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)
Wil. | VVil. | Wil, | wil. | VVil | W • l.
Words
550
Characters
2779
Typicality
0.39 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A15517
BritDrama no.
821
Cluster
Cluster 23 — Gulls, fops & laughing-stocks
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
If my master were a soldier, that word would have the stab. Nay Wit were the best boy if will were gone. I care not for him, curmudgenly Swad. Nay, Wit and will are at strife, when ther's no body but we. Thou knowest that a Falcon wares High, and stoops low, So doth pleasure. Pour temps, for time. Look for my fist Wit, if you rap out such treason. To my masters bird. 'Tis a pleasant Gentleman, this young mast. Wit, Your master hath something too, I pray you what's it. 'Tis a Load in a shell. What is it in sadness? May not policy be bade? Well spoke, and Like a bearward. Wit, dost thou see? thus goes wealth away with all. He will eat them I think, for he gapes very wide. Sirrah, gape not so wide for fear of a fly. I beshrew thee. yes but I am, and in charity too. Will you keep the stakes your self? No: what was that Tarlton? I never knew him. And I too sometime. Coads gaffar were not you a mealman once and dwelled with Lady Conscience ? Nor I'll not dwell with you for all this world's treasure. Come on gaffar, come on, I must be your best chapman, I'll buy it for pleasure, hold, there is a great: Content you good wife, we do not f ltch, but buy. Well dost thou note the couching of thy Lance, Mine had ere this else gored your Spanish skin. Nay wit if thou want him, thou'ilt go near to be mad. Double, how is it? Teach me that and you will make me laugh a little. what gives thy master here? a Buzzard or a Rite. Wit, you show your self a Gentleman by g ssing so right, A Buzzard? thou Buzyard, Wit, hast no more skill Then take a Falcon for a Buzzard. wittily spoken, now wealths mayest. hath God a Daffadowndilly. And my Lord is not pleasure sprung of Voluptuousness, but of such honourable and honest kind conceit, as heaven & humanity well brooks and allows pleasure pleasing not perniti us. Wit, shall I call thee fool? the best pleasure of all lasts but a time, For of all pleasures most pleasing to sighed, Me thinks there is none to the Falcons High slight, Yet diseases end it, the breach of a wing, Nay, the breach of a feather spoils that sweet thing: And ours so too. A Jack and Apes hath wit. Would, would, would. Because your wit was so great in expounding your meaning And how say you to will ? Yea between a maid and a bachelor. When do you show gaffar? To be seen, not bought. To S y truth ther's but had choice, How will you sell the ballad you sang, for I'll not buy the voice. Because it will cost me more money to buy salad oil to keep it from ̄ rusting, than it is Worth: but I pray you honest man, what' this? I cannot read. Yes, but I would not learn. What, a better man? Must the Scutcheons hang still? One within. yea, let them alone. Wit is his name indeed, are you one of his Godfathers, ye hit it so right? I serve my Lord pleasure.
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…