in Messalina, the Roman Empress — Richards, Nathaniel
Metadata
Play
Messalina, the Roman Empress
Author
Richards, Nathaniel
Year (catalogued)
1640
First performance
1635
Decade
1640s
Genre
Tragedy
Play type
Adult Professional
Company
King's Revels Company
Speech prefix(es)
Cal. | Calph.
Words
554
Characters
3061
Typicality
0.49 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A68655
BritDrama no.
2472
Cluster
Cluster 13 — Attendant courtiers & citizens
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Do do drink and be fatter still up with't, Why so my brave bundle of guts and garbish. She may, for who but she dares do the Like, For a poor subject, also the number serves, On greatest Queens most servants still attends. I, in your young days. Yes with a Pox. I have not the Court art to kill my lovers, Nor draw them on with witchcraft, Circean charms, Nor is it lust, but want makes me a trader, And those I clip with, I must Like at least, Let Rome's brave Empress do her liking, Calphurnia loathes variety of men, Times big bone Animals so apt to please, Empress will whets not my appetite, Beside you know I'm not for durance, Wanting the daily visits of best Doctors, To make me broths of dissolved Pearl and Amber, Which well considered will not quit the cost, She wone the wager, I am glad I lost. Oh I could stand, My lifetime here to hear this Silius rail. Scared with the Bugs Of Babies. It's the prime policy, the heart of state, Which if with vigilance we not pursue, Subibat fin dubi metus reputantes hebetem Claudium & ux devinctum. Tacit. We loose, and in that lose lost for ever. Silius grows popular, and the people As it's their nature, ever covet change, They are as easy oh be filled with errors, As for a lust-stung strumpet to take up To her dishonour; therefore as Sailors, That have for guide the South and North, sometime To traverse and to cross their way, and yet Not loose their guide; so in the deep affairs Of such high consequence of state (as now The time concerns) we must for guide, detain Agitaver ; num M ssallina secreti min I depellerent Silii, cuncta aliam dissimulantes deinde metum, ne and perni I ul oh traherentur desistunt. TO it. The knowledge how to Pierce the ends of those We most malign. But not in her. There is no trust to such uncertainty, T'were deadly Stibium to our vital blood, Like that dire poison thats resistative against the most wholesome Antidotes of life. Weak minds of men they are, fit to be fooled, Slighted, add scorned, whose dull ignorance Knows not that women in their height of ill, Who bars them their delight, delight to kill. What will Valeria, Messallina, the Emp'resse then; hinke you she will be slow, Whose hight Alarms in the very Act Within the circuit of a day and night Endured the test of five and twenty, came Off unwearied: A deed to quake the hearts Of virtuous Dams, think you she will be bared Dissuaded from the love of Silius, no, We cannot therefore (knowing that credit and Authority is far more safely for To be maintained with circumspect, then with Rash counsel) cannot I say be too too Wary, least by any notice taken She take least knowledge of our discontent Whose rugged thoughts unseen, must be smoothed over And with a pleasing veil, appear in show To Like, and give full approbation Of the approbrious marriage, so to Secure us from suspect and peril, Undoubted death. Honoured of the Senate While Caesar, unlike Caesar calmly suffers. The renowned Cuckold. The high and mighty Roman Emperor. Your highness pleasure. To your accomplished wish. Exit. Call.
Plot summary
Plot — Messalina, the Roman Empress
Having successfully competed with the prostitute Calpurnia to see which of them can sleep with more men in 24 hours, the Empress Messalina sets her sights on the chaste Silius as her lover. He is summoned to the brothel and successfully seduced. The Emperor Claudius leaves Rome for an annual religious ceremony. While he is away, Messalina’s debauchery has free rein. Romans are summoned to court to participate: the actor Mnester is tortured into compliance, and three women taking refuge with Lepida, Messalina’s mother, are murdered when they refuse to come. Messalina invokes the Furies to make her sexy, and resists Lepida’s attempts to persuade her to a chaste life; Lepida goes mad. Silius is sent to murder his wife, Silana, but finds himself unable to go through with it; instead he conceals from Messalina the fact that she is still alive. Messalina’s seduction programme is not universally successful: she identifies Montanus as a desirable sexual partner, but he resists her and flees Rome. She decides to go through a ceremony of marriage with Silius, and has a document of approval drawn up and authenticated with the imperial seal. A wedding masque is planned, in which the Vestal Virgins are to be raped; but Lepida overhears the arrangements being discussed, and rescues the Virgins through a secret passage before they are called on to perform. They are pursued by Messalina’s agents, but the earth swallows them and the Virgins are saved; the pander Saufellus is confronted by the ghosts of the three murdered women and struck by a thunderbolt before he goes down. Claudius’ minions inform him of Messalina’s sexual misconduct, and he sends in the guard. The palace is raided and Messalina’s favourites killed. Silana arrives too late to help Silius, and dies kissing his dead lips. Claudius orders Messalina to be tried before the Senate, but his minion Narcissus fears his susceptibility to her feminine wiles, and sends an executioner to kill her. She is visited by the ghosts of her victims, agents, and favourites, and pre-empts the executioner by taking her own life. Claudius decides not to marry again.