Passages from this character's speech that contain the most distinguishing words for Cluster 15 (ang, hunc, fleire, shillings, chil, sblood…). Matches are highlighted.
when first I brought thee forth My Girl, my best Girl, then I should have slept In quiet, and not wept now. I, we had one, But fate's so cruel to us, and such dangers Attend a traveling man, that 'twere presumption To say we have him; we have sent for him To blot out the remembrance of his sister: But whither we shall ever
Full speech
If cursed Aphron Hath carried her away, and triumphs now In the destruction of our hoary age 'Twere better she were dead; Would I had died, when first I brought thee forth My Girl, my best Girl, then I should have slept In quiet, and not wept now. I, we had one, But fate's so cruel to us, and such dangers Attend a traveling man, that 'twere presumption To say we have him; we have sent for him To blot out the remembrance of his sister: But whither we shall ever see him here, The Gods can only tell, we barely hope. You shall not want my prayers. I thought I never should have seen thee more My Callidora ; come wench, now let's hear, The story of your flight and life in the woods. The Gods be thanked. You do not think what ill may happen husband, Come, let him have her, you have means enough For him, the wench is fair, and if her face Be not a flatterer, of a noble mind, Although not stock. Is't possible? I, I, alas! 'twas love: Would I were with thee, Girl, where ere thou art. I, there's a villain now; o! that I had him here. Nay, I must needs say for her, she was always A witty wench. Alas! you have forgotten the power of love, sweetheart. Methinks, I have much ado to forgive the rascal. (A side.)
Plot summary
Plot — Love's Riddle
Before the start of the action, Callidora was the victim of an attempted rape when she was alone in her absent parents’ house. Aphron, who was obsessed with her, broke into the house, but she hid in a corner and evaded him. Afraid of a second encounter, she borrowed a suit of her brother’s clothes and fled into the forest. Aphron went mad, and initially believed every woman he met to be Callidora. In the forest, the cross-dressed Callidora becomes ‘Callidorus’. She meets Alupis, a shepherd who sold his inheritance to see the city and came home penniless but with a witty devotion to pleasure. She takes him on as her man, and asks him to teach her indifference to love. She sets up home in the country, only to find that, seeming to be a beautiful youth, she attracts the amorous attentions of the local women, young and old. Palaemon is interested in marrying Hylace, but her father Melarnus refuses the match, thinking him too poor. But Hylace has only been leading him on, more interested in his gifts than himself. Alupis encourages him to turn the tables: she will come to heel if he treats her with masterful disdain; but when this doesn’t bring about her immediate devotion, he loses his nerve and tells her it was all a joke. Alupis decides to recruit her mother, the ancient but amorously inclined Truga, to support Palaemon’s suit. Though infatuated with ‘Callidorus’, Truga transfers her affections to Alupis when he speaks politely to her, and gives him a ring as a lover’s token. Alupis uses the ring to blackmail her: he will show it to her husband, as evidence of adultery, if she doesn’t ensure that Palaemon and Hylace are married before the end of the day. When he brings Palaemon to Truga’s cottage to arrange the wedding, Hylace eavesdrops on the meeting and decides to cross the plan. Palaemon and Alupis meet with Melarnus. The problem of Palaemon’s relative poverty is resolved when Aegon pretends to adopt him as his heir, disinheriting his daughter Bellula for her unseemly interest in ‘Callidorus’; so Melarnus accepts Palaemon, though he still has reservations about the young man’s habit of writing poetry. Before the wedding, however, he changes his mind and pretends that Hylace is to marry someone else—Hylace has had a word with him. Florellus, Callidora’s brother, returns home after five years’ travel, and goes to look for his missing sister. In the forest, he sees Bellula and falls for her; but she is more interested in ‘Callidorus’, and urges the…