Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

FIAMETTA

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)Fia. | Fya.
Words636
Characters3294
Typicality0.40 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA20093
BritDrama no.2017
ClusterCluster 5 — Romantic leads (high style)

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

The Pisan Prince comes: daggers at my heart. Would! who names Angelo? Dost thou not love me? Would, no? Then so, quod dedi perdidi. Have you indeed? I'll swear th'art most diseased, even in thy soul; O thou, thou most perfidious man alive, So prosper, as my poor sick heart does thrive; Give me thy hand, I hate thee, fare-thee-well. Come, I make thee my heaven, were't once my Hell. Fair welcome to your grace, and to that Prince, That should have been my bridegroom. In her changes the Moon is constant, man is only varying, And never in one Circle long is tarrying, But one man in the moon at once appears, Such praise (being true to one) a woman bears. What would the world say, If I should marry two men in one day? Come forth thou threatened man, here kill him all, Lower then what you stand on none can fallen. The hands they may, but never shall the heart, Women are born, but to make fools of men. She that's made sure to him, she loves not well, Her banes are asked here, but she weds in hell; Parents that match their children gainst their will, Teach them not how to live, but how to kill. Villain? it is my husband. O noble brother! I love thee for that word withal my heart. Swear as you are a Duke. Why should I? you see there is no trust i'th'daughter; Swear by your Hope's of good you will not touch His nail to hurt him. And you too? We come then noble friend, flag not thy wings, In this war I defy a camp of Kings. And all deer father which I beg of you, Is that you love this man but as I do. That he would take One favour from me, which my self shall make. Well then it shall. O my life, my soul. I me now not sick, I'll have no Physic, But what thy self shall give me. Thou shalt not hence. O, I love Baptista, Cause he loves thee; But my Angelo I love above kings. Over ten world's, But I'll not hence; my Angelo shall not hence, True love, Like gold, is best being tried in fire; I'll defy Father, and a thousand death's—for thee—— He shall come in; One frown at thee, my Tragedy shall begin; See Father— See Father. Flo. What sweet girl? That's Angelo, and you shall pardon him. He says he pardons thee with all his heart. Because thou art my banished Angelo. He is no Doctor, Nor that his man, but his deer friend Baptista; Has blacked this beard Like a Comedian To play the Mountibanke; away, I'll marry None but that Doctor, and leave Angelo. Leave off thy gibberish, and I prithee speak Thy Native language. Stand from me, I must follow Angelo. O, you shoot poisoned arrows thorough my breast. Would? yes, it's the star I sail by; hold me not, Why do you stick Like rocks, to bar my way, And utterly to wrack me? Yes, I am mad, o my best life, my soul! Do you not know me sir? At very heart? Burns not your love, With that most holy fire, the God of marriage Kindles in man and woman? Now I beshrew your fingers. His—to prove it; hence Thou from me; never more behold mine eyes. Good reverend Sir, stay you, and as you witness This my divorce, so shall you seal my contract. To morrow be it, Loves poison is delay, Gallants, pray stir betimes, and rouse your Mistress's; Let some invite Lord Vanni and his Lady; We dine to day with Lord Giacomo, Thither let's hasten: Sir, this holy man, Shall be this night my confessor; about midnight, Expect my sending for you.

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…