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)
Lord. | Lord,
Words
160
Characters
877
Typicality
0.25 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A18596
BritDrama no.
1384
Cluster
Cluster 20 — Conjurers, witches & physicians
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
His Excellence no doubt hath great affairs But his familiar friend Lorrique is come. Her Highness charged us to call you her son, The mystery we know not, but we know, You are not Princely Otho of Luningberg. Be not in raged she comes, And with her comes trusty Lorrique. Dead? is our sovereign Lord the Prince dead? Princes prepare not to resist your foes, We are as firm as life unto your blood. The Duchess Marthan greets old Saxony, Prince Mathias, Rodorick, and fair Lucibell: To me she hath discovered the damned plots Of that perfidious Hoffman, and hath sent These armed soldiers, to attend on you. There is no needs, our Duchess hath appareled Her speech in a green livery, She salutes him fair, but her heart Like his actions, is attired In read, and blue, and sable ornaments. At hand she comes, with him alone her plot is, She comes in happy time for all your good.
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…