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)
Vib | Vib.
Words
196
Characters
1098
Typicality
0.45 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A68655
BritDrama no.
2472
Cluster
Cluster 2 — Allegory, Nature & pageant voices
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Best, best Lady, Thou Angel mother, of a Fiendlike child, All earthly similes are too too base To express thy admirable virtues, By you Rome's Vestal Virgins all are safe, Only by you preserved and kept from rape From being hurrid in sad silence, unto The gate Colina, there in a deep pit To be put into, there buried alive, From that dire death which was at first ordained For unchaste vestals; by thee chaste vestals Live all preserved, to them their darksome vault Is far more glorious then the courts of Kings, For which upon my knees in blessed time, Wonder of women let me kiss thy feet. To reverence your steps, The earth, the very ground whereon you tread, For that's made holy by your sacred steps. Now the good Gods preserve us. Mercy great Emperor, mercy for the love You bear unto your hopeful royal issue, Lovely Britanicus, sweet Octavia, And for that admiration of her sex. Their mother's mother virtuous Lepida She that hath saved a hundred virgins from The rack of rape, for that true piercing motive Mighty Lord; Oh be in your great mercy Pleased; to give your Emp'resse audience.
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.