Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

BANKS

in The Merry Devil of Edmonton — Anonymous (?)

Metadata

PlayThe Merry Devil of Edmonton
AuthorAnonymous (?)
Year (catalogued)1608
First performance1602
Decade1600s
GenreComedy
Play typeAdult Professional
CompanyLord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men
TheaterGlobe;Outdoor Professional
Speech prefix(es)Banks. | Bank. | Ban.
Words181
Characters938
Typicality0.40 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA21136
BritDrama no.1392
ClusterCluster 16 — Errand servants & brief parts

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

Take me with you good Sir John; a plague on thee Smug, and thou touchest liquour thou art foundered straight: what are your brains always water-mills? must they ever run round? Well said sir John, you are of the same humour still, and does the water run the same way still boy? But to our former motion about stealing some veni son, whither go we? M. Parson, may the Smith go think you, being in this taking? Smug, dost not thou remember the tree thou felst out of last night? Y faith thou art always drunk when we have need of thee. 'Tis well; but how if any of us should be taken? Sir John. z'wounds Sir John the keepers are abroad; I was hard by'am. 'Sfoot heeres a dark night indeed, I think I have been in fifteen ditches between this and the forest: soft, heers Enfeilde Church: I am so wet with climbing over into and or chard for to steal some filberts: well, here I'll fit in the Church porch and wait for the rest of my consort.

Plot summary

Plot — The Merry Devil of Edmonton
The magician Peter Fabell’s bargain with the devil falls due, and Coreb comes to collect his soul; but Fabell traps him in a magic chair and demands another seven years as the price of freedom. Millicent Clare loves her fiancé, Raymond Mounchensey; but her father Sir Arthur, unsure of Sir Richard Mounchensey’s financial stability, plans to break off the match and place her as a novice in a nunnery for three months while he arranges an alternative marriage with young Jerningham. Feeling sorry for Raymond, his friend and one-time fellow student, Fabell, tells him what Sir Arthur has in mind, and the young men plot to frustrate the old man’s plans. Millicent is entered in the nunnery, and is dismayed at her new life of abstinence, prayer, and flagellation. Posing as the Abbot of Waltham, Fabell substitutes Raymond for one of the friars, Benedick. Taking him for the novice he seems, Sir Arthur tells Raymond everything, and takes him to hear Millicent’s confession. This enables him to plan Millicent’s escape. The young men succeed in getting Millicent out of the nunnery, but are separated from her when they encounter some locals on a poaching expedition: assuming them to be Sir Arthur, they lead the locals off the scent. Millicent is found by the keeper. The poachers rendezvous in Enfield churchyard and scare the sexton into thinking he has seen a ghost. Sir Arthur complains to the real Abbot of Waltham about Millicent’s abduction, but is discomfited when the Abbot produces the real Friar Benedick. Sir Arthur and Sir Richard return to their inn, but spend the night in the wrong one after the signs are switched. In their absence, Raymond and Millicent are married. Sir Arthur accepts the fait accompli.