in Albovine, King of the Lombards — Davenant, William
Metadata
Play
Albovine, King of the Lombards
Author
Davenant, William
Year (catalogued)
1629
First performance
1628
Decade
1620s
Genre
Tragedy
Play type
Unacted (?); Professional (?)
Company
Unacted
Speech prefix(es)
Gondib. | Gond.
Words
348
Characters
1994
Typicality
0.46 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A19881
BritDrama no.
2179
Cluster
Cluster 9 — Boon companions & bluff banter
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Here comes Hermegild. Is not that Cunymond? He is our Kings Minion, sleeps in his bo some. The Captive captivates the Conqueror. Three Moons have not expired their usual change, Since he was prisoner to the King; though now His Favourite. You have called that Hermegild her Creature? Observe their compliment. Why, Grimold? Generous souls are still most subject to Credulity. It is the chief misery of Princes, Near to understand their own crimes, to sin In ignorance. Valdaura is enriched with a sweetness So religious, that Paradine must sin In private, or needs no mercy. Grimold, hoarse men speak low, thou hast not caught A cold yet. Hark how they shout! Away Grimold or we Shall loose the Triumph! Thou art as melancholy as a lean Judge! Draw i'th Presence? Art thou mad? God's-light, thou hast made a brave retreat. This is the privy Gallery: place the Chair, Vollterri, where it needs must interrupt The Kings passage. Quick now counterfeit! Here comes Hermegild. Grimold groans. Groan out Like a Boar. One (Sir) presented here to tempt compassion From all charitable eyes. He will prove (my Lord) a chargeable Cure: For the Physicians do prescribe him nought For medicine, but Aurum-Palpabile. Your Lordship shall engage us then to drown Your chief Title in the best Grape. We'll drink Your health, until we raise the price of wine. The Fiend is gone! He'll pray in no language but the High-Dutch, The angry Tongue, which seems to threaten more, Then implore. Grimold, now trust to your own performance, I may have use for my ears, I would not Yet leave them in the Pillory. The King has paid him all is arreres. Cunymond, in one single compliment So much wasted his Lungs, that I was feign To call for Aquam vita to recover His breath. Yes, and of perfuming your very shadows. Y'abuse Astrology too; for you clip Black-Taffeta into Stars; and for a foil To your beauty; fix they in several Regions Of your face. He counsels well: for the French air hath made Many of our Gentry drunk.
Plot summary
Plot — Albovine, King of the Lombards
Before the start of the action, King Albovine killed a vanquished king and took his daughter Rhodolinda prisoner; another prisoner of war, Paradine, has risen to be his favourite. Albovine marries Rhodolinda, but at the wedding banquet he drunkenly forces her to drink from a cup made of her father’s skull. She responds by refusing to consummate the marriage. Hermegild, who has a grudge against Paradine, encourages Albovine to make advances to Paradine’s wife, Valdaura, but then arranges for Rhodolinda to witness the encounter and tells her that Albovine is promiscuous. She swears revenge and promises to take Hermegild as her second husband if he will help her. Valdaura spends every night away from her nuptial bed, claiming that Rhodolinda requires her overnight attendance. A court lady, Thesina, offers to arrange an opportunity for the frustrated Paradine to sleep with his own wife. The following morning, however, he learns that his nocturnal partner was Rhodolinda. She tells hirn of Valdaura’s adultery and demands that he ki}} Albovine, or be denounced as a rapist. Hermegild sees to it that Valdaura eavesdrops on the meeting, arouses her jealousy, and gives her a slow-acting poison with which to kill her husband; his plan is to ensure that Paradine kills Albovine before the poison takes effect. Yaidaura pretends to adetintster the poison and goads Paradine into killing her; but she dies affirming that the pyisoning was only a bluff. At Hermiegild’s instigation. Paradine |is mt to believe that Albovine 1626 knows of his night with Rhodolinda, cuckolded him with Valdaura, and is trying to have him killed. He goes to assassinate Albovine, but decides at the last moment that they should talk things over first. It emerges that Albovine did not know of Rhodolinda’s adultery and did not succeed in seducing Valdaura. In despair, he asks Paradine to kill him, and falls on his own sword when Paradine refuses. Rhodolinda tries to kiss Paradine, but he bites her lips off, then kills both her and Hermegild. The Governor of Verona orders that he be kept alive to explain what has happened. In the sub-plot, the war veteran Grimold makes prolonged efforts to shame Albovine into paying his extensive arrears of wages, and is ultimately successful.