand in quarrel with thy natural Liege, The Sun may sometime be eclipsed with Clouds, But hardly may the twinkling stars obscure, Or put him out of whom they borrow light.

Plot summary

Plot — Jack Straw
MHENKING is gathering taxes to finance war in France. After a EARN@OM@Gfr attempts an intimate physical examination of JaeRMStawSMdaughter to establish whether or HOMISHEMISNSIEMEnSughtoNbeMliazble forltaxatiomjastraw loses his temper and kills him. ParSOHMBAll speaks out against social abuses and inequality, inciting the men of Kent to rise in rebellion under Straw and MW&@HllTyi@F; they are joined by men of Essex, and send their demands to the King through Sir J@HBMIMG@EHGh, holding his family hostage. The King agrees to meet them at Greenwich, but breaks the appointment when he sees their disorderly conduct. The rebels advance on London, freeing prisoners, burning legal documents, despoiling their fellow countrymen, and murdering immigrants who cannot speak English properly. The King makes a second attempt to parley, meets the rebels at Smithfield, and hears their grievances. The issue of a general pardon induces the Essex men to go home, but the Kentish rebels remain in arms under Tyler and Straw. At the third encounter with the King, Straw demands a courtier’s sword, and the BOFaIMA¥ar of London stabs him. The rebellion is put down, but the King is reluctant to order mass executions; only the ringleaders, Tyler and Ball, are to die. The Lord Mayor is rewarded with a knighthood.