in If It Be Not Good, the Devil Is in It (If This Be Not a Good Play, the Devil Is in It) — Dekker, Thomas
Metadata
Play
If It Be Not Good, the Devil Is in It (If This Be Not a Good Play, the Devil Is in It)
Author
Dekker, Thomas
Year (catalogued)
1612
First performance
1611
Decade
1610s
Genre
Comedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
Queen Anne's Men
Theater
Red Bull;Outdoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)
Pri. | Pri:
Words
362
Characters
1998
Typicality
0.41 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A20066
BritDrama no.
1641
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
Where's Rush, our Junior Novice? Stand forth, and render thanks. How darest thou mock us thou ill nurtured slave? Thrust him out at gates. Canst thou excuse thy self? Thy ignornnce is thy pardon, we believe thee. But do our brothers in parts more remote, Feed so delicious sayest thou? How can it stand with their profession? Thou art distracted, whence canst thou force argu meant? Speak freely and be bold, listen. A full and edifying argument. Its most apparent. Subprior, weel hear the rest disputed at our leisure: you take too much upon you. Hence with this trash, we have too long forborn to taste heavens blessings fully, which to our duty had more en abled us, Rush heart some Angel. Subprior no more. Howes this? are you become our confessor? Best thrust us out at gates, lock up the Cloister, And call in whom you Like: be you the Prior. Speak are you agreed, Rush be our master-cook? Do you all consent? We have most voices on our side. Cive Rush his charge then, Scumb: you must resign. Thou shalt not change thy order: Sirrah, cook, From Rush take lessons against night, for fare Ab ndance and delicious. What men are these? You are most welcome. Alphege, go lead'em in. Why? Would Rush! thou speakest right. Hence with those runagates. Spurn they away. Old superstitious do rd; beat hence these beggars. Friar thou speakest right: Make hast with fare delicious, weel crown the night. Stabbed! That sir shall be as we will: to our Vines: away. Why? what day is this? No matter, To vex thee deeper, this whole day weel spend, Only about our Vines. Our will. No matter what he says Rush. Distracted fool, in stead of my joust anger, Thou only hast my pity: thou prophecy? Let him complain, Kings cannot Subjects of their food restrain, Away. Your Gold and silver, you must see no more. Many a Requ em for it shall be said. How? S to feed religious vo a ies! What sin? Our cook shall be severely punished: a woman, A tempter here. Let us some plagues invent to lay on this echerous knave
Plot summary
Plot — If It Be Not Good, the Devil Is in It (If This Be Not a Good Play, the Devil Is in It)
Hell has a population problem: so few new souls are arriving that Charon’s earnings are in decline, but Pluto is reluctant to allow him to raise his fare lest the new price should prove a deterrent. Instead, he sends devils to Naples in human disguise to tempt people into sin in the court, the abbey, and the city. They are later to rendezvous in a grove to report their progress. Ruffman goes to court, assuming the identity of the foreign courtier Bohor. The newly crowned King of ===== PAGE 144 ===== Is In It Naples, Alfonso, intends to be a just and godly ruler, and plans out his week to devote each day toa different state task. Bohor persuades him to spend more time on pleasure and less on duty, so Saturday is designated a day of hedonism. Alfonso proclaims a reward for whoever entertains him best, and Bohor wins with a display of airborne fireballs. Alfonso’s devotion to pleasure starts to extend beyond Saturdays, and he neglects his state duties. He also breaks off his engagement with Princess Ermenhild, who retires to a convent and lets it be known that she is dead. Shackle-Soul becomes Friar Rush, a novice in the abbey. On learning that the friars eat frugally, he tempts them to gluttony and is appointed the abbey cook. Only Clement, the Sub-Prior, dissents, and Rush identifies him as an enemy who will have to be dealt with. He also makes an enemy of Scumbroth, his predecessor as cook, when he lays an untrue accusation of unchastity. Obtaining gold from a spirit, he tempts Clement: when Clement goes to fetch water, he finds his pot filled instead with gold, which he gives away to Scumbroth. After squandering the money, Scumbroth returns to the grove to get more, witnesses the diabolic rendezvous there, and realizes that Friar Rush is a devil. Ermenhild hears that her father, the Duke of Calabria, has declared war on Naples over her apparent death. She asks Friar Clement to deliver him a letter establishing that she is in fact alive. Clement continues to withstand Rush’s temptations, proving insensible to the pleasures of music, dancing, and voluptuous women, and is steadfast even when Rush reverts to diabolic form and tells him he is to die that night. Grumball adopts the name Lurchall and enters the service of the corrupt merchant Bartervile, who attempts to cheat his client Innocentio: the terms of Innocentio’s loan require him to repay it at a set time, or else his mortgaged estate will revert to Bartervile; so Bartervile tries unsuccessfully to…