in Hoffman, or A Revenge for a Father — Chettle, Henry
Metadata
Play
Hoffman, or A Revenge for a Father
Author
Chettle, Henry
Year (catalogued)
1631
First performance
1602
Decade
1630s
Genre
Tragedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
Admiral's (Nottingham's) Men
Theater
Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)
Aust.
Words
346
Characters
1843
Typicality
0.28 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A18596
BritDrama no.
1384
Cluster
Cluster 12 — Wooers, gallants & courtly love-talk
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Your hermitage is furnished for a prince. O God! that girl, which fled my Court and love, Making love colour for her heedless flight, Hermet I am, Saxons proud wanton sons Were entertained Like Priam's Firebrand At Sparta: all our State gladly 'appear'd Like chierfull Lacedemons, to receive Those Daemons that with magic of their tongues, Bewitched my Lucibells my Helen's ears. That should be Saxons tongue. Then art thou father to lascivious sons, That have made Austrea childless. No; I defy thee ohn of Saxony; My Lucibell for beauty needs no art, Nor do I think the virtues of her mind Ever inclined to this ign ble course But by the charms and forcings of thy sons. Father we obey thy voice; Duke John of Saxony, receive my faith; Ti l our ears hear the true course thy so nes Have taken with my found and misled child. I proclaim truce, Why dost thou ullen stand? If thou mean peace, give me thy Princely hand. Nay, but thy eyes agree not with thy heart; In vows of combination, ther's a grace That shows the intention in the outward face, Look cheerfully, or I expect no leagu . He's Like him, but I herd he lost his life Long since in Persia, by the Sophies wars. Agreed. I am glad you are so pleasant my good Lord. why speaks my dukedoms hope in hollow sounds? Look up fair child here's Saxony and I Thy father, Lucibella look on me; I am not angry that thou fledst away But come to grace thy nuptials; prithee speak. O me! o miserable wretched me. No not he. By Heaven he did not. Thou weepest in scorn, and very tear of thine Cou rs a smile: Saxony, I defy All truce, all league of love, guard thee proud Duke; Thy sons have made me childless; I'll have thee Con word in death with my wronged girl and me. Proud John of Saxony: ha'st thou no wound? Somebody touched me home: vain world farewell Dying I fallen on my dead Lucibell.
Plot summary
Plot — Hoffman, or A Revenge for a Father
HanisiHofinan, Vice-Admiral of Luneburg, was betrayed by the state after doing it good service, forced to turn pirate and then executed for it. His son Clois stole his body from the gallows but was bound by oath not to bury ===== PAGE 5 ===== 1603 it. Now Clois Hoffman seeks revenge against the Dukes of Luneburg and Prussia. He witnesses a shipwreck; @iiarles, heir to the Duchy of Luneburg, is among the survivors, but Hoffman murders him with a burning crown, then adopts his identity and visits the court of Prussia. Férditiaid) Duke of Prussia, disinherits his son Jeremie and adopts the supposed Charles as his heir. The brothers BOdGWick and Mathias are to joust for the hand of L@€ibélla. Their fathers, SAXGHY and \(AuStfid, meet by chance at the hermit R@@EfiIEK’s cell and discover that he is Austria’s long-lost brother. Hoffman, posing as Roderick, tells Lodowick and Lucibella that Ferdinand has plotted Lodowick’s murder, and supplies Lodowick with Greek garments to enable them to leave the court in disguise. He then tells Mathias that Lucibella has absconded with a Greek. Mathias pursues the couple and assaults them; Lodowick has time to reveal the truth before he dies. Roderick denies the story, and Saxony confirms his alibi. Hoffman murders Austria. Lucibella recovers from her wounds, but goes mad with grief. J@fGME raises an army in rebellion against his father, but Hoffman makes peace by persuading him to accept the office of food taster. He inveigles his servant Lorrique into Jerome’s service disguised as a French doctor. Jerome acquires poison from him to murder ‘Charles’, but only succeeds in administering it to Ferdinand and himself (as food taster); unfortunately the antidote supplied by the ‘doctor’ doesn’t work. Hoffman succeeds to the Dukedom. Charles’s recently widowed mother, Martha, comes to court to congratulate her son, and Hoffman considers killing her to protect his identity, but instead enlists her as an ally after explaining what happened (but omitting to mention that he murdered Charles). Mathias, Saxony, and Roderick find the skeletons of Hans Hoffman and Charles, and overhear Lorrique discussing Hoffman’s imposture with Martha. Lucibella gives Martha Charles’s clothes, and she notices that they are not water-damaged, even though her son was supposedly drowned. Lorrique confesses everything and agrees to help lure Hoffman into a trap, but Hoffman murders him. Mathias and Saxony hang up his dead body near a cave where Hoffman…