Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

HERMIA

in Humor Out of Breath — Day, John

Metadata

PlayHumor Out of Breath
AuthorDay, John
Year (catalogued)1608
First performance1608
Decade1600s
GenreComedy
Play typeBoys Professional
CompanyChildren of the King's Revels
Speech prefix(es)Her. | Herm.
Words248
Characters1350
Typicality0.28 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA19975
BritDrama no.1559
ClusterCluster 6 — Battlefield messengers & soldiers

Important excerpts

No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).

Full speech

Take comfort yet deer father. All discontent Like to a wounded lion He forages the woods, daring proud fortune At her best weapon, he accounts this smart, As a slight hurt, but far off from the heart. Brother. Then since all dream, let us dream of revenge. Say sister, had we not fine sport to day? Why 'tis accounted pleasure to kill fish. Yet fish were created to be killed. Their bodies being food, maintain our breath. Come, come, you vainly argue, it is good. If it be sin, then you your self's a sinner. Shepherds or be what else you are well met. What ere we saw you et ere you came hither. So brother's without our leaves you well may be. Yet honest shepherd has with honest trade some strife. So honest men do too aswell as he. Swear not, for we are misbelievers both. O time, sometime shepherd's have idle hours. Oh heaven, how they can flatters to our faces. Exeunt. How now fair sister? you are hard beset. No, shepherd's, now fish do not bite but play. My father, sir, will chide if I be missing. Father, I think these shepherd's come a wooing. Come brother, talk not of devouring war, Say messenger, comes not Octauioes sons? Then fear not father, my sister and my self, Will be your champions and defend the City. Stand proud Francisco. I will, but first Francisco take my shield. Read the conditions and return your answers. And ours,

Plot summary

Plot — Humor Out of Breath
Octavio has just won a war against Mantua, which has resulted in the banishment of Antonio, the Mantuan ===== PAGE 427 ===== 1607 Duke, and his family. Now Octavio sends his sons out into Italy to look for wives, but accompanies them incognito to keep an eye on them. His daughter Florimell protests that she wants love too, but Octavio leaves her in the custody of Hortensio, giving him a brief to restrain her wanton tendencies. Antonio and his family are living a rustic life, eating fish they have caught themselves. Aspero, the son, goes to Venice, eager to assassinate Octavio in revenge. With Octavio gone, he meets Florimell, who is attracted to him. When he does not reciprocate, she concurs in Hortensio’s decision to arrest him, but asks that he should be imprisoned in her own chamber. On hearing that she is planning to have him executed, but only because she is playing hard-to-get, he pretends to be dead. The sight of his body shocks her into declaring her love openly, and this brings him back to life. Hortensio has just received information as to his identity, and has him committed to close prison. Florimell and Hortensio visit him, and Hortensio is persuaded to play blind man’s buff in the cell. While Hortensio is hoodwinked, she disguises Aspero in his clothes and removes him from the prison; Hortensio is left behind in the cell. The jailer is given orders to allow nobody to see the prisoner, even if he should pretend to be Hortensio or imitate his voice. Aspero and Florimell go to Mantua. Octavio’s two sons éncounter Antonio’s two daughters, and fall in love despite the disguised Octavio’s insistence that they should seek women of higher rank. Octavio reveals his true identity at the wedding, forbids the marriage, banishes Antonio and his daughters, and takes his sons back to Venice. There he finds that Florimell has apparently eloped with Hortensio, but the truth emerges when the cell is opened and Hortensio found in Aspero’s place. News arrives that the Mantuans have rebelled against Venetian overlordship and reinstated Antonio. Octavio and his sons besiege Mantua, but Antonio’s daughters pass cryptic shields to Octavio’s sons, whose impresas refer to their rustic wooing. Realizing that the Mantuan princesses are their rustic loves, the Venetian princes call off the siege, and the war ends happily with a triple marriage.