in Satiromastix, or The Untrussing of the Humorous Poet — Dekker, Thomas
Metadata
Play
Satiromastix, or The Untrussing of the Humorous Poet
Author
Dekker, Thomas
Year (catalogued)
1602
First performance
1601
Decade
1600s
Genre
Comedy
Play type
Adult Professional; Boys Professional
Company
Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men and Children of Paul's (second)
Speech prefix(es)
Sir Adam | Sir Adam. | Sir Ad. | Sir Ada. | Sir Ad • m. | Sir Ada
Words
285
Characters
1446
Typicality
0.26 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A20081
BritDrama no.
1304
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
Prickeshaft God morrow, God morrow: go, in, in, in, to the Bridegroom, taste a cup of burned wine this mor ning, 'twill m ke you fly the better all the day after. My Purse. You are and early styrrer Sir Quintilian Short hose. I am in a brown study, my deer, if love should be turned into a beast, what beast he were fit to be turned into. Must be poakt. All Widow? not all, let Sir Adam be your first man still. She has answered you Sir Vaughan. Here's a purse of gold, think you that will be accepted? No, I think if love should be turned away, and go to serve any beast, it must be and Ape, and my rea son— Stay Sir Quintilian, I'll be a waiter too. He did, and whipped them so with nettles, that The Widow swore that a bareheaded man, Should not man her: the Lady Petula Was there, herd all, and old me this. He gave them but their endue Sir Vaughan; Wid dow did he not? Wood I were as sure to lie with her, as to love her. She did so, work the match and I'll bestow— But how? but how Captain? Excellent, why then M. Tucca— Welcome red-cheekt Ladies, And welcome comely Widow; Gentlemen, Now that our sorry banquet is put by, From S aling more sweet kisses from your lips Walk in my garden: Ladies let your eyes Shed life into these flowers by their bright beams, Fit Fit h ere's a large bower, here all may hear, Now good Crispinus let your praise begin. There, where it left off Baldness. Break my bald pate? Right well aid. Take her for me.
Plot summary
Plot — Satiromastix, or The Untrussing of the Humorous Poet
Celestine and Sir Walter Terrill are married. At the wedding dinner, the King becomes enamoured of Celestine and induces the bridegroom to swear to give up his first night of sex with her: he must deliver her to court that evening, still a virgin. Her father, Sir Quintilian, devises a scheme to save both her honour and Sir Walter’s: he gives her a cup of poison, and she drinks it. She keeps her marriage vows, and Sir Walter delivers her body to the King as part of a masque. The King is abashed to discover that she is a chaste, faithful wife. Then she wakes up: it was only a sleeping draught, and Sir Quintilian has proved both the bride’s constancy and the bridegroom’s love. In the sub-plot, Sir Quintilian and two other knights all become interested in marrying the widow Mistress Miniver, and each independently bribes Tucca to advance his suit. Miniver seems most interested in the bald Sir Adam, so Sir Vaughan engages Horace to write a satire against baldness. He invites the ladies, including Miniver, to a banquet of plums, and there Horace recites his poem on the glories of hair. The poem has the desired effect on Miniver; but Sir Adam hires Horace’s rival, Crispinus, to write a defence of baldness. It all comes to naught, however, for Tucca ends up marrying Miniver himself. In the third plot, Horace’s bitter epigrams against Tucca get into circulation among the gallants. Tucca swears vengeance, and stabs Horace, but with an edgeless sword; Horace’s response is shown to derive from fear rather than physical pain. Horace is accused of giving up a useful trade, bricklaying, and of unlawfully arraigning his rivals on the stage. He is brought to court dressed as a satyr, and the King appoints Crispinus to judge him. Crowned with a nettle wreath, Horace is exposed as an impostor (the real Horace was a better poet), and is made to forswear his inclination to arrogance and personal satire.