in 2 The Honest Whore (2 The Converted Courtesan) — Dekker, Thomas
Metadata
Play
2 The Honest Whore (2 The Converted Courtesan)
Author
Dekker, Thomas
Year (catalogued)
1630
First performance
1605
Decade
1630s
Genre
Comedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
Prince Henry's Men
Speech prefix(es)
Carolo. | Caro. | Car.
Words
440
Characters
2342
Typicality
0.14 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A20065
BritDrama no.
1459
Cluster
Cluster 7 — Pedants, satyrs & Latin wit
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Faith, as Physicians do in a Plague, see the World sick, and am well my self. O, we shall ride switch and spur, would we were there once. O, then they'le to breakfast. O, that's to show their Antiquity, as coming from Eve, who was and Apple-wife, and they take after the Mother. Faith, that's soon answered, for S. Patrick you know keeps Purgatory, he makes the fire, and his Countrymen could do nothing, if they cannot sweep the Chimneys. I warrant, the Wives of Milan would give any fellow twenty thousand Ducats, that could but have the face to beg of the Duke, that all the Citizens in Milan might be bound to the peace of patience, as the Linen-draper is. Signior Candido, the patient man. Ho Signior! Signior Friscabaldo. The Lord Hipollito. You would well set out the Cap, sir. Whither are you ambling, Madam Horsleach? Sirrah Grannam, I'll give thee for thy fee twenty crowns, if thou canst but procure me the wearing of yond velvet cap. Cry you mercy, Madam, though masked, I thought it should be you by your man. pray Signior, show her the best, for she commonly deals for good beware. Marry, he says, that at the siege in Holland there was much bawdry used among the Soldiers, though they were lousy. All the City thinks he's a Whoremonger. Troth my Lord, I think we are all as you would been in your youth when you went a Maying, we all love to hear the Cuckoo sing upon other men's Trees. I would noted new Moons In's face, my Lord, all full of change. A drench that's able to kill a Horse, cannot kill this disease of Smock-smelling, my Lord, if it have once eaten deep. No, my Lord, and light wenches are no idle fraught, But what's your Graces reach in this? But say she be not? Attach all the light heals i'th City, and clap em up? why, my Lord? you dive into a Well unsearchable: all the Whores within the walls, & without the walls? I would not be he should meddle with them for ten such Dukedoms; the Army that you speak on, is able to fill all the prisons within this City, and to leave not a drinking room in any Tavern beside. Araigne the poor Whore. 'Twere a Morris dance worth the seeing. What Galley-foist is this? And excellent Teem of Horse. Will not you be smelled out, Bots. He would know if these be not your Bridemen. I, I, go Punk, go to the Cross and be whipped. Alas fair Mistress, spoil not thus your eyes.
Plot summary
Plot — 2 The Honest Whore (2 The Converted Courtesan)
On his way to court, Hippolito receives petitioners, including the reformed courtesan Bellafront: she wants his help in petitioning the Duke to pardon her husband Matheo, who has been condemned to death for homicide. Hippolito solicits the help of Bellafront’s father Orlando, but he is still morally outraged at her former sexual misconduct. Nevertheless he secretly arranges for Matheo’s release, and enters his household disguised as a servingman, Pacheco. Matheo proves dissolute, and when ‘Pacheco’ gives him money for safe keeping, he gambles it all away. Bellafront is trying not to let poverty and Matheo’s prodigality force her back into prostitution. Hippolito, who converted her from whoredom, now tries to seduce her back again. She sends ‘Pacheco’ to return his love-tokens, but ‘Pacheco’ instead takes them to Infelice, who identifies them as her own gifts to Hippolito. She interrogates Hippolito’s go-between, Brian the footman, then tells her husband that Brian gave her the love-tokens and had an affair with her. Brian is dismissed and goes home to Ireland. Desperate for money, Matheo strips the gown from his wife’s back and sells it. Lodovico promises to furnish him as a gentleman, so he is properly dressed when Orlando visits in his own person. The old man feigns lack of sympathy, then returns as Pacheco in time to prevent Matheo assaulting Bellafront. Prompted by Orlando, the Duke takes a hand: he issues a warrant to arrest Matheo for robbing two pedlars (who were actually Orlando’s men); and, hearing that Hippolito is in love with a whore, but not knowing her identity, passes new anti-prostitution laws. Meanwhile, Candido is married a second time, but his bride tests his patience with unruly behaviour on their wedding day. He determines to tame her, and Lodovico helps in the guise of an apprentice; she submits herself after a mock duel with measuring sticks. Some gallants attempt to seduce her into a brothel, but fail, and Candido still keeps his temper when, drawn to an alehouse for a business deal, he is forced to drink to a bawd’s health. Matheo is arrested at the alehouse on the Duke’s warrant, and Candido too for receiving the cloth stolen from the pedlars. At Bridewell, Matheo admits the robbery, but attempts to incriminate Bellafront out of jealousy for her supposed relationship with Hippolito. Orlando explains everything, and accepts his daughter’s forgiveness of her husband. The visitors see some of Bridewell’s new inmates: a pander and…