Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

CARGO

in The Wonder of A Kingdom — Dekker, Thomas

Metadata

PlayThe Wonder of A Kingdom
AuthorDekker, Thomas
Year (catalogued)1636
First performance1631
Decade1630s
GenreComedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyPrince Charles's Men (first) (?)
Speech prefix(es)Cargo. | Carg. | Car, | Car. | Caego.
Words345
Characters1782
Typicality0.42 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA20093
BritDrama no.2017
ClusterCluster 20 — Conjurers, witches & physicians

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

Because he can stay there no longer. To the end he should go into some other my Lord. And I his Beadle, I hope as wisely. As Gentlemen do by Creditors (muffled) The little Paraquinto that was here when the Duke Was feasted, she had quicksilver in her mouth, for Her tongue, Like a Bride the first night, never lay still. I think my Lord, in calm weather, she may set upon A Gally-ass big as your Lordship. Angelica- water is good for a cold stomach. She's a cooler. A small thing does it my Lord; in the time a Flemming drinks a Flapdragon. Her telltale, for all this will I be. A suit of Stand-farther-off, had been better sometime. As my Ladies Chambermaid. I go to stretch you to your full length. My Lord hath sent you a Jewel, locked up in this paper, and the moisture of a goose quill, that's to say, words in that— I have a pikestaff of mine own already, but I could not Keep our your scurvy desperate hogshead from coming In upon me, I'm cut i'th'cockscombe. Or when he comes from a wench. The Nightmare rides you, my Lady is conjured up. She works by magic, and knows all. Some of they have no buttons to their doublets. I have News to tell your Lordship, Signior Angelo (of the Locti Family is banished. I hope this is news Sir. As Bells' ring; some out, some in, all jangle, they say he Has dealt with the Genoway against the state: but whither with the men, or the women; 'tis to be stood upon. Sir knave, a new word: fools, and knaves Sir? I have a Justices warrant to apprehend your weapons, Therefore I charge you deliver. Old January goes to lie with May. O my Lord, I have stood Centinel as you bade me, but I am frighted. Not that I saw, but I saw him kiss my young Mistress, three or four times, I think 'twere good to ask the banes of Matri money. The party Sir.

Plot summary

Plot — The Wonder of A Kingdom
The Duke of Florence has betrothed his daughter, Fiametta, to the Prince of Pisa, and, to facilitate the political marriage, banished her lover, Angelo. Fiametta sickens for her absent love, and he returns to court disguised as a French doctor, offering the Duke his services to save her life. He diagnoses sexual frustration, and proposes a cure which requires the patient to drink a potion made from the beloved’s powdered heart: she will then hate him. In order to obtain the key ingredient, Angelo must be murdered. Angelo reveals his presence to Fiametta, but she insists on identifying him to her father, in the expectation that the Duke will relent. Angelo passes this off as an insane delusion, then flees to sanctuary. He is found and brought to court with a friar. He seems to reject Fiametta, and she agrees to marry Pisa the following day, but asks for the friar to hear her confession overnight. In fact, he secretly marries her to Angelo, pre-empting Pisa; the Duke and Prince are annoyed, but recognize there is nothing to be done about it. In the sub-plot, Lord Vanni has amorous inclinations younger than his physical age, and sends a love-letter and jewel to the chaste Alphonsina Neri. Meanwhile, Alphonsina’s brother Tibaldo has fallen sick for love of Vanni’s wife Dariene. He asks Alphonsina to accept Vanni’s advances, and Vanni duly excuses himself from Dariene’s bed. Tibaldo has arranged for himself to be present disguised as Alphonsina’s sister, and offers himself as an alternative, ‘female’ bedfellow for Dariene. His plan is aborted when he learns that Vanni’s daughter Alisandra loves Trebatio and Trebatio’s son. When Vanni pays his nocturnal visit, he is scared off by Trebatio’s lute-playing, then caught by his wife and blamed for the adultery he never committed. Alphonsina and Tibaldo marry Trebatio and Alisandra. In the third plot, the hospitable Jacomo has built a house in which to entertain his guests: his uncle, who is suspected of getting rich through supernatural agency, gave him a deathbed injunction to spend his inheritance virtuously. Torrenti envies Jacomo his new house, and plans a magnificent lifestyle of his own; but whereas Jacomo entertains the poor and needy, Torrenti is only interested in luxury and guests of a high social standing. When his brother arrives, ragged and dirty after escaping from slavery in a Turkish galley, Torrenti is appalled and turns him away. He entertains the Duke with a lavishness that bankrupts him. War…