Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

NURSE

in The Hog Hath Lost His Pearl — Tailor, Robert

Metadata

PlayThe Hog Hath Lost His Pearl
AuthorTailor, Robert
Year (catalogued)1614
First performance1613
Decade1610s
GenreComedy
Play typePrivate
Speech prefix(es)Nu. | Nur.
Words163
Characters844
Typicality0.36 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA13345
BritDrama no.1701
ClusterCluster 10 — Mourners, mothers & doleful voices

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

Marry, God forbid, o M ris . Ms. Ms. she has breath yet, she's but in a trance, good sir take comfort sheele recover by and by. His memory begins to fail him, come lets bear This heavy spectacle from forth his presence, The heave ̄ S will lend a hand, I hope, of comfort, Exeum ̄ to Can. manet. Good sir take comfort, I am forced to speak What will not please, your chaste wise sir is dead. What sir? Alas! he's distracted, what a sin Am I partaker of by telling him, So cursed and untruth? But 'twas my Mistress will Who is recovered, though her griefs never Can be recovered, she hath vowed with tears Her own perpetual banishment, therefore to him Death was not more displeasing, then if I Had told her lasting absence. Good sir walk in, weel fend for learned men that may allay your frenzy. She is within sir, pray you will you walk to her.

Plot summary

Plot — The Hog Hath Lost His Pearl
Haddit has spent all his money and mortgaged his lands to Hog the usurer, and now ekes out a living selling jigs to players. He aims to solve his financial problems by marrying Rebecca, Hog’s daughter, whose affections he had previously refused in the belief that she was too low-born for him. Hog intends Rebecca to marry young Lord Wealthy, but she refuses, and helps Haddit trick her father. Haddit’s uncle, Lightfoot, helps to get the servant Peter out of the way by picking a quarrel, to give him a pretext for making peace with a drinking contest; Peter imbibes himself insensible in the cellar. Rebecca steals Hog’s keys, giving Haddit and his accomplices access to his bedroom, where he keeps his gold. Lightfoot appears to Hog as the ghost of Croesus, come to make the usurer rich: a spirit will ===== PAGE 291 ===== 1613 take his gold and transform it into pearl, which is even more valuable; in reality, Haddit steals the money and retrieves his mortgage, then absconds with Rebecca and marries her. Hog goes to complain to old Lord Wealthy, but his supernatural experiences induce a conversion: he renounces avarice and gives the couple his blessing. In the sub-plot, Carracus plans to elope with young Lord Wealthy’s sister Maria, and entrusts his friend Albert with the arrangements. Albert visits Maria early, posing as Carracus, and has sex with her; she then leaves with Carracus as planned, and marries him: Albert suffers remorse and decides to leave human society. Some time later, Carracus notices that Maria is wearing Albert’s ring, which he gave her on the night of the elopement. Both realize what Albert did; Maria faints and Carracus is told that she has died of shame. In fact, she disguises herself as a page and flees to the woods, where Albert has carved penitential verses on every tree. Posing as a hermit, Albert finds her almost dead from starvation; he takes her to his cave; and feeds her. Carracus also goes to the woods, where an echo tells him that Maria is alive and innocent. They meet up, and revelations ensue: the page is chaste Maria and the hermit is penitent Albert. Carracus and Maria forgive him, and make their peace with Maria’s family.