in The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois — Chapman, George
Metadata
Play
The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois
Author
Chapman, George
Year (catalogued)
1613
First performance
1610
Decade
1610s
Genre
Tragedy
Play type
Boys Professional
Company
Children of the Queen's Revels
Theater
Whitefriars;Indoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)
Chal.
Words
435
Characters
2314
Typicality
0.35 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A18421
BritDrama no.
1612
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
I much wonder Our Lord Lieutenant brought his brother down To feast and honour him, and yet now leaves him At such and instance. But knows not he of your Command to take His Brother Clermont? I see that good lives never can secure Men from bade livers. Worst men will have best As ill as they, or heaven to hell they'll wrest. Hark, our last foot. We must bethink us ere we apprehend him, (Beside our main strength) of some stratagem To make good our severe Command on him; As well to save blood, as to make him sure: For if he come on his Scotch horse, all France Put at the heals of him, will fail to take him. Why should all this stir be then? No question; for since he is come to Cambray The malcontent, decayed Marquess Renel, Is come, and new arrived; and made partaker Of all the entertaining Shows and Feasts That welcomed Clermont to the brave Virago His manly Sister. Such we are esteemed As are our comforts. Marquess malcontent Comes where he knows his vain hath safest vent. Come Soldiers: you are downwards fit for lackeys; Give me your Pieces, and take you these Coats, To make you complete footmen: in whose forms You must be complete Soldiers: you two only Stand for our Army. 'Tis true, You two must do, or enter, what our Army Is now in field for. What fight Soldiers most for? Yet here are crowns beside. As you should at all parts. Go now to Clermont D'Ambois, and inform him, Two Battles are set ready in his honour, And stay his presence only for their signal, When they shall join: and that t'attend him hither, Like one we so much honour, we have sent him Well sir, say it so. And having brought him to the field, when I Fallen in with him, saluting, get you both Of one side of his horse, and pluck him down, And I with h'ambush laid, will second you. 'Tis well said worthy Soldiers: hast, and hast him. Stand Cowards, stand, strike, send your bullets at him Slaves, he is a traitor; Command the horse troops to overrun the traitor. 'Tis a shrow one. They are no Lackeys sir, but Soldiers, Disguised in Lackeys coats. What, love bade, Like good? How should one learn that? Pretty from toys. Oh, but 'tis passing hard to stay one thus. I long to hear sir, how your Mistress takes this. How took his noblest Mistress your sad message? Oh happy man. This may enough hold to redeem your bans.
Plot summary
Plot — The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois
Before the start of the action, the Duke of Guise had Bussy D’Amboise and his brother Clermont brought ===== PAGE 63 ===== 1610 to court. Montsoreau had Bussy killed in reprisal for his adultery with Tamyra, and he died prophesying the deaths of Monsieur and Guise; his ghost then appeared to Clermont demanding revenge. Their sister Charlotte also seeks to avenge Bussy, and made her marriage to Baligny conditional on his swearing to participate in the plot; but Clermont insists on doing it alone, as the ghost commanded. Baligny’s role is, therefore, to deliver Clermont’s challenge to Montsoreau; but he cannot get access because Montsoreau has fearfully barricaded himself into his house. Two allies help him. Renel, who is selling his lands to Montsoreau, enables him to get in. When Montsoreau refuses to accept the challenge, Baligny leaves it behind anyway and Tamyra, who has reluctantly gone back to her husband, promises to make him read it. Unknown to the others, Baligny is reporting to the King on potential troublemakers like Clermont and Renel. The King is concerned at the growing power of Guise’s faction, so he and Baligny arrange for Clermont to be arrested: Clermont is to travel with Baligny to inspect the troops at Cambrai, and there he will be taken into custody by Baligny’s lieutenant, Maillard; thus Baligny will not have to participate directly in his brother-in-law’s downfall. Clermont has to leave Paris before concluding his business with Montsoreau. In Cambrai, he receives an anonymous letter warning him of Baligny’s treachery, but refuses to credit it. Maillard arrests him, with difficulty, and he is taken back to the Bastille; but he is allowed to send a message to his lover, the Countess of Cambrai, who was expecting him to visit her that evening. ~ Guise pressurizes the King into signing an order for . Clermont’s release. News arrives that Monsieur has died, just as Bussy predicted. Clermont’s siblings are impatient to see Bussy’s revenge completed: Bussy’s ghost appears again to chivvy him on, and Charlotte comes to Paris in men’s clothes, intending to kill Montsoreau herself. Distressed at the news of Clermont'’s arrest, the Countess weeps herself blind; having dreamed that Clermont will die avenging Bussy, she too comes to Paris to dissuade him. The disguised Charlotte presents herself as the ideal solution, but the ghost insists that Clermont must do it — but also reassures the Countess that he will not die in the attempt. The King has…