Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

ELFIRON

in The Whore of Babylon — Dekker, Thomas

Metadata

PlayThe Whore of Babylon
AuthorDekker, Thomas
Year (catalogued)1607
First performance1606
Decade1600s
GenreAllegorical History
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyPrince Henry's Men
Speech prefix(es)Elfyr. | Elfi. | Elf. | Elf:
Words174
Characters964
Typicality0.22 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA20092
BritDrama no.1500
ClusterCluster 3 — Citizens, tradesfolk & neighbors

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

Bright Sovereign. These to the keepers of those royal woods Where Lyons, Panthers, and the kingly herds Feed in one company; that if wild Boars, Mad Bulls, or raving Bears, break in for prey, Hoping to make our groves their wilderness, Ours may Like soldiers bid the ̄ battle. Fly. 'Tis Doctor Parry. Paridell To Death. No dearest Lady Upon my vowed Loyalty. We have raised double walls to fence your land. The one the body of a standing Camp, Whose tents by this are pitched in Beriam, On the shores point to bar the foe from footing. Your civil Doctor, Doctor Par Casts Anchor on your shores again, being freighted With a good venture, which he says, your self Must only have the sighed of. The other is to Guard your royal person. The standing camp of horsemen and of foot, These numbers fill Lances 253. Horsemen 769. Footmen 22000. The moving Army, which attends on you, Is thus made up: of horsemen & of foot, Lancers 481. Light horsemen 1421. Footmen 34050.

Plot summary

Plot — The Whore of Babylon
WitaHid becomes Queen of Fairyland and restores respect to Truth and her book; friars, cardinals, and other ecclesiastical figures are expelled from the kingdom. All this infuriates theiBmpressioriBabylony who had banished Truth to the wilderness, claiming her to be an impostor. She sends three Kings to Fairyland to seduce Titania, while Cardinalg@omoG sends agents to convert the populace at grass roots level. The Kings woo Titania with a masque, but, advised by her fairy lords, she rejects them. Two of the Kings leave Fairyland, but the third, Satyrane} stays on to plot against her; one of his stratagems entails a magical attack via a wax effigy, but the conjurer is caught burying it in a dunghill and arrested. Titania pardons her physician, DejParidelly who has ~ been sentenced to death on a charge of attempted murder, but he secretly resents being beholden to her. He secures her permission to travel abroad, where he is recruited as an agent of Babylon. She refuses to receive the malcontented scholar @amMipeiis at court. He encounters Satyrane, who sympathizes with his annoyance at Fairyland’s treatment of academics, assures him that they are better used overseas, and persuades him to defect to Babylon. Since marriage overtures have failed, the Empress’s policy turns to assassination. She receives Campeius and the physician Ropus and sends them back to Fairyland. Traitors emerge out of the earth, summoned by Falsehood posing as Truth, but all are identified and arrested: Titania spots one whom her lords have overlooked, and Ropus is found out when he gives her a medication which turns out to be poison. Campeius too is captured. Meanwhile Paridell is also persuaded to undertake the murder, but he insists on having written authority for it from Cardinal Como. Como points out to the Empress that, even if Titania is killed, her successor will be just as hostile to Babylon. An even more aggressive policy is required, to lay waste the entire kingdom with an Armada. Paridell returns to Fairyland and tells Titania that he has acted as a double agent to discover Babylon’s plots; but he confides his true intentions to a kinsman. She grants him a private audience, and, after a struggle with his conscience, he draws his dagger and is caught in the act, betrayed by his kinsman. Meanwhile, the Armada ===== PAGE 297 ===== 1606 is under sail. Titania lays plans for the defence of Fairyland, and reviews the troops. After a sea battle, the Babylonian fleet is vanquished,…