Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

URSELY

in The Rival Friends — Hausted, Peter

Metadata

PlayThe Rival Friends
AuthorHausted, Peter
Year (catalogued)1632
First performance1632
Decade1630s
GenreComedy
Play typeUniversity
Theaterbefore the Court;at University;
Speech prefix(es)Vrſ. | Ʋ rſ. | Vrſe. | M rs Vrſe.
Words426
Characters2160
Typicality0.28 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA72254
BritDrama no.2364
ClusterCluster 22 — Ghosts, curses & horror voices

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

Fa, la, la, la, I have found six Checkstones in my She sings. Father's yard, all in my Father's yard, and now I Will go see if Merda will play with me — O Stipes, where is your daughter Merda? Blackcoates? I care not this for any of them, I never will love any but Anteros; But pray you Stipes call your daughter Merda, Is she not up yet? O Merda, will you play at Checkstones with me? Stipes, you shall forgive her, I'll make my Father take his house from you, And the North close, unless — Take them. Here, fa, la, la. Stake then: heigh ho Anteros! One and thirty. — Summer — no Winter. I, Winter, Winter, Winter: Au, but I said Winter afterwards though. You lie, I did not touch it. And you call me Jade you are a Whore. Au, hau, you shall never make no dirt pies With me in our Bairn hussy. Father, huff, huff, I will none of those two men With the short hair, do what you can I will not. Huff, huff, —because I know As well as can be by their looks, that they Cannot contain themselves within and hour, And you do know I cannot hold my uva — But there are (father) Six hundred reasons, why I should love him. His manly carriage, his full breasts, his hair, And his fine clothes, his golden breeches, and— Well I will never leave My crying (that's resolved) until I see him. Father, good father let him, He will go back from's word else. Come Merda, will you play now? What shall we play for? One— Sh'ant I so? but I will though; do you scratch hussy? Give me my gloves, and bracelets again. Well if I don't tell my Father of this, you Pusse you. You Bastard. I that I will call Whore, well, well, the next time That you eat any Cheesecakes at our house You shall have better luck shall you. Your Close? I'll gather there in spite of your teeth. It is my Father's Close, so it is, so it is. Your Father does but hire it — O here he comes Here he comes, here comes my Father, Now you shall see. I will have Anteros, Terpanders son. Father, I cannot last Out two days longer without Anteros. Come husband Anteros, will you play at chackstones With me? Why father, father, Oh me, me, me, they'le pull me into pieces; Oh my hand, Oh my arm, my arm, Oh my back.

Plot summary

Plot — The Rival Friends
With Placenta’s help, Constantina disguises herself as a boy and leaves her father’s house in search of her missing love, Cleopes; she leaves a former boy-actor in her place. The friends Neander and Lucius both love Pandora, but she cannot decide between them. Each asks old Lively to help him win her love, not for himself but for his friend. Favouring Lucius, Lively plans to arrange a bogus wedding that will remove Neander from the rivalry, leaving Pandora for Lucius, without being subsequently binding. The ‘boy’ whom Lively selects to pose as Neander’s bride is actually Constantina; but he allows the wedding to go ahead even after discovering her identity. Meanwhile Placenta advises Pandora to make her lovers jealous by pretending interest in someone else, so she woos the page Endymion. When she learns that Neander is married, and when Lucius claims to be a eunuch, she transfers her affections to Endymion in earnest. It emerges that Lucius has jilted Endymion’s sister Isabella, who subsequently disappeared. Constantina is brought in apparently dead, killed by Neander, and her brother Love-All recognizes her. In fact, she is only injured, and revives, calling for Cleopes. Neander admits that he is Cleopes: he had wooed her, but became more interested in Pandora, and feigned a voyage overseas; he then returned with a new identity to pursue Pandora. Love-All wants to know who was pretending to be his sister while Constantina has been out of the house; the ‘boy’ is brought in, and is recognized as the absent Isabella. Lucius agrees to marry her, waiving a dowry, and Pandora is allowed to marry Endymion. In one sub-plot, Lively’s house, a parsonage, will revert to the church upon his death. Pandora’s father, Justice Hook, has the living in his gift, and has promised it to whoever marries his other daughter, the deformed Ursely. Suitors flock to Hook’s house, but Lively intends to outlive them. While Hook is interviewing the candidates, Lively feigns death and names Hook his heir, but comes back to life when Hook rushes off to take possession of the property. Ursely herself wants to marry the misogynistic Anteros, and Anteros overhears Hook acceding to her wishes. To win the compliance of Anteros’ father Terpander, Hook surrenders a mortgage on his lands, which Anteros destroys. Placenta then reveals that the marriage cannot take place: Ursely is Anteros’ sister, given up at birth by her mother to simulate the results of a phantom pregnancy to Hook’s wife.…