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)
Otho
Words
278
Characters
1548
Typicality
0.65 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A18596
BritDrama no.
1384
Cluster
Cluster 22 — Ghosts, curses & horror voices
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
A fearful storm Trust me Lorrique beside the inly grief That swallows my content when I perceive How greedily the fierce unpitying sea, and waves, Devoured our friends another trouble grieves my vexed eyes With gashtly apperitions, strange aspects Which either I do certainly behold Or else my soul deuining some sad fate Fills my imaginary powers with shapes Hideous and horrid. Let us turn back into the sea again Yielding our bodies to the ruthless found That hath divided us and our late friends Rather then see choice Hoffman. I see thy true hearts love drope down in tears And this embrace shows I am free from fears My disturbed blood runs smoothly through my veins And I am bold to call thee friend, bold to entreat Food for by wrack I have lost ship, friends and meat. What's that thou bidst him bring, a burning Crown Prithee speak no more Thou raisest new doubts in my troubled heart By repetition of thy father's wrongs Hoffman. O horrible aspect murderer stand off I know thou meanest me wrong O Lorrique I am betrayed, slave touch me not Lorrique, art thou turned villain to my life. O tortor above measure. Thy father died for piracy. O Lorrique tortor, I feel and Aetna burn Within my brains, and all my body else Is Like a hill of Ice, all these Belgic seas That now, surround us cannot quench this flame Death Like a tyrant seizeth me unawares, My sin was shrink Like leaves parched with the sun My blood dissolves, nerves and tendons fail Each part's disjointed, and my breath expires Mountsoule to heaven, my body burns in fire.
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…