in The Three Lords and Three Ladies of London — Wilson, Robert
Metadata
Play
The Three Lords and Three Ladies of London
Author
Wilson, Robert
Year (catalogued)
1590
First performance
1588
Decade
1590s
Genre
Moral
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
Queen Elizabeth's Men (?)
Speech prefix(es)
Con. | Con, | Con:
Words
714
Characters
3790
Typicality
0.37 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A15517
BritDrama no.
821
Cluster
Cluster 5 — Romantic leads (high style)
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Oh Sorrow when? when sorrow wilt thou cease To blow the spark that burns my troubled soul? To feed the worm that stings my fainting breast, And sharp the steel that goares my dying heart? My thoughts are thorns, my tears hight drops of led, I plain, I pine, I die, yet never dead. If world would end, my woe should but begin, Lo, this the case of Conscience for her sin: And sin the food wherewith my worm was fed, That sting me now to death, yet never dead. Comfort it is to think on Sorrow passed. A blasting wind and full of misery. But more my self my thoughts tormented have Than both of you in sorrows sullen cave. From whence drawn forth I find but little rest, A seat uneasy, wet, and scalding hight, On this hard stone hath sorrow me assigned, Dare we for shame our stained faces show. Upon my weeping stone is set remorse in brazen letters. Then Lucre fits upon the stone of care. Sorrow our hearts, & time our clothes hath torn For our relief? for Conscience and for Love, No help, small ruth that our distress may move: Then eile our selves, and silent let us stay, till heavens shall please to send some friends this way: Fit all dow I know that tongue Lucre, beware of Fraud. Oh happy Love, if now thou can beware. Gentle Simplicity we are unhappy they. Even I am she Simplicity. Gramercy good imp wilt thou be with me now? Alas who loads m shoulders with this heavy weed, Fie, how it stinks, this is perfumed indeed, But God and I would have thy bounds cut short. Oh pure unspotted Nemo sole paragon, Of Love, of Conscience and perfection, The Marble of Remorse I fit upon Sweats scalding drops, Like bitter brinish tears. Though silence Lords, our modesty enforce, Nemo can tell the secrets of our thoughts, Nemo that women's minds can constant keep, He shall for us you answer good my Lords, I speak for all, though ill beseeming me. Enter Falsehood & doub. dealing Beware good Love, from whom and what thou takest. The modesty that doth our sex beseem Forbids my tongue therein to tell my thought, But may it please my Lords to pardon me, Which of you three shall deign to make such choice, Him shall I answer to his own content, Lord policy, Love were the only choice Me thinks for you, that all your cares employ And studies for the love of common wealth, For you Lord pleasure, Conscience were a wife, To measure your delights by reasons rule, In recreation Conscience help to use. Lucre with pomp most aptly might combine Some further proo e it fits of you to see: Thus you are fast, and yet my self am free: I know not that, but other I'll not choose. God send grace I be, My Lords, if ever, show your honours now, Those proud usurping Spanish tyrants come, To reave from you what you do most regard, to take away your credit and your fame. to raze and spoil our right renowned town: And if you love or lucre do regard, Or have of Conscience any kind of care, The world shall witness by this Actium, And of the love that you to us pretend, In this, your valour shall assurance give: More would I speak, but daunger's in delay, You know my mind, and heavens record my thoughts, When I with prayers for you will penitrate, And will in heart be present in your fight: Now pleasure, show what you will do for me. Farewell my Lords, for me my Lords, for me. Report may be much more than there is cause, We may them meet and greet with joyful hearts, And make them garlands when we know their minds. Lord pleasure, welcome with unfeigned heart. Doff we our veils and greet this gladsome light. The haser of glome sorrows heavy might. Usury slanders both Law and state, the Law allows not though it tolerate, And thou art sure be shut out at heaven gate. Must it not be my Lord if I agree? No Lucre, now beware, false not thy faith, For Simoni is subject to perpetual curse.
Plot summary
Plot — The Three Lords and Three Ladies of London
The three lords of London, in want of wives, plan to marry the three ladies. There are two complications. ===== PAGE 450 ===== First, it emerges that they all want the same lady, Lucre. More pressingly, all three ladies are in prison. The lords agree to secure their freedom and worry later about who marries whom. But Judge Nemo has heard petitions for the ladies’ release before: many men wanted Lucre, some wanted Love, and nobody cared about Conscience. His conditions are that either all three ladies go free or none of them, and that, if they do, he shall decide which lady marries which lord. The ladies are taken from prison and sat on uncomfortable penitential stones. They are visited by Lucre’s former servants, who were banished from London but now want their old jobs back; Lucre is unable to accommodate them. Falsehood and Double- Dealing offer the ladies clothes to replace their prison rags, but they refuse. Nemo arranges for them to have more virtuous garments, the first stage in their rehabilitation. When the three lords continue to quarrel over which of them should have Lucre, Nemo agrees to give up his right to make the marital dispositions, on condition that the lords accept the lady’s own choice. He then has Conscience pose as Lucre. Each lord offers her a different benefit — power, magnificence, and hedonism - and she eventually bestows herself on Pleasure. He is happy with his fiancée even when he learns of the deception. Conscience declares that Policy should marry Love and that Lucre is best suited to Pomp. Before the lords can proceed with their marriages, however, they must repel a Spanish invasion. Three lords of Spain arrive and plan to take the ladies for themselves. The London lords defeat them and present their captured shields to their ladies. Nemo grants the two remaining ladies to the appropriate lords, but three lords of Lincoln intervene, claiming pre-contracts with the ladies. The London lords outface their rivals, who are sent away with the penitential stones in lieu of the ladies. In the sub-plot, Fraud sells Simplicity some cheap ‘gold’, which turns out to be mere copper, so Simplicity repeatedly attempts to have him arrested. Posing as Skill and Fair Semblance, Fraud and Dissimulation seek jobs with the lords, but are recognized. Dissimulation is branded, and Fraud is taken to prison, but bribes Diligence to release him on the way; the bribe money is later found to be counterfeit. Fraud attends the lords’ wedding in…