in The Royal Entertainment at Sudeley Castle — Anonymous
Metadata
Play
The Royal Entertainment at Sudeley Castle
Author
Anonymous
Year (catalogued)
1592
First performance
1592
Decade
1590s
Genre
Entertainment
Play type
Occasional
Theater
before the Court;
Speech prefix(es)
Niſ.
Words
209
Characters
1075
Typicality
0.23 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A21246.2
BritDrama no.
936
Cluster
Cluster 17 — Intriguers & schemers
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
I have the pease, and must be Queen. Not so, the Queen, shall and must command, for I have often herd of a King that could not come mand his subjects, and of a Queen that hath command dead Kings. It is no question, no more then if you should ask whither on a steep hill, a square stone, or a globe stood most steady. The woman if she have her right, the man, if he be his own Judge. Because men are most amorous and least chaste, women careless of fond affections, and when they em brace them, fearful. But unless your questions were wiser, I command you to silence. You sirrah, that fit as though your wits were a woolgathering will you have a question, or a commandment? Then sing, and you sir, a question, or command meant? Then play: Will you 3 questions, or 3 commandments? Sing, Play on the Lute. What question shall I ask? Are yove amorous? But what is love? The fool bleeds, it is time to stop his vain, for would ving wet his foot, he careth not how deep he wades. Let us at ̄ worser that, which we most expect. the star, that directs us hither, who hath in Almanac?
Plot summary
Plot — The Royal Entertainment at Sudeley Castle
Arriving at Sudeley, the Queen meets an old shepherd, who apologises for the homeliness ofher entertainment: the Cotswolds can only offer shepherds. He greets her and presents her with a lock of wool. A shepherd relates that Apollo has attempted to steal his girlfriend, Daphne, but she has been miraculously transformed into a laurel tree. He asks the Queen for help. The tree splits asunder, releasing Daphne, and Apollo relinquishes her to the shepherd. Daphne attributes both her metamorphoses to the chaste agency - of the Queen, and presents her with a flattering poem. The Queen is presented with the ovine High Constable of Cotswold, who proclaims a shepherds’ holiday and invites her to witness their pastimes. The shepherds choose a king and queen by cake lottery. They sing, play music, discourse of love, and read the weather reports in an almanac, which speak of bad weather on 12 September and the departure of summer the following day. The Queen is given a suit of shepherd’s clothes, and the rustics hope that at some time she will wear them.