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Plot summaries for the 187 plays represented
The Play of the Weather
Heywood, John · 1528 · Comedy
Discord between the four gods responsible for snow, sun, rain, and wind is making the weather inconsistent. Jupiter calls a parliament to settle the matter and sends Merry Report to summon any suitors. Eight representatives of various professions and occupations ask for different kinds of weather to suit themselves. Jupiter declares the need for compromise: all their jobs are mutually interdependent despite their differing needs, so the weather will continue to be inconsistent. The suitors all praise the decision.
Albion Knight
Anonymous · 1537 · Moral
[The start of the play is lost.] Justice and Injury argue about the latter’s clothing. Albion wishes them both to be his friends. [A lacuna in the text follows.) There is ===== PAGE 429 ===== 1565 dispute over a statute to be passed to establish justice in the land. Injury plans to foment a civil war, and Division helps him by sending spies to stir up suspicion and mistrust in Parliament and among the various estates of the realm. A marriage is planned between Albion and Plenty, but Division goes to tempt Albion away from political rectitude and into hedonism. [The rest of the play is lost.}
The Chief Promises of God unto Man (God's Promises)
Bale, John · 1538 · Biblical
Though mankind is sinful and deserves death, God promises life through his Son. He curses Adam for his disobedience, but Adam’s repentance persuades him to promise the chance of salvation. But mankind proves a disappointment, and God plans to annihilate his creation with a flood. Noah pleads for the human race and is saved; God promises never again to seek mankind’s destruction in this way, and confirms it with the covenant of the rainbow. Mankind persists in sin, and God plans further reprisals: having promised not to use water, he chooses fire as his weapon to destroy the Sodomites. Abraham, who honours God and is therefore to be spared, asks his maker not to destroy the righteous people in Sodom along with the wicked. God agrees to spare the city if it is found to contain 50 righteous people, and Abraham talks him down to 10. God makes his third promise: Abraham will be the father of a blessed race; the sign of the covenant is circumcision. Man does not improve, so plague is to be God’s next instrument of judgement. Moses pleads for mercy: God has spared his people from the plagues of Egypt, helped them to escape from bondage, and kept them alive in the wilderness. But they are ungrateful: while Moses has been talking with God, they have erected a golden idol. God makes his fourth promise: a prophet will arise from the Jewish people; the sign of the covenant is the Passover lamb. Given the promised land, the Israelites persist in their ingratitude to God, and resume…
The Three Laws of Nature, Moses, and Christ, Corrupted by the Sodomites, Pharisees, and Papists
Bale, John · 1538 · Moral
God gives mankind three laws to guide him one by one through the three stages of his history. The Law of Nature has an altercation with Infidelity, who then raises Sodomy and Idolatry to confound the law and pervert mankind’s body and soul. He equips them with the paraphernalia of the Catholic church, and through their work the Law of Nature is afflicted with leprosy. Infidelity next engages Covetousness and Ambition to defeat the Law of Moses: they will exhaust the clergy with long services, and have devotions in Latin to inhibit understanding by the laity; laymen will also be deceived with false interpretations of the Bible, and strict laws against heresy will be enforced. The Law of Moses becomes a blind, lame cripple. Next Infidelity summons Hypocrisy and False Doctrine, who provide religious schism and popish relics. They raise up the clergy, the universities, and local government in opposition to the Law of Christ, who comes to preach. Infidelity competes with a sale of indulgences, and the Law of Christ is arrested, stripped, and taken to be burnt for heresy. Infidelity’s triumph is cut short by the arrival of a vengeful God, who ignores his claim that he is not responsible for the corruption of the laws, and smites him with water, the sword, and fire. God banishes the vices, curing the three Laws, and assigns them to teach Christian Faith, who then goes out to see those laws obeyed in all nations and the Catholic church extirpated.
Gammer Gurton's Needle
Stevenson, William (?) · 1553 · Comedy · at University;
Gammer Gurton loses her needle while mending Hodge’s breeches, after the cat spills a pail of milk. She takes out her distress on her servants, and Diccon of Bedlam takes advantage of the ensuing domestic chaos to steal a rasher of bacon from the house. Frantic searching fails to locate the needle, but the bacon is missed and the cat blamed, so Hodge goes hungry with only a piece of bread. Diccon makes mischief. His talk of the devil frightens Hodge so much that he defecates in his breeches. Then he sets Gammer Gurton and her neighbour Dame Chat at odds: he tells Dame Chat that she has been accused of stealing Gammer Gurton’s cocks, but suggests to Gammer Gurton that Dame Chat stole the needle. The neighbours confront one another and a fight breaks out. Gammer Gurton sends for Doctor Rat to resolve the matter. The cat chokes and it is suspected that she has swallowed the needle; Hodge proposes cutting her open to recover it. Doctor Rat arrives, and Diccon persuades him to sneak into Dame Chat’s house to catch her with the stolen needle; but he tells Dame Chat that the intruder is Hodge out to kill all her hens. The result is that Doctor Rat has his head broken. He complains to the Bailiff, who questions Dame Chat. She insists that she was defending her property against Hodge, but on examination his head turns out to be intact. The investigation then turns to the stolen needle, and the Bailiff establishes that Gurton and Chat have been at cross-purposes: Diccon is identified…
Jacob and Esau
Udall, Nicholas (?) · 1554 · Biblical
Esau is obsessed with hunting: Ragau is forced to get up early to go out with him, and in consequence 1553 doesn’t get enough sleep or food. The neighbours, too, are inconvenienced by noise during the night, and they grumble about disorderly youth. Esau is nevertheless Isaac’s favourite son, while Rebecca favours his brother Jacob. She remembers God’s prediction that her elder son shall be subject to her younger, but Isaac is steadfast in his belief in seniority. On returning from hunting, Esau and Ragau are extremely hungry, so Jacob sells his brother a dish of rice pottage, at the price of his birthright. Esau eats it all himself, leaving none for Ragau, and then tries to renege on the agreement. Isaac still favours him over Jacob, and sends him out to hunt for food. Rebecca sends Jacob out to kill a kid: if he serves a meal to Isaac first, his blind father will mistake him for Esau and bless him instead. The problem is that Esau is hairy and Jacob smooth: Isaac will be able to feel the difference. Rebecca cooks the kid and makes sleeves and a collar from its hairy skin. Isaac recognizes Jacob’s voice, but the artificial hair persuades him: he administers the blessing and grants Jacob his inheritance. Esau’s venison arrives too late. Esau plans to avenge himself by killing Jacob. trusting that God is not truly omniscient and that he will therefore get away with it. Rebecca and Isaac send Jacob away to safety with his uncle in Mesopotamia, but their admonition persuades…
Troas (Seneca's Sixth Tragedy)
Heywood, Jasper, trans.; Seneca, Lucius Annaeus · 1559 · Tragedy
After a ten-year war, Troy has fallen: King Priam had been murdered, the city burned, the women taken into slavery; but Queen Hecuba’s age means that none of the Greek conquerors are interested in her. Achilles’ ghost returns from the dead, demanding the blood of Hecuba’s daughter Polyxena in revenge for his own treacherous murder by Paris. Until she is sacrificed on his tomb, he will not allow the Greek fleet to sail home. Agamemnon is doubtful about this, but Pyrrhus reminds him that he was willing to sacrifice his own daughter to get the fleet to Troy, and Calchas confirms that the price of returning to Greece is the same as the price of leaving it: a virgin’s death. The ghost of Hector appears to Andromache in a dream and warns her to flee from Troy with their son: Calchas has demanded his blood as well as Polyxena’s. She hides the boy in Hector’s tomb, and tells Ulysses he is dead; but Ulysses insists on removing Hector’s ashes if the Greeks cannot have their sacrifice. Andromache produces the child, and Ulysses has him thrown to his death from a tower. Helen is sent to prepare Polyxena to marry Pyrrhus, but she tells Hecuba and Andromache that the Greeks intend a sacrifice, not a wedding. Pyrrhus leads Polyxena away and kills her. A messenger describes the two deaths. Not knowing whom she should grieve for most — husband, daughter, or nephew — Hecuba wishes for death. The women, Hecuba included, are taken away to live in slavery in Greece.
Enough Is as Good as a Feast
Wager, William · 1560 · Moral
Remembering his father’s bankruptcy, the Worldly Man hoards treasure for the future, seeing such behaviour as provident thrift, whereas the Heavenly Man relies on God to look after him and regards wealth as a distraction from spiritual things. He and Contentation persuade the Worldly Man to change to a godly lifestyle, but the vices, using innocuous aliases to inveigle their way into his confidence, cause him to backslide into covetous materialism. He becomes a miser and maltreats his tenants, servants, and hirelings: he raises rents, fails to pay the wages he owes, and seizes property adjacent to his own. After a bad dream about God’s punishment, he falls ill and dies. Satan carries him to hell on his back, advising the audience to live their lives in the same way. The virtues advise the contrary.
Hercules Furens (Mad Hercules) (Seneca's First Tragedy)
Heywood, Jasper, trans.; Seneca, Lucius Annaeus · 1561 · Literary Tragedy
Juno is angry at Jupiter’s extra-marital affairs: even the heavens now accommodate his stellified girlfriends. To avenge herself, she intends to drive his bastard son Hercules mad. Hercules has been away from home undertaking labours, most recently a trip to Hell to bring back Cerberus. In his absence, Lycus has murdered his father-in-law and seized power in Thebes. Lycus also attempts to seduce Hercules’ wife, Megara. She refuses him, so he plans to have her burnt to death. His labours complete, Hercules returns home, accompanied by Theseus. He kills Lycus and intends to kill the tyrant’s children too, but insanely slaughters his own sons and wife. On coming to his senses he realizes what he has done, and remorsefully considers suicide; but his father and Theseus persuade him that he must instead take control of the leaderless state.
Cambises, King of Persia
Preston, Thomas · 1561 · Tragedy
Gamibyses leaves Sisamimes in charge of his kingdom while he conquers Egypt. After a comic incident in which soldiers going to the war are beaten by a prostitute, the deputy, encouraged by AlmibiGextér, grows corrupt and takes bribes. Cambyses returns victorious and has him executed and flayed in the presence of Sisamnes’ son @tiaii, whom he appoints as his father’s successor. Praxaspes criticizes Cambyses’ drunkenness, so the King demonstrates his steady hand by shooting the courtier’s son dead. SHIEFAIE is also critical, but bides his time awaiting Cambyses’ death and his own succession to the throne; but Cambyses grows fearful of his ambition and has him murdered. After another comic incident in which Ambidexter first entraps two rustics into speaking ill of the King and then denounces them as traitors, Menus and @upid induce Cambyses into an_ incestuous marriage with a kinswoman. She criticizes him for the murder of Smerdis and he has her killed too. ===== PAGE 46 ===== Finally Cambyses accidentally impales himself on his own sword when leaping onto his horse, and dies. This is interpreted as divine punishment for his tyranny.
Ferrex and Porrex (Gorboduc)
1565 · Tragedy · 1562 · before the Court;
Queen WidHa is outraged that King GGEBGAGE plans to divide his prosperous kingdom between his two sons, instead of leaving everything to the elder, Fetrex) Gorboduc seeks his council’s consent to the division, ‘and to his sons’ installation as kings before his own death, but gets three different answers. He makes Ferrex king of the south, PO#PEX of the north, and appoints a counsellor to advise each. B€frex is advised to mistrust his brother’s intentions, and he prepares for war. This provokes POFFex into making a pre-emptive invasion of the south; he murders Ferrex with his own hands. Gorboduc summons Porrex and charges him with fratricide. Porrex admits it, and is killed by Videna. In turn, Gorbodie and Vida are murdered by their own people. The land is laid waste with civil war, followed by mass executions after the good councillor BGbGIGS and the British dukes repress the rebellion. Fergus) Duke of Albany, takes advantage of the chaos to plot for the throne. In taking arms against him, the other lords agree, rather than submit to foreign domination, to remit the question of the succession to the judgement of Parliament. Eubulus is confident that the crown will eventually be restored to the rightful heir.
Supposes
Gascoigne, George, trans.; Ariosto, Ludovico · 1566 · Comedy
Polynesta loves Dulippo, whose suit has been promoted by her nurse, and who is supposed a poor servant. In fact he is not Dulippo at all but Erostrato, who two years ago gained access to Polynesta by swapping identities with his servant and entering her father Damon’s household. Meanwhile Cleander seeks her hand, and the supposed Erostrato (the true Dulippo) becomes his rival for trust with him. Cleander appears to offer the best dowry, but Damon gives ‘Erostrato’ a fortnight’s grace pending his father Philogano’s arrival to underwrite his counter-offer. ‘Erostrato’ duly arranges to produce a false Philogano, recruiting a Sienese gentleman for the role by persuading him that a diplomatic incident has made Ferrara an unsafe place for a Sienese visitor. Overhearing an argument between two women servants, Damon discovers that ‘Dulippo’ and Polynesta have been sleeping together. ‘Dulippo’ is apprehended and imprisoned in the dungeon of his master’s house, and therefore unable to warn his servant of the arrival of the true Philogano: he misses his son and has come to take him back to Sicily. By chance, Philogano meets the true Dulippo, who refuses to acknowledge him. After the locals confirm that they know the young man as Erostrato, Philogano suspects that he has murdered his master and stolen his identity, and seeks legal assistance from Cleander. However, Dulippo turns out to be Cleander’s son, whom he lost as a child when evacuating Otranto during the Turkish conquest; he was…
Octavia (Seneca's Ninth Tragedy)
Nuce, Thomas, trans.; Pseudo-Seneca · 1566 · Tragedy
PLOT With her mother executed, her father murdered, and her brother poisoned, Octavia is in a perilous state. Her husband, the Emperor Nero, has had his mother Agrippina murdered; after she survived an orchestrated shipwreck, a soldier was sent to kill her more directly. Now he has got Poppaea. Octavia is timid, pregnant and wants a divorce in order to marry Poppaea and legitimate her bastard. Octavia wants to take revenge on him for her brother’s death, but her nurse advises her to become pregnant herself and produce an heir who will restore the dynasty. Recalled from exile to serve at court, Seneca laments the fortune which has put him in harm’s way. He tries to encourage Nero to rule virtuously, but Nero finds his advice tiresome and plans to expedite his marriage to Poppaea. Agrippina’s ghost curses the nuptial and predicts Nero’s death. Poppaea’s wedding night is disturbed by a nightmare in which the ghost showed her a vision of her first husband’s death at Nero’s hands. The Roman people revolt in support of Octavia, invade the palace, and destroy images of Poppaea. After putting down the rebellion, Nero orders Octavia into exile, and makes arrangements for her to be murdered on arrival. Octavia leaves Rome, knowing she is going to her death.
Tancred and Gismund (Gismond of Salerne)
Wilmot, Robert; Hatton, Christopher; Noel, Henry; Al., G.; Stafford, Roderick · 1567 · Tragedy · before the Court;
Irked at the disdain now shown for his name, @iajpit! plans a demonstration of his power by making the recently widowed @ismi@md fall in love. Mamered comforts Gismond, promising that he can be both father and husband to her. Gismond feels the need to make the most of her youth, and confides in [GEBGe her wish to marry again. Lucrece broaches the matter with Tancred, but, seeing her as the only comfort of his old age, he is reluctant to give his consent. Cupid inflames Gismond with lust for Guishard. She sends him a letter inside a hollow cane, which tells him a secret route to her bedroom: it is built above a cave accessible from outside the palace. Meanwhile, MGgaeFA, sent by RIG in response to a petition from Gismond’s dead husband, inflames Tancred with anger. He enters her bedroom to find it empty, then sees her and Guishard emerging from under the floor, and remains in hiding there while they have sex. Afterwards he has Guishard arrested as he emerges from the cave, imprisoned in a dungeon, and strangled. Guishard’s heart is cut out and sent to Gismond in a golden cup. She takes poison and asks to be buried in the same grave as Guishard. Tancred grieves for the loss of his daughter and resolves to kill himself.
Hippolytus (Seneca's Fourth Tragedy)
Studley, John, trans.; Seneca, Lucius Annaeus · 1567 · Tragedy
: Reasons of state have forced Phaedra of Crete to marry her country’s old enemy, Theseus, but he has left Athens on a mission to the underworld, leaving her to rule in his place. She becomes obsessed with her stepson Hippolytus, despite her nurse’s attempts to discourage her. The nurse is sent to Hippolytus to propose a liaison, but he rejects the idea. Phaedra offers him the crown if he will accept her love, but he is adamant in his refusal. Theseus returns to Athens. At the nurse’s suggestion, Phaedra lays a charge of attempted rape against Hippolytus, and Theseus prays for his son’s destruction. Hippolytus flees Athens, but a sea-monster frightens his horses and he is killed after losing control of his chariot. Distraught, Phaedra stabs herself, and confesses that the accusation was false. Theseus takes order for Hippolytus’ funeral, and has Phaedra’s body thrown unceremoniously into a pit.
The Trial of Treasure
Wager, William · 1567 · Moral
Lust and Just wrestle and Lust is defeated; Just disappears before he returns with Sturdiness to take reprisals. Inclination tries to cure Lust’s melancholy by leading him into sexual adventures with Carnal Cogitation. Sapience advises Just that material things are perishable, whereas spiritual treasure is permanent. They bridle Inclination, but Lust rescues him and is introduced to Treasure. She in turn introduces him to ===== PAGE 5 ===== 1567 Pleasure, but God’s Visitation rebukes Lust and torments him with pain. Pleasure abandons him to accompany Just, but Treasure promises to remain with him forever. Time destroys them both, and Just imprisons Inclination.
Like Will to Like (Quoth the Devil to the Collier)
Fulwell, Ulpian · 1568 · Moral
The devil commissions the vice Nichol Newfangle to tempt men into a preoccupation with new fashions, which will lead them to hell. The ensuing action turns on the recurrent introduction of similar characters to one another. The vice introduces a dishonest collier to the devil, then Tom Tosspot to Rafe Roister; ina ~ mock trial he judges which is the bigger wastrel ===== PAGE 35 ===== 1568 (the prize, unknown to them, is to be hanged), but considers them equal. A comic drinking scene follows with Tosspot’s followers. He also sets in motion a plot to cozen two cutpurses over an inheritance of land. The vicious characters are driven off stage by the arrival of Virtuous Life, who is enthroned and crowned. Tosspot and Roister lose all their possessions: Roister gambles his away, and Tosspot has to leave his as security for his alehouse bill. Newfangle gives them the equipment to start a mew career as beggars, and they assault him. He is found injured by a judge, Severity, and betrays the two cutpurses; they are led away to execution, and Nichol and the hangman share their clothes. Tosspot’s followers end up in hospital suffering from gout. Lucifer carries the vice away on his back. The virtuous characters pray for the Queen, the Lords, and commons.
The Marriage of Wit and Science
Anonymous · 1568 · Moral · Children of Paul's (first)(?)
Hearing Science’s reputation, Wit falls in love with her. His mother sends him on a journey to Mount Parnassus, with Will as his companion. Preferring a bachelor master (because it means an easier life for a servant), Will argues against marriage, but delivers Wit’s suit to Science, including his picture. Science has decided not to admit any more suitors, because they have all come to harm, but tells Wit that he must take time to learn to fight, so that he can take on her enemy Tediousness. Reason gives him a mirror and Experience commends him to seek help from Instruction. However, he finds Instruction boring, and he is killed in the battle with Tediousness. Recreation revives Wit with a song, but he is tempted by another sung by Idleness, and sleeps with her. She exchanges his coat for that of Ignorance, and he is not recognized by Science and Reason. He only realizes what has happened when he sees his own face in Reason’s mirror. Reason rebukes him and Shame whips him, but then, at Science’s request, he is given another chance. By following Instruction’s advice, he defeats and beheads Tediousness, so that his marriage with Science can proceed.
The Most Virtuous and Godly Susanna
Garter, Thomas · 1569 · Moral
Satan commissions Ill Report to bring about the downfall of Susanna, a paragon of virtue. Since pride, gluttony, envy, sloth, and covetousness have failed to achieve this, Ill Report decides to use lust. He selects the elders Voluptas and Sensualitas as his instruments of temptation, and they are tempted in turn when they see Susanna. Susanna’s husband Joachim leaves to inspect his realm, leaving the elders to administer justice in his absence. The elders spy on Susanna as she bathes in her orchard after dinner, and proposition her for sex. When she refuses, they slander her with whoredom. Meanwhile Joachim discovers that the elders are corrupt and hated by the people. The elders’ perjured testimony ensures that Susanna is sentenced to death, but God intervenes, sending Daniel to reveal the truth. The elders are stoned, and die penitent. Ill Report is hanged, and a frustrated Satan arrives to carry him to hell and tormenters for his failure. Susanna and her family count their blessings.
The Queen's Entertainment at Woodstock
Anonymous · 1575 · Entertainment
[The start of the entertainment is lost. The knights Loricus and Contarenus fight on horseback, watched by Lady Gaudina. They are interrupted by Hemetes the hermit.] He conducts them to the Queen’s bower, where he recounts the various characters’ histories. Less than seven years earlier, in the land of Cambia, Gaudina’s father objected to her love for Contarenus because of his low rank, and paid an enchantress to ===== PAGE 140 ===== send the knight to another country by magic. Learning of his actions, Gaudina left Cambia and met Loricus, who also left his own country after a disappointment in love; since then they have travelled together. Hemetes himself, meanwhile, was a knight blinded at the temple of Venus for the division of allegiance between love and learning, but compensated by Apollo with the gift of prophecy in matters of love. Three separate predictions by the unnamed enchantress, Sibylla, and Apollo mean that all four characters have anticipated achieving satisfaction (and, in Hemetes’ case, the restoration of his sight) in circumstances which have just come to pass: in an ideal state, England, two worthy knights have fought, two lovers met, and the events have been watched by the worthiest lady in the world, Queen Elizabeth. Hemetes asks the Queen to entertain Gaudina and Contarenus at court pending their return home to Cambia. The Queen accompanies the hermit back to his house, where she is served a banquet. The fairy queen pays a visit, and the Queen and her…
All for Money
Lupton, Thomas · 1577 · Moral
The play satirizes the domination of money in a sequence of discrete episodes. Theology, Science, and Art lament that they are now primarily studied out ofa desire for money. Money becomes ill and vomits up Pleasure, who in turn gives birth to Sin in the same manner, whose progeny in turn is Damnation. Satan is pleased that Money’s wide popularity will consign so many souls to hell, and asks Sin to assist in the process. The relative values of money and learning are assessed in an encounter between four characters who have or lack them in various permutations: learning is shown to be superior to money, and poverty in this world carries the promise of a heavenly reward in the next; the clinching point is that Learning with Money gives alms to the poor where Money without Learning refuses. Money feels overworked and Sin gives him an associate, All for Money, who presides over a corrupt court: he pardons theft and assault, infanticide, and bigamy, but hangs a poor thief who is unable to bribe him. He also advises two suitors to procure false witnesses to support their causes, and protects a corrupt and incompetent cleric. Judas and Dives, two souls damned for monetary sins, lament their situation; Damnation drives them off to hell. Godly Admonition warns the audience not to repent too late, and to give up cupidity.
2 Promos and Cassandra
Whetstone, George · 1578 · Comedy · Unacted
Alerted by the raped @assandra, King @6nihGs is coming to Gyula to investigate the activities of his deputy, Lord Promos. PHalaX has to organize the city’s dramatic welcome at short notice. The King makes his royal entry, but refuses the town’s gift of a purse. Sir WIFIES is appointed and proclaimed as the ombudsman to investigate allegations of official corruption, pending a hearing before the King. The complaints flood in, and promoters take the opportunity to extort money with the threat of arrest. At the hearing, Phallax is accused of extortion, and confesses; his goods are seized and he is forced to resign his office, but his admission saves him from other punishment. Then Cassandra discloses Promos’s treachery in raping her and murdering her brother. Promos confesses, and the King sentences him to death, but requires him to marry Cassandra first. Vice is suppressed in Gyula: Baila the courtesan is arrested and carted, and Phallax leaves town in search of easier pickings. AaTuBIG has been living in the forest. Told of recent events by John A@roynes, he returns to the town in disguise, where he witnesses Cassandra’s pleas for her new husband’s life. Promos is led to execution, but is reprieved when Andrugio reveals himself to the King. Promos and Andrugio are pardoned, and Andrugio required to marry P6lifia. Promos is restored to office, with a warning to act justly and beware his subordinates’ corruption.
Pedantius
Forsett, Edward · 1581 · Comedy · at University;
Crobolus and the schoolmaster Pedantius are rivals. for the love of Lydia. Crobolus asks his servant Pogglostus to bilkk money from Pedantius and his friend Dromodotus. After failing with a hard-luck story, Pogglostus robs them at sword-point. Crobolus wins Lydia’s love by entertaining her to dinner. He is slow to pay his landlady for the meal, but assures her he can easily trick the money out of Pedantius. Through the parasite Tyrophagus, he lets Pedantius know that a former pupil, Leonidas, has secured a position at court, and intends to use his influence to get a royal appointment for his old tutor. On the strength of this, Pedantius is persuaded to loan Leonidas money. Tyrophagus is bringing the cash back to Crobolus when he is robbed by Pogglostus, who doesn’t know that he and his master are in league. Pedantius tries to woo Lydia, but has less success, partly because he does it using academic logic and partly because she has already accepted Crobulus. In any event, whoever wins her will need to pay her avaricious master to manumit her. She feigns interest in him after hearing of his supposed successes at court, and he tries to raise the money by offering to sell his books to the audience. The tailor Gilbert pursues him for payment of his bills, but Pedantius only gives him a string of classical authorities and quotations; Gilbert threatens to sue him. Pedantius sends Lydia money and a ring, but the news comes back that she is dead. She has sent him back his ring, and,…
The Three Ladies of London
Wilson, Robert · 1581 · Moral · Leicester's Men
Lady Love and Lady Conscience are concerned that Lady Lucre now rules in London, but Fame assures them that she and her adherents will meet their due punishment in the end. Four knaves and Simplicity, a penurious miller, go to London in the hope of employment by one of the ladies. Conscience rejects their applications, but Love agrees to take on Simplicity; the knaves find positions in Lucre’s household. Out of work because foreigners have taken all the jobs, Artifex also seeks a place with Lucre. Simplicity procures a testimonial from Conscience for his cousin Sincerity, who seeks a benefice; but he is unable to get anything from Simony because he has no bribe to offer. Dissimulation fobs him off with the parsonage of St Nihil — nothing - and an invitation to dine with Nemo — nobody — is likewise worthless (though Simplicity has _ difficulty understanding this). Simony employs Sir Peter Pleaseman, who can be either Protestant or Catholic as it suits his circumstances, as Lucre’s chaplain. Conscience is forced to sell her cottage to Lucre, but hopes to stay on as a sitting tenant. Usury threatens eviction; there is a proposal to pack the house with foreigners who will require less living space than English tenants. Eventually he relents and quadruples the rent instead. Love and Conscience are reduced to sending Usury their clothes in lieu of payment, but Dissimulation gives Simplicity money to redeem one of the gowns. He intended it to be Love’s, since he cares nothing for…
Sappho and Phao
Lyly, John · 1583 · Comedy · Children of the Chapel (first) (Oxford's Boys) · before the Court;
Menus plans to visit Syracuse to make SAppH6 fall in love, and travels there on PHa0’s ferry-boat. She makes Phao beautiful; and, unknown to her, @iipi@ makes him irresistibly attractive to women, even though he is not interested in them. Sibyllaj whom the gods have given long life but not eternal youth, counsels Phao not to waste his prime years. He falls in love with Sappho, and Sibylla advises him on the technique of wooing. Sappho is taken ill; Phao, who has some pharmaceutical knowledge, is summoned to minister to her. In fact, her malady is love for Phao, whose base origins make him unsuitable for her. Venus too falls for Phao, and procures from Wailea new arrows for Cupid, with which he can break her rival Sappho’s infatuation and turn Phao’s affections her way. Cupid carries out the first part of his mission, but also tells Sappho what he has done; so she persuades him to use another of the new arrows to make Phao hate Venus. Cupid decides to be Sappho’s son instead of Venus’, and gives her his arrows: now she, not Venus, will be the lady of love. Venus swears to get even, and, convinced of love’s pointlessness, Phao leaves Sicily.
Campaspe (Alexander, Campaspe, and Diogenes)
Lyly, John · 1583 · Comedy · Children of the Chapel (first) (Oxford's Boys) · before the Court;
King Alexander has conquered Thebes and brought its captives to Athens, where he means to spend a peaceful interlude with the philosophers. Mo~t 1.:on 1 e and debate for him, but Diogenes churlishly refu:;t:"s to comply. Alexander becomes enamoured of Campaspe, and has her painted by Apelles, who himself falls in love with her. Knowing he must not challenge Alexander in love, he creates an excuse to see her again by blemishing the painting so that a second sitting is needed. Diogenes sends his servant to draw a crowd with a report that he will fly, but it is only a pretext to rail at them. Using a false report of a fire in Apelles' shop, Alexander tricks the painter into revealing his feelings for Campaspe, and, establishing that she reciprocates them, graciously withdraws his suit and allows them to marry. Having subdued his own amorous feelings, he will now go to war with Persia and conquer the world.
Alphonsus, King of Aragon
Greene, Robert · 1587 · Romance · Queen Elizabeth's Men (?)
Twenty years before the action, Alphonsus’ branch of the royal family of Aragon was dispossessed of the crown through the Duke of Milan’s treachery, and banished, along with their supporters. Now, a generation later, the usurping King is making war on Naples. Alphonsus poses as a common soldier and is recruited to King Belinus’ defending army; he makes the condition that he will unconditionally own anything he wins by fighting. In battle he kills the usurping King of Aragon, and King Belinus grudgingly gives him the crown; he then claims sovereignty over Naples. After rescuing a follower from beheading by Belinus, he conquers Italy and crowns his followers. Albinius, his oldest ally, is made King of Aragon in his place, while he pursues Belinus, who has fled to the court of the Great Turk Amurack. Amurack promises Belinus military help, and summons armies from throughout his wide dominions. Encouraged by the anxious Empress Fausta, the enchantress Medea seeks supernatural information about the coming wars, and it comes in a vision to the sleeping Amurack: defeat, captivity, then release through Alphonsus’ love for his daughter Iphigina, and the expulsion of paganism. When Fausta speaks against this, she and Iphigina are banished from the court; encouraged by Medea to accept the inevitable, they go to gather their Amazon troops. The prophecy is also overheard by the god Muhammad, who withdraws his support from Amurack, but encourages his pagan allies to attack Alphonsus; when…
The Wounds of Civil War, or Marius and Scilla
Lodge, Thomas · 1588 · Tragedy · Admiral's (Nottingham's) Men
King Mithridates has defied Roman power in Asia Minor, and the consul Sulla has been selected by lot to take reprisals. But Sulla lingers with the army in Capua, and the Senate votes to transfer the command to Marius, a more experienced soldier. Sulla invades the Senate with his troops and threatens to uphold his rights with violence. The senators take sides, and a civil war follows. Sulla is victorious; Marius takes refuge at Minturnum. Sulla proscribes Marius and his allies as traitors, and leads the army to Asia Minor. Marius is warned that his hosts plot his murder, but accepts his fate and goes to sleep. The assassin, Pedro, is unable to go through with the killing, so the magistrates simply ask Marius to leave town. He flees to Africa, and lives in the mountains on a diet of roots. Marius’ son comes to recall him to Rome: the new consul, Cinna, is sympathetic to him. But Sulla returns victorious from the east, and attempts to prevent his rival from entering Italy. Nevertheless Marius reaches Rome, and begins to settle old scores with violence. Cinna deposes and murders his fellow consul Octavius, Marius’ enemy, and Marius is appointed to fill the vacancy. Sulla is proscribed and his property confiscated, and Marius sends his son to engage Sulla’s army in battle. Sulla’s wife and daughter are arrested as they attempt to leave Rome; Marius threatens them with death, but then sends them honourably back to Sulla. Marius dies in office. After a bloody battle, Sulla enters…
The Wars of Cyrus, King of Persia
Anonymous · 1588 · Tragedy · Children of the Chapel (first) (Oxford's Boys)
Cyrus has conquered the rulers of Lydia, Arabia, and Assyria, and now he divides the spoils with his men, accepting none for himself. Unwilling to serve the new King of Assyria, who murdered his son, Gobryas defects to Cyrus and is given a command in his army. Panthea is taken captive: the Persians propose to present her to Cyrus, but she is faithful to her husband, Abradatas, and Cyrus refuses the temptation to love her. Appointed Panthea’s keeper, Araspas falls in love with her. When she rejects him, he resorts to magic; but the charm fails, and she reports him to Cyrus. Antiochus, the new King of Assyria, seeks revenge on Cyrus for his father’s death, and sends Ctesiphon as a feigned defector to the Persian camp. He also has vengeful designs on Gobryas’ daughter, Alexandra, but she swaps clothes with her page Libanio, who persuades Antiochus to hold ‘her’ hostage while ‘her page’ goes to persuade Gobryas to return. However, these plans go awry: Ctesiphon is so impressed with Cyrus that he renounces Antiochus’ sovereignty, confesses his former King’s plot, and offers to kill him; and when Dinon attempts to seduce the false Alexandra, ‘she’ sings him to sleep, kills him, and absconds to the Persian camp. Gobryas randomly selects a Persian husband for his daughter using the custom of blindfold turf-throwing; the clod lands on Hystaspas. Cyrus sends Ctesiphon back to Antiochus with a letter purportedly offering peace terms; in fact, it tells the Assyrian king of Ctesiphon’s…
Endymion, the Man in the Moon
Lyly, John · 1588 · Comedy · Children of Paul's (first) · before the Court;
Endymion is obsessed with his love for GyHEHI, the moon, and neglects Méllisj who is infatuated with him. She plots to force him to love her, but the enchantress Dipsas is unable to induce love magically. She can, however, make Endymion sleep away his youth, and, with Bag@a’s assistance, casts a spell to that effect. Meanwhile the comic braggart Sir GpHaS falls in love with Dipsas and sleeps too. When Tellus is rude about Endymion, Cynthia banishes her to weave in a desert castle. There she uses her feminine attractiveness to induce her keeper, GGESITES, to move Endymion from where he sleeps, but he is unable to lift the sleeping body. He is pinched asleep by fairies, who magically spot his face and hands. S@mielé is sentenced to a year’s silence as punishment for her spiteful speaking. Cynthia sends courtiers around the world in search of a remedy for Endymion, but the wise men who come are unable to help. However, Eiimenideés finds a magic fountain which will supply any wished-for remedy ifa true lover weeps into it and sees the bottom. Eumenides passes the fidelity test and has to choose whether to satisfy his unrequited love for Semele or wake up Endymion. He chooses Endymion, and is shown in a cryptic prophecy that the sleeper will wake when Cynthia kisses him. It works: Endymion awakes, now an old man, and tells his dreams. Sir Tophas also awakes, seemingly more youthful. Neither gets the girl: Cynthia is chaste and unattainable, while Dipsas turns out to be married to…
A Looking Glass for London and England
Lodge, Thomas; Greene, Robert · 1588 · Biblical Moral · Derby's (Strange's) Men
Triumphant over the King of Jerusalem, the Assyrian king Rasni declares himself divine and marries his sister, Remilia; a viceroy who objects is banished and the flatterer Radagon given his place. Inordinately proud of her beauty, Remilia is struck by lightning. Rasni is unable to revive her, and buries her in state; but is encouraged by Radagon to think of the living rather than the dead, and to take Alvida, wife of the King of Paphlagonia. When her husband objects to the adulterous liaison, she poisons him. Alvida continues to be unfaithful: her ambition attracts her to Rasni, but her sexual appetite favours the Viceroy of Cilicia, so she takes both. Thrasybulus and Alcon are both cheated by a usurer to whom they are trying to repay money: he keeps them talking beyond the due hour and then secures possession of Thrasybulus’ farm and Alcon’s cow as a penalty for non-payment. They attempt to sue him, but he bribes both the judge and their lawyer, and they lose their cases. Alcon appeals to Radagon, his son, to help his starving family, but Radagon is too proud to acknowledge his parent, and Rasni has him ejected from the court. Radagon’s mother curses him, and: he is swallowed by subterranean fire. Thrasybulus ard ===== PAGE 473 ===== 1589 Alcon turn to begging and theft in their destitution, and try to pawn stolen clothes to the usurer. Adam, a smith’s man, goes off with some ruffians to get drunk. After a drunken quarrel over a woman, one of them is killed. Rasni finds…
Midas
Lyly, John · 1589 · Comedy · Children of Paul's (first) · before the Court;
Offered anything he wishes by way of reward for entertaining Baéehus) KingiMidas seeks advice. Two of his lords suggest that he request love and empire respectively; the third proposes gold, which can buy both, so Midas asks that everything he touches should turn to gold. The gift proves to be an inconvenience, turning Midas’s food and even his beard to gold. (A BaBE steals the golden beard from the FSyalibarber, but the barber gets his own back by giving him toothache.) Regretting his folly and his imperialistic designs on other nations, Midas seeks a remedy from the oracle, and washes off the golden touch in a nearby river. On the way home, Midas goes hunting in the woods, gets lost, and encounters Ajpoll6 and Pan ‘The two gods are in dispute over which is the best musician; Midas is asked to judge, and, perversely, chooses Pan. Apollo gives him ass’s ears in reprisal, and he becomes reclusive while rumours spread; even the reeds whisper about his ears. Meanwhile his empire begins to disintegrate and he is unable to achieve his overriding objective, the conquest of Lesbos. Finally he seeks a remedy from the oracle of Apollo, and also proclaims that any further talk about his ass’s ears will cost the speaker his own. The pages inveigle Motto the barber into flouting the edict, and thereby force him to return the golden beard. Midas makes his obeisance at Apollo’s oracle, and is ordered to give up his imperial ambitions; in particular, his ears will only get longer if he…
The Battle of Alcazar
Peele, George · 1589 · Tragedy · Unknown
The law of Barbary provides that the sons of Ml} Mahanietieque shall succeed one another, but the eldest son has arranged to bypass his brothers and pass the kingdom to his own eldest son, MilyMahamet The third son of Xeque, AIBGEIMIEIEE, flees into exile, and, after his father’s death, Muly Mahamet has his own brothers and his eldest uncle murdered to secure his power. Abdelmelec returns to Barbary with military support from the [RG@FKISHINEMIperor, deposes Muly Mahamet, and re-establishes the succession on his own younger brother, Sth Muly Mahamet lives rough, eating the raw flesh of wild animals, and solicits military help from S@bastian of Portugal, offering him the crown of Morocco. Sebastian in turn seeks aid from other princes; SHURE and his allies, delayed in Lisbon on the way to convert Ireland to Catholicism, are also conscripted. Spurred on by a promise of Spanish troops which fail to arrive, Sebastian sets sail for Africa. The two sides prepare their forces and join battle at Alcazar. Abdelmelec dies after initial setbacks, but Seth rallies the troops by displaying the dead body propped ===== PAGE 430 ===== up to look as if alive. As the tide of battle turns, Muly Mahamet procures a horse to flee, but is drowned when the horse throws him in the river. Stukely’s men turn on him, and he dies after telling the audience his life story. Sebastian is also killed in the thick of battle. Seth becomes King of Barbary, and orders Muly Mahamet’s body flayed and stuffed as a…
The True Chronicle of King Leir (King Lear and his Three Daughters)
Anonymous · 1590 · History · Queen Elizabeth's Men (?)
King Lear deems it a good moment to marry off his three daughters: with his wife recently dead, they no longer have a mother to direct them. His plan is to retire and divide the kingdom between them as their dowries, and to marry them to neighbouring kings in order to forestall foreign aggression. Cordella, however, is determined to marry for love rather than for diplomatic convenience, so Lear plans to circumvent her by laying on a test: the daughters will make a public declaration of how much they love their father, and he will then ask Cordella to show that love by complying with his wishes over her marriage. Scaliger warns the other daughters, Goneril and Regan, of what Lear has in mind, and misleads them into believing that their shares of the kingdom will reflect the extent of their declared love. Jealous of their younger sister’s beauty and renown, they flatter Lear so that Cordella’s simple statement of due filial love pales in comparison. Lear gives the kingdom wholly to them, summons the Kings of Cornwall and Cambria to be their husbands, and assigns them their shares by lot. Against the advice of the good counsellor Perillus, Lear banishes Cordella from court, and she plans to make her living working as a seamstress. By chance, she meets the King of France, who has come to Britain disguised in search of a wife, and he takes her back to France as his Queen. Lear goes to live with Cornwall and Goneril, but annoys her with his criticisms of her extravagance. Scaliger…
The Cobbler's Prophecy
Wilson, Robert · 1590 · Moral · Queen Elizabeth's Men (?)
Security has bred social ills in Boeotia, including impiety and disrespect for age. Meanwhile Venus scandalizes heaven with her adulterous liaison with Mars. Mercury selects Ralph Cobbler at random to prophesy to both Mars and Boeotia, and strikes his wife Zelota mad. A courtier, landlord, scholar, and soldier debate the relative merits of their different estates; Sateros the soldier, who is seeking employment from Mars, is obviously the worthiest. He visits the Muses to seek directions to Mars’s court, while Ralph tries to ride there with Charon. On arrival, they are sent on to Venus’ court by a dangerous route, and find Mars engaged in sexual dalliance with Venus. Mars recommends Sateros to the Duke of Boeotia, but is ===== PAGE 168 ===== infuriated by Ralph’s prophecy and quarrels with Venus. When he learns that she has another sexual partner, Contempt, he becomes jealous and misogynistic, and returns to his proper concern with warfare. Venus bears Contempt’s illegitimate child, Ruina. She is deprived of her godhead and banished from heaven; Contempt also abandons her. The Duke hires Sateros and learns from Ralph that the courtier Emnius is plotting to assassinate him while they are out hunting. Under questioning, Emnius confesses, but pretends to repent under threat of being shot with his own pistol. Spared but determined to take revenge, he assaults Ralph and is stabbed to death by mad Zelota. Both Ralph and Zelota are imprisoned for the killing. Boeotia is invaded by…
1 Henry the Sixth
Nashe, Thomas; Marlowe, Christopher; Shakespeare, William; Anonymous · 1590 · History · Derby's (Strange's) Men
King Henry Vis dead, and England's French lands are lost. After a military setback, the French accept the offered aid of Joan Pucelle , who claims supernatural powers from the Virgin Mary; but they also release Talbot in an exchange of prisoners. With Joan 's help the French recapture the occupied town of Orleans, but the English take it back in a night attack led by Talbot. The Countess of Auvergne invites Talbot to visit her. intending treachery, but he second-guesses her and brings soldiers with him. In England, feuds brew between Gloucester and Winchester, and between Richard Plantagenet and the Duke of Somerset, whose supporters show their allegiance by picking different coloured roses. Richard , who has been deprived of his titles through the attainder of his father, learns from the imprisoned and dying Mortimer that he has a claim to the throne . King Henry restores him to his inheritance, creating him Duke of York. Joan takes Rouen by a ruse , but Talbot recaptures it the same day; she then persuades England's ally Burgundy to join the French. After King Henry's coronation in Paris, York is left in command of Prance, but personal tension between him and Somerset means that troop reinforcements arrive late; in consequence, Talbot is defeated, surviving only long enough to learn that his son has perished in battle. Joan conjures devils, but they will not help her: she is captured by York and burned at the stake. The French and English agree a peace which will entail…
The Reign of King Edward the Third
Anonymous; Shakespeare, William (?) · 1590 · History · Derby's (Strange's) Men (?)
KingledwWardlll of England hears of his claim to the French throne by his mother’s right, and plans an invasion. The French have induced the Scots to invade England, and they have laid siege to the Countess of 1593 Salisbury’s castle. King Edward goes north to deal with them, and they flee at his approach, but the Countess persuades him to stay rather than pursue them. He falls in love with her, but neither his wooing nor her father’s unwilling advocacy can overcome her fidelity to her husband. She breaks his obsession by first demanding the deaths of his queen and her husband, then threatening to stab herself. With his troops mustered, Edward sets off for France. The French gather their allies about them, but their navy fails to prevent the English from landing. Edward’s army lays waste the country, and the inhabitants flee. PRGSIBAWArd is formally armed, and his father refuses to commit troops to help him out of danger at the battle of Crécy; the honour of his victory is thereby the greater. MHeEArNonSalisbiity releases his prisoner Willli@rs to seek safe conduct for him to Calais, on condition that he returns a prisoner if unsuccessful. His insistence on keeping his oath to return persuades the reluctant Dalipiin to issue a passport. Emboldened by an ambiguous prophecy, the French give battle to Prince Edward. Salisbury is captured, but produces his passport; Kimggohih is reluctantly compelled to honour it. The terms of the prophecy are fulfilled: the French army is…
2 Henry the Sixth (The First Part of the Contention betwixt the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster)
Shakespeare, William; Marlowe, Christopher; Anonymous (?) · 1590 · History · Pembroke's Men (?)
Siiffolk brings KingiHenryiVd his new queen, Margaret, having been his proxy at their wedding in France; the agreement means peace with France, but also the surrender of some of England’s French possessions. In England, factions develop for and against Gioueester, the Lord Protector, while WOFk intends to claim the crown for himself; moreover, rivalry brews between the Queen and Gloucester’s ambitious wife, who also covets the throne. Common talk about York’s claim to the crown means that SOimierset supplants him as Regent of France, and this talk is later verified in a trial by combat. _ ile incites the DGGHESSIGAEGIONEESEr to solicit demonic predictions about England’s political future (some of which come true later in the play); she is forced to do penance, and banished. By careful questioning, Gloucester establishes that a supposed miracle is actually fraudulent. Somerset’s regency results in the loss of all England’s French lands; the Queen and barons unite to lay the blame on Gloucester and have him first arrested for high treason, then murdered. Suffolk is . banished by popular acclamation, captured at sea by pirates, and beheaded. MH@NCaFdifial dies in a delirium ‘of guilt for his part in Gloucester’s murder. , ’ York goes to put down a rising in Ireland, and arranges for a rebellion in his absence to give him a reason to return in arms: Jaeki@ade and his men duly wreak havoc in London before Glifférd quells the rebellion with a promise of pardon; Cade himself is…
George a Green, the Pinner of Wakefield
Greene, Robert (?) · 1590 · Romance · Sussex's Men
(helEarlSfKendal, inspired by a prophecy that he and e KinglfiSeets will meet in London and defeat the KingofEngland, musters his troops and communicates with King James. THENMEHIOPOrKShize, of his treason, refuse to victual his army. When Sir Nicholas Maniniering threatens the people of Wakefield, GGrge- aeGreehe tears up his commission and makes him eat the seals. Infuriated, Kendal plans revenge: he and his allies go to Wakefield in disguise, but George impounds their horses. Kendal tries to entice George to: join him in rebellion, insisting that he seeks social justice rather than power. Encouraged by George, he visits a hermit to hear his fortunes; but the hermit is actually George himself in disguise, and the visit a ruse to get Kendal and his henchmen alone. George fights them, takes Kendal prisoner, and hands him over to the authorities. King James brings troops into England, but is distracted by his passion for JARGMANBaHEy, whose husband is away. When she refuses him, he besieges her castle. The aged war veteran Milsgrave, who refuses to hand over the responsibility of arms to his n Gay, arrives and raises the siege. James is taken prisoner, and both he and Kendal are brought before King Edward. Kendal is imprisoned and Edward visits the north to meet George. Willy liberates George’s love, B@HGHS, from Grime her father by visiting her disguised as a woman and swapping clothes with her. The lovers are reunited, leaving Willy still at Grime’s house. However, Bettris…
Master Arden of Faversham in Kent
Anonymous; Kyd, Thomas (?); Shakespeare, William (?); Watson, Thomas (?) · 1591 · Tragedy · Pembroke's Men (?)
lige Arden is having an affair with M@sbBy, which makes her husband jealous and melancholy. The lovers proliferate murder plots against him: both offer marriage to SHi8Zh Mosby as an inducement, but to different accomplices, Michaelland GlakKe the painter. Clarke supplies a poison, but when Arden feels ill upon eating the contaminated broth, Alice throws it on the ground. Alice meets GFSeHe, who has a grudge against Arden in connection with land ownership, and gives him money to hire murderers. He engages BIAEKIWil) and ShakeBap, and they follow A¥d@h to London, where he is visiting his friend BFaHKIB. Greene writes an incriminating letter to Alice, which is carried, innocently, by Bradshaw. An attempt on Arden’s life in St Paul’s churchyard fails when a shop front is let down and bonks Black Will on the head; Arden escapes, knowing nothing of the danger. The murderers conspire with Michael to gain access to Franklin’s house at night, but Arden finds the door unlocked: the murderers are shut out and Michael reproved for negligence. The killers next pursue Arden to Rainham Down, where he meets Lord Ghee and is invited to dinner the following day. Cheyne recognizes and distracts Black Will, so Arden escapes again. His luck still holds the next day: following him on his way to Lord Cheyne’s house, Black Will and Shakebag lose their way in the fog and Shakebag falls into the marsh. Meanwhile, Mosby and Alice have a falling-out, but are reconciled, and Clarke supplies a poisoned…
Jack Straw
Anonymous · 1591 · History · Unknown
MHENKING is gathering taxes to finance war in France. After a EARN@OM@Gfr attempts an intimate physical examination of JaeRMStawSMdaughter to establish whether or HOMISHEMISNSIEMEnSughtoNbeMliazble forltaxatiomjastraw loses his temper and kills him. ParSOHMBAll speaks out against social abuses and inequality, inciting the men of Kent to rise in rebellion under Straw and MW&@HllTyi@F; they are joined by men of Essex, and send their demands to the King through Sir J@HBMIMG@EHGh, holding his family hostage. The King agrees to meet them at Greenwich, but breaks the appointment when he sees their disorderly conduct. The rebels advance on London, freeing prisoners, burning legal documents, despoiling their fellow countrymen, and murdering immigrants who cannot speak English properly. The King makes a second attempt to parley, meets the rebels at Smithfield, and hears their grievances. The issue of a general pardon induces the Essex men to go home, but the Kentish rebels remain in arms under Tyler and Straw. At the third encounter with the King, Straw demands a courtier’s sword, and the BOFaIMA¥ar of London stabs him. The rebellion is put down, but the King is reluctant to order mass executions; only the ringleaders, Tyler and Ball, are to die. The Lord Mayor is rewarded with a knighthood.
Phillis and Amyntas (Ivychurch) (Amyntas' Pastoral)
Fraunce, Abraham, trans.; Tasso, Torquato · 1591 · Pastoral
Cupid’s mother wants him to exercise his power at "court among lords, but he rebels and runs away to work in a pastoral setting disguised as a shepherd. The objects. of his attention are to be Amyntas and the - . loveless Phyllis: by making them fall for one another, he will demonstrate that he has power over rustics as well as over kings. . Three years ago, Amyntas ‘fell in love with his ‘neighbour and childhood friend Phyllis; but when he “declared his love, she rejected it and has refused his ‘ company ever since, despite others’ efforts to persuade __ her. Now that a soothsayer has told him there is no - hope, Amyntas is suicidally melancholy: he will kill himself, and then she'll be sorry. Phyllis has also attracted the attentions of a Satyr, but she scorns him too; so he plans to rape and murder her at the well ' where she washes. Thyrsis and Daphne plan to bring Amyntas to the well, too: seeing her naked will arouse his amorous propensities, and, in spite of herself, she will enjoy being raped by him. The Satyr gets there first, -and Amyntas finds Phyllis stark naked, tied to a tree “ with her own hair. He beats off the Satyr, but Phyllis is ungrateful and runs away when he releases her. - Phyllis flees to Fulvia, who clothes her and takes her hunting at Ivychurch. There she wounds a wolf, and pursues it into the forest. Fulvia follows her, and finds a pack of wolves devouring a corpse, and nearby a bloody hair-tire which she recognizes as Phyllis’s. She reports this…
Mother Bombie
Lyly, John · 1591 · Comedy · Children of Paul's (first)
Menmiphio and Stellig each has a fool for his only child, — a son and a daughter respectively, but both have managed to conceal the fact from the neighbours. Each plans to marry his offspring to the other’s without disclosing the heir’s mental debility, and each tasks his servant to make the arrangements. Meanwhile, @amidiliis and [ivid are in love with one another, but their parents disapprove, wanting them to marry wealth instead: Candius is made to woo Stellio’s daughter Sil@mla, and Livia is intended for Memphio’s son Al@GiiS] The four fathers’ boy servants conspire to frustrate these various . marital plans, and go off to drink at the tavern. Candius meets Silena as she sneaks out to hear her fortune, and offers to read her palm. He is momentarily struck by her beauty, but quickly discovers that she is an idiot, a legitimate impediment to marriage. Mother Bomibié tells Silena’s fortune in cryptic terms: she is not the child of her parents. The fortune teller is also consulted by the siblings M@eStiiS and Sérénaj] who have developed an incestuous passion for one another; Mother Bombie tells them that they shall be married and each will displace a fool. The boys arrange for Candius and Livia to swap apparel with the two idiots, and they are married in disguise, with their own fathers as witnesses. Accius and Silena court one another in disguise, but their marriage prospects take a turn for the worse after each father identifies the other’s child as a fool. DE@Rilio is…
The True Tragedy of Richard the Third
Anonymous · 1591 · Tragedy; History · Queen Elizabeth's Men
Twenty-two years ago, the House of York seized the throne from Henry VI. Since then, RiéHard has sought to clear his path to the crown by murdering the deposed M@firy and his own brother, @IMFenee. The dying BGWardli] tries to make peace between Lord Hastings and Marquess Dorsét, and appoints Richard as Lord Protector during his son’s minority. As the new King travels to London for his coronation, Richard allies himself with his former enemy, BUCKingham. and Dorset and other noblemen flee the kingdom. Travelling to London with the new King, RIVERS is left behind to negotiate with Richard and Buckingham. Richard arranges to have him locked in his room at the inn where he is staying, and arrests him; he then catches up with the King and arrests the rest of the Queen’s family, despite the King’s protests. The QG@8H and her other children take sanctuary, but the Duke of WGrk is removed to the Tower to keep the King ===== PAGE 490 ===== company. Richard has the arrested men executed without trial. The King and York are declared bastards and the crown offered to Richard. Edward IV’s death is bad news for Mistress SHGFé, too: she loses all her influence at court and has to face the prospect of an enemy in power. Accused of plotting with her to bewitch the King and Buckingham with a view to seizing power, Lord Hastings is arrested and executed. Mistress Shore’s property is confiscated and Londoners ordered not to give her food or shelter; even those she helped in earlier times are…
The Taming of the Shrew
Shakespeare, William · 1592 · Comedy · Pembroke's Men · Blackfriars;Globe;Indoor Professional;Outdoor Professional
: GHHStSpHEMSIy is ejected from a tavern after breaking some glasses and refusing to pay for them. A lord finds him in a drunken stupor, takes him home, and plays a prank on him: he is treated as if he is himself a lord who has just woken from a dream of being a beggar. Players visit the lord and he engages them to perform for Sly. ; In the play, BaptistalMindla refuses to allow his younger daughter Bidi@a to marry any of her suitors before her elder sister Kath@filia is married. Katherina is not considered a desirable wife: she is aggressive and disobedient. The rival suitors H@HEnSio and Greiilio agree to find someone to marry Katherina. Hortensio jokingly suggests the idea to his friend PEHWEEID, only to find that Petruccio is willing to co-operate, so long as Katherina brings an adequate dowry; Hortensio and Gremio agree to pay his expenses. Baptista asks the various suitors to provide schoolmasters to instruct Bianca, and two of them see this as an opportunity to get closer access to her: Hortensio poses as Bifi6, a music master, and gets Petruccio to present him to the household; and Digentio, a new arrival in Padua, poses as Cambio, a Latin teacher, while his servant [faiio assumes his identity and presents himself to Baptista as another suitor for Bianca. Petruccio woos Katherina by insisting on her beauty and refusing to rise to her bad behaviour. Afterwards he tells her father that she has consented to marry him, and pre-empts her contradiction by claiming they…
A Knack to Know a Knave
Anonymous (?) · 1592 · Moral · Derby's (Strange's) Men
. . Concerned for the good order of his kingdom, King Edgar commissions Honesty to seek out and expose knaves. The dying Bailiff of Hexham advises his four sons to live by fraud and deceit in their various: professions, and to enrich themselves at the expense of the commonweal and the poor..He dies and is carried off by the devil. While Edgar deals with the case of 1592 Philarchus, a courtier who has abused his father, Honesty observes the corrupt dealings of the Bailiff’s sons: Cuthbert, a cony-catcher, who bears false witness in an attempt to take possession of a farm; Walter, a farmer, who oppresses his neighbours and exports corn to feed the enemy; John, a priest, who refuses to give to charity; and Perin, a courtier, who misuses the royal seal and sells Walter an export licence for his corn under pretext of raising revenues for the crown. Meanwhile honest members of the state, from knight to ploughman, complain of their economic decline. Edgar sends Ethenwald to woo Alfrida by proxy, but Ethenwald falls in love with her himself and marries her. The King forgives him and visits the couple (receiving a petition from the mad men of Gotham on the way), but the jealous Ethenwald is convinced that Edgar plans to cuckold him, and has Alfrida and the kitchen maid swap identities during the royal visit. An outraged Edgar sees through the subterfuge and plans to take revenge, but Bishop Dunstan, with the help of the devil, persuades him to pardon Ethenwald instead. Honesty…
Edward the Second
Marlowe, Christopher · 1592 · History · Pembroke's Men
GavestGn, banished by KangpyBdwardl is recalled to England on the accession of BdWardllll. His presence exacerbates tension between the King and barons, but Edward gives him multiple offices of state. Together they assault the BiSHOplomi@oventry, whose title also goes to Gaveston. The nobles and church contrive the minion’s banishment, but QWeenilsabella, neglected by Edward, arranges his reprieve in the hope of winning favour. King and barons make their peace and Lord MOrtimier, leaving for war in Scotland, advises his nephew to tolerate Edward’s love for Gaveston. The King’s preoccupation with his minion leads him to neglect public affairs, jeopardizing the political and economic stability of the crown: the unpaid army mutinies, rebellion breaks out in Ireland, and English territory is invaded by both Scotland and France. Lord Mortimer is taken prisoner in Scotland, but Edward refuses to ransom him. The barons, now joined by Edward’s brother, the B@gi§6fK@nt, increase the pressure to banish Gaveston again, while Edward begins to suspect Isabella of adultery with the younger Mortimer. Gaveston is captured by the barons. Edward asks to see him one last time; P@mibrOke agrees to conduct Gaveston there and back, but the minion is captured and killed en route by WaRWIEK’s treachery. Isabella and the Prince go to parley with the French King over the invasion of Normandy. The barons demand the removal of the Sp@me@r family, whom Edward has advanced, and battle ensues. The King…
The Massacre at Paris
Marlowe, Christopher · 1593 · Tragedy · Derby's (Strange's) Men
The King of France marries his sister to the Protestant King of [NaVare. King @iailés has guaranteed the safety of the visiting Navarre party, but an apothecary suborned by the Duke of Gillie poisons the old Queen. Less successful is a plot to shoot the Aldmiral of France, another Protestant: he is only wounded in the arm. Though King Charles promises to find the would-be assassin and sets a guard on the Admiral, the guard captain betrays him and admits Guise’s men. The Admiral’s murder initiates a massacre of the Protestants in Paris, including the scholar RAMUS. HenrylofvAnjou, heir to the throne, participates but later denies his involvement. Anjou is elected King of Poland, but accepts only on condition that he may return to France to claim the French crown in the event of the King’s death. Charles does not support the massacre, but dies. The Queen Mother recalls Anjou from Poland, expecting him to be a more pliable king. Navarre, now the next in line to the throne, takes the opportunity to leave France. Obsessed with his minions, King Henry fulfils his mother’s expectations: power now rests with her and Guise. They use it to make war on Navarre, but Joyeuse, one of the King’s minions, is appointed general of the army, and he loses the battle. Navarre plans a Protestant alliance with England to liberate his country. Guise learns that his wife is having an affair with Maugiron, another minion. After the King mocks him as a cuckold, Guise has Maugiron murdered. King Henry…
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Shakespeare, William · 1593 · Comedy · Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men (?)
Walefifihe leaves Verona to broaden his horizons. Protelis stays at home and woos Jiilia) but no sooner is his suit successful than his father decides to send him after Valentine to court. He and Julia exchange rings. In Milan, Proteus finds that Valentine has fallen in love with Sil¥ia and plans to elope with her, using a rope ladder to reach the tower in which her father locks her up at night. Proteus falls for Silvia himself and, knowing that her father prefers Valentine’s rival Hiro, betrays his friend’s confidence to the Duke, who duly banishes Valentine. This only succeeds in ‘alienating Silvia from Thurio and her father, so Proteus is asked to woo her on Thurio’s behalf. Valentine is ambushed by banished Saws, who make him their chief. Leaving her property in the care of her waiting- woman Hwee’, Julia follows Proteus to Milan disguised as a page-boy; there she learns of Proteus’ interest in Silvia, and witnesses one of his wooing attempts. Proteus sends Silvia a gift of a dog, but Bane loses it and offers her his own dog, which behaves badly and relieves itself under the table; Lance takes the blame for the latter offence. Proteus employs the disguised Julia as a go-between, sending her ring as a gift to Silvia, who will not accept it. With Bglami6ii’s help, Silvia absconds to join Valentine; the Duke rides after her with Thurio; Proteus follows in search of Silvia, and the disguised Julia follows him. All except Eglamour are captured by the outlaws. When Silvia…
Two Lamentable Tragedies
Yarington, Robert · 1594 · Tragedy · Unknown
MOmicide is frustrated at finding the town so virtuous, but AWaige recommends two men as suitable agents of violence. [Filth overhears them and introduces the stories. In one plot, MRGM@SIMERY, who would like to be richer, notices how well off B&BGh is. He lures Beech to his inn and murders him there with a hammer. The other members of his household quickly discover what has happened; his man MWilli@fhs leaves his service rather than condone the crime, but nevertheless agrees to keep it a secret. Merry is concerned that BEGeh’sIBSy may know too much, and murders him too. Thinking there are thieves in Beech’s shop, a Maid gives the alarm, and the dying boy is found with the hammer still embedded in his head. Beech comes under suspicion. Merry wants to get the other body out of his inn before it starts to putrefy, and chops it up to facilitate disposal. The various parts of the body are found around London; the torso is in an identifiable sack, but when a house-to-house search is instigated, its vendor fails to recognize M@PySisister as the woman who bought it. Merry begins to feel secure, but the melancholy Williams finally reveals the secret after close questioning by a friend. Merry and his sister are arrested and hanged; Williams is allowed benefit of clergy. In the other plot, ——- —f% die, leaving him in the custody of his uncle, , who will inherit everything should the boy die. Fallerio plans murder, but when his son All@H8o will not co-operate, he hires two ruffans…
The Love of David and Fair Bathsheba
Peele, George · 1594 · Biblical History · Queen Elizabeth's Men (?)
PLOT King David sees Bathsheba bathing and falls in love, but she resists his advances. To check his desires, he recalls her husband, Uriah, from the war, where his army has just conquered a town. Uriah returns, refuses to see his wife, and becomes embarrassingly drunk at a royal feast. David sends him back to the war, with orders that he should be placed in the vanguard. Uriah is killed in battle, removing the obstacle to David's liaison with Bathsheba; but he is rebuked by the prophet Nathan and the child of their union falls sick and dies. David believes that this removes Bathsheba's shame, and enables him to legitimize their relationship and beget another child. Amnon falls in love with his half-sister Tamar and feigns sickness in order to be alone with her. He rapes her and then throws her out. She complains to her brother Absalom, who plots revenge. Despite David's injunction to leave justice to the crown, Absalom goes to Amnon's pastoral feast and has him murdered. Now that Israel is about to conquer the Ammonite enemy, Joab asks David to come to the war, so that the triumph will belong to him rather than to his general. The Israelites are celebrating their victory when David hears of Amnon's murder. He banishes Absalom. A widow tells him how she stands to lose both sons because one murdered the other; he pronounces in favour of the surviving son, then applies the case to his own circumstances and recalls Absalom — which is what Joab intended in sending the woman to…
Richard the Second
Shakespeare, William · 1595 · Tragedy; History · Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men
HennyiBolingbroke and THOMasIMGWbiay accuse one another of treason. Bolingbroke claims that Mowbray has misappropriated money intended to pay the army, and is responsible for the murder of the Duke of Gleweester. Mowbray insists that the money he kept was in reimbursement of legitimate expenses, but has no very clear rebuttal to the murder charge. They challenge one another to fight, and KimglRi@hard is unable to persuade them out of it. On the appointed day, however, he intervenes to halt the trial by combat and banishes them both, Bolingbroke for a term of years and Mowbray forever; Bolingbroke’s sentence is ===== PAGE 288 ===== cut from ten years to six to please his father, JOHMIS Gaunt Richard is using unorthodox means to raise revenue, including leases and forced loans. He goes to visit Gaunt, who is mortally ill, hoping to find him dead so that he can seize the estate to pay for his Irish wars; but he arrives too soon and has to listen to some dying words of wisdom. He then sequesters Gaunt’s property, despite fRelDUKeIOMork's protest at the dispossession of the rightful heir, Bolingbroke. He goes to Ireland, leaving York to rule England in his absence. NOrhUmbeHand and other nobles, discontented with Richard’s fiscal practices, learn that Bolingbroke is returning to England with an army, and join him. York mobilizes troops to defend the kingdom, but Bolingbroke insists that he only comes to claim his inheritance. Richard returns from Ireland, intending to crush the…
Love's Labor's Lost
Shakespeare, William · 1595 · Comedy · Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men · before the Court;
The King of Navarre has proclaimed a three-year period of study during which his courtiers must live abstemiously and refrain from seeing women; no woman may even approach the court. Unfortunately the Princess of France is due to arrive on a diplomatic mission concerning a dispute over money and territory, and the King is forced to meet her; however, the evidence in support of France’s claim against Navarre has not arrived, and the issue is deferred. Costard is caught canoodling with Jaquenetta and is remitted to Don Armado’s custody. Armado is himself enamoured of Jaquenetta, and sends Costard to her with a love-letter. Biron also pays Costard to carry a similar letter to his love, Rosaline, and Costard mixes up the two letters. Armado’s causes amusement to the French ladies when they receive it; Biron’s causes embarrassment to himself when, directed by Holofernes, Jaquenetta brings it to the King just after Biron has attacked him and the other lords for falling in love. Biron argues the illegitimacy of their original vows, and they set about wooing the ladies, first with gifts, then by appearing in a masque of Russians. The ladies confound the latter by wearing masks themselves and swapping gifts so that each lord woos the wrong lady; they also refuse to dance. Don Armado and the locals offer the court a pageant of the Nine Worthies, devised by the schoolmaster: it is mocked by the lords and breaks up in confusion when Costard accuses Don Armado of fathering the pregnant…
Mustapha
Greville, Fulke · 1596 · Tragedy
Seeking to secure the succession for her son Zanger, Rosa persuades her husband Suleiman that his son Mustapha is plotting against him. Suleiman summons Mustapha to court. His pasha Achmat tries to persuade him of Mustapha’s innocence. Mustapha’s stepsister Camaena attempts to warn him that his life is in danger, but her message is not delivered: it comes instead to Rosa’s attention, and precipitates Camaena’s murder by her mother. Rosa tells Suleiman that her unwarned actions substantiate her tale of Mustapha’s conspiracy: Camaena was also implicated, so she had to die. Heli the priest advises Mustapha not to throw his life away by going to court, but he considers it a higher duty to obey a royal command. He presents himself before Suleiman, who has him strangled. Rosa realizes that the greatest influence on Suleiman is now Achmat, and makes arrangements to have him murdered. But all her plans come to nothing when a disgusted Zanger confronts her with her crimes and commits suicide. The murder also precipitates a popular rebellion against Suleiman, but Achmat refuses to act against him: whatever his guilt as a man, as a ruler he must still command his subjects’ loyalty.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare, William · 1596 · Comedy · Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men
: Theseus has conquered Hippolyta and is soon to marry her. Hermia loves Lysander, but her father Egeus wishes her to marry Demetrius, who has jilted Helena for her. Egeus invokes an Athenian law which allows him to have her executed for disobedience — though Theseus points to the additional option of lifelong — chastity in a nunnery. Lysander proposes fleeing with Hermia beyond Athenian jurisdiction, | and they confide their plans to Helena - who tells Demetrius in the hope of winning his favour. He pursues Lysander and Hermia into the woods, and Helena follows him. Marital strife between Oberon and Titania over a changeling boy has. led to chaos in the natural environment. Oberon sends Robin Goodfellow to fetch a magic flower whose juice can compel love. Seeing Demetrius reject Helena, Oberon sends Robin to use some of the juice on him, while he himself uses some on Titania. On the lookout for Athenian clothing, Robin comes upon Lysander and Hermia sleeping, and anoints his eyes. Helena discovers Lysander, and wakes him; he falls in love with her and pursues her, leaving Hermiaalone. — - A group of artisans, planning to perform Pyramus and Thisbe at Theseus’ wedding, meet for a rehearsal in the woods. They begin to adapt the play to avoid scaring the ladies in the audience, and to make it possible to represent the moon and a wall on stage. During the rehearsal, Robin metamorphoses Bottom, putting an ass’s head on him, and scares off the other artisans. Titania wakes, sees…
2 Henry the Fourth
Shakespeare, William · 1597 · History · Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men
After the battle of Shrewsbury, there are contradictory rumours abroad as to the outcome: some say that the King and his son have vanquished Lord Hotspur of Lancaster, whereas in fact they won. Now Lord John of Lancaster is travelling north with a power, including Sir John Falstaff, to crush the regrouping remnants of the Percy rebellion. Mistress Quickly tries to have Falstaff arrested for debt, while threatens to prevent him setting out for London, but he talks his way out of it. Back from a military expedition in Wales, Prince Henry and Poins disguise themselves as drawers and eavesdrop on Falstaff’s conversation: he says uncomplimentary things about them, but Falstaff excuses himself inventively when confronted. Northumberland’s family persuade him to flee to Scotland rather than join the other northern rebels. Falstaff musters troops in Gloucestershire, but the best men bribe their way out, leaving him with the least suitable soldiers. Prince John sees the rebels and agrees to redress their grievances if they disband their army; but when they do so, he has them arrested for treason. Falstaff arrives in the north late, but meets the rebel Sir John Colville, who promptly surrenders without a fight, having heard Falstaff’s reputation. Prince John returns to court, but Falstaff goes via Gloucestershire to visit Justice Shallow. The sickly King prepares for death, and worries about the kingdom’s future in the hands of his eldest son. News arrives of the defeat of all the…
1 Henry the Fourth
Shakespeare, William · 1597 · History · Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men
Civil war has ended in England, and King H@nryiliV intends to take an English army on a crusade to liberate the Holy Land. The enterprise is delayed by continuing military instability on England’s borders. Lord MOGrfimer has been defeated in battle by Owen Glemd@Wer and taken a prisoner to Wales. In the north, H@#Splr has had better success against the Scots, but refuses to hand over his prisoners until King Henry ransoms Mortimer. But Mortimer has thrown in his lot with Glendower, so Henry refuses. TH@IPEFGy family suspects an ulterior motive: Mortimer was proclaimed heir to the throne during the previous reign, so the King has good reason to want him off the scene. Led by tH@IBAPINSPIWSreeSter, the Percies plan to put together an alliance to rise in rebellion against the King; to that end, Hotspur releases his Scottish prisoners without ransom. THEMPHNCeMSMWales spends his time idly with . BaIStaif and Poyntz, secretly intending to use his bad reputation as a foil to a subsequent reformation. They plan and execute a highway robbery, but the Prince and Poyntz disguise themselves and rob Falstaff in turn. In the tavern afterwards, Falstaffs account of these events grows progressively more inflated and extravagant; but, when confronted with the truth, he claims he knew it was the Prince all the time. News of the Percies’ plans reaches the King, and Prince Henry is summoned to court. Falstaff helps the Prince with a rehearsal: at first he plays the King, but his performance is…
1 The Two Angry Women of Abingdon
Porter, Henry · 1598 · Comedy · Admiral's (Nottingham's) Men
The Gourseys share a meal with their neighbours, the Barnes family, and the two wives fall out over a game of chance. When Barnes admonishes his wife, she suspects him of adultery with Mistress Goursey. With a view to patching up the wives' quarrel, Barnes plans to marry their daughter Mall to Goursey's son, Frank, but Mistress Goursey finds out about it and goes to pick a fight at the Barnes house. Frank successfully woos Mall, but Mistress Barnes's intervention sends the lovers fleeing, intending to rendezvous in Oxford. They get lost in a nearby rabbit warren, where Sir Ralph Smith is also out hunting, determined to bag some venison if it takes him all night. The other characters search for the lovers in the dark; there is an extended sequence of mistaken identities, during which Will, Sir Ralph's woodman, gets the mistaken idea that his master is looking for a wench. Sir Ralph meets one - Mall. She tells him her story and he offers to intervene to reconcile the two mothers. The husbands find the wives brawling over possession of a torch. Mistress Barnes's tendency to call Mistress Goursey a strumpet leads Goursey to suspect that there is no smoke without fire, and that his wife is having an affair with Barnes. Philip Barnes sees things are getting out of hand, and persuades the two angry women to retract their harsh words and make up their quarrel and agree to the marriage. Sir Ralph arrives to find there is no work for him as peacemaker; instead, he asks the two…
Every Man in His Humor
Jonson, Ben · 1598 · Comedy · Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men
Prospero invites DOrenzo—jinior to visit him in Florence and see two gulls, Mathes and Bobadilla; Lorenzo decides to bring along his cousin St@pHAHG as a third. His father has intercepted the letter and, concerned to wean him away from poetry and towards more profitable studies, follows him to the city. The servant Misco follows EGFEHZOISEHIOF and insinuates himself into his master’s service under a new identity, disguised as a soldier. MGFENG is concerned that Prospero has become dissolute, and that the bad company which visits him will corrupt his sister M@Sperida and cuckold him; consequently he is anxious about leaving his house to do business. Matheo, who has been threatened with a cudgelling by GiliaiG, visits Bobadilla at his lodgings and they practice fighting. Later, Bobadilla assaults @6B for speaking against tobacco, and Cob procures a warrant from the city magistrate, DGGtGPIGIEMERL, to prevent ===== PAGE 52 ===== him fighting. Matheo woos Hesperida, using plagiarized verses. Giuliano provokes a fight with Matheo, but Bobadilla cannot participate because he is bound over by Cob’s warrant (and also because he is a coward); Giuliano later gives him a beating, which again he cannot resist. Thorello and his wife are lured away on false errands while Lorenzo Junior marries Hesperida. A series of ‘mistaken identities and tricks by Musco leads all the major characters to Doctor Clement’s house, either as litigants or prisoners. Lorenzo Junior pronounces on the current…
The Death of Robert, Earl of Huntingdon (2 Robin Hood)
Munday, Anthony; Chettle, Henry · 1598 · Tragedy · Admiral's (Nottingham's) Men
SimDoncaster. whose life was saved by RGbimjHGad, is ungrateful: jealous of Robin’s popularity, he tries to regroup his enemies, and wins over {H@§PHOr who agrees to poison Robin. Hearing of the Prior’s wondrous elixir, Robin invites EHEIKGG to taste it at a feast, but drinks it first himself; it proves to be poison. He accuses Doncaster and the Prior of treason — it also emerges that Doncaster is a rapist as well as a murderer ~— and they are sentenced to death. The King assigns the Prior’s lands, which were once Robin’s, to Mariani and, on his deathbed, Robin makes PHHE@JGlHin swear to treat Marian honourably and not to love her beyond the bounds of chastity. Marian reverts to her original name of Matilda. The King dies and is succeeded by John, who resists the temptation to invade Austria, disposes of Alpthur, the rival claimant to his throne, and marries [Sabél, who was already betrothed to another man. Obsessed with Matilda, however, he soon divorces Isabel, and unsuccessfully attempts to woo Matilda in a masque. Matilda’s allies, Bady§Briiée and her younger sGfi, are taken hostage and imprisoned. Seeking to remove her rival, Isabel confronts and assaults Matilda, but she is rescued by §HeiBrices. Though Matilda graciously attempts to exculpate her, Isabel’s behaviour causes her relationship with King John to deteriorate further. Seeking revenge on the entire Bruce family, John has Lady Bruce and her son starved to death. B@BEH is sent to apprehend Matilda, but she…
As You Like It
Shakespeare, William · 1599 · Comedy · Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men
Before the start of the play, Duke Senior was usurped and banished by his younger brother Frederick. Some loyal lords have gone into voluntary exile with him in the Forest of Arden, but his daughter, Rosalind, has remained at court with her beloved cousin, Celia. Upon inheriting his father’s estate, Oliver has neglected his responsibility to educate his younger brother Orlando, keeping him instead in rustic poverty. Orlando remonstrates with Oliver about it without success, then asks for his small inheritance, determined to make his own way in the world. He intends to compete against Charles the wrestler, who has challenged all comers at a forthcoming court show. Charles consults Oliver, concerned that he may injure the young man, but Oliver persuades him that Orlando is a bad lot and that the world would benefit if Charles were to kill him in the match. In the event, Orlando is victorious, but Duke Frederick’s pleasure in his success disappears on learning that he is the son of Sir Rowland, a personal enemy. Rosalind falls in love with Orlando, but he is too tongue-tied to speak to her. Frederick banishes Rosalind. She and Celia flee to the forest in disguise, taking the court fool Touchstone with them; for security, Rosalind poses as a youth, Ganymede, and buys a cottage on arrival. Frederick hears rumours that Orlando may have absconded with them. Meanwhile, Oliver attempts to murder Orlando by burning down his lodging, so the young man escapes to the forest with the old…
1 Edward the Fourth
Heywood, Thomas (?) · 1599 · History · Derby's (Strange's) Men
Although he has made diplomatic arrangements to marry a French princess, King Edward impulsively takes an English bride instead, much to his mother's disapproval. The bastard Falconbridge leads a rebellion to reinstate the deposed King Henry VI. The London authorities prepare the city's defences: Falconbridge is unable to penetrate the gates, the city apprentices make a significant contribution to the battle, and the rebels are beaten back to Mile End. When they regroup, the Londoners rout them again, and Matthew Shore defeats a rearguard attempt to take the city while the militia are at Mile End. The King rewards the civic officials with knighthoods, but Shore modestly declines. Falconbridge flees with a price on his head, and he and his associate Spicing plan to betray one another and claim the reward. A miller captures Spicing, but Falconbridge escapes. Spicing is hanged by his former comrade in arms, Chub. While out hunting, members of the court encounter Hobs the tanner. King Edward, pretending to be his own butler, tries to induce Hobs to say something uncomplimentary or treasonous about him, but fails. He accepts the tanner's invitation to supper, where he takes a fancy to Hobs's daughter Nell. Meanwhile, things are going King Edward's way: his brother Gloucester sends word that King Henry VI is dead, and Falconbridge is captured and executed. Back in London, he dines with the Lord Mayor, where he meets Jane Shore. He is attracted to her and grapples with his…
Old Fortunatus
Dekker, Thomas · 1599 · Romance · Admiral's (Nottingham's) Men · before the Court;
Fortunatus gets lost in a wood and falls asleep. He is found by Fortune, attended by fallen kings who complain of her capricious control of their destiny. To spite them, she decides to advance Fortunatus’ fortunes, and offers him a choice of six gifts: wisdom, strength, health, beauty, longevity, or riches. He chooses wealth, and she gives him a purse which will always contain ten gold pieces, of legal tender wherever he may be. Fortunatus travels the world, visiting potentates, and bestows bottomless purses on every host. The Sultan of Babylon boats of his collection of treasures, and shows him the finest: an old hat which will transport its wearer anywhere in an instant. By a ruse, the Sultan puts it on Fortunatus’ head, and he wishes himself back home to Cyprus, thereby acquiring possession of the hat. Fortune decides that he has abused her gifts and reminds him that he did not choose long life or wisdom. He will die at the height of his fortunes with his sins black upon his soul, and will have no opportunity to repent. He dies there and then, leaving the purse and hat to his sons. The virtuous Ampedo takes the hat, while his imprudent younger brother Andelocia has the purse. Andelocia goes to England, where the Prince of Cyprus is wooing the King’s daughter, Agrippine; she is also loved by the melancholy French prisoner Orleans. On arrival, Andelocia is bountiful with largesse, which leaves King Athelstan itching to take him down a peg or two, and eager to learn the…
2 Edward the Fourth
Heywood, Thomas (?) · 1599 · History · Derby's (Strange's) Men
King Edward invades France; but the Duke of Burgundy and the Constable of France fail to supply the military aid they promised. Several English soldiers are shot by the Constable's men in a failed attempt to assassinate Edward; the Constable pleads an accident,The English herald sent to King Louis is offered peace terms, which Edward modifies: Louis must submit to his suzerainty, and pay both the expenses of the invasion and an annual tribute thereafter. Louis accepts the offer and a treaty is agreed. Burgundy and the Constable try to double-cross both Edward and one another: each writes independently to both Edward and Louis, offering Louis Edward's murder and Edward assistance against Louis. Edward feigns deafness, forcing the envoys to speak loud enough for the hidden Louis to hear; then confronts the envoys with their masters' treachery. He returns to England, leaving troops in France to help Louis rout the traitors. Jane Shore visits the London prisons, distributing alms to the prisoners. Brakenbury solicits her help to procure a pardon for his kinsman Strangwidge, whose actions against French shipping were committed in ignorance of the recent treaty which made them piratical. Also condemned is his passenger, known as Flood but actually Matthew Shore. The Queen first confronts, then forgives Jane for her adultery with Edward. The King pardons Strangwidge and his crew, and Jane pays their prison fees herself. Brakenbury employs 'Flood' at the Tower. Edward has fallen ill…
Julius Caesar
Shakespeare, William · 1599 · Tragedy · Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men
Caesar returns to Rome triumphant over Pompey. He is warned to beware the Ides of March, and later offered the crown, which he refuses. Meanwhile Cassius sounds out Brutus’ attitude to Caesar’s ambition, and determines to screw him up to conspiracy. Supernatural portents disturb the night before the Ides of March. Brutus convinces himself that Caesar must be assassinated to prevent him establishing himself as a monarch. The conspirators meet at his house, and Brutus insists on limiting the scope of the plot. Cicero is not to be taken into their confidence, Mark Antony is to be spared, and only Caesar murdered. After the conspirators have left, Portia forces Brutus to take her into his confidence. The portents and Calpurnia’s anxiety persuade Caesar to stay at home, but Decius convinces him to go to the Senate as arranged. Artemidorus tries to give him a letter warning against the conspirators, but he refuses to read it. He is stabbed to death, and confusion ensues. Against Cassius’ wishes, Brutus agrees that Antony may speak at Caesar’s funeral. Brutus’ speech justifying the assassination temporarily convinces the mob, but Antony’s rhetoric, and a bequest in Caesar’s will, turns them against the conspirators. Brutus and Cassius flee Rome. In the riots that follow, the conspirators’ houses are burned and Cinna the poet killed, mistaken for the conspirator of the same name. Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus seize power, draw up a death list, and make preparations for war with…
The Shoemaker's Holiday, or The Gentle Craft
Dekker, Thomas · 1599 · Comedy · Admiral's (Nottingham's) Men · before the Court;
Before the start of the action, Lacy went bankrupt on a Continental tour, and learned the cobbler's trade in Wittenberg. On his return to England, he fell in love with Rose Oatley, but they fall foul of disapproving relatives: the Earl of Lincoln contrives for Lacy to leave the country. as a commander in the French wars, and her father takes her away to his country house. The newly married shoemaker Ralph is recruited into the army and takes a sad leave of his wife, Jane, and his colleagues. Lacy, however, deserts after the troops take ship: he sends his cousin to war in his place, and returns to London in the hope of making contact with Rose. Disguised as a Dutch shoemaker, Hans, he seeks employment with Simon Eyre and, though the business does not need another journeyman, he is accepted because Eyre's other workmen like him. A Dutch ship arrives in London with a rich cargo of luxury items, which the skipper offers at a bargain price; Lacy helps Eyre to buy the goods, using the money Lincoln gave him for his expenses in France. Eyre grows prosperous and becomes first an alderman, then Sheriff, and makes over his shop to his foreman. Hodge. In the country, Rose meets Hammon during a hunt, and her father thinks him a suitable son-in-law; at the betrothal, however, she rejects him and declares that she will live a maid. Hammon decides to try his luck with a London shopkeeper instead. The English rout the French in battle with relatively few fatal casualties, but Ralph is…
Jack Drum's Entertainment (Katherine and Pasquil)
Marston, John · 1600 · Comedy · Children of Paul's (second)
The liberal Sir Edward Fortune has two daughters, Katherine and Camelia, and numerous would-be sons- in-law; he is concerned that the girls should marry their own choice of husband. Katherine is pursued by the usurer Mammon, who criticizes Sir Edward for excessive generosity, and by Master Puff, but she © prefers Pasquil. Camelia loves Ned Brabant, but others, including the foolish John Ellis and the lustful ~ - Frenchman Monsieur John fo’ de King are interested in her. Witnessing an early-morning encounter between Pasquil and Katherine, Mammon engages _ ===== PAGE 217 ===== 1600 Monsieur John to murder Pasquil, but Pasquil pays him more to report the deed done without actually committing it. On hearing the rumours that Pasquil is dead, Katherine disappears. Camelia’s waiting-woman Winifred has been bribed to promote John Ellis’s suit, and Camelia duly transfers her affections to Ellis, jilting Ned Brabant. Outraged, Brabant’s friend Planet bribes Winifred to change her recommendation. Camelia changes her mind just as Ellis and her father are about to agree a marriage contract, and wants Planet instead. She sends a love- gift to Planet, but he rejects her, thereby avenging her treatment of Brabant. But Brabant does not know what Planet is up to, and becomes murderously jealous when he sees the offer of Camelia’s favour. He sends his page to shoot Planet, then takes Planet’s hat and coat in order to pose as him for an assignation with Camelia. Wer behaviour makes Planet’s…
Alaham
Greville, Fulke · 1600 · Tragedy
Before the start of the action, an oracle foretold that the kingdom’s security depended on the death of the King’s eldest son, Zophi; but the pashas, ruling during the King’s senility, merely banished him. Hala, wife of the younger son, Alaham, has had a series of affairs with pashas: first Muhammad, who was forced into exile as a result, then Cain. Seeking to secure his position, Alaham has recalled Muhammad, ===== PAGE 189 ===== 1600 but Muhammad has recalled Zophi in turn, cutting Alaham out of the succession. Hala seeks to make Cain king, and persuades him to murder Muhammad; but he changes his mind after Muhammad warns him of Alaham’s ambition: Cain will tell Alaham that Muhammad is dead, but in reality he will go into hiding. Meanwhile Alaham corrupts the guard, blinds his father and brother, and seizes power. When Cain tells him of Muhammad's death, he is sent for execution — if not for murder then for lying about it, as he is told when he tries to save himself. Alaham’s sister Caelica helps Zophi and their father to take sanctuary in the temple. Alaham has the city searched, finds Caelica, and arrests her. Her cries bring the old King out of hiding, and he too is arrested. The King, Caelica, and Zophi are all burned to death; as they die, their souls call out for vengeance. Seeking to avenge Cain’s death, Hala sends Alaham a poisoned robe, and plans to kill their son before his face, so that the other child, Cain’s bastard, will inherit the kingdom; but she…
Il Pastor Fido, or The Faithful Shepherd
Dymoke, Tailboys, trans.; Guarini, Giovanni Battista · 1601 · Pastoral
Years ago, AWAVRE, two-timed by DUST prayed to DiSNa for vengeance. She sent death to Arcadia, and the oracle decreed that her wrath could be appeased only when Lucrina is sacrificed at the hands of Amyntas. Lucrina was brought to the altar, but Amyntas took pity on her and killed himself; recognizing the truth of his love, Lucrina then herself committed a remorseful suicide in turn. But the curse was remitted only temporarily, and {i#@@nnualhuman SAGHHEES must continue; Diana will be permanently pacified only by a marriage between a couple, both of GivVi@NGSS2hH) and by the pity of a faithful shepherd. Such a couple has been identified: SHMSl and AMmamillis; but Silvio is uninterested in women, preferring to hunt the boar which has been ravaging the countryside. ; A chain of failed amours proceeds from. this. AMaHGS is loved by MEFGHG) who thinks himself too poor and lowly to be worthy of her. He has tried to get access to her by dressing as a nymph; in this disguise he became unwittingly involved in a Sapphic kissing contest, and was adjudged the winner by Amarillis. Returning home to tend to his sick father, he pined away, and an oracle reported that his only hope was to go t@NAIRGadial — so here he is. He in turn is both loved and hated by G&HiSE4) who has learned the amorous arts in the city: she loves him for his beauty, hates him for his interest in Amarillis. She offers to promote his suit to ABZ) in order to take revenge on them both. Corisca has led on a…
Poetaster, or The Arraignment
Jonson, Ben · 1601 · Comedy · Children of the Chapel (second) · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
Ovid’s father wants him to be a lawyer, but he prefers poetry. He attends an assignation of poets and their loves at Albius’ house. Crispinus, wishing to cuckold the jeweller, observes how taken his wife Chloé is with poets, and determines to become a poet himself. He forces his company on Horace, who escapes when an apothecary tries to arrest Crispinus for debt. Tucca intervenes to save him, and arranges for him to contribute to the controversial play satirizing poets which the players, anxious to attract audiences after a poor winter’s playing season, have hired Demetrius to write. Julia hosts a drunken banquet at court for the poets and ladies, who all dress as gods and goddesses, hiring appropriate props from the players, including a crown and sceptre. Lupus hears about this and, mistakenly believing that treason is plotted, brings the Emperor to interrupt the banquet. Appalled at the poets’ impiety and abuse of their talents, and at his daughter’s wantonness, Augustus banishes Ovid and imprisons Julia. A poetry reading by Virgil is interrupted by Lupus, who thinks he has detected more treason, and is exposed as a fool. Crispinus and Demetrius are tried for defamation of Horace and found guilty. Horace gives Crispinus a purge, and he vomits his obscure vocabulary. 1601 B-Text After the play has finished, two critics visit the author in his study and debate the play’s origins and the controversy over its personal satire; the author proposes that his next play will be a…
The Contention between Liberality and Prodigality
Anonymous · 1601 · Moral · Children of the Chapel (second) · before the Court;
Fortune rules the world even though her gifts are unreliable, whereas Virtue rewards genuine merit. The roisterer Prodigality and the miser Tenacity both sue to Fortune for the custody of her son Money, and this is granted to Prodigality. Meanwhile, various suitors approach Liberality, Virtue’s steward: the good are rewarded and the impatient told to wait and accrue desert. Prodigality falls into bad company and loses everything: Money has to pay all the bills, grows lean, and goes home to his mother. He is then granted to Tenacity, is kept indoors and grows fat for lack of exercise. Prodigality turns to burglary to steal back Money, but Fortune puts a halter around his neck as he is climbing into the house; he is saved from hanging when the rope snaps. He fatally assaults Tenacity, finds Money, and offers medical treatment for his obesity. Pursued by a hue and cry, he is arrested for robbery and murder. Money is given into the safe keeping of Liberality, and Prodigality is indicted and sentenced to death. He admits that his situation is the result of a bad life and over-reliance on Fortune. The court petitions Queen Elizabeth, in the audience, for a reprieve.
Sir Giles Goosecap
Chapman, George · 1602 · Comedy · Children of the Chapel (second)
The widow Eugenia lives in chastity with two virgins, Hippolyta and Penelope. They entertain three foolish would-be suitors to supper: Sir Giles Goosecap, Sir Cuthbert Rudesby, and Captain Foulweather. A page tells the guests that the ladies plan an early morning visit to Barnet the next day, and encourages them to rendezvous there; in fact, it is to be a wild-goose chase. The pages later meet the suitors on their way back, and tell them that the ladies decided not to go after all, asa test of tolerance. Clarence is also in love with Eugenia, and confides this to his best friend, her uncle, Lord Momford. Disturbed to hear of the supper with the knights, Momford visits his niece and tries to press Clarence’s suit. Relatives of Goosecap and Rudesby likewise sing their in-laws’ praises, albeit rather unconvincingly. Momford brings a love-letter from Clarence and tries to get Eugenia to reply; he agrees to take dictation from her, but writes down her refusal with additional phrases which turn it into an acceptance, then signs her name on her behalf. Momford invites the ladies to supper. Eugenia is persuaded to come only on the assurance that Clarence is too ill to be present. The other suitors are also invited. Momford takes his guests on a tour of the house, during which they overhear Clarence discussing Eugenia with his doctor - an ‘accident’ which was planned by Momford all along. Eugenia suspects that he also intends to arrange a more direct encounter with Clarence, so she…
Wily Beguiled
Anonymous (?) · 1602 · Comedy · Unknown
Grip the usurer wants to marry his daughter Lelia to the foolish son of his neighbour, Ploddall, in order to gain control of Ploddall’s extensive land-holdings. For her part, Lelia loves the scholar Sophos, but Grip doesn’t think him rich enough and warns the young man off. The fathers agree and Churms the lawyer is engaged to draw up the marriage contract. Churms persuades Grip to let him visit her to intercede for Peter Ploddall, and also agrees to act as an intermediary woeer for Sophos; but all the while his objective is to win Lelia for himself. Meanwhile he engages Robin Goodfellow to provide Peter with a fake love-philtre for Lelia, and to frame Sophos for rape so that Lelia will fall out of love with him. Robin in turn plans to cozen Churms of Lelia and Grip of his money; but his plotting is overheard by Grip’s son, Fortunatus, who has just returned from the wars. Fortunatus finds the despairing Sophos sleeping in the woods, and listens to his woes. It becomes clear that Churms is double-crossing Sophos, so Fortunatus lays a plot. At her brother's behest, Lelia arranges to abscond with Churms, who capitalizes Grip’s debts at less than their true value in order to finance the elopement. While Fortunatus and Sophos are waiting ===== PAGE 368 ===== to.intercept Churms, Robin tries to frighten Sophos by dressing up as the devil, but Fortunatus beats him and forces him to admit his misdeeds. When the eloping ‘couple’ arrive, Fortunatus intervenes and asks Lelia to choose…
The Royal King and the Loyal Subject
Heywood, Thomas · 1602 · Romance · Unknown
The King of England returns home from a crusade, where his life was saved in battle by the Marshal. He rewards the Marshal with eminence, which makes the other lords jealous. At a hunt, the King’s horse loses a shoe; the Marshal gives him the shoes off his own horse. He also magnanimously allows the Prince to beat him in a tournament. The envious lords try to persuade the King that the Marshal’s humility is a cloak for pride and ambition, and that he wishes to be greater than the King himself in his magnanimity. The King resolves to test the Marshal, and treats him badly at a public feast: he is dismissed from office and his job is handed over to his greatest enemy, Chester; then he is told to leave the court altogether. He retires to the country, but the King orders him to send his favourite daughter to court for some sexual purpose. The Marshal sends his elder daughter, Isabella, subject to the condition that the King should return her if he dislikes her; and gives her instructions that she should conceal any pregnancy and constantly tell the King that her sister is better looking. The King makes Isabella his Queen, and, unbidden, the Marshal sends a generous dowry. She becomes pregnant, but does as her father instructs; she also tells her husband of her sister Katherine’s superior beauty. Affronted, the King sends her home along with the dowry and orders the Marshal to send Katherine. The Marshal claims that Katherine is ill and unable to travel, but promises to send her…
Antonio and Mellida
1602 · Tragicomedy · Children of Paul's (second)
The Genoese navy is routed by the Venetians, and the defeated Duke and his son Antonio are banished; the victorious Venetian Duke Piero proclaims a price on both their heads. Meanwhile, aristocratic suitors have come to Venice to woo Mellida, Piero's daughter and Antonio's love. Shipwrecked in Venetian territory and believing his father dead, Antonio disguises himself as an Amazon. He meets Mellida and is received at court; at first he maintains his alias, pretending to have seen Antonio die, but then reveals himself to Mellida. He makes arrangements to abscond with her to England; the plot is discovered, but they escape, separately, in disguise. Andrugio too is alive, believing Antonio to have perished, and he too has been washed up in Venice. Father and fugitive son are reunited in the Venetian marsh; then Antonio meets the disguised Mellida. Piero's search party captures Mellida; she is imprisoned and will be forced to marry her suitor Galeazzo. The courtiers perform a wedding masque, during which Andrugio arrives, to claim Piero's proffered reward for bringing his own head. Piero is astounded at his courage and renounces their enmity. Antonio prompts further remorse by feigning his own death; he rises from his coffin when Piero wishes Mellida's love could bring him back to life. Galeazzo agrees to give up Mellida (he was never that fond of her anyway), and Piero gives her to Antonio, along with the promised gold.
The Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyatt
Dekker, Thomas; Webster, John; Heywood, Thomas (?); Chettle, Henry (?) · 1602 · History · Worcester's Men
The King of England is dying. Northumberland and Suffolk conspire to disinherit his sister, Mary, in favour of Suffolk’s daughter, the reluctant Lady Jane Grey. When news arrives of the King’s death, they have her proclaimed Queen. Sir Thomas Wyatt, refusing to be a party to this, leaves court, and brings the news to Mary, who is living in frugal retirement. Northumberland and Suffolk raise an army against Mary, but Wyatt and the Lord Treasurer speak in the Council for a legal succession in accordance with the will of King Henry VIII. Mary is proclaimed Queen in London, and Lady Jane and her husband Guildford Dudley are arrested. Northumberland is ordered to discharge his troops and come to court, and is arrested. Suffolk is on the run. His servant, Holmes, brings him food, but also brings the Sheriff to arrest him. Holmes is paid well, but later strangles himself in remorse. Queen Mary begins to make fiscal arrangements, and reneges on her promise not to make any alteration in state religion: she plans to restore the Roman Catholic church. She also plans to marry Philip of Spain, contrary to the laws established by her father. Northumberland is executed. Disgusted at the prospect of Spanish infiltration, Wyatt raises rebellion in Kent. Part of Norfolk’s army defects to Wyatt on nationalist grounds, but when Pembroke bars the gates of London against him, his supporters slink away and he is arrested. Jane and Guildford are tried, and declare their innocence; Guildford notes…
May Day
Chapman, George · 1602 · Comedy · Children of the Queen's Revels · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
It is May morning. In accordance with the season, old Lorenzo is planning an amorous, adulterous adventure with Francischina, and approaches her kinsman Angelo to act as go-between. Francischina’s husband too is going out with his gull, Innocentio, who is to observe gentlemanly behaviour at an ordinary. Lodovico makes doubly sure of his absence by introducing him to an admirer, Giovanelli, and they go to a tavern together. He is implicated in a second plot which in turn requires Lorenzo to be away from his home: Lorenzo’s daughter Aemilia, whom he plans to marry against her will to Gasparo, loves Aurelio, and Lodovico has promised to bring him to her at the house’s rear terrace. Meanwhile, Leonoro conspires with Temperance to win the love of Lucretia, Aurelio’s cousin. Nothing goes entirely according to plan. Lorenzo comes to Francischina disguised as a chimney-sweep, so that he can enter the house without risk to her honour, but Lodovico lets his friends in on the secret and they tease him on the way; later Angelo pretends to be Quintiliano coming home early, and frightens Lorenzo into hiding. Aurelio’s assignation with Aemilia turns out to involve more than talking when Lodovico provides a rope ladder and he climbs up onto the terrace, which gives access to her bedroom. Lodovico waits below, muffled in his cloak, and Temperance mistakes him for Leonoro; she invites him in just as the real Leonoro arrives and is taken to Lucretia’s chamber. When he gets into bed with her,…
The Family of Love
Barry, Lording · 1603 · Comedy · Children of the King's Revels
Glister forbids his ward Maria to see Gerardine, and confines her to his house. He is invited to a supper party at Purge’s, where Gerardine’s will is to be read. On the way, Gerardine and his friends pass beneath Maria’s window, and she warns him how dangerous it would be for him to climb up to see her, thereby dropping a hint. The will is read: Gerardine is going On a voyage overseas, and has made Maria his heir; his property is in a trunk, which is to be given into Glister’s safe-keeping until he returns. Glister takes delivery of the trunk. Once Maria is alone with the trunk, Gerardine emerges from it. Their tryst is interrupted by Lipsalve, who overheard Maria’s indirect instructions and now poses as Gerardine in hope of an assignation; he goes away unsuccessful, and Gerardine has sex with Maria, promising to marry her later. Glister is consulted first by Lipsalve and then by Gudgeon, each of whom wants magical help in cuckolding Purge. Glister agrees to a stratagem: Lipsalve must pretend to be away for a few days, but stay in his lodgings; Glister will conjure a spirit to bring Mistress Purge there. Each would-be lover is told that the spirit will take the form of the other, and that he must attack it with a whip supplied by Glister. Each keeps the appointment, and whips the other before they realize the trick that has been played on them. Mistress Purge is a member of the Family of Love, a radical Christian sect which is also a women’s sex club. Her husband overhears…
The Royal Entertainment of the Queen and Prince at Althorp (The Satyr)
Jonson, Ben · 1603 · Entertainment · before the Court;
On arrival at Althorp, the Queen and Prince meet a Satyr, who quarrels with the fairies because Queen Mab has refused to kiss him, and gets pinched. The fairies give the Queen a gift, and the Satyr presents the Prince with,a boy huntsman to be his servant. The Queen and Prince see two deer killed. Two days later, country morris dancers arrive, sent by nobody and introduced by Nobody. A young man implores the Queen and Prince not to leave, and encourages Prince Henry to look forward to the time when he will lead them to war in Europe.
Sejanus His Fall
Jonson, Ben · 1603 · Tragedy · King's Men
While disaffected Romans whisper, the favourite Séjamus dominates the court with his spies and corruptly sells offices; it is rumoured that he seeks imperial status for himself. He has an affair with Livia and arranges the death by poison of her husband Drasiis} He and the Emperor MibETUS plot to destabilize the opposition, effectively led by Agtippinal To that end, they have Silii§ and @6rdus tried for treason before the Senate; Silius pre-empts the verdict by publicly committing suicide. Sejanus persuades Tiberius to retire from: Rome, but makes him suspicious by seeking to marry Livia (and so become part of the imperial family). Leaving Sejanus as his deputy in Rome, Tiberius also assigns Maer to watch and act against him. Sejanus returns to favour when he saves the Emperor’s life after a rockfall. The legalized harassment of dissent is stepped up: Agrippina’s son @aligala escapes from Rome with Macro, but his mother and brothers are arrested and condemned. Rumours of Tiberius’ debaucheries circulate in Rome, while his treatment of Sejanus seems increasingly ambiguous: the favourites’ allies and enemies seem both to be given high office. Portents like the appearance of a Biantisiake inside Sejanus’ statue prefigure his fall. He professes atheism, accepting only the power of Fertile, but at a religious ceremony the statue of Fortune turns her face from him. The Senate is summoned to hear a communication from the Emperor, and rumours circulate that Sejanus is to be invested…
The London Prodigal
Anonymous · 1604 · Comedy · King's Men
Old Flowerdale returns secretly from Venice and hears tales of his son’s prodigality. Wanting to think the best of his offspring, he tests the young man by posing as Christopher, a sailor bringing news of his own death and a will disinheriting his son. Under his new identity he lends his son money to enable him to pursue an advantageous marriage to Sir Lancelot’s daughter Luce, and enters his service to observe him at close quarters. Sir Lancelot is trying to get husbands for all three of his daughters, but Delia prefers a virgin life. For Luce, Sir Lancelot initially favours the wealthy bumpkin Oliver, and takes his part when Young Flowerdale challenges him to a duel. However, ‘Christopher’ forges a will which makes Flowerdale seem richer than Oliver, so Sir Lancelot changes his mind and persuades Flowerdale to go to his own wedding rather than keep his appointment to fight Oliver. It is to be a double wedding: another daughter, Frances, is marrying a merchant’s son. Flowerdale makes no secret of the fact that he intends to exploit Luce financially. Disappointed in him, Old Flowerdale arranges for his uncle to have him arrested for debt immediately after the wedding; apart from teaching the young man a lesson, it will also establish whether Luce genuinely loves him. When Sir Lancelot tries to shrug off the debt, the will is exposed as a fraud. Luce, who only married Flowerdale in obedience to her father, now insists on honouring her marital vows. Intending that Flowerdale…
1 The Honest Whore (1 The Converted Courtesan) (The Patient Man and the Honest Whore)
Dekker, Thomas; Middleton, Thomas · 1604 · Comedy · Prince Henry's Men
Count Hippolito attempts to make a scene at the funeral of the Duke’s daughter, Infelice, but is restrained. In fact, Infelice is not dead: the Duke administered a sleeping draught to prevent her from marrying Hippolito. When she wakes, he tells her Hippolito is dead and sends her away to Bergamo, then accepts Dr Benedict’s offer to poison Hippolito. Bellafront the courtesan falls in love with Hippolito when his friend and her client Matheo brings him to meet her. He mistrusts her protestation that, for him, she will become honest, and speaks harshly against whores. But she fulfils her promise: dismisses her pander Roger (who quickly finds alternative employment) and sends away her former clients, including Matheo. On a Monday, she goes to visit Hippolito, disguised as a page; she finds him in solemn meditation (since Infelice supposedly died on a Monday), and he rejects her again. Dr Benedict tells the Duke that he has been poisoned, and is banished for it; but in fact he has done no such thing, and tells Hippolito that Infelice is not only alive, but waiting at the madhouse to marry him. Meanwhile, Fustigo returns to Milan to find that his sister has married Candido, a man apparently incapable of anger. This is demonstrated in a wager between three gentlemen who try to make him lose his temper: first Castruccio poses as a customer and makes unreasonable demands, which Candido meets even though it means spoiling a piece of cloth; then Fluello steals a beaker from the…
When You See Me You Know Me (Henry the Eighth)
Rowley, Samuel · 1604 · History · Prince Henry's Men
Cardinalgwoisey uses his power over English foreign policy to buy international support for his candidacy for the papacy. To win over the King of France, he abets the ambassadors sent to negotiate a marriage with King Henry’s sister, BAGyaMary. QHEEHIANE dies giving birth to Prince Edward; Wolsey hopes that the King will not now marry a Protestant. Harried by Irish rebellion and international Protestant opposition to his activities, the King has a four-day bout of bad temper until Wall§SOmers jests him back to good humour. He then learns that the Pope has awarded him the title Defender of the Faith; in return, Henry agrees to contribute military assistance to repulse the Turkish invasion of Rhodes. Having heard of lax policing in London, King Henry decides to see for himself, and pays the city a nocturnal visit in disguise. He catches the watch asleep on duty, and witnesses their failure to arrest a night-walking criminal, BI@ERIWG. He and Black Will fight, and are arrested; Henry sends word to the Duke of Suffolk that he is in prison. He is there, observing abuses and amusing himself with his fellow-prisoners, when Suffolk arrives to release him. Black Will is given money to keep him in jail until the King needs him for a soldier. Later the King investigates the abuses and dismisses a servant, RGOKSBY. Protestantism grows in popularity in England, a process furthered by the King’s marriage to Kathenine Parr she has anti-Catholic views on such issues as ===== PAGE 146 =====…
Measure for Measure
Shakespeare, William; Middleton, Thomas, rev. · 1604 · Tragicomedy · King's Men
Duke Vincentio appoints Angelo as his deputy during his absence from Vienna, but arranges to remain in the city disguised as a friar. He explains to Friar Thomas, who helps with the disguise, that his objective is the restoration of the strict penal laws against sexual immorality which he has allowed to slip; Angelo, famous for his rectitude, will be able to effect this without risk of personal censure. But the Duke is also interested in how Angelo himself will respond to the challenges and temptations of power. Angelo does as expected, enforcing the laws which make begetting a child out of wedlock a capital crime. Claudio is arrested: he has made his fiancée Julietta pregnant, having been unable to have their marriage publicly solemnized because her family disapproves and would withhold her dowry. Claudio asks his friend Lucio to get his sister Isabella, who is about to enter a nunnery, to intercede with Angelo on his behalf. Isabella goes to see Angelo, who initially rejects her pleas, but then defers a decision and asks to see her again. At the second meeting, he offers her a bargain: Claudio’s life will be spared in exchange for sex with her. When he learns of the proposal, Claudio is torn between honour and fear, but finally urges Isabella to accept; she is chastely unwilling to do so. The Duke overhears their conversation, enjoins Claudio to prepare himself for death, and offers Isabella an option. Angelo was engaged to marry Mariana, but jilted her after her dowry was…
Westward Ho
Dekker, Thomas; Webster, John · 1604 · Comedy · Children of Paul's (second)
Through the bawd Birdlime, an earl is trying to corrupt Mistress Justiniano, but despite her husband’s jealous suspicions she has so far resisted his advances and remained chaste. He pretends bankruptcy, and tells her he is going abroad; but in fact he remains in London disguised as a writing teacher, Parenthesis. Meanwhile his wife, feeling the force of her poverty, is tempted by the Earl The wives of three citizens, Tenterhook, Wafer, and Honeysuckle, have a tavern assignation (arranged by ‘Parenthesis’) with Sir Gosling Glow-worm and friends; there they plan a journey westward by boat for a sexual night out in Brentford, with the wives’ absence explained by a ruse. ‘Parenthesis’ agrees to report that they have gone to visit Wafer’s sick child, and does so disguised as a collier. Mistress Tenterhook arranges for her kinsman Monopoly to be arrested for an unpaid debt to her husband, then bribes the arresting officer to free him so that he can join the party going to Brentford. ‘While their wives are away, the three citizens all try fo visit the same prostitute; Birdlime tries to juggle 1604 them, but they discover each other’s identities. Justiniano reveals himself and tells them where their wives really are, then takes his wife’s place, cross- dressed, at her assignation with the Earl. Discovering the substitution, the Earl thinks he has been visited by a succubus. Justiniano pretends he has poisoned his wife and shows the dead body; this is only a ruse, but the Earl is…
King Lear
Shakespeare, William · 1605 · Tragedy · King's Men · before the Court;Globe;Whitehall;Outdoor Professional
King Lear intends to divide his kingdom between his sons-in-law: they will become the effective rulers, while he remains titular king with a retinue of knights, residing with each by monthly turns. His elder daughters, Goneril and Regan, are already married to dukes of the north and west of Britain; his youngest, Cordelia, is being courted by two suitors from mainland Europe. Lear requires that each daughter make a public statement of her love for him, to determine her merit and therefore her share of the kingdom. Goneril and Regan give it their all, but Cordelia refuses to make a self-serving and insincere statement which will encroach on the rights of her future husband. In consequence, she gets nothing, and the Earl of Kent is banished when he tries to intervene; the King of France marries her anyway, without a dowry. Kent stays in the kingdom, disguises himself, and gets himself a place in Lear’s service. Lear proves a difficult house-guest, and Goneril an ungracious hostess. When she asks him to reduce his retinue, he angrily moves on early to stay with Regan. Father and daughter both send letters ahead to explain the situation, carried by Kent and Oswald respectively; Goneril’s messenger meets with a better reception. Kent brawls with Oswald and is put in the stocks, which offends Lear when he arrives, closely followed by Goneril. The two daughters demand progressively greater diminutions in the number of Lear’s knights. Rather than stay with either of them, he…
2 The Honest Whore (2 The Converted Courtesan)
Dekker, Thomas · 1605 · Comedy · Prince Henry's Men
On his way to court, Hippolito receives petitioners, including the reformed courtesan Bellafront: she wants his help in petitioning the Duke to pardon her husband Matheo, who has been condemned to death for homicide. Hippolito solicits the help of Bellafront’s father Orlando, but he is still morally outraged at her former sexual misconduct. Nevertheless he secretly arranges for Matheo’s release, and enters his household disguised as a servingman, Pacheco. Matheo proves dissolute, and when ‘Pacheco’ gives him money for safe keeping, he gambles it all away. Bellafront is trying not to let poverty and Matheo’s prodigality force her back into prostitution. Hippolito, who converted her from whoredom, now tries to seduce her back again. She sends ‘Pacheco’ to return his love-tokens, but ‘Pacheco’ instead takes them to Infelice, who identifies them as her own gifts to Hippolito. She interrogates Hippolito’s go-between, Brian the footman, then tells her husband that Brian gave her the love-tokens and had an affair with her. Brian is dismissed and goes home to Ireland. Desperate for money, Matheo strips the gown from his wife’s back and sells it. Lodovico promises to furnish him as a gentleman, so he is properly dressed when Orlando visits in his own person. The old man feigns lack of sympathy, then returns as Pacheco in time to prevent Matheo assaulting Bellafront. Prompted by Orlando, the Duke takes a hand: he issues a warrant to arrest Matheo for robbing two pedlars (who were…
Northward Ho
Dekker, Thomas; Webster, John · 1605 · Comedy · Children of Paul's (second)
Luke Greenshield has failed to seduce Moll Mayberry in her husband’s absence; now he dines with Mayberry at Ware and describes how he slept with an unnamed wife, showing him her wedding ring. Mayberry grows jealous and hurries back to London to confront Moll, but is satisfied by her explanation that the ring was stolen. Seeking revenge, he has her play up to Greenshield’s advances on his next visit to the house. Greenshield arranges lodgings at one of Mayberry’s houses for himself and Kate, a young woman whom he introduces as his sister, but who is actually his wife. The servants are soon aware that they are sleeping together, and also that Kate has a habit of sleep- walking around the house and ending up in Featherstone’s bedroom; actually she is shamming with a view to visiting Featherstone, her lover. ===== PAGE 241 ===== 1605 Meanwhile, Philip is arrested for debt after spending lavishly on the prostitute Doll. His father Bellamont grudgingly pays up and he is released; the price of Philip’s freedom is to have to listen to some moralistic exhortation. In response, he conspires with Doll (who has a tendency to swindle her clients out of money and valuables by way of love-gifts). She poses as a wealthy lady who wants to hire Bellamont to write some verses; Philip then introduces her as the girlfriend whom Bellamont criticized. Doll is smitten with the old man and visits him at home; but when she arrives, he is engaged with Captain Jenkins, Doll’s client, who also wants to…
2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody (The Second Part of Queen Elizabeth's Troubles)
Heywood, Thomas · 1605 · History · Queen Anne's Men
GhomasyGresham is in long legal dispute with Sir (homaspRamisay over a land deal: Gresham outbid Ramsay after contracts were exchanged, bought the land and built on it, so each man now claims ownership. DEINGWEll adjudicates fairly between them and makes them friends. Under the terms of the settlement, Gresham is to pay Ramsay £100, but his nephew John misappropriates the money and contrives ===== PAGE 115 ===== 1604 to get Timothy the factor arrested for debt. Caught out, Timothy admits that he has embezzled £500 from Gresham, and Gresham applauds John’s misbehaviour as an example of good financial management. Gresham sees the need for a dry place in London where merchants can do business; and, inspired by portraits of famous Londoners responsible for important civic buildings and institutions, he gets permission and funding to build it himself. He is unabashed by heavy losses through war and shipwreck (including a change of king in Barbary after the battle of Alcazar, which costs him his trade monopoly in Barbary sugar). Eventually an impressive Burse is built, and opened by Queen Elizabeth: she names it the Royal Exchange, and knights Gresham. Another strand of the action focuses on the comic eccentricities of old M@bSGH, who records an honest pedlar’s account under a nickname, Bawny2@oat, so that the man is unable to pay what he owes when he returns to the shop. “Tawny-Coat’ is ruined by his debts to Hobson and by his own charity, but Hobson takes pity when he finds him…
Eastward Ho
Chapman, George; Jonson, Ben; Marston, John · 1605 · Comedy · Children of the Queen's Revels · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
The goldsmith [owehstone has two apprentices, the rebellious prodigal QUIEKSIWVEF and the virtuous Golding, and two daughters, the proud Gertrude and the modest Mildréd. Mistress Touchstone insists that Gertrude should marry above her rank to Sim@PéetronelFlash, while Touchstone bestows Mildred on Golding. Quicksilver is sacked after appearing for work drunk; Golding is also released from his indentures to become his former master’s son-in-law. Quicksilver considers becoming a merchant, then conspires with Security to entrap Sir Petronel Flash into debt to finance the secret expedition to Virginia he is planning. While Gertrude travels to her new husband’s fictitious country castle, Sir Petronel plans a _ - sexual liaison with [Winifméd| Security’s wife. Quicksilver and Sir Petronel both set sail, each in a different vessel, with the jealous S€@uirity following in a third, but a storm wrecks all three boats at Cuckold’s Haven. Winifred convinces Security that his suspicions are groundless. Quicksilver and Sir Petronel are arrested and sent to prison by Golding, now a deputy alderman, on suspicion of stealing from Touchstone. They and Security become penitent in their incarceration, but Touchstone is determined to prosecute them. Golding wishes to be more forgiving, and feigns his own imprisonment to bring his father-in-law to the jail. There Touchstone sees and accepts the sincerity of the miscreants’ repentance; Quicksilver, Sir Petronel, and Security are released, and…
The Fleer
Sharpham, Edward · 1606 · Comedy · Children of the Queen's Revels · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
Before the start of the action, Piso deposed Antifront, whose daughters thereupon fled from Florence. Antifront now travels in search of his missing children. He arrives in London under the alias Fleer, and meets some gentlemen. One of them, Spark, gets him a job with two of his countrywomen, a pair of Florentine courtesans working in London. Antifront is dismayed to discover that they are his missing daughters. Two sisters, Susan and Nan, are interested in Spark and his friend Ruffle, who are among the courtesans’ many clients. They dress up as boys and try to get the gentlemen to employ them as pages; Spark and Ruffle refuse, and the ‘pages’ end up working for two other clients, Sir John Havelittle and Piso junior, the son of the Florentine usurper. ‘Fleer’ wants to engineer a marriage for his daughters, selecting Havelittle and Piso as the eligible bachelors. The daughters prefer Spark and Ruffle, but are refused; taking offence, they ask Piso and Havelittle to kill the gentlemen, and suggest poison as the safest method. The plot is overheard by ‘Fleer’ and the ‘pages’. ‘Fleer’ gets himself another job looking after an apothecary’s shop, and sells Piso and Havelittle a poison which is really a sleeping potion. Spark and Ruffle dine with Piso and Havelittle and apparently die. The hosts are at once arrested on suspicion of poisoning and are committed for trial. Fleer is sent on an errand to the senior judge, who is unable to attend through illness, and sends word back for…
Volpone, or The Fox
Jonson, Ben · 1606 · Comedy · King's Men
The wealthy Welpone has no family to inherit his gold. Seeking to augment his riches, he pretends to be mortally ill, and receives visitors bringing gifts and false solicitude in the hope of being named his heir. His servant Mosea encourages one of them, SlG@IGGrbaccio} to make a will in Volpone’s favour in hope of reciprocation, temporarily disinheriting his own son Bonario. He also engages Volpone’s interest in @éliaj the wife of @Grvinid) another visitor. Eager to see her, Volpone poses as a mountebank selling potions; Celia watches from a window and expresses her interest by dropping her handkerchief before the jealous Corvino intervenes and locks her away. The sight of Celia has inflamed Volpone’s sexual desire, so Mosca makes the necessary arrangements. He tells Corvino that the mountebank’s medicine, bought by his rivals, has wrought an improvement in Volpone’s condition, and that physicians have prescribed a cure: Volpone must sleep beside a healthy, vigorous young woman. @6rviniG decides to proffer Gélid for the purpose, getting himself back into favour; even if the cure works, Volpone can always be murdered later once he has made his will. On the way back to Volpone’s house, Mosca meets BOnari6, tells him of Corbaccio’s plans to make a new will, and counters Bonario’s scepticism by offering to place him where he can watch it happen. He then returns in time to free Volpone from the unwelcome company of the loquacious Dady§WoOulasBe: on being told that her husband…
A Yorkshire Tragedy
Middleton, Thomas · 1606 · Tragedy · King's Men · Globe;Outdoor Professional
News arrives from London that a young woman's absent lover has married somebody else. It was a lucky escape for her: he has turned out to be a wastrel and a gambler, has got into debt, and is treating his wife badly; he will not listen to remonstrance and responds ungratefully to attempts to help him. An appeal by the Master of his brother's college, made after the brother is imprisoned for his debts, finally makes him realize what his prodigality has cost his family and descendants. Stricken with remorse, he takes command of his fate by murdering his son and heir, then assaulti
The Miseries of Enforced Marriage
Wilkins, George · 1606 · Tragedy · King's Men
The ward William Scarborow betroths himself to Clare Harcop, but on his return to London he is forced to marry Katherine, the niece of his guardian, Lord Falconbridge. He is rewarded with control of his own’ and his younger brothers’ property. He writes to tell Clare the news of his unwelcome marriage; upon receiving the letter, she dies (possibly by suicide). ===== PAGE 337 ===== 1606 Scarborow takes her death badly: he blames his wife, and becomes prodigal. Ilford fakes his own arrest for debt in order to induce Scarborow to guarantee the supposed loan, thereby defrauding him of his money. This still leaves him with the patrimony of his younger brothers, Thomas and John; but he spends it, and drunkenly assaults his friends and kinsmen. The brothers and the honest family servant Butler are forced into theft to keep themselves from starvation. They steal £300 from Harcop, Clare’s father, which they use to make their sister appear to be a rich woman. Butler tricks Ilford into marrying her, but on learning that she is penniless her new husband throws her out; Butler offers to support her out of his meagre wages. Thomas confronts and fights with his elder brother, but saves his life when they are attacked by Ilford. Now penitent, Thomas declares his intention to confess to Harcop that he and John stole the money, even though it will mean hanging for them both. John falls out with him over this, but they are reconciled by Butler. Dr Baxter, who married Scarborow to Katherine,…
The Puritan, or The Widow of Watling Street (The Puritan Widow)
Middleton, Thomas · 1606 · Comedy · Children of Paul's (second)
Lady Plus has just been widowed, but her son Edmond. does not grieve appropriately at the funeral. She mourns a good, liberal husband, who strove to make his family rich by fair means and foul; she swears not to remarry, and her elder daughter Frances renounces marriage too. Not so her younger daughter, Moll, who entertains a suitor. The other two Plus women are also being pestered by unwanted suitors, one of whom has bribed Lady Plus’s brother-in-law, Sir Godfrey, to recommend him. Captain Idle is taken to prison for highway robbery; there he is visited by his puritan kinsman Nicholas, one of. the Plus household’s servants, and also by Skirmish and Pieboard, two tricksters who plan to get him out. To that end, they persuade Nicholas to steal Sir Godfrey’s chain. Pieboard visits Lady Plus posing as a fortune teller, and tells her that her husband is in purgatory, from which he can be released only if both she and her daughters reverse their marital intentions (which he has overheard): she and Frances must marry, and Moll must not. As a puritan, Lady Plus doubts the theology of this, so he establishes his authenticity by predicting that, before the day is out, there will be bloodshed outside her door and Sir Godfrey will suffer a loss, with worse to follow for the women of the household. The first two events are prearranged: Nicholas steals Sir Godfrey’s chain, and Skirmish and Corporal Oath feign a street-fight which results in a wound for Oath and arrest for Skirmish.…
The Whore of Babylon
Dekker, Thomas · 1606 · Allegorical History · Prince Henry's Men
WitaHid becomes Queen of Fairyland and restores respect to Truth and her book; friars, cardinals, and other ecclesiastical figures are expelled from the kingdom. All this infuriates theiBmpressioriBabylony who had banished Truth to the wilderness, claiming her to be an impostor. She sends three Kings to Fairyland to seduce Titania, while Cardinalg@omoG sends agents to convert the populace at grass roots level. The Kings woo Titania with a masque, but, advised by her fairy lords, she rejects them. Two of the Kings leave Fairyland, but the third, Satyrane} stays on to plot against her; one of his stratagems entails a magical attack via a wax effigy, but the conjurer is caught burying it in a dunghill and arrested. Titania pardons her physician, DejParidelly who has ~ been sentenced to death on a charge of attempted murder, but he secretly resents being beholden to her. He secures her permission to travel abroad, where he is recruited as an agent of Babylon. She refuses to receive the malcontented scholar @amMipeiis at court. He encounters Satyrane, who sympathizes with his annoyance at Fairyland’s treatment of academics, assures him that they are better used overseas, and persuades him to defect to Babylon. Since marriage overtures have failed, the Empress’s policy turns to assassination. She receives Campeius and the physician Ropus and sends them back to Fairyland. Traitors emerge out of the earth, summoned by Falsehood posing as Truth, but all are identified and arrested:…
Every Woman in Her Humor
Anonymous · 1607 · Comedy · Children of the King's Revels
Misogyny has made the normally jovial Acutus.- melancholy. After scaring some foolishly fashionable characters, he joins them at the Hobby tavern, where Gaetica has taken lodgings with her dog. Disguised as a © soldier, Acutus picks a fight with Scilicet and Servulus, © then exposes their hypocrisy by returning disguised as first a friend and then an enemy of the ‘soldier’, and eliciting inconsistent responses. Scilicet attempts to woo Gaetica; she is more concerned about the disappearance of her man Bos with her dog, but becomes betrothed to him. , Lentulus is in love, and asks Cicero to woo Terentia for him. They go to dine with Flaminius, Terentia’s father, and Cicero is left alone with the ladies of the house. The upshot is that Terentia falls in love — but -- with Cicero himself rather than Lentulus. Rumours circulate that she is to marry Cicero, but Flaminius has not given his consent and takes offence. Lentulus makes Cicero and Terentia admit wronging him, and. _ he sentences Cicero to death — but only if Terentia will kill him. He woos and wins Terentia’s sister Flavia, and plans a double wedding. Acutus gives Philautus a sleeping potion, and he appears to die. He is rumoured to have drunk himself to death, but the reported numbers of alcohol victims escalate as the news circulates. Acutus pays for the funeral and invites the tavern’s proprietors and customers, Philautus wakes up on the way to his interment: initially it is assumed that he is a ghost, but - =====…
The Knight of the Burning Pestle
Beaumont, Francis · 1607 · Comedy · Children of the Queen's Revels
At the theatre, a citizen and his wife object to the satirical subject matter of the play, The London Merchant: they insist on a more romantic offering starring their apprentice, Rafe, as a heroic grocer. The boy actors do their best to provide this within the play they have rehearsed. In the play, Luce prefers her father Venturewell’s apprentice Jasper to his chosen son-in-law, Humphrey; so Venturewell discharges Jasper, and he goes home to a family impoverished by the irresponsible merriment of his father, Old Merrythought. His mother, who 1607 favours his younger brother Michael, insists that he be paid his inheritance and sent out into the world. Several of the characters go to Waltham Forest. Luce elopes with Humphrey, intending to meet Jasper there. Rafe the grocer, a voluminous reader of chivalric romance, becomes the Knight of the Burning Pestle and leaves in search of heroic deeds. He scares Mistress Merrythought, who leaves behind her jewels. These are found and taken away by Jasper, who then meets the eloping couple, beats Humphrey, and takes Luce. In the audience, the citizen and his wife take Jasper to be the villain and Humphrey the hero; they demand that Rafe return to fight Jasper, but Jasper beats him. Notified by Humphrey, Venturewell confronts Jasper’s father, but is offended by his refusal to take the matter seriously. Jasper tests Luce’s love by threatening her with violence. She accepts her fate, but Humphrey and her father seize her before he can admit…
Your Five Gallants (The Five Witty Gallants)
Middleton, Thomas · 1607 · Comedy · Children of the Queen's Revels · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
The bawd-gallant Primero needs to dress Novice, his new courtesan, attractively, so he hires a recently pawned gown from Frip, the broker-gallant, in return for a lesson in how to cheat at cards. The heiress Katherine is the object of many suitors, including five gallants and Fitzgrave. Fitzgrave gives 1607 her a chain of pearl, which is almost immediately stolen for the pocket-gallant Pursenet. Katherine wishes to be left alone for a month, so Fitzgrave decides to spend the time in disguise, spying on his rivals, the gallants, in the hope of discovering something to their discredit. He joins them in visiting Primero’s brothel, where his pocket is picked and a jewel he received from Katherine is stolen. Pursenet-gives the pearls and the jewel to a courtesan, but afterwards she gives them to the whore-gallant Tailby, whom she loves. The gallants repair to a tavern. The cheating gallant Goldstone steals two beakers, replacing them with replicas of lesser value; he also steals a goblet, using sealing-wax to stick it to the underside of the table so that it will not be noticed when sought. Tailby gambles, but keeps losing and pawns his clothes to Frip to get more stake-money. The next day, he receives new clothes and money sent by importunate mistresses; one of them wants an assignation with him in her husband’s absence. He goes off to see her, but first tells Pursenet, who ambushes him on the way and robs him of his money and the pearls. Pursenet recognizes the latter, and…
The Rape of Lucrece
Heywood, Thomas · 1607 · Tragedy · Queen Anne's Men · Red Bull;Outdoor Professional
Tired of being a subject, Tullia encourages her husband Tarquin to seize power from her father, King Servius, and make her Queen of Rome. Having gathered the support of a faction of peers, Tarquin takes the throne at the Senate. When Servius challenges this, a fight breaks out in which he is killed. Tullia treads his dead body underfoot, then drives over it in her chariot. She encourages Tarquin to rule by fear: he cancels Servius’ funeral, seizes his political opponents’ property, exiles people without trial, and sets about extending Rome’s power in Italy, both by alliances and force of arms. Servius’ former allies submit to the new regime, but cope with it in different ways: Brutus feigns idiocy, Scaevola laughs, Lucretius cries, Horatius adopts a habit of bitter speech, and Valerius sings incessantly. Tarquin has an ominous dream and sends his sons to the oracle to have it interpreted; they take Brutus along to entertain them. The oracle says that Rome must be purged of Tullia’s sins, and that, of the three Romans present, the first to kiss his mother will achieve power in Rome. Brutus kisses the earth, but the two brothers race home to kiss Tullia. Aruns gets there first, and Sextus swears enmity against him and flees to the Sabines, who make him their general. He leads them against Tarquin and wins twice, but is later reconciled with his father and brother. The Tarquins welcome Porsenna to Rome as an ally in the project of establishing military rule over the…
What You Will
1607 · Comedy · Children of Paul's (second) (?)
Only three months after her husband Albano was reported dead in a sea battle, Celia has many suitors. Tomorrow she intends to marry Laverdure, a French knight; but Alban.o 's brothers, Randolfo and Adrian, disapprove. After fruitlessly petitioning the noctumal. party-loving Duke to stop the wedding, thcr decide to make it illegitimate by introducing an impostor, a perfumer named Francisco, to pose as Albano, claiming that he did not die after all; but Laverdure's page Bidet witnesses their scheming and warns his master. In fact, Albano survived. On his return to Venice he is unimpressed to hear that his supposedly faithful and loving wife is getting married again so soon; but when he accosts Laverdure, he is taken for Francisco. Even his own brothers take him for the disguised perfumer, so he begins to believe that he has indeed become Francisco by metempsychosis. He interrupts the performance of a play at court to protest at the way he has been treated, and the Duke assures everyone that he really is Albano. He decides to forgive everyone, including Laverdure and Celia. In the sub-plot, Simplicius saves the schoolboy Holofernes Pippo from a thrashing and takes him on as his page. A group of pages trick Simplicius into arranging an assignation with a merchant's wife, who turns out to be Holofemes in disguise.
Cupid's Revenge
Beaumont, Francis; Fletcher, John · 1608 · Tragedy · Children of the Queen's Revels
Leontius, King of Lycia, promises his daughter Hydaspes anything she asks for on her birthday. She wants him to ban the cult of Cupid in Lycia: the god’s naked statues are to be taken down and burnt, and Cupid-worship to be made a capital offence. Leontius agrees, persuaded that the religion is the cause of national immorality. His nephew Ismenus demurs: he will promulgate the Duke’s orders, but will himself take no hand in obeying them. As his temples are dismantled, Cupid declares vengeance on the kingdom. The Lycian royal family begins to behave with inappropriate amorousness. Hydaspes fixates on Zoilus, a deformed dwarf, and asks to be allowed to marry him; her father’s response is to have him beheaded, and she pines to death. Prince Leucippus falls for Bacha, a strumpet only interested in his wealth and power, but, questioned by his father, denies sexual misbehaviour and praises her virtue and chastity. Leontius is so impressed that he sends Leucippus away ===== PAGE 378 ===== and woos Bacha for himself, affecting youthful clothing and behaviour. Bacha becomes Queen of Lycia. When Leucippus returns to court, Bacha tries to seduce him again. He refuses to cuckold his father, and, annoyed at his refusal, she plots his death; this will leave her daughter Urania as the only heir to the throne. She makes Leontius jealous of his son’s popularity with the people and courtiers, and persuades him that Leucippus is plotting his assassination. The court parasite Timantus tells…
Ram Alley, or Merry Tricks
Barry, Lording · 1608 · Comedy · Children of the King's Revels
The rich heiress Constantia Somerfield disguises herself as a page and enters the employ of her beloved, Boucher, intending to keep an eye on his fidelity. The rich widow Taffeta drops a handkerchief to get Boucher’s attention, and invites him into her house. Despite a prophecy that a widow will endanger his life, soul, lands, and reputation, Boucher is attracted to her. He has several rivals, including the old knight Sir Oliver Smallshank and Captain Puff, who claims marital rights in Taffeta and threatens to attack anyone who shows any sexual interest in her. Sir Oliver comes to woo Taffeta, but hides under her farthingale when Puff arrives. Puff assaults her, and Sir Oliver is forced out of his hiding place. Seeing the advantages of being a courtier’s wife, Taffeta agrees to marry him. Sir Oliver’s younger son, Will, is in debt, and his lands are mortgaged to Throat the lawyer. He pretends to have eloped with Constantia, but the woman he introduces to his family is actually his whore, Frances. He leaves her with Throat while he goes to arrange the wedding, asking Throat to confirm his cover story: that he has expectations of becoming a lord. Throat tells her the truth, that Will is a penniless fortune-hunter, and woos the lady for himself. When Will takes her, ostensibly to a nocturnal marriage ceremony, Throat has them attacked in the darkened streets. They are separated from Frances, whom Throat then marries himself. Will arranges to have himself arrested for debt when…
The Tragedy of Charles Duke of Byron
Chapman, George · 1608 · Tragedy · Children of the Queen's Revels
The ambitious Duke of Biron has been offered the crown by a conspiracy of France’s foreign enemies. He pacifies a Huguenot rebellion in Brittany, but suspects - that, now the country is at peace, his military services will no longer be required or even valued by the King. His ally, La Fin, supplies the King with incriminating evidence of his involvement in a plot. [A lacuna in the text follows. The Queen has a quarrel with the King’s mistress, and slaps her.] The two rival ladies make it up by performing together in a masque: Biron is recalled to court. La Fin assures him that all suspicions about his loyalty have been cleared, and- encourages him to go. Against the advice of his other friends, Biron does, thinking his reputation for valour — will make his enemies think twice about arresting him. Henry’s declared intention is to spare him if he will only confess, but Biron is proud and stubborn. He finds himself shunned by the courtiers, and learns that various horses he was given have all died, just as happened when the Earl of Essex fell. He and his ally D’Auvergne are both arrested. A Spanish ambassador asks permission for an army to cross French soil en route to Flanders; King Henry suspects it was originally levied to invade France, but nevertheless gives his permission. He sends despatches to inform foreign courts of Biron’s treason. The French - peers decline to be present at the trial. Biron is confronted with La Fin as chief prosecution witness, and claims that La…
Cymbeline, King of Britain
Shakespeare, William · 1609 · Romance · King's Men
Imogen has been the heir to Cymbeline’s kingdom since the disappearance of her infant brothers twenty years ago. Now her father intends her to marry her foolish stepbrother Cloten; but she pre-empts this by marrying Posthumus instead. Cymbeline objects to Posthumus, whom he took in as an orphan and brought up at court, and banishes him. The Queen pretends support for the couple, but is really the source of Cymbeline’s hostility; her objective is to bring the succession into her own family line, if necessary by destroying Imogen. Claiming to be studying toxicology, she asks Cornelius to give her some poison for experimental purposes. He mistrusts her motives: the ‘poison’ he supplies is really only a sleeping potion. She then gives it to Posthumus’ servant, Pisanio, claiming it to be a powerful medicine. Posthumus goes to Rome, leaving his bracelet behind with Imogen as a love-token, and taking her ring. There he boasts of his wife’s beauty and chastity, and bets Iachimo the ring that she will never succumb to his seduction. Iachimo comes to Britain, tells Imogen that Posthumus is behaving adulterously in Rome, and tries to persuade her to do the same. When she refuses, he claims he was only testing her, and asks her to take charge of a chest of valuables, partly paid for by Posthumus, and lodge them for the night in a safe place, her bedroom. He hides in the chest and emerges when she is asleep, giving him the opportunity to inspect the room, look at her in bed, and take…
Epicene, or The Silent Woman
Jonson, Ben · 1609 · Comedy · Children of the Queen's Revels
Dauphine's obsessively noise-hating uncle, Morose. has threatened to disinherit him by taking a wife and begetting a son and heir. He has engaged a gen ts to seek a silent woman for his bride, and the barber, Cutbeard, seems to have found him one, Mistress Epicoenc. Truewit goes to him in disguise and tries to dissuade him from marriage; but this makes him the more determined to go ahead with it straight away. He inspects Epicoene, is pleased by her silence, and marries her. Almost at once he learns that she is able to speak loudly. Sir Amorous La Poole is holding a dinner for the members of a college of ladies, but the gallants divert the collegians to Morose's house, to celebrate his wedding. They persuade La Poole that Sir John Daw has arranged this to dishonour him. La Foole dresses up as a sewer to serve the meat. Mistress Otter comes along with him, and the gallants arrange for her to witness her henpecked husband criticizing her behind her back - which earns him a beating. The collegians hold her up as an example to Epicoene: she must establish her dominance in the household. The gallants persuade Dauphine that the two knights have slandered him, and tell each of the knights in turn that the other intends to fight him. Both are so anxious to avoid a duel that each agrees to be beaten by the other; Dauphine does the beating and takes their swords from them. The ladies witness the event, and see the knights' unworthiness; they transfer their affections to Dauphine and…
A Woman Is a Weathercock
Field, Nathan · 1609 · Comedy · Children of the Queens Revels (Children of the Whitefriars) (?) · before the Court;Whitefriars;Whitehall;Indoor Professional
Scudmore is in love with Bellafront, and his friend Nevill persuades him, with difficulty, to show the love- letter he has received from her. There is a slight complication: Nevill is on his way to .Bellafront’s wedding. She is to marry Count Frederick that morning. The whole family is mired in matrimonial competition. Bellafront’s sister Lucida also loves Frederick, and has sworn never to marry for his sake; but she is being courted by the foolish Sir Abraham Ninny, who has got himself knighted expressly to make himself a more eligible son-in-law. The youngest daughter, Katherine, is also to be married that morning, to Strange the merchant, but she too has another admirer, Captain Pouts. Unbeknown to Scudmore, Nevill impersonates the parson who is to officiate at the wedding. Scudmore tries to catch Bellafront at the church door, but she refuses him; this convinces him that all women are perfidious. After the wedding, Pouts publicly declares that Katherine has slept with him on many previous occasions. Strange seems reluctant to seek legal redress for this slander, but only because he doesn’t want anyone to stop him secretly taking a more immediate revenge. He tries to see Pouts at his lodging, but Pouts assumes he has come to serve a writ and will not let him in. Pouts then prepares to flee England and his creditors, but Strange intercepts him disguised as a soldier, claiming that Katherine engaged him to murder her new husband and that she loves only Pouts. Pouts admits…
Philaster, or Love Lies a-Bleeding
Beaumont, Francis; Fletcher, John · 1609 · Tragicomedy · King's Men · Globe;Outdoor Professional
The King. of Sicily invites the Spanish prince Pharamiond to marry his daughter Airethiisa and become his heir. This is challenged by the rightful King, PHilastér, who was deposed in his minority by the present King’s predecessor, but is too popular to imprison or kill. Arethusa secretly woos Philaster, and he gives her the page Bellarig to be their go-between. She refuses Pharamond’s request for pre-marital sex, so, looking for satisfaction elsewhere, he tries the ladies-in-waiting: (Galatéd refuses him, but his seduction of M@gra is more successful. Galatea overhears their plans for an assignation and reports it to Arethusa, who reports it in turn to the King. Pharamond is disgraced, but Megra gets her revenge by alleging an improper relationship between Alrethtisa and Béllario. The scandalous rumours come to Philaster’s ears, and he becomes mentally distracted through jealousy. Arethuisa dismisses Bellario on her father’s orders. She then disappears in the woods during a royal hunt, and meets the boy by chance. PhilaStér finds them together and thinks his fears confirmed. He confronts and wounds her, but is driven off by a country fellow; he then finds Béllarid asleep and wounds him. Philaster is taken prisoner and committed to Alrethusa’s custody. Facing execution, he is reconciled to her, and they are married. When the King learns of this, he has them both imprisoned. Pharamond pays a sightseeing visit to the city. There he is captured by the Sicilian citizens, who have…
The Golden Age, or The Lives of Jupiter and Saturn
Heywood, Thomas · 1610 · Classical Myth · Queen Anne's Men · Red Bull;Outdoor Professional
King Uranus of Crete is dead. Titan is the eldest son, but his younger brother Saturn is the popular choice to ascend the throne. Titan agrees to make way for him provided that he agrees to settle the succession on Titan’s issue and kill his own sons as soon as they are born. Saturn is declared a god, and under his benevolent rule, the people learn agriculture, ship- building, and architecture, and begin to make weapons for hunting. His wife, Sibylla, becomes pregnant, but Saturn keeps his promise to Titan and kills the baby. During a second pregnancy, an oracle foretells that the child will depose Saturn. This time Sibylla demands the privilege of killing her own child; but neither she nor her women can bring themselves to do it, so the baby is sent to a foster mother, the Princess of Epirus, and Saturn is deceived with the blood of a goat. Jupiter grows up in the court of King Melisseus of Epirus, and is sent as an envoy to conclude a peace with King Lycaon of Pelasgia; but Lycaon has murdered the Epirote hostage and offers his limbs to Jupiter as a cannibalistic banquet. Jupiter deposes Lycaon and the people elect him their King. During the conflict, he encounters Callisto, Lycaon’s daughter, and is attracted to her. She asks him to grant her a boon to prove his love; he promises, but her request is to live a chaste life as a nymph of Diana. She joins Diana, but the nymphs are already paired off, so she must await the next recruit to have a bedfellow. This turns out to be…
The Maid's Tragedy
Beaumont, Francis; Fletcher, John · 1610 · Tragedy · King's Men · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
At: the King’s request, Al@minf6f breaks off his engagement to his fiancée AlSpatia and instead marries Evadne) sister of his friend Melantius. After a wedding masque, Evadne prepares for bed. When Amintor arrives, however, she refuses him sex and explains that she is the King’s mistress: the marriage has been arranged as a cover for their continuing relationship, and to provide a nominal father for any bastards that may result; it will never be consummated. Amintor is unable to satisfy his impulse to take revenge, because his wronger is the King, but on learning the truth, Melantius has no similar scruples. A successful rebellion depends upon control of the city’s: defensive fort, but this is in the hands of Melantius’ enemy, ASpatia’sifathier Caliana who partly blames Melantius for the way Aspatia has been treated. Melantius asks Calianax to hand over the fort, knowing this will be reported to the King; but when the King confronts him with the accusation, his bare-faced denial. discredits Calianax and makes the accusation look like senile malice. Calianax is sent away from court and sees no option but to give Melantius the fort after all. M@@lantivis]? threat of violence secures a confession from Bya@méj and she agrees to join the conspiracy. Summoned by the King that night, Evadne ties him to the bed and kills him when he wakes. Melantius retreats to the fort and agrees to come out only once the mew King has granted him a pardon on his own terms. The despairing AlSpatia…
Greene's Tu Quoque, or The City Gallant
Cooke, John · 1611 · Comedy · Queen Anne's Men
The gallant Geraldine woos the mercer’s daughter Gertrude. She is attracted to him, but feigns lack of interest. Her father, Sir Lionel, is newly knighted at court. He plans to give up life as a tradesman and leaves Spendall to run his shop. Spendall is prodigal with the shop’s money: he sups with a whore and her associates, borrows money, gambles, and_ lives extravagantly. Staines is in the clutches of a usurer, his servant Bubble’s uncle, and plans to cut and run: he dismisses Bubble and is about to flee London when news arrives that the usurer is dead. Bubble inherits the estate, hires his former master as a servant, and plans, with his advice, to make himself a gallant. Staines intends to bilk his money back from Bubble and then use it buy back his lands once Bubble is forced by prodigality to sell them. Bubble sends him to buy new clothes, but Staines wears them himself and uses the money to gamble; Bubble himself joins the game as one of his opponents. Staines cheats with false dice, but is discovered by Spendall. They fight a duel; after both sustain slight wounds, they become friends. Sir Lionel plans to marry Gertrude to Bubble, hoping to get control of his inheritance. Her sister Joyce tries to get her to accept Geraldine, but she is _ steadfast. Joyce tells Geraldine that Gertrude does love | him, and he induces her to reveal her true feelings by feigning suicide. Bubble comes to Sir Lionel’s house to woo Gertrude, but Staines advises him that the best way to win…
The Night Walker, or The Little Thief
Fletcher, John; Shirley, James, rev. · 1611 · Comedy · Lady Elizabeth's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
The usurer Justice Algripe has seized the wastrel Lurcher’s lands to settle a mortgage; he was also amorously interested in Lurcher’s sister, who has since disappeared. The destitute Lurcher is left to steal for a living; invited to join him, his friend Wildbrain prefers womanizing, on the grounds that it will not end on the gallows. Lurcher is approached by a boy, Snap, and, after ascertaining his skills at deception, takes him into his service. Algripe marries Wildbrain’s cousin Maria, who consented out of filial obedience rather than love: she loves Hartlove. Her mother’s household opposes the match, suspecting that old Algripe is impotent, and Wildbrain arranges for Hartlove to meet her on her way to bed and cuckold Algripe on his wedding night. She refuses his advances and faints when they are found together; she is taken for dead and prepared for burial. Her mother throws Wildbrain out for his part in the incident. Lurcher burgles the house that night, frightening the servants by pretending to be a ghost; but what he supposes to be a chest of jewels is actually Maria’s coffin. Upon discovering what their swag really is, he and his accomplices attempt to bury her in secret, but have a chance encounter with Algripe in the churchyard. Snap frightens him away by impersonating Maria’s ghost, but the thieves are scared off themselves when Maria wakes up in her coffin. Wildbrain meets Hartlove in the dark; Hartlove bears him a grudge and fights him. Maria hears the commotion…
A New Wonder, A Woman Never Vexed
Rowley, William; Heywood, Thomas (?) · 1611 · Comedy · Unknown
Old Forster has recently made his fortune by marrying a rich widow, but they are both dissatisfied with the financial irresponsibility of his brother and son, whom ===== PAGE 17 ===== 1624 they are on the point of disowning. Robert, the son, has purloined some of his stepmother’s money to buy his uncle, Stephen Forster, out of debtors’ prison; he also gives Stephen money to buy new clothes. Stephen uses the money for gambling, and is cheated. Robert is disappointed to find him in the gaming-house, and he himself likewise gets into trouble with his stepmother for going there, even though he only went in to look for Stephen. Mistress Forster has an uncommonly even- tempered friend, another rich widow, who enjoys miraculous good fortune. When she loses her wedding ring in the river, it turns up inside a salmon bought by her maid. She meets Stephen at the gaming-house and likes him. She suggests that he should marry for money, and offers herself. He accepts, and they perform a hand-fasting. Jane is being pursued by two undesirable suitors, an old knight and a young fool. Her father, Alderman Brune, suggests Robert Forster as a third option, if he can be reconciled with his father. Brune is Old Forster’s partner in a mercantile venture, but accepts Forster’s offer to buy him out; he takes payment in cloth rather than cash, which clears Forster’s warehouses for the new merchandise due in any day. However, Forster continues to look askance at Robert. News arrives that the ships…
Catiline His Conspiracy
Jonson, Ben · 1611 · Tragedy · King's Men
Piqued at his rejection for a military command, Catiline has assembled a group of ambitious and malcontented men, and plans to take over the Roman state: some ~ are motivated by envy of those in authority, and by the prospect of wealth, power, and the opportunity for unlimited self-indulgence; another, Lentulus, believes that a prophecy has named him as a future ruler of Rome — an interpretation commissioned by Catiline himself. At a clandestine meeting, the conspirators drink blood to mark their commitment to the plot. Meanwhile Aurelia recruits a network of powerful women supporters. Curius visits his mistress Fulvia, whose resistance to his advances provokes a rape attempt. He excites her curiosity and she wheedles details of the conspiracy out of him. Catiline stands in the consular election, but is defeated by Cicero. When Cicero speaks of the need to protect the Roman state, Caesar and Crassus suspect that he may secure his position by manufacturing a threat for himself to overcome; they set the other consul, Antonius, to keep an eye on him, but Cicero turns him by bribery. Upset that Sempronia has been given pre-eminence in the conspiracy, Fulvia leaks to Cicero what she knows about it; Cicero confronts Curius with the information and recruits him as a double agent inside the plot. The conspirators plan to burn the city, having first assassinated Cicero; the plot is secretly backed by Crassus and Caesar. Curius sends Fulvia to warn Cicero of the attempt on his life,…
The Atheist's Tragedy, or The Honest Man's Revenge
Tourneur, Cyril · 1611 · Tragedy · Unknown
Montferrers has forbidden his son Charlemont from going to war and refused him the money necessary to equip himself. Charlemont gets a subvention from his uncle, D’Amville, and this persuades Montferrers to change his mind. But D’Amville is an atheist who believes that he must make his happiness in this world rather than wait for reward or punishment in the next, and he has an ulterior motive for wanting his nephew out of the way. Castabella loves Charlemont, and has privately agreed to marry him when he returns. They entrust their secret only to the Puritan Languebeau Snuffe. D’Amville bribes Snuffe to betray them and persuade Belleforest, her father, to make her marry Rousard, his son. Castabella is pressured into the match, despite the protestations of Sebastian, Rousard’s younger brother. As soon as he is married, Rousard falls ill with symptoms which include impotence. On the wedding day, D’Amville’s accomplice Borachio brings false news that Charlemont has been killed in battle. Montferrers makes a new will in D’Amville’s favour. D’Amville gets Montferrers’s torchbearers drunk at the wedding celebrations, and tricks them into quarrelling with one another when lighting their master home; the torches go out in the fight, allowing Borachio to murder Montferrers under cover of darkness. Montferrers’s ghost appears to Charlemont, tells him of the murder, and enjoins him not to take revenge. Charlemont returns to France to find himself presumed dead and his fiancée unhappily…
The Triumphs of Truth
1613 · Civic Pageant · 1613
Upon taking office, the new Lord Mayor is greeted by an old woman claL" 'lling to be his mother: she represents London. and is delighted with his new eminence; she u.rges him to govern well. After a.journey on the river, he meets Truth's angel, who warns him that Error intends to tempt him on his way _to the city. Error encourages hlln to abandon virtue and spend his year in office ruling according to his own will and appetite, taking bribes and pursuing private vendettas. Zeal beats back Error and Truth arrives to claim the Lord Mayor's allegiance. She has brought the King of the Moors to England: he was· once a sun-worshipper, but now truth has ousted .error and he has learned to worship the sun's creator instead. Truth uses her fan to dispel the mists hiding the glorious Mount Triumphant, revealing London and the virtues sitting on it. Error is furious and repeatedly restores the mist every time Truth dears it. Eventually, Time is about to cut the_performance short with his scythe, but Truth stops him: she has one last admonition for the Lord Mayor. vVith Truth's permission, fire streaks from Zeal's head and incinerates Error's chariot.
Henry the Eighth (All Is True)
Shakespeare, William; Fletcher, John · 1613 · History · King's Men
The Kings of England and of France meet for a magnificent summit conference organized by Cardinal Wolsey. The English nobles resent Wolsey’s influence with the King, but Wolsey strikes first against the ringleader, Buckingham: evidence from his former surveyor, who bears him a grudge, secures his arrest; conviction for treason and execution follow. Queen Katherine persuades the King to repeal taxation which is causing hardship; Wolsey has it put about that his intercession secured this. King Henry attends a banquet at Wolsey’s house, performs in a masque of shepherds, and meets Anne Boleyn. Rumours circulate that he and the Queen are at odds: he claims to be troubled by the fact that she was originally married to his brother, but others notice that he is keen to marry Anne. Wolsey counsels divorce. A legatine court is summoned to judge the case, but Katherine refuses to co-operate and the court breaks up without reaching a decision. The King secretly marries Anne. The nobles conspire to overthrow Wolsey. Documents proving his corruption and treachery accidentally fall into the King’s hands, and Buckingham’s surviving allies serve him with articles of impeachment. He falls sick and dies. Anne is crowned Queen. Katherine too falls sick. Before her death she is visited by benevolent spirits, and by Caputius, the Imperial Ambassador, by whom she sends the King a request to love their daughter and provide for her former servants. Anne goes into labour and produces a daughter. A…
A Chaste Maid in Cheapside
Middleton, Thomas · 1613 · Comedy · Lady Elizabeth's Men · Swan;Outdoor Professional
Sir Walter Whorehound lives high on the expectation of an inheritance: unless Sir Oliver Kix produces an heir, his estate will pass to Sir Walter — and Sir Oliver is impotent. Sir Walter maintains Allwit and his wife, paying for everything, in return for exclusive sexual access to Mistress Allwit: he is the true father of the children presumed to be Allwit’s. But Sir Walter is ===== PAGE 327 ===== 1613 planning to discontinue the arrangement and get married: the goldsmith Yellowhammer has agreed to marry his son Tim to a Welsh gentlewoman whom Sir Walter has introduced as his niece, and Sir Walter hopes himself to marry Tim’s sister Moll. Moll has other ideas: her sweetheart Touchwood plans to elope with her, and has Yellowhammer himself make the wedding ring, umaware of the bride’s identity. The elopement is foiled, however: Yellowhammer and Sir Walter intervene just as Touchwood is putting the ring onto Moll’s finger, and Moll is taken home and locked up. Touchwood’s elder brother is poor but virile, and cannot afford to cohabit with his wife for fear that she may produce a legitimate child he will not have the means to support. He has fathered a prolific number of bastards, and refuses to acknowledge one of them when a former paramour, a country wench, brings it to him. She then disposes of the baby by duping two corrupt promoters set to prevent the illicit trade in meat during Lent: she hides the child in a basket and allows them to confiscate it as contraband. Lady…
Bartholomew Fair
Jonson, Ben · 1614 · Comedy · Lady Elizabeth's Men
Bartholomew Cokes has two objectives in life: to visit the fair which shares his name, and to marry Grace Wellborn, who, as a ward, faces a financial penalty should she refuse. He sends his servant Wasp to Littlewit the proctor to obtain a marriage licence, but then, impatiently, comes himself. He brings Grace with him, and she attracts the interest of Winwife, present with his friend Quarlous as a suitor to Littlewit’s mother-in-law, Dame Purecraft. Littlewit is more interested in Cokes’s talk of the fair, having secretly written one of the puppet plays to be performed there. The only snag is that the puritanical Dame Purecraft will disapprove of their visit, thinking fairs profane. Busy, an elder of Purecraft’s church, advises the family that fairs may lawfully be visited for good reason, and comes along with them to partake of the pork. After some unfortunate experiences involving mistaken identity, Justice Overdo no longer trusts informers and has decided to do his spying personally. He visits the fair in disguise to seek out ‘enormities’ perpetrated by the fairground folk. He is impressed by one young man, Edgeworth, and decides to rescue him from the clutches of the cheaters; but he does not know that Edgeworth is a cutpurse. While Overdo is busy telling him about the wickedness of tobacco, Edgeworth steals Cokes’s purse; Overdo gets the blame. When it happens a second time, Overdo is arrested and put in the stocks. There he encounters the madman Trouble-All, who…
The Sophister (Fallacy, or The Troubles of Great Hermenia)
Zouche, Richard · 1614 · Comedy
. . The envious bastard Fallacy Sat to Sdtiinintent a oo to his father, Discourse, which will drive him-mad. His eager servant, Ambiguity, provides two options, one of |. - which will only induce drunkeriness. During. a’ - telling-off, Fallacy slips his father the drug and Discourse’s attitude changes: Fallacy becomes his. favourite son. The madness disables Discourse from being the ruler of Hermenia, so a regent must be _ appointed. Fallacy bribes Opposition to support his claim against his legitimate younger brothers, Topicus and Demonstration. He also tells Invention and ~ Judicium that Intellect has left. the kingdom, and persuades them to go looking for him; in fact, he has Intellect under lock and key. The counsellors debate. - the three brothers’ claims, and Topicus fights a duel : ar with Demonstration in which both are. wounded. -. Fallacy becomes Regent, appoints Opposition his chief -. counsellor, and banishes the others who supper’ Bs ' ' brothers. Hermenia declines ehder Fallacy’s jindtighbened. x rule. He locks up Scientia and Opinion, his brothers’ fiancées, and their mother, Truth. His attempts to woo © - Scientia are rebuffed, but he tricks Opposition into thinking that the lady is willing but unable to accepthis ©. proposal because Judicium knows her secret vows to... - _.the- contrary. ls Judicium. Fallacy then persuades Opposition’s son, Contradiction, to fight a duel ‘with an unknown. ~°0° | opponent. Father and son fight. and wound one Tae ‘another with…
Hymen's Triumph
Daniel, Samuel · 1614 · Pastoral Tragicomedy · before the Court;
Hymen has come to Arcadia incognito to promote married love; but Envy, Avarice, and Jealousy have also come to try and cross his objectives. Thyrsis mourns for his dead love Silvia, while his friend Palaemon tries to persuade him to forget her, but he has been told by the oracle that he wil] be happy again on the day he dies. Cloris sends her boy Clarindo to Thyrsis as a messenger of her unrequited love, remarking that he is rumoured to be in love with another nymph. This distresses Clarindo, who is actually Silvia: though deemed dead, she was in fact abducted by pirates, and has now returned in disguise in order to avoid a forced marriage to her father's preferred suitor (who is now to marry another woman). Meanwhile Phyllis, who once scorned love, has fallen in love with ‘Clarindo’. Her encounter with the ‘boy’ is witnessed by Montanus, who loves her, but when he jealously confronts her, he is persuaded that his eyes deceived him; as penance, he is asked to frighten the ‘boy’. Having witnessed Thyrsis’ grief, Silvia plans to reveal her true identity to him. First she leaves a message carved on a tree, then, at his request, tells him a story based on her own life: how one Sulia, beloved by Syrthis, was taken by pirates, entered the service of the pirate captain’s wife in Egypt dressed as a boy, and after two years was rescued and brought home by Corinthian merchants. Montanus stabs her, and is arrested; Thyrsis, tending to the body, realizes her identity and determines to…
The Honest Lawyer
S., S. · 1615 · Comedy · Queen Anne's Men
Richard Vaster’s lands are mortgaged to Gripe the usurer for £300. Jealously believing himself to have been cuckolded, he sells his wife Florence to the bawd and innkeeper Marmaid, claiming her to be his sister. He then challenges Benjamin Gripe, the usurer’s son, to a duel, and pretends to be killed; the remorseful Benjamin is determined to make amends by looking after Vaster’s family. Valentine sets himself up as a phoney doctor and is asked to cure Gripe’s gout, which entails driving a large nail through the affected toe. While Gripe is inconvenienced by the nail, Valentine steals his purse and keys. Gripe also sends Benjamin to foreclose on Vaster’s mortgage; when Benjamin asks him to give the bereaved family a three-month respite, he is disinherited. Surprisingly, the nail does indeed drive out the gout. Curfew has passed himself off as the deputy Abbot of Newnham after the death of the real deputy, his brother, and he uses the abbey as a base for highway robbery. His first two victims are Valentine and the disguised Vaster, who both prove as rascally as he; the three of them end up going into partnership. They proceed to rob travellers: Vaster happily relieves Gripe of his money, but lets Benjamin off with an injunction to be good to the Vaster family. Whenever they leave anyone tied up on the road, Florence comes out of the nearby inn and releases them. She is proving a 1614 disappointment to Marmaid ~ all her clients seem to end up with a new moral outlook on…
A Merry Dialogue between Band, Cuff, and Ruff
Anonymous · 1615 · Academic Entertainment · at University;
Ruff and Band quarrel over which of them is the more modish, and make a date to fight a duel the following day. Cuff tries to keep the peace, threatening them with a beating from the laundress and hanging by the seamster, but is unable to dissuade them. They disagree about who should umpire the fight, but finally agree to appoint Cuff moderator. Cuff defuses the situation by arguing that both are the height of fashion with different people: ruffs are favoured by clerics (other than Puritans) and bands by gallants.
The Golden Age Restored
Jonson, Ben · 1615 · Masque · before the Court;
Pallas announces Jove’s intention to restore the golden age of justice. Iron Age and her sons, the Evils, take arms against heaven to forestall this, but Pallas turns them to stone with her shield. She calls Golden Age and Astraea back to earth, and summons four British poets to attend them. The masquers celebrate agricultural prosperity and chaste love. Astraea decides to stay on earth.
Albumazar
Tomkis, Thomas · 1615 · Comedy · before the Court;at University;
The neighbours Pandolfo and Antonio, both widowers, have arranged to marry each other’s daughters; but before they can do so, Antonio is lost and presumed dead on an overseas voyage, and the plan goes into abeyance because his son Lelio disapproves of Pandolfo as a potential brother-in-law. Albumazar’s accomplice Furbo has gained access to Pandolfo’s household, posing as his daughter’s tutor, and has learned of his .- amorous aspirations, and also his credulity about. magic and astrology. Albumazar plans to trick him, and sets about demonstrating his occult power. Ronca shows Pandolfo some of the astrologer’s amazing inventions: a telescope and an ‘otacousticon’ (actually a pair of ass’s ears) which allow him to see and hear things at a distance. Albumazar then predicts Pandolfo’s marriage, and also a stabbing which his associates then enact in a brawl. Pandolfo asks the astrologer to raise Antonio’s ghost, but instead Albumazar undertakes to transform the tenant farmer Trincalo into Antonio’s likeness for one day, so that he can give Flavia in marriage to Pandolfo. Trincalo agrees because this will give him access to Antonio’s household, and therefore to the maid Armellina, whom he loves. Pandolfo is required to prepare a room for the metamorphosis, laid out with valuable possessions. When he begins to have second thoughts about paying Albumazar, his servant Cricca suggests that he should pretend to have been robbed of his valuables; but when they are indeed stolen,…
The Staple of News
Jonson, Ben · 1616 · Comedy · King's Men
. _ Pug the junior devil is keen to visit earth. Satan svarns him that his ideas of effective devilment are half a century out of date, but grants him leave to spend the day in London, made flesh and subject to all the frailties and limitations of the human body. A ready-made body is available, in the shape of a recently hanged cutpurse, but Pug will have to make his own arrangements for clothes. Another proviso is that he must serve the first man he meets. Unfortunately for Pug, he turns out to be a twit: Fabian Fitzdottrel. Fitzdottrel longs to see the devil, and agrees to accept Pug as an unpaid servant because he gives his mame as Devil. The same obsession makes Fitzdottrel eager to see a new play, The Devil is an Ass, but he needs some finery to show off as he sits on the stage. Wittipol is eager to sleep with Fitzdottrel’s wife, and offers him a suitable cloak in exchange for fifteen minutes’ uninterrupted conversation with the lady. He uses the time to proposition her, and engages her interest even though she has been forbidden to reply. Fitzdottrel is introduced to Merecraft, a purveyor of imaginative financial schemes, who offers to make him rich and a duke through land reclamation in the eastern fens. Fitzdottrel agrees to meet with him, leaving Pug to ensure that nobody attempts to visit his wife. Pug instead brings her a follow-up message from Wittipol, then makes advances to her on his own account, but is caught by Fitzdottrel and gets a beating. Wittipol’s…
For the Honor of Wales
Jonson, Ben · 1618 · Masque
The Welsh are annoyed that the Prince of Wales's masquing debut featured an African mountain, so for the second performance, they have changed it to a Welsh one. This has entailed no extra cost: the scenic mountain is the same, only with a different name . They discuss the apparent VI/elshness of the masquers' names, and replace the original antimasques with Vvelsh music and song, which they insist is an improvement. Welsh bards sing to open the mountain, and dancing ensues.
The Fatal Dowry
Field, Nathan; Massinger, Philip · 1619 · Tragedy · King's Men · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
. Before the start of the action, the Marshal Charolais bankrupted himself to pay the army, and died in a debtors’ prison. Now his creditors seek to detain his body, preventing it from being buried. His son appeals in the courts, but the measure is pronounced legal; however, the creditors accept Young Charolais’s offer to be imprisoned himself, and the funeral takes place. Being poor, Charolais has no hope of ever being released, but Rochfort pays the debt and, in return, asks that Charolais marry his daughter Beaumelle. Before the marriage, Young Novall paid Beaumelle’s waiting-woman Bellapert to help him seduce her. Despite now being Charolais’s wife, Beaumelle proves receptive to his continued courting, but their meeting is witnessed by Charolais’s friend Romont. He intervenes and sends Novall packing, much to Beaumelle’s displeasure, then accuses her, first to Rochfort and then to her husband, but neither will believe him. Finally he confronts Novali and forces him at gunpoint to sign a confession and undertake never to see or contact Beaumelle again. Novall does not keep his word: Charolais catches him with Beaumelle and kills him. He then presents his wife to her father as the accused in an adultery trial. As a judge, Rochfort is obliged to condemn her to death, a sentence Charolais readily carries out; but as a father, he takes her part and accuses Charolais of ingratitude. The young man is arrested and tried for Novall’s murder. He admits the killing, but pleads that…
The Two Merry Milkmaids, or The Best Words Wear the Garland
Cumber, John (?) · 1619 · Comedy · Red Bull (Revels) Company (first) · before the Court;
Bernard sneaks into his tutor Landoff’s study, reads his magic books, and attempts to conjure up the devil. The spirit who appears is in fact Landoff himself in disguise: he has been trying to. find out why his pupil is melancholy, and left his study door unlocked so that the prospect of magic might cause him to reveal the answer. It does: Bernard wants to go home because he has fallen for a local girl, Julia, but has not yet plucked up the courage to tel her. Dorilus tries to court the proud, ambitious Dorigen, but she has her sights set on becoming a duchess. On - hearing that the Duke is coming to the area, she and Julia dress up as milkmaids and go to see him. The Duke is attracted by Dorigen’s flirtatious manner, and he grants her a boon. She asks that he make her father an earl, and, once that is done, she points out that there is no impediment of rank preventing him from 1619 marrying her. He does so, but Dorilus persists in his attentions after the wedding. She promises to reciprocate if he fulfils an impossible task: to bring her a garland containing every species of flower, which will remain fresh so long as he is constant in his love. Landoff, still posing as a spirit, agrees to fetch him the blooms, and Dorilus gladly signs away his estate to Bernard by way of payment. Presented with the garland, Dorigen is disconcerted to realize that she will have to keep her side of the bargain. She confesses to the Duke, who seems unconcerned at the prospect of her adultery,…
The Inner-Temple Masque, or The Masque of Heroes
Middleton, Thomas · 1619 · Masque
The Old Year is dead. After attending his funeral, Dr Almanac examines Christmas’s water, and finds that he too is dying. The Old Year’s servant, a Fasting Day, looks for a new employer, and gets Candlemas Eve. The New Year seeks the doctor’s advice for his health. A set of festival days come in an antimasque, seeking their places in the new year; so do the good, bad, and indifferent days. Harmony arrives and sings to New Year about the relationship between virtue and prosperity. Heroes, deified for their virtues, appear and dance.
The Virgin Martyr
Dekker, Thomas; Massinger, Philip · 1620 · Tragedy · Red Bull (Revels) Company (first)
An imperial edict orders the extirpation of Christianity from the Roman Empire, and the re-establishment of the worship of the pagan gods. In Caesarea, Theophilus works to that end, abetted by Harpax; his many successes so far include the forced apostasy of his own daughters, once Christians but now votaresses of Jupiter. Diocletian gives his daughter Artemia the right to choose her own husband, and she selects the unwilling Antoninus, who loves the Christian Dorothea and asks for time to consider. Artemia remains in Caesarea as her father’s deputy. Harpax tells Theophilus that Antoninus is having an illicit relationship with Dorothea, and Theophilus suborns her servants Spungius and Hircius to smuggle him into her home so that he can witness a meeting between them. Dorothea and Antoninus are arrested. Theophilus sets his daughters, Dorothea’s childhood friends, to convert her to paganism; but instead Dorothea persuades them to revert to Christianity. When they demonstrate their new faith by spitting at an idol of Jupiter, their outraged father kills them. Antoninus is taken ill. His father brings Dorothea to his sick-bed in the hope that he will rape her and so be cured. He refuses, and Dorothea is taken for torture and execution. Destitute after losing the gold Theophilus gave them, Spungius and Hircius are engaged by Harpax to be the torturers. They flog her, but miraculously she feels nothing; they are wrongly suspected of botching the job out of regard for their former…
The Gypsies Metamorphosed
Jonson, Ben · 1621 · Masque · before the Court;
A troop of gypsies arrive with children and stolen meat, and proceed to read the palms and tell the fortunes of the King, the Prince, and various members of the aristocratic audience. Some rustics turn up, attracted by the sound of the Gypsies’ dancing. They decide to have a dance themselves with their wenches, and collect money to pay the musicians. The Gypsies steal their purses and other possessions, but then return the items to their pockets by legerdemain. The rustics are interested in the Gypsies’ place of origin, Devil’s Arse, and ask where the name came from. A song is sung by way of an answer, telling of how the first captain of the Gypsies, Cock-Lorel, entertained the Devil to a banquet, with numerous different varieties of human flesh on the menu; the Devil blew the feast away with a fart and so gave the place its name. The Gypsies are metamorphosed into white-skinned lords, and praise the King. C-Text After the Cock-Lorel song, the rustics are seized with the desire to become Gypsies themselves, and the Patrico tells them what a long process their initiation would be.
The Maid of Honor
Massinger, Philip · 1621 · Tragicomedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Before the start of the action, Aurelia, Duchess of Siena, refused a marriage proposal by Ferdinand, Duke of Urbino. In reprisal, Ferdinand attacked Siena, conquered it, but then found himself trapped inside the city by the regrouped Sienese troops. To raise the siege, he invokes a defensive treaty with Sicily, but King Roberto refuses to honour it because Ferdinand was the aggressor and has brought his troubles on himself. However, he allows his bastard half-brother Bertoldo to go to war with a volunteer army. The court favourite Fulgentio takes advantage of Bertoldu: absence to woo his fiancée, Camiola. But she misses Bertoldo and refuses Fulgentio; his mpaste 1s to produce Roberto’s ring and make it a reval order that she accept him. She wishes Bertoldo were present to defend her honour: another suitor. Adurni. steps in. fights a duel, and wounds Fulgentio, which gets him into trouble with the King. Far trom raising the siege. Bertolde is routed by Gonzaga, Aurelia’s general. Both men are kKrughts «1 Malta, and Gonzaga is affronted to find Bertalds: unmindtul of chivalry as to be leading an ara searnst a lady’s interests. Roberta seuds Astutio te ransens: the Sicilian prisoners of war, but Bertoldo from the payment of his ransam by any private cen © aiid, expressly crcbeudhe + a ' torbnds ihe arrangement and ignores the order and sends Adurnt Go pay the ratsern Bertoldy is released. abligation to marry Camtola: bat Aurelia asks 1) him, falls in love with huni. arranges a…
A Match at Midnight
R., W. · 1622 · Comedy · Red Bull (Revels) Company (first) (?)
Old Bloodhound is training his younger son Tim in the family pawnbroking business, since Alexander, the elder son, is a drunken wastrel. He intends to marry his daughter Mary to the informer Earlack, even though she prefers Ensign Young, while he himself will marry the young widow Wag. The widow has other suitors, including her servant Jarvis, but wants to get rid of them. She arranges a midnight assignation with Old Bloodhound, intending not to turn up. Jarvis arranges a substitute, and tells Bloodhound that his mistress has come incognito and must be addressed as Mistress Coot; in fact it really is a Mistress Coot, an old bawd, whom Bloodhound takes home that night in preparation for a wedding the next morning. Meanwhile, Mary plans to elope with Young that ' night, retrieving his mortgage from her father’s papers. 1622 The widow's Welsh suitor, Randall, hears about Mary and, though he has never met her, decides he prefers her to Wag. The servant Sim fixes Randall up with an assignation that night, but he ends up encountering Wag's maid, who is returning from a late errand and who also happens to be named Mary. Tim visits the tavern to give Alexander some pawn- money, and becomes enamoured of Sue Shortheels, thinking her a lady of noble descent. In fact, she is a prostitute. Alexander gets into the widow’s bedroom and hides under her bed, then forces her to agree to marry him by threatening to undress just as neighbours appear to be arriving. The various wedding plans…
Herod and Antipater
Markham, Gervase; Sampson, William · 1622 · Tragedy · Red Bull (Revels) Company (first) · Red Bull;Outdoor Professional
Queen Alexandra attempts to flee to Egypt with her son, the High Priest Aristobulus, after King Herod commands a bloody purge of their family. Herod’s troops arrive in time only to seize their luggage, but they are found hiding inside. Herod makes a public gesture of sparing them, but has his bastard son Antipater arrange an ‘accidental’ drowning for Aristobulus during a swimming contest. Herod backed the wrong side in the recent Roman civil war between Mark Antony and Augustus. He goes to Rome to make his peace with Augustus, the new master of the Empire, leaving Antipater with instructions to kill Mariam, the Queen, in the event of his failure. When Herod presents himself, Augustus offers two slaves the chance to murder him: the Briton conscientiously refuses, whereas the Roman eagerly accepts the job. But Augustus was only toying with Herod: he rewards the British slave, has the Roman thrown into the sea, and confirms Herod in his kingdom as an ally of Rome. Mariam learns that Herod has ordered her death, which compounds his crime in killing Aristobulus. Antipater, who seeks the crown, draws inspiration from Hell, and is shown a vision of the murder of Agamemnon. He procures false witnesses to accuse Mariam of attempting to poison her husband in order to facilitate an incestuous liaison with his brother. Herod sentences them both to death; he later changes his mind and tries to reprieve Mariam, but is too late. His two sons, Alexander and the younger Aristobulus, raise…
The Bondman (The Noble Bondman)
Massinger, Philip · 1623 · Tragicomedy · Lady Elizabeth's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Carthage has territorial designs on Sicily, so Corinth sends its general, Timoleon, to take charge of the defence of Syracuse. On arrival, he criticizes the Sicilians for appointing unworthy and inexperienced senators and for general corruption. He decrees that all private wealth should be sequestered to pay for the war. It is an unpopular measure until Cleora public- spiritedly gives up her jewels, forcing the others to follow her example. Cleora has several suitors, including Pisander of Thebes; but her brother Timagoras, keen for her to marry his friend Leosthenes, slandered Pisander to induce their father to send him away. Now that the young men are going to war, Leosthenes is jealous about what she may get up to in his absence, so she promises literally not to see or say anything until his return. The slaves of Syracuse take advantage of the absence of the army and rebel, enslaving their former masters. The ringleader is Cleora’s slave Marullo, who claims to be motivated by unrequited passion for his mistress, but, when he gains access to her, disclaims any intention of raping her and receives in return a wordless acknowledgement of her regard for him. He encourages the former slaves to treat their former masters well, since their positions may again be reversed. News arrives of a victory over the Carthaginians, with particular military distinction achieved by Leosthenes. The rebellious slaves man the city’s walls and gates to keep out the returning army; from the…
Rule a Wife and Have a Wife
Fletcher, John · 1624 · Comedy · King's Men
Perez, gathering his troops in preparation for an expedition to Flanders, is visited by the veiled Estefania. She piques his interest by refusing to show her face; on their second meeting, he woos her, hastily marries her, abandons his military career, and moves into what she claims to be her house, bringing with him what he claims to be a trunk of jewels. In fact the house belongs to Margarita; Estefania is no lady but a former servant. Margarita intends to marry, but when her older confidantes remind her of the joys of promiscuity, she decides on a husband who will be content to be cuckolded. Her waiting-woman Altea recommends Leon, who has just evaded military recruitment by feigning folly, and who agrees to be his wife’s subordinate in the marriage, no better than her household servants. The newlyweds arrive unexpectedly at Margarita’s city house, surprising Estefania and her husband. Estefania claims that she has lent the house to Margarita (whom she claims as a kinswoman), to facilitate the cozening of a lover. Perez moves temporarily into lodgings, whereupon Estefania steals the contents of his trunk. She later discovers the jewels to be counterfeit, and gets her own back by encouraging Perez to take possession of ‘his’ house; when he attempts to do so, he is rebuffed by Leon. She presents the jewels to the rich tradesman Cacafuego, persuading him that they are a love-gift from Margarita. In return, he gives her money which she hands over to Perez: evidently she has…
The Duchess of Suffolk
Drue, Thomas · 1624 · History · Prince Palatine's (Palsgrave's) Men
King Edward VI orders the widowed Duchess of Suffolk to marry the Count Palatine, newly elected the . King of Poland. Other aristocratic suitors present themselves, but she contracts herself to her servant Bertie. Bishops Gardiner and Bonner are imprisoned, and Bonner swears revenge when the Duchess insults him. Queen Mary succeeds to the throne, releases the imprisoned bishops and appoints them commissioners to exterminate heresy. Bonner has Bertie arrested, but permits him to go abroad; he then has the Duchess arrested and her household broken up. Forced to choose which of its members will remain in her service, she selects Cranwell above Fox, who takes it badly. Bonner’s men have little success in detaining the Duchess and her associates: Dr Sandys escapes by impersonating a workman, and the Duchess also sneaks out of London with Cranwell, her baby daughter, and its nurse. The workmen are arrested and brought before Bonner, who orders them burned, but forgets about them when he hears news of the Duchess’s whereabouts. He goes with Fox to Leigh, where she and her remaining household have assembled in disguise at Gosling’s house, but Fox helps them to escape by ‘accidentally’ knocking Bonner into a well. The Duchess and Bertie meet at Emden. Still wanted by the English authorities, they decide to travel separately, but Bertie is concerned for his wife’s safety and is on hand to rescue her from being raped when her party is attacked by thieves. The nurse first flees with the…
The Vow Breaker, or The Fair Maid of Clifton
Sampson, William · 1625 · Tragedy
Though Young Bateman is betrothed to Anne Boot and loved by her, her father reneges on the ===== PAGE 347 ===== 1628 arrangement. Meanwhile, war looms: England enters an alliance with a federation of Scottish lords hostile to the French Queen Regent of Scotland, and troops are being recruited to march north. Bateman joins up, hoping that his absence will make Old Boot’s heart grow fonder, and Anne vows to love only him; but her father puts pressure on her to marry German, and, seduced by his wealth, she agrees. The French are vanquished, and Bateman distinguishes himself in battle; but he is troubled by dreams about Anne, and returns home on the day of her wedding, just missing the ceremony. German goes away on a long business trip, leaving Anne in her father’s house. Old Bateman sues Boot for breach of the pre-contract; Young Bateman hangs himself outside Anne’s door, and his ghost haunts Anne, invisible to the rest of her family. Anne gives birth to a baby girl. While the women around her sleep, she sees the ghost and runs out of the house; following her footsteps in the snow, the household find her drowned in the river. The two bereaved fathers, Boot and Bateman, commiserate together. In Scotland, Sir Gervase Clifton insults the Queen Regent by drawing an unfavourable comparison with Queen Elizabeth, and captures Martigues in a single combat, but releases him with honour. Joshua the Puritan intends to hang his cat for Sabbath-breaking - she killed a mouse on Sunday - but…
A New Way to Pay Old Debts
Massinger, Philip · 1625 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Sir Giles Overreach’s schemes for the accumulation of lands and money include a campaign against his prodigal nephew, Welborne, and a plot to marry his daughter Margaret to Lord Lovell. Welborne has sold Overreach all his land to fund a prodigal lifestyle, and now Overreach’s agent Marrall has him ejected from his alehouse lodging: the objective is to force him into a choice between hunger and theft, and so procure his death either by starvation or on the gallows. Welborne goes to see the recently widowed Lady Alworth, who is refusing to see her many suitors, including Overreach’s associate Justice Greedy. Welborne forces his way in and persuades her, trading on his friendship with her dead husband, to entertain him and a guest to dinner. Welborne brings Marrall, who infers from their cordial reception that Welborne is to marry the widow. He is therefore likely to be worth more alive than dead, so Overreach changes his plans and lends him £1,000, with which Welborne pays his old debts. When Overreach attempts to close the trap and force him to sign away Lady Alworth’s lands, however, Welborne refuses, and insists that his own estate is wrongfully detained by Overreach. His uncle produces the deeds to prove otherwise, but Marrall, fed up with Overreach’s maltreatment, has tampered with them and they are invalid. To redeem his lost reputation, Welborne joins the army to fight for king and country. In the other plot, Lord Lovell goes to dinner at Overreach’s house, where…
The Maid's Revenge
Shirley, James · 1626 · Tragedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
PLOT Sebastiano hopes that his friend Antonio will marry one of his sisters, and introduces him to the family, even though the girls both have suitors already. Antonio falls for Berinthia, but her father, Vilarezo, will not allow her to marry until the elder daughter, Catalina, is wed. Catalina herself becomes enamoured of Antonio, which makes her jealous of her sister and annoys her suitor, Montenegro. After Antonio is called away, Catalina plots to frustrate his wooing: she persuades Valasco, Berinthia’s other suitor, to damn her reputation by claiming that Berinthia has promised to marry him; Vilarezo responds by ordering Berinthia’s confinement in Catalina’s custody. Antonio writes to Berinthia, but the letter falls into Catalina’s hands. Catalina proposes that Valasco should force the issue by kidnapping Berinthia; but her real plan is for him to take the blame for Berinthia’s death by poison. Antonio’s servant overhears the plot and warns his master. Antonio comes to rescue Berinthia, and is admitted by Catalina’s chambermaid, who takes him for Valasco; together they escape to Antonio’s castle. Upon realizing that Antonio is his daughter’s abductor, Vilarezo sends Sebastiano to take reprisals. Though told the truth and treated honourably, he feels obliged to fight a duel with Antonio, and wins: Antonio is killed and Berinthia brought home. Antonio’s sister Castabella, who has fallen in love with Sebastiano despite her brother’s death, follows him disguised as a page.…
The Valiant Scot
W., J. · 1626 · History · Unknown
PLOT Scotland is under English rule. An attempt is made to dispossess Old Wallace of his office and lands; but Old Wallace partially circumvents it by transferring ownership of the land to his son. King Edward plans to make war on France, and appoints Bruce his general. Scotland is left in the charge of Queen Elinor and a panel of commissioners. Young Selby, son of one of the commissioners, abducts Peggy Graham, intending to marry her by force. Wallace intervenes and kills Young Selby in a duel. Commissioner Selby arrests Peggy and threatens her with execution for the murder. Wallace gives himself up, and Peggy is released. His own execution is forestalled when the Queen orders him brought to court for interrogation. He escapes en route, marries Peggy, and becomes a rebel. Friar Gertrid prophesies that he will be victorious until betrayed by his own blood. The English capture Peggy, Gertrid, and Old Wallace, and Selby has them killed. King Edward sends Wallace an ultimatum: if he will surrender and beg for mercy, he may be spared. Wallace sends an alternative ultimatum back: if Edward will admit himself to be a tyrant, he may be spared. Upon discovering that one of the ambassadors, the Queen’s nephew, has no diplomatic accreditation, he puts the young man to death. He then cuts out an ambassador’s tongue and blinds another, and accompanies them back to King Edward disguised as a lame soldier. The English plan to entice Wallace into a trap, and send another messenger to…
The Wedding
Shirley, James · 1626 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Beauford is to marry Sir John Belfare’s daughter, Gratiana, but on the eve of the wedding his kinsman Marwood tells him that she is unchaste: he himself has slept with her. Beauford fights a duel with him in the park; Marwood is wounded, but still insists that his story is true. Beauford sends a surgeon to him, but the body disappears before he arrives, taken away for treatment by the park gamekeeper’s wife. Beauford accuses and jilts Gratiana on the day of the wedding. Questioned by. Beauford’s friend Captain Landby, Gratiana insists that she is a virgin, and he offers to help vindicate her. At his instigation, she writes to Beauford pretending to have drowned herself, and shuts herself away in the house of Landby’s uncle, Justice Landby. Milisent, a boy servant, tells Gratiana that Marwood has died insisting on the veracity of his accusation: he slept with Gratiana with the connivance of her guardian Cardona. Milisent then tells Beauford that Marwood was mistaken: Gratiana is innocent, and Cardona is to blame. The boy also claims to have brought him Marwood’s body, but the coffin actually contains the living Gratiana, and the lovers are reconciled. Beauford is arrested for Marwood’s murder arid brought before Justice Landby. Belfare rushes to the judge's house to lay an additional accusation for the rourder of the missing Gratiana, only to find her there alive. The other murder charge proves. equally iiitounded: Marwood too is present in disguise. Cardona admits that she…
The English Traveller
Heywood, Thomas · 1627 · Tragicomedy · Lady Elizabeth's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Geraldine has recently returned from foreign travels, to find that, during his absence, a childhood friend, whom he was expected to marry, married old Wincott instead; she did not seek the marriage, but has no complaints. Having no children of his own, Wincott treats Geraldine as a close friend, and is trusting enough to leave the young man alone with his wife. Geraldine agrees with her that, should they both survive Wincott, he will be her second husband, and he agrees to remain single until then. Dalavill spreads rumours that Geraldine and Mistress Wincott are lovers. Concerned at the possible scandal, Old Geraldine tests his son by proposing that he should marry; Geraldine’s refusal is taken as confirmation of the affair. Geraldine protests his innocence, but to prove it, and silence the gossip, his father insists that he should never again visit the Wincotts. His absence grieves Wincott, and Geraldine agrees to explain himself at a secret midnight meeting. He is pressed by Wincott to stay the night but, unable to sleep, decides to pass the time looking innocently at Mistress Wincott in her bed. Outside her room he overhears her talking to Dalavill: they are lovers. Disillusioned, Geraldine plans to leave England. Wincott lays on a feast to mark his departure, and everyone is invited. At the party, Geraldine confronts Mistress Wincott with what he knows. She is mortified, rejects Dalavill, faints, and dies, having written to her husband a confession. Dalavill flees the…
Antigone, the Theban Princess
May, Thomas · 1627 · Tragedy
Self-blinded and banished from Thebes, Oedipus wishes only for death. His daughter Antigone temporarily persuades him to give up such thoughts, but it is not long before he is dead. Thebes itself is at war: Eteocles has dishonoured a power-sharing agreement with his brother Polynices, and seven Greek champions have besieged the city in support of the latter’s claim. After sustaining heavy casualties, Polynices proposes settling the case in single combat with Eteocles. Both are killed. The new King, Creon, decrees that no Theban shall bury any enemy soldier, including Polynices. He also places Antigone under house arrest and refuses his son Haemon permission to marry her. In defiance of Creon, Antigone goes to the battlefield in search of Polynices’ body. There she meets his widow, Argia, and together they convey the corpse past the watchmen and give it a funeral. Creon too comes to the battlefield, to consult the witches who are gathering Parts of the dead bodies for magical use. They make a dead body tell his fortune: he will die soon, and disorder will come to Thebes. Antigone and Argia are arrested. Creon holds Argia, a foreign princess, for ransom, but sentences Antigone to be entombed alive and left to starve to death. By threatening to take his own life, Haemon persuades his father to allow her release, but it is too late: she has taken poison to hasten her death. Haemon kills himself. Thebes is attacked by Theseus, who has been summoned by another widow to intervene…
The Witty Fair One
Shirley, James · 1628 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
PLOT After a dinner party at his brother Worthy’s house, Sir George Richly goes off to visit his prospective son-in-law Sir Nicholas in the country, leaving his daughter Violetta in Worthy’s care and under the watchful eye of his servant Brains: he is concerned that, as his heir, she should not be the object of unwelcome attentions from gallants. The other dinner guests take a walk in the garden. Aimwell has fallen for Violetta and asks Worthy what his chances are; he gets a frank answer, and resolves to give up his suit, but changes his mind when Violetta’s own words seem to imply that her father’s matrimonial plans for her may not have her full consent. Meanwhile Fowler woos Worthy’s daughter Penelope, but admits in private that he is not in earnest, only practising his skill. Sir George returns home with Sir Nicholas. He proves to be an arrant fool dependent on his opportunistic tutor, who can see that the objective of the marriage is one knight’s desire to control the other’s estate. Aimwell sends a letter to Violetta enclosed in one from Fowler to Penelope. Through a mix-up, Violetta keeps her reply and sends him back his original letter, which he takes as a rebuff. Brains steals the remaining letter from her and sends it to her father, who is outraged and plans to advance the date of the wedding. Violetta’s chambermaid Sensible, sacked by Sir George, tells Aimwell about the mistake with the letters; reassured that she loves him after all, he starts to lay plans.…
The Lover's Melancholy
1629 · Tragicomedy · King's Men · Blackfriars;Globe;Indoor Professional;Outdoor Professional
Menaphon returns home to Cyprns after a year's travel, bringing with him Parthenophill, a young man he met in Greece. Neither his love-Life nor that of his friend Amethus is going well: Amethus' love Oeophila is too preoccupied with her father's illness to entertain his suit. and Menaphon 's love Thamasta seems uninterested in men - at least until she meets Parthenophill. She sets her maid Kala to woo the newcomer, to avenge a slight, Kala courts him for herself, but Parthenophill rejects them both. Prince Palador has also been unlucky in love : two years before, during his father Agenor's lifetime, he was to have married Erodea, daughter of the principal minister, Meleander; but Agenor wooed her for himself and attempted to have her kidnapped; Mdeander rescued her and she disappeared, leaving the disgraced Meleander to sink into insanity under house arrest. Now Palador is melancholy, and affairs of state are neglected. The court physician Corax undertakes to tind the cause of Palador's malady, and presents a masque of mdancholy, representing various types of mental disorder: lycanthropia, hydrophobia, delirium, phrenitis, and St Vitus' dance, but not love-mdancholr, v.,-hich is represented by a sizeable blank in the masque's paper programme. Palador's angry reaction to Co-ra."l'.'s commentary on the omission reveals that this is his malady . Menaphon becomes jealous of the attentions Thamasta pays to Parthenophill, but her persistenct: leads the young man to reveal the…
The New Inn, or The Light Heart
Jonson, Ben · 1629 · Comedy · King's Men
Before the start of the action, the aristocratic Framipul family disintegrated. The younger daughter, |. actitia, ===== PAGE 357 ===== 1629 disappeared. Her mother, believing her husband had fallen out of love with her because of inability to produce a son, went mad. Lord Frampul too then vanished and his title devolved to his elder daughter, Frances, who is now enjoying herself spending her inheritance. Lady Frances and her crew of suitors descend on the Light Heart, a country inn, on pleasure bent. Lovel, a melancholy guest at the inn, decides to leave, but Goodstock the jovial host persuades him to stay. He agrees so long as he doesn’t have to meet Frances, and explains that he loves her but is honourably trying to leave the field clear for another suitor, his ward Beaufort. Unfortunately for him, Frances insists that he joins in with the day’s planned entertainment. Her maid Prudence has been appointed to preside over the revels as the mock-queen, even though the new gown she was to wear for the occasion has not arrived. She awards Lovel two hours of the Lady’s undivided attention in which to woo her, and to be rewarded with two kisses. Prudence also borrows Goodstock’s son Frank, dresses him as a woman, and induces Beaufort to fall in love with ‘her’. For the first hour, he discourses of the nature of spiritual love; Beaufort is more interested in love of the physical kind, but Frances is inspired with a new respect for the emotion, and gladly pays Lovel the kiss she…
The Muses' Looking Glass
Randolph, Thomas · 1630 · Moral · King's Revels Company
Bird and Mistress Flowerdew, Puritan residents of Blackfriars, bring their wares to the theatre, but are appalled when Roscius tells them they have been ordered for use as props in a filthy stage play. Roscius argues that they themselves make a living from the vice of vanity, and invites them to see the play before they condemn it; he will give them a running commentary on its moral import. Despite Roscius’ high claims, Comedy and Tragedy seem initially more concerned about the order of their precedence; they agree to spend a year in competition, staging examples of their respective genres, and whichever is adjudged the better will thereafter have the theatre to herself. The play is a series of episodes showing specific virtues to be the mean: an excess or a deficiency constitutes a vice. A lack of courtesy makes Dyscolus churlishly ready to pick quarrels, whereas too much of it makes Colax sycophantic, to such an extent that he hangs around for the rest of the play flattering all the other vices. Aphobus is over-confident and Deilus cowardly, afraid of his own shadow: they have respectively too much fortitude and too little. Temperance is the next example, illustrated by Acolastus the epicure and Anaisthetus the ascetic, followed by liberality, missing in Aneleutherus the miser and carried to excess in Asotus the prodigal. The over-ostentatious Banausus, full of extravagant schemes for public works, overdoes magnificence, whereas Microprepes balks at replacing a church…
The Contention for Honor and Riches
Shirley, James · 1631 · Moral
Honour wants to see Riches, but Riches.is too proud to visit her: even though Honour has injured her foot and has limited mobility, Riches insists that she must be the one who travels. Riches is further annoyed by Honour’s choice of messenger, Ingenuity, simply because she hates scholars. She prefers her rival suitors, the countryman Clod and the citizen Gettings, who are both anti-intellectual. They quarrel over Riches, and the oneupmanship culminates with Clod challenging Gettings toa duel. Honour has two suitors of her own, a courtier and a soldier, who both urge their merits and mock each other’s deficiencies. Honour proves hard to get for both of them, and the argument ends when each is scared by an-apparition: Honesty terrifies. the courtier and No-Pay perturbs the soldier. Clod and Gettings . likewise have unwelcome, scary visitors, Foul-Weather-in-Harvest for Clod and Long- _- Vacation ‘for Gettings. Riches stops their duel and _ promises to marry one of them. Of necessity, it has to be Gettings, because. she is distantly related to Clod. Honour marries Ingenuity because a scholar combines the virtués.of both the courtier and the soldier.
The Wonder of A Kingdom
Dekker, Thomas · 1631 · Comedy · Prince Charles's Men (first) (?)
The Duke of Florence has betrothed his daughter, Fiametta, to the Prince of Pisa, and, to facilitate the political marriage, banished her lover, Angelo. Fiametta sickens for her absent love, and he returns to court disguised as a French doctor, offering the Duke his services to save her life. He diagnoses sexual frustration, and proposes a cure which requires the patient to drink a potion made from the beloved’s powdered heart: she will then hate him. In order to obtain the key ingredient, Angelo must be murdered. Angelo reveals his presence to Fiametta, but she insists on identifying him to her father, in the expectation that the Duke will relent. Angelo passes this off as an insane delusion, then flees to sanctuary. He is found and brought to court with a friar. He seems to reject Fiametta, and she agrees to marry Pisa the following day, but asks for the friar to hear her confession overnight. In fact, he secretly marries her to Angelo, pre-empting Pisa; the Duke and Prince are annoyed, but recognize there is nothing to be done about it. In the sub-plot, Lord Vanni has amorous inclinations younger than his physical age, and sends a love-letter and jewel to the chaste Alphonsina Neri. Meanwhile, Alphonsina’s brother Tibaldo has fallen sick for love of Vanni’s wife Dariene. He asks Alphonsina to accept Vanni’s advances, and Vanni duly excuses himself from Dariene’s bed. Tibaldo has arranged for himself to be present disguised as Alphonsina’s sister, and offers himself as an…
Rhodon and Iris
Knevet, Ralph · 1631 · Pastoral
: Aiming to sow dissension among the flowers, Poneria and Agnostus disguise themselves as a virtuous maiden and a wise man. Rhodon has recently breken off his suit to Eglantine, and is now expected to marry Iris. His sister Violetta appeals to him for help against the marauding Martagon, who has trampled on her flowers and forced her to live away from her home. Martagon conspires with Eglantine’s brother to forestall Rhodon’s match with Iris. The jilted Eglantine grows melancholy, but Poneria stops her killing herself and gets her to tart herself up for an assignation with Rhodon. It becomes clear that Martagon has no intention of making restitution to Violetta, so Rhodon will have to take him on by force: a floral war seems inevitable. Iris gives Rhodon a gern which makes the wearer victorious in battle; Violetta gives him a lettuce which guarantees sustenance and prevents poisoning. Martagon suborns Poneria to kill Rhodon, so she gives Eglantine a poison, telling her it is a love-philtre. Posing as Iris, Eglantine gives it to him, claiming it to be a restorative, and expects him to fall in love with her. Instead. he falls iJ, but is cured by the vegetable antidote from his sister. _ 2335. Rhodon and Iris | 499 Rhodon challenges. Martagon to single combat, but. he refuses: the full armies will settle it. Realizing that, since Rhodon is alive, Poneria’s plot has miscarried, Martagon orders her out-of his territory, so she goes to Rhodon and tells him. that it was Eglantine,…
The Humorous Courtier (The Duke)
Shirley, James · 1631 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
PLOT It is vital that the Duchess of Mantua marries; otherwise the King of Spain will assert his interest in the succession. But the Duchess has turned away three foreign princes proposed by her courtiers, most recently Foscari, who left Mantua annoyed. She declares that she will choose a husband from her own court, which puts the courtiers into a competitive frenzy of ambition. In this they are each abetted by a Florentine visitor to the court, Giotto. Giotto tells Comaccio that the Duchess is interested in his foolish nephew, de Pazzi. At Comaccio’s request, Giotto gives de Pazzi advice on wooing technique designed to make him appear undesirable: he is to talk unchastely and dispraise the other men and women of the court. He composes an offensive poem for the Duchess, but she finds it funny and shows de Pazzi greater favour than before. Comaccio asks Giotto to get de Pazzi out of the way for good, by murdering him; Giotto persuades him to go into hiding until after the marriage is decided. The soldier Orseollo is misled into thinking he is the chosen suitor, and starts to regret his public displays of misogyny. Even after his U-turn, Giotto tells him there is a slight problem: his former attitudes could be taken as evidence of his impotence, perhaps the result of a battlefield injury; so Orseollo attempts to secure his reputation as a stud by revealing the prodigious extent of his secret whoring. Old Contarini regrets his recent marriage to a young wife, which puts him out…
The Jealous Lovers
Randolph, Thomas · 1632 · Comedy · before the Court;at University;
Simo lives an ascetic life so that his son Asotus will inherit a large fortune. Asotus asks for money now, and is given some. His tutor Ballio persuades him that it is vulgar to carry his own purse, and undertakes to do so for him. Tyndarus and Techmessa are both prone to jealousy of their respective lovers, Evadne and Pamphilus; Tyndarus even doubts Evadne’s chastity when she kisses him over-enthusiastically. Asotus tries to chat up Evadne, but she refuses him. He manages to purloin one of her ear-rings and, to avenge himself for the rebuff, shows it to Tyndarus, who reacts predictably. Ballio makes a play for Techmessa by encouraging her to think Pamphilus unwilling to defend her honour, and she charges him to take Pamphilus’ sword from him. He steals it from Pamphilus’ page while he is delivering letters to Techmessa, then tells her that he was given it by Pamphilus rather than rise to the provocation to fight. The page summons officers to arrest Ballio, and he confesses the ruse. Asotus also admits his slander of Evadne, and both are allowed to choose their own punishment; they elect to cudgel one another. Techmessa and Tyndarus decide to test their lovers: Tyndarus asks Pamphilus to woo Evadne, and Techmessa asks Evadne to respond to Tyndarus’ advances; the result confirms them in their jealousy, until the situation is explained. Techmessa’s mother Dipsas is keen to cross Evadne’s love, partly because she resents the fact that Evadne was brought up in her household…
The Rival Friends
Hausted, Peter · 1632 · Comedy · before the Court;at University;
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,…
Tempe Restored (Tempe Restauratum)
Townshend, Aurelian · 1632 · Masque · before the Court;Whitehall;
Circe’s favourite, formerly transformed by her into a lion, takes advantage of his return to human form, and flees. Circe angrily pursues him, but is persuaded by her nymphs to watch a show of her remaining bestial subjects, the present occupiers of the Vale of Tempe. Divine Beauty appears, as do the gods. Cupid claims sovereignty over Circe’s victims, and Jupiter over the land. Circe anticipates Jupiter’s intentions by ceding her dominion to the King and Queen. Tempe is restored to the followers of the Muses.
Love's Sacrifice
1633 · Tragedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
D'Avolos induces Roseilli to leave court by inventing a ducal order of banishment, then intervenes in a developing love-quadrangle: the Duke has recently married Bianca, who is loved by Fernando, who in turn is loved by Fiormonda. Bianca repeatedly refuses to hear Fernando's protestations, but later visits him in bed while the Duke is away hunting, and admits that she reciprocates his love. However, he will not take dishonourable advantage of the situation, and adultery does not occur. D'Avolos learns of their mutual attraction, andtells Fiormonda. With Fernando's connivance, Roseilli returns to court disguised as a fool, and is placed in Fiormonda's household. Ferentes woos three women-Colona, Julia, and old Morona-and under promise of marriage gets each of them pregnant; he then refuses to honour his word to any of them. Fernando proposes to welcome Bianca's uncle to court with a masque, but the jilted women use it as a front for revenge, and kill Ferentes during the performance. They are bailed into male custody and eventually pardoned, but old Mauruccio, the only other masquer deemed criminally responsible, is imprisoned. Bianca and Fernando plead for his release, which is granted after Morona agrees to marry him, but the couple are then banished. D'Avolos casually draws the Duke's attention to Bianca's solicitude towards Fernando, and works with Fiormonda to foster his jealousy: they insinuate that Ferentes was killed to silence him, but the Duke asks for ocular proof…
A Maidenhead Well Lost
Heywood, Thomas · 1633 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Julia has given herself sexually to her flance, the Prince of Parma, but is now concerned that he mav have fost interest in her: she has been told of a dalliance between him and Lauretta. When lulia publicly strikes Eauretta, Parma breaks off the engagement. In fact, Julia’. informant, Stroza, was lying: he has a grudge agamoat ===== PAGE 406 ===== Lauretta’s father, General Sforza, and has also been working to secure his downfall by delaying the shipment of money and supplies to the front. News arrives that the war is won, but that Sforza, unable to pay his men, gave them everything he had and died of grief. His widow pays the soldiers’ arrears out of her estate and leaves Milan with Lauretta. Fearful of dishonour, Julia tries to persuade Parma to stay by telling him she is pregnant. He denies paternity — she consented so readily to pre-marital sex that, misled by Stroza, he believes she must also have had other men - and leaves anyway. Her father the Duke learns of the situation, and sends Stroza to fetch Parma back, dead or alive. Julia’s unborn child saves her from execution for her misdeed, and she goes into hiding until the baby is born. When it is, the Duke orders Stroza to dispose of it, and plans to conceal her shame with a hasty marriage to another foreign prince. Stroza leaves the baby in a grove to be found by passers-by; sure enough, when he returns a few hours later, it has gone, found by Parma and recognized as his own true issue. Lauretta and her mother are…
Love's Riddle
Cowley, Abraham · 1633 · Pastoral
Before the start of the action, Callidora was the victim of an attempted rape when she was alone in her absent parents’ house. Aphron, who was obsessed with her, broke into the house, but she hid in a corner and evaded him. Afraid of a second encounter, she borrowed a suit of her brother’s clothes and fled into the forest. Aphron went mad, and initially believed every woman he met to be Callidora. In the forest, the cross-dressed Callidora becomes ‘Callidorus’. She meets Alupis, a shepherd who sold his inheritance to see the city and came home penniless but with a witty devotion to pleasure. She takes him on as her man, and asks him to teach her indifference to love. She sets up home in the country, only to find that, seeming to be a beautiful youth, she attracts the amorous attentions of the local women, young and old. Palaemon is interested in marrying Hylace, but her father Melarnus refuses the match, thinking him too poor. But Hylace has only been leading him on, more interested in his gifts than himself. Alupis encourages him to turn the tables: she will come to heel if he treats her with masterful disdain; but when this doesn’t bring about her immediate devotion, he loses his nerve and tells her it was all a joke. Alupis decides to recruit her mother, the ancient but amorously inclined Truga, to support Palaemon’s suit. Though infatuated with ‘Callidorus’, Truga transfers her affections to Alupis when he speaks politely to her, and gives him a ring as a lover’s token.…
The Bird in a Cage (The Beauties)
Shirley, James · 1633 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
After rumours of Philenzo’s interest in Eugenia, her father the Duke banishes him and shuts her up in a newly-built palace, attended only by ladies, until he can find her a husband of suitable rank. Orpiano is sent to Florence with her picture to negotiate a marriage treaty; her fiancé will be the Great Duke’s son. Rolliardo, an unemployed wit, comes to court looking for work. The Duke gives him the task of gaining access to Eugenia in her new quarters within a month, with the proviso that he will be executed if he fails; he agrees, subject to the condition that the Duke gives him enough money to do the job—meaning, in effect, unlimited access to the exchequer. Pursued by creditors, the artist Bonamico sets up business disguised as a mountebank, Altomaro, offering to teach people the secret of invisibility. Rolliardo sceptically rejects this as a method of penetrating Eugenia’s palace, preferring to trust in the corruptibility of the captain of the guard—who refuses to help, but keeps the bribe anyway. ‘Altomaro’ tries to encourage prospective clients by dressing up as a series of customers entering his shop; they are not seen leaving because, he says, they have become invisible. Dondolo and Grutti decide this would be a good way to get to see their girlfriends, two of Eugenia’s attendants, and pay ‘Altomaro’ for a demonstration: he will be invisible, save only for his hand. And so he is—the ‘hand’ being a handwritten letter from him. The courtiers realize they have been…
A Tale of a Tub
Jonson, Ben · 1633 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men
Audrey Turf is to be married to John Clay, even though her father has promised her to Squire Tub: she drew Clay in a Valentine’s Eve lottery and her parents are determined that she should marry him on Valentine’s Day. The vicar, Sir Hugh, alerts Tub, and lays a plot to stop the wedding; but also abets Justice Preamble’s scheming to get the girl for himself. Tub’s governor Hilts poses as a servant whose master, Captain Thumbs, was attacked nearby; he has brought Constable Turf orders from the Queen to raise a hue and cry to catch the criminals; moreover, his description of one of them fits Clay, the bridegroom. Turf is obliged to postpone the wedding, and leaves his daughter with Hilts, who hands her over to Tub. Audrey at first thinks herself too low-born to be the Squire’s wife, but is won over by the prospect of social advancement. But before Tub can get her to church, he is arrested by Preamble. The judge leaves Tub with a pursuivant, saying he must return Audrey to her father; but the pursuivant turns out to be Preamble’s clerk, Metaphor, in disguise, and he explains that Preamble is actually taking her to church to marry her himself. Clay goes into hiding. Tub tells Turf that the robbery was a ruse by Preamble to enable him to take Audrey. Turf breaks off the hue and cry and intervenes in time to prevent the marriage, and takes Audrey home. Sir Hugh poses as the robbed man, Captain Thumbs, and complains of Turf’s negligence. Turf is summoned before Preamble to answer…
Coelum Britannicum (The British Heaven)
Carew, Thomas · 1634 · Masque · before the Court;Whitehall;
Mercury comes to Britain from a heavenly court whose morals have been reformed through following the example of King Charles and Queen Henrietta Maria. He announces that Jove is so ashamed of his former life of sexual incontinence that he has removed from the night sky the stellified memorials of his former girlfriends, and intends to replace them with images of the King and Queen. Mercury is interrupted by Momus, who complains that he never gets to appear in any court masques, and describes critically the newly chaste court of heaven. Mercury conjures down the monsters from the constellations, then Cancer, the highest sign of the zodiac, then the constellations representing vices, and each group dances in turn. At last the sky is emptied. Momus invites applicants to fill the stellar vacancies. Plutus, Poverty, Fortune, and Pleasure all express interest, introduce antimasque dances, and are rejected. Momus leaves to prevent further suitors from entering. Mercury explains that only the King and Queen are worthy to be the new constellations. Britain’s heroic past is celebrated in dance, and the British worthies appear as new stars in the heavens, with the King pre-eminent among them. Allegorical virtues sing their praises, and further dancing ensues.
The Example
Shirley, James · 1634 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Money troubles have driven Sir Walter Peregrine to go to war in Europe to keep him away from his creditors in England. In his absence, his wife Bellamia is being pursued by Lord Fitzavarice, who plies her with rich gifts. She chastely refuses him, but he feels that, since he is known to have courted her, it is a matter of honour that the seduction should succeed. He pursues her to her chamber and offers to surrender her husband’s mortgage if she will sleep with him, then pay off his debts £100 a time in return for subsequent nights of passion. When she still refuses him, he threatens rape, and she faints. The experience converts him from his louche ways: he is relieved to learn that she is not dead, and returns the mortgage anyway, impressed with her virtue. A captain comes from the Netherlands on a recruiting mission. Sir Walter takes the opportunity to accompany him and pays a flying visit to his wife. She proposes to pay his debts with Lord Fitzavarice’s gifts, but he assumes that these are the rewards of adultery and challenges the Lord to a duel. Fitzavarice, recognizing that he is obliged to answer the challenge, appoints Confident as his second. But Confident’s reputation for valour is undeserved: rather than have to prove it by fighting, he tips off Sir Walter’s creditors and has him arrested for his debts before the duel can take place. Lord Fitzavarice disowns the ploy and secures Sir Walter’s release by paying his debts. Sir Walter realizes that his suspicions…
Adrasta, or The Woman's Spleen and Love's Conquest
Jones, John · 1635 · Tragicomedy
Adrasta, Duchess of Florence, objects to the amours between her son Lucilio and Althea, a woman of lower rank. She forges a letter from Lucilio to Althea which describes a plan to murder the Duke; Althea’s reply provides evidence to have her arrested for treason. Lucilio visits her in prison, convinces her that the original letter was a fake, and arranges her escape. Dressed in women’s clothes, he takes her place in the cell, stands trial as her, and is sentenced to death. The substitution is discovered only just before the execution; Lucilio attempts to kill himself anyway, but is prevented by his friend Antonio. He leaves Florence, fearful of his parents’ reprisals, and asks Antonio to assume his name and go to Greece, hoping that his father’s agents will follow this false trail and so leave him in peace. Worried that he may yet take his own life, Antonio passes on the responsibility to the villainous servant Alastor, and shadowys Lucilio in disguise. Consulted by Adrasta, the witch Micale conjures up spirits, who locate Althea living as a shepherdess in the mountains and supply poison to dispose of her. Micale is magically transported there and tries to share food with her, but Althea is melancholy and only her friend Camilla will drink the poisoned wine. Micale’s second strategy entails getting her to despair and kill herself, so she claims that both Lucilio and Althea’s mother Julia have been executed. Camilla dies, and Althea covers her face with a scarf she was given…
The Lady of Pleasure
Shirley, James · 1635 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Bored with country life, Aretina forces her husband, Sir Thomas Bornwell, to sell up their estate and come to live in London. There she lives extravagantly, buying expensive luxuries and gay clothes, and keeping up with her equally prodigal neighbour, the young widow Celestina. She summons her nephew Frederick home from university, unhappy that he has been turned into a serious scholar, and she asks her fashionable friends Kickshaw and Littleworth to teach him the conventions of social behaviour. Bornwell decides that all he can do is match his wife’s profligacy, and visits Celestina as one of her many suitors. He invites her back to his house as a guest. A formerly promiscuous lord has lost all interest in sex since the death of his mistress. Decoy the bawd offers to procure Aretina for him, but Aretina is his kinswoman: he refuses, and sends Decoy to Aretina with a letter purporting to be a testimonial, but which is actually a warning against the bearer. But Aretina, seeking an extra-marital liaison, treats the letter as a positive recommendation, and engages Decoy to procure Kickshaw for her. She also asks Kickshaw and Littleworth to provoke her unwanted guest Celestina, but their disparaging remarks have no effect, other than to annoy Bornwell when he overhears them; he encourages Celestina to insult them back at length. Kickshaw is invited to an assignation, which turns out to be with Decoy, disguised as a crone. She proposes a nocturnal meeting for sex, promising that…
The City Match
Mayne, Jasper · 1637 · Comedy · King's Men · before the Court;Blackfriars;Whitehall;Indoor Professional
After his father’s bankruptcy, Plotwell has been forced to give up his riotous, hedonistic life as a law student and now lives soberly in the household of his uncle, Warehouse. He and his sister Penelope have also given up their plans to marry Susan and Timothy, the son and daughter of the merchant Seathrift. Now Penelope has absconded from her duties as a seamstress. Suspecting that his nephew’s reformation may be only an act, Warehouse pretends to go on a long voyage abroad in the company of Seathrift, who has similar doubts about Timothy: in their absence, the two heirs will reveal their true character, observed by the old men’s spies. No sooner has Warehouse gone than Plotwell meets up with two friends from the Inns of Court and arranges to visit a newly arrived lady, Aurelia, who is actually Penelope in disguise. Plotwell plans to revive her proposed marriage to Timothy; she in turn plans to get him married to Susan, who has disguised herself as Aurelia’s Puritan waiting-woman. London flocks to see a display of a strange fish caught in the New World. It turns out that some tricksters have dressed up the drunken Timothy as a sea creature, and when he wakes there is speculation about how the ‘fish’ can speak. (He learned human language from years of being on display, the tricksters explain.) Plotwell and Timothy learn that Warehouse and Seathrift have drowned. Noting that their heirs are insufficiently upset by the news, the merchants reveal themselves and disinherit the…
Covent Garden
1638 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men
Dungworth comes to London from the country with his servants, Ralph and Dobson, intending to sell some of his lands and buy himself a knighthood. Artlove aims to woo Dorothy Worthy, and Mistress Tongueall offers her services as matchmaker —but also helps the foolish Littleword to the same ends. Hugh Jerker's objective is to cuckold Dorothy's father, Sir Generous Worthy: Lady Worthy was Jerker's mistress before she was forced to marry Sir Generous to get her away from him. Warrant and Spruce are both interested in the waiting-woman, Susan, and meet to fight a duel over her. Warrant has taken the precaution of procuring an advance pardon for killing Spruce, and Spruce anticipates that, if he kills Warrant, Susan will save his life with a gallows wedding. In the event, both are too cowardly to fight, and Susan and Dorothy, who are watching, engage Dobson and Ralph to attack them. Both talk their way out of a beating, leaving behind clothes and money. The servants consider taking up robbery as a profession. They have an altercation with Dorothy's brother, but Artlove intervenes and sees them off. Young Worthy vets his rescuer as a potential brother-in-law, and recommends him to Dorothy. She resents this interference, but eventually accepts Artlove. At the tavern, Ralph and Dobson are arrested for the robbery and brought before Sir Generous; but Warrant refuses to admit that he was robbed, and the case collapses. Ralph and Dobson conduct a mock-trial, with themselves as judge and…
The Lady's Trial
1639 · Comedy · Beeston's Boys · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Since the customary number of sages is seven (as in Ausonius' Ludus septern sapientum), it is possible that the six masquing sages 1574 were complemented by a seventh in the audience — who else but the Queen? Compare 557.
1 Saint Patrick for Ireland
1640 · Neo-miracle · Ogilby's Men
public office. Araspas argues that reason should be the
The Arcadia
Shirley, James · 1640 · Pastoral Romance · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
King Basilius understands an oracle to have foretold that his daughters’ marriage will result in his death and the usurpation of his throne by a foreigner; it has also indicated that he will commit adultery with his own wife. In an effort to thwart any destiny, he has decided to keep the girls unmarried virgins; he leaves court, placing the kingdom under the rule of his deputy, Philanax, and lodges his elder daughter Pamela in the forest with Dametas. Pyrocles and Musidorus are amorously interested in Basilius’ daughters, Pamela and Philoclea, and come to Arcadia in disguise. Musidorus poses as a shepherd, takes a job under Dametas, and, to enable him to elope with Pamela, gets the family out of the way with a series of ruses: Dametas is told a story of buried gold, Miso of her husband’s philandering, and Mopsa of a wishing tree which will enable her to become whatever she wants. (She wants to be a queen, with no obligation to obey anyone.) Pyrocles, meanwhile, gets access to Philoclea by disguising himself as an Amazon, Zelmane, only to find that in his new identity he has attracted interest from Basilius. ‘Zelmane’ helps to quell a rebellion by the people of Arcadia, who are dissatisfied with Basilius’ retirement from government, then arranges an assignation with the King at a nearby cave. Queen Gynecia sees through Pyrocles’ disguise and falls for him herself. He arranges for Gynecia to take his place at the date with Basilius, and approaches Philoclea while they are…