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Plot summaries for the 180 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.
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.
Impatient Poverty
Anonymous · 1547 · Moral
Persuaded by Peace to embrace reason, charity, and clean living, the debtor Impatient Poverty becomes Prosperity. Conscience rebukes Abundance for his usury and unethical mercantile practices, but is persuaded by Envy to go into exile in the belief that his public office has been taken over by Covetise and that he is himself in danger of execution. Envy conspires with Misrule to lead Prosperity into a dissolute life. He gambles away all his money and becomes Poverty once more. Poverty is summoned to face a charge of slander and is forced to do public penance because he cannot afford to bribe the corrupt summoner. Peace points out the abuse whereby Abundance, in contrast, has been allowed to buy his way out of an adultery charge. Poverty is reconciled to Peace, who points out how important it is to avoid bad company and acknowledge mutability and the vanity of worldly possessions.
Lusty Juventus
Wever, R. · 1550 · Moral
Juventus accepts Good Counsel’s advice not to waste time but lead a pious life; Knowledge explains that he can be saved by faith alone, but that good works are also a necessary sign of his penitence. The Devil worries that his plans are going awry: although Hypocrisy has set up the Catholic church to further his cause, piety and respect for God’s word are rife among young people. Commissioned by the Devil, Hypocrisy intercepts Juventus on the way to a sermon and persuades him to go instead to breakfast with Abominable Living, who seduces him into a dissolute lifestyle. Good Counsel confronts Juventus and persuades him into repentance and despair. He is restored to hope by God’s Merciful Promises, and the play ends with prayers for the King and nobility.
Ralph Roister Doister
Udall, Nicholas · 1552 · Comedy
Ralph Roister Doister seeks Matthew Merrygreek’s help in wooing Dame Custance, who is already affianced to Gawyn Goodluck. They send her a letter using her nurse, Madge Mumblecrust, as a go-between, but Dame Custance will not read it. They also send her a ring, but Tibet the maid gets into trouble for accepting it. Merrygreek tells Ralph that Dame Custance has not only rejected him but disparaged his manhood; Ralph despairs, but is persuaded to try again. Dame Custance is persuaded in turn to hear the love-letter read aloud, but Merrygreek reads it without regard for the punctuation, and reverses its meaning: it seems to promise her an unpleasant married life. His hopes dashed, Ralph seeks revenge on the scrivener who composed the letter, but the fault is shown to lie with the reader of it. Ralph continues to press his suit, and arouses the suspicions of Gawyn Goodluck’s servant. Ralph and Custance prepare to use force against one another, and Merrygreek admits that he was only helping Ralph for fun. When the men and women do battle, he hits Ralph while pretending to attack Dame Custance. Ralph has the worst of it, and retreats in disarray. Gawyn Goodluck hears of his fiancée’s apparent disloyalty, but accepts Tristram Trusty’s word as to what really happened. He makes his peace with Ralph, despite Dame Custance’s doubts.
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…
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.
Robin Hood (Robin Hood and the Friar) (Robin Hood and the Potter)
Anonymous · 1560 · Folk Romance
Robin Hood. meets a Friar who robbed him the previous day, and they fight, the loser to carry the other over the water. The Friar loses and joins Robin. Robin bets Little John that he will be able to make an arrogant potter pay a toll. He provokes the potter by smashing his pots and calling him a cuckold. The surviving text breaks off as they are about to fight.
The Disobedient Child
Ingelend, Thomas · 1560 · Moral
A rich man's son, afraid of corporal punishment, refuses to go to school. He also rejects his father's suggestion that he find gainful employment, perhaps as a soldier; instead, against his father's advice, he insists on marrying. His father disinherits him. He leaves his home in London for St Albans, gets into debt, and marries a young woman. They have a lavish and expensive wedding feast. His father refuses to pay the money he owes. When he proves reluctant to go out to earn a living, his wife becomes shrewish, beats him, and sends him on domestic errands. He regrets his marriage, and goes home to his father. Satan reveals that the marital discord was his doing. The rich man refuses to take in his son and insists that he return to the wife he chose, but promises him a little money. The moral is explained in a peroration: spare the rod and spoil the child.
The Pedlar's Prophecy
Anonymous · 1561 · Moral
An itinerant pedlar possesses a stone which confers on him the gift of prophecy. The play shows him encountering a series of social types to whom he utters cryptic, apocalyptic prophecies about the land of Ilion and the city of Tyre, whilst also offering goods for sale. First he touches on family discipline with two parents and their daughter, who is secretly no longer a virgin. Next he meets three working men and deals with economic malpractice, but learns that he stands in danger of being charged with witchcraft. Then he poses as a third party reporting the pedlar’s words to members of the ecclesiastical and legal professions, and focuses on matters of religion and judicial corruption. The prophecies repeatedly criticize immigration and social abuses arising out of the ownership of land and property; they regularly threaten not only destruction but also bodily metamorphosis; and the pediar offends
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.
Oedipus (Seneca's Fifth Tragedy)
Neville, Alexander, trans.; Seneca, Lucius Annaeus · 1563 · Tragedy
Plague ravages Thebes. Apollo’s oracle declares that the sickness will subside with the banishment of the murderer of King Laius. Oedipus, who has also received mysterious instructions to flee his mother’s bed, intends to comply with the gods’ command: he curses the murderer, wishing incest and parricide upon him. He consults Tiresias, who conjures up the ghost of Laius. The ghost names Oedipus as the murderer of his own father; but Oedipus’ parents are still alive, and he proposes to produce them in evidence. Oedipus imprisons his brother-in-law Creon, even though Creon insists that he has no ambition to depose the King. Ten years before, Oedipus killed a man who was trying to stop his chariot; now he realizes that this was King Laius. He is recalled to take the throne of Corinth after the death of his father; but he is reluctant to go for fear of fulfilling his own curse by marrying his mother. He then learns that he was an adopted child: he was the son of Laius, whom Phorbas the shepherd was commissioned to expose in infancy; but Phorbas gave him to a Corinthian instead. Oedipus realizes that he has indeed committed parricide and incest. Overcome with guilt, he blinds himself. The suicidal Jocasta has him hold a sword, and impales herself on it.
Jocasta
Gascoigne, George, trans.; Kinwelmershe, Francis, trans.; Yelverton, Christopher, trans.; Euripides; Dolce, Lodovico · 1566 · Tragedy
Oedipus unknowingly murdered his father and married his mother Jocasta; on learning the truth, he blinded himself. His sons imprisoned him and agreed to alternate annually as kings of Thebes: Polynices went into exile while Eteocles took the first turn on the throne; but Eteocles refused to give it up at the end of his year in office, and Polynices has besieged Thebes in association with the King of Argos. Jocasta intervenes as their mother, and persuades Polynices to enter Thebes and meet Eteocles under truce. Eteocles will not hand over power, but offers to accept his brother back as a private citizen. Jocasta is unable to reconcile her sons, and Polynices’ forces prepare for battle. Eteocles names Creon as his successor, and asks him to marry Antigone to his son Haemon. Creon consults Tiresias, and learns that Thebes is doomed to destruction in divine revenge for Jocasta’s incest; only the death of his other son, Menoeceus, can save the city. Keen to die for his country, Menoeceus refuses to go into exile as his father wishes, reports the prophecy to Eteocles, and kills himself. Meanwhile, the battle is indecisive, and Eteocles and Polynices agree to settle their dispute in single combat. Jocasta and Antigone are too late to stop them killing each other: arriving to find them both dying, Jocasta stabs herself with Polynices’ dagger. The besieging army is massacred by the Thebans. Antigone brings the three bodies back to Thebes and tells her father what has happened. Creon…
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.
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 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…
The Tide Tarrieth No Man
Wapull, George · 1576 · Moral
Courage advises a variety of characters to embrace short-term gain, since the tide waits for nobody: he encourages Greediness to ignore spiritual advice, helps No Good Neighbourhood to acquire a neighbour's house unjustly through bribery, recommends Willingto-Win-Worship to get into debt rather than leave the court and his ambitions, and advises Wantonness to get married against her mother's wishes. The results are bad: Willing-to-Win-Worship finds himself worse off than before; Greediness's tenant, No-GoodNeighbourhood's rival, is evicted and left homeless in his old age; Greediness oppress~:s his debtors, one of whom is arrested at a sermon; and Wantonness marries Wastefulness. Christianity is corrupted by riches and policy, and Greediness dies in despair. Despair encourages Wastefulness, who has spent all his money, to commit suicide, but Faithful Few saves him through prayer. Finally Authority intervenes, Courage is arrested by Correction, and Christianity is reformed.
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.
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…
The Arraignment of Paris
Peele, George · 1581 · Pastoral · Children of the Chapel (first) (Oxford's Boys) · before the Court;
Minor deities greet Juno, Pallas, and Venus and present them with gifts. Intending Troy’s downfall, Ate leaves a golden apple where the three goddesses will find it. Seeing that it is addressed to the most beautiful, they quarrel about which of them should be the recipient, then refer the case to the judgement of the next passer-by. This proves to be Paris, who has just pledged his love to Oenone. Each goddess offers him a reward for judging in her favour: Juno offers wealth, Pallas fame, and Venus love, in the person of Helen. Paris chooses Venus, and wins the enmity of the other two. Colin the shepherd dies for love of Thestylis. Not knowing that he has jilted Oenone, Venus tells Paris of the unpleasant consequences for lovers who break their vows, and punishes Thestylis with unrequited love for an ugly old man. Mercury summons Paris to the court of Jove, to answer charges of partiality laid by Juno and Pallas. He pleads his case before the Council of Gods: the court acknowledges its justice and sends him home to the doomed city of Troy. Juno and Pallas appeal, and Venus gives up the golden apple, confident that it will be awarded to her a second time. At Apollo’s suggestion, Diana is appointed judge in the case, since the incident originally happened near her bower. Diana awards the golden apple to the nymph Eliza, ruler of Elysium (representing Queen Elizabeth, in the audience). The goddesses of destiny, according to their annual custom, also resign their symbols of…
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 Three Lords and Three Ladies of London
Wilson, Robert · 1588 · Moral · Queen Elizabeth's Men (?)
The three lords of London, in want of wives, plan to marry the three ladies. There are two complications. ===== PAGE 450 ===== First, it emerges that they all want the same lady, Lucre. More pressingly, all three ladies are in prison. The lords agree to secure their freedom and worry later about who marries whom. But Judge Nemo has heard petitions for the ladies’ release before: many men wanted Lucre, some wanted Love, and nobody cared about Conscience. His conditions are that either all three ladies go free or none of them, and that, if they do, he shall decide which lady marries which lord. The ladies are taken from prison and sat on uncomfortable penitential stones. They are visited by Lucre’s former servants, who were banished from London but now want their old jobs back; Lucre is unable to accommodate them. Falsehood and Double- Dealing offer the ladies clothes to replace their prison rags, but they refuse. Nemo arranges for them to have more virtuous garments, the first stage in their rehabilitation. When the three lords continue to quarrel over which of them should have Lucre, Nemo agrees to give up his right to make the marital dispositions, on condition that the lords accept the lady’s own choice. He then has Conscience pose as Lucre. Each lord offers her a different benefit — power, magnificence, and hedonism - and she eventually bestows herself on Pleasure. He is happy with his fiancée even when he learns of the deception. Conscience declares that Policy should…
The Scottish History of James the Fourth
Greene, Robert · 1590 · Romance · Unknown
Bohan has shut himself up in a tomb and scorns the world. He is visited by GB@FGn, who gives blessings to his sons: preferment for Nad, and for Slippér the promise of fairy help when he is in danger. Bohan shows him a story of King JameSEIV to justify his misanthropy. During the action, Oberon falls asleep. The King of Scots marries the English princess Dorothea, but in the church his eye lights on [da and he falls in tove. Al@iiKin offers to help him with his affair, hires servants (among them Slipper), and woos Ida on James’s behalf. Although Dorothea assumes the King’s pursuit of Ida is only a sham to test her own love, his behaviour and his liking for flatterers is ===== PAGE 35 ===== 1590 driving the nobles away from his court; James secretly welcomes this, since their absence gives him greater freedom of action. Ateukin attributes his lack of success with Ida to the adulterous nature of the proposal: if she had an expectation of marriage, she would be more pliable; therefore Dorothea must die, and Ateukin engages Jaqwes to murder her, with the promise of promotion at court. Ateukin uses his influence at court to sell favours. His own servants are equally corrupt: Sir Bartram bribes Slipper to steal a lease from Ateukin’s pocket, but what Slipper actually takes is the murder warrant. When the document is missed, Ateukin orders Andrew to find it; because reporting Slipper will expose his own malfeasance, Andrew instead robs him of the bribe- money to teach him a lesson.…
Love's Metamorphosis
Lyly, John · 1590 · Pastoral Comedy · Children of Paul's (first)
Three nymphs are loved by three foresters but reject them. The foresters offend Erisychthon, ruler of the forest, by cutting down a tree sacred to Ceres and blaspheming the goddess. The tree is revealed to contain Fidellia, a nymph transformed after being raped by a satyr, and she calls for revenge. Ceres punishes Erisychthon with perpetual hunger, driving him to attempt to sell his daughter Protea for food. Neptune grants Protea the power of metamorphosis, allowing her to escape. Meanwhile, the foresters seek help from Cupid, who punishes the disdainful nymphs through transformations: Nisa becomes a rock, Celia a rose, and Niobe a bird. Protea later saves her lover from a Siren’s temptation. Eventually Cupid and Ceres reverse the punishments, freeing Erisychthon from hunger and restoring the nymphs to their original forms. The nymphs finally accept the love of the foresters.
The Old Wives Tale
Peele, George · 1590 · Romance · Queen Elizabeth's Men
PLOT Lost in the woods, three pages encounter Clunch the smith, and accept the hospitality of his cottage. One of them goes to bed with him while his wife, Madge, tells the others a tale. Delia, the daughter of the King of Thessaly, has been abducted by the sorcerer Sacrapant, who can only be killed by a dead man, and whose power depends on a light in a glass which can only be broken by a woman who is neither wife, widow, nor maid. Delia's two brothers come to England in search of her, and meet Erestus. They give him alms and he prophesies to them. He too is a victim of Sacrapant, who has transformed him into an old man by day and a bear by night, and driven his betrothed lady, Venelia, out of her mind. The brothers enter Sacrapant's domain, but are imprisoned by Furies and set to work digging for gold. Delia, forgetting her identity under the influence of a potion, is appointed as their overseer. Others are also searching for Delia. One is the wandering knight Eumenides, another the braggart Huanebango; the former gives generous alms to Erestus, but the latter refuses. Eumenides happens upon a fight between Wiggen and the parish officials, who are refusing to bury Wiggen's dead brother Jack; Eumenides resolves the dispute by giving all his remaining money to pay for the funeral. Huanebango attempts to force his way into Sacrapant's cell, and is ejected by the Furies; Sacrapant strikes him deaf and Corebus blind. Lampriscus has two daughters, one ugly in looks and the other…
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…
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…
Edward the First
Peele, George · 1591 · History · Unknown
Edwardilongshanks returns from the crusades to find that in his absence both his father and his son have 1591 died, and that he is now King of England. He makes provision to house his wounded veterans, and all the nobility contribute handsomely. His @W@8n asks him to defer the coronation to give her time to send to Spain for the latest fashions. MEW was planning to take advantage of Edward’s absence to secure his power in Wales. A Welshliprophet encourages him with the assertion that he will mount higher than all his kin. Now he intends reprisals against Edward for the detention of his betrothed wife, DA@VMEI@HGr, daughter of an English rebel. His brother DaWid, a spy in the English court, proposes getting himself captured by the Welsh in order to create a pretext for an exchange of prisoners. The plan goes awry when the Welsh soldiers agree to make peace with the English, on condition that Edward does not impose direct rule from England. Llewelyn and his entourage pose as Robin Hood, and waylay passers-by in the forest. M@riimiér, who loves Lady Eleanor, goes to Wales and joins in the masquerade by assuming the identity of the potter from the Robin Hood story; but this means he gets a thrashing. To comply with the Welsh demand for a Welsh-born prince, Edward summons the pregnant Queen to Wales, where she gives birth to a son: Edward, Prince of Wales. The loyal Welsh present the child with a frieze mantle, but the Queen takes offence at the homespun fabric. Edward promises…
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…
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.
King John
Shakespeare, William · 1591 · History · Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men
The Plantagenets have a dynastic dispute: J@lih is de facto King of England, but Alptiillir, the young son of his dead elder brother, has a better claim in primogeniture; France takes Arthur’s side. John is asked to adjudicate in another case of . disputed inheritance: Robert Falé@nbridge claims that his elder brother BHiliip is a bastard, begotten in his father’s absence by the dead King Richard. John rules for Philip’s legitimacy irrespective of parentage, since he was conceived in wedlock; but Philip decides to be a king’s son rather than a knight’s heir, cedes his brother the family lands, and joins John’s court. John meets the Kinglofibrance outside the town of Angers, which claims loyalty to the English crown but is holding out against both claimants until the issue is decided. England and France decide to defer their differences until they have subjugated Angers, but the citizens save themselves by suggesting an Anglo- French marriage between DOUISNEHEMDapHin and John’s niece BI@HEHE; France expediently transfers its support from Arthur to John. After the wedding, the papal legate Pandulph excommunicates John for his interference in ecclesiastical affairs, and declares his assassination legitimate. The French revert to support for Arthur, leaving Blanche with a conflict of interests. Arthur is captured in battle and taken back to England ===== PAGE 337 ===== 1596 in MWbert’s custody; John instructs Hubert to arrange the boy’s death. Anticipating this outcome, Pandulph…
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…
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…
The Taming of a Shrew
Anonymous · 1592 · Comedy · Unknown
Forcibly ejected from an alehouse, Sly is sleeping off his drunkenness when he is found by a lord, who brings him home and tricks him into thinking himself a nobleman. A play is performed for him: The Taming of a Shrew. In the play, Aurelius of Sestos, newly arrived in Athens, falls in love with Philema; his friend Polidor already loves her sister, Emelia. To pursue his love, Aurelius pretends to be a wealthy merchant’s son and has his man Valeria assume his aristocratic identity. However, the girls’ father Alfonso has decreed that his eldest daughter Kate, a shrewish scold, must be married before them. The two wooers decide to persuade Ferando to marry Kate, but Alfonso has already promised him six thousand crowns to undertake the same task He and Kate meet unchaperoned, and they wrangle, but the marriage is arranged for the following Sunday; Kate seems outwardly unwilling but consents in an aside. Ferando goes to prepare his country house. Valeria is sent to teach Kate the lute, but she behaves aggressively. On the wedding day Ferando arrives in base clothes and forces Kate to leave with him immediately after the ceremony. When they arrive in the country, he claims that the dinner is burnt, and beats his servants. She is kept hungry, and denied her choice of clothing. Aurelius has Philotus pose as his father to persuade Alfonso that he is wealthy enough to marry Philema. He and Polidor are married to Kate’s younger sisters. Kate and Ferando visit them, after Kate submits…
The Comedy of Errors
Shakespeare, William · 1592 · Comedy · Pembroke's Men (?)
Egeon, a merchant of Syracuse, has been arrested under an Ephesian law which forbids Syracusans to set foot in Ephesus; he is unable to pay the fine and must face execution. He tells the Dike his story: long ago, a storm at sea separated him from his wife and one of his twin baby sons, along with one of a pair of infant twins destined to be family servants; once his remaining son grew up, he went looking for his lost brother; and now Egeon is looking for him. The Duke pities him and grants him a day to raise his fine from the Ephesians. Altipholis of Syracuse arrives in Ephesus and is advised to lie about his place of origin; he sends his servant D¥@iiio to take money to his lodgings. But Ephesus has an identical Antipholus and Dromio already in residence. The local Antipholus is late for dinner, much to his wife M@#iana’s annoyance, but it is the visiting Antipholus who is summoned by the local Dromio. When the latter reports that Antipholus denies even being married, Adriana suspects infidelity. She upbraids the Syracusan Antipholus and cajoles him in to eat. Though he suspects that her uncanny knowledge of him is attributable to witchcraft, he decides to take advantage of the proffered meal, and instructs Dromio to keep intruders out of the house. One prospective intruder is the house’s rightful owner, Antipholus of Ephesus; but Dromio of Syracuse refuses to open the door to him. He is ready to break in, but his friends advise him that this would publicly dishonour his…
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…
The Woman in the Moon
Lyly, John · 1593 · Comedy · Children of Paul's (first) · before the Court;
When. the SHépheérds of Utopia protest that, unlike all other creatures, they have no mates, Nature produces one she made earlier: a female statue, which Goneord animates by joining spirit with flesh, and to which DiS€6rd gives a tongue; Nature names her Pandora. The seven planets are jealous of Pandora, and take it in turns to cross her. First Saturn makes her melancholy, and she rejects all her wooers. Then jupiter makes her ambitious, and woos her himself; her acceptance angers JMO!) She sets the shepherds a-love test, to kill a savage boar; she will love the one who brings her its head. Ma#§ supplants Jupiter and makes Pandora aggressive: when the shepherds fight over who killed the boar, she joins in and wounds Stésias} Next Sl is in the ascendant, inducing Pandora to love, chastity, and other feminine virtues: she remorsefully accepts Stesias as her husband, and speaks ambiguous Latin prophecies about their future happiness. Wenus rises and makes Pandora amorous, so she wantons with the other shepherds. Stesias tries to catch her in the act, but G@iH@philis double-crosses him and he is persuaded of her chastity. Mereuty takes over and makes Pandora cunning and dishonest, qualities which save her when the three shepherds tell Stesias that she has indeed been unchaste: she is able to convince him that this is merely the jealousy of disappointed rivals, then pays back her accusers by making further assignations, which Stesias keeps, dressed as a woman, and beats them;…
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…
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…
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…
Englishmen for My Money, or A Woman Will Have Her Will
Haughton, William · 1598 · Comedy · Admiral's (Nottingham's) Men
The usurer Pisaro intends to marry his daughters to three foreigners, while also using them to acquire wealth from their English suitors. Anthony, their tutor, is sacked for acting as a go-between for the Englishmen, but he disguises himself and is hired in as his own replacement. The daughters encourage their suitors to borrow more money from Pisaro, in the expectation that the debt will be cancelled when they marry. Pisaro, distracted by rumours that his ships have been ambushed in the Mediterranean by Spanish pirates, mistakenly invites the English suitors to dinner. They take up the invitation, meet their foreign rivals, and arrange a nocturnal assignation with the sisters. Learning of this, Pisaro plans to substitute the foreigners, but Anthony forewarns the sisters, so that the Englishmen are able to misdirect the foreigners in the darkness. One of them is actually the clown Frisco, who has taken the Dutchman’s place, and who now leads the two foreigners even further astray. The Dutchman himself finds his way to Pisaro’s house, and the sisters trap him in a basket. The lovers arrive, ready to marry and then sleep with the sisters, but Pisaro intervenes. It seems that the daughters are to be married against their will in the morning, but Anthony devises three schemes: Walgrave impersonates a woman and spends the night with Mathea; Laurentia impersonates Anthony and escapes from the house to- marry Heigham; and Harvey pretends to be mortally ill, forcing Pisaro to let…
Much Ado About Nothing
Shakespeare, William · 1598 · Comedy · Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men
Returning to Messina after a war, Claudio falls in love with Hero. At a masked revel, Don Pedro woos her for him by proxy; Don John maliciously tells Claudio that Pedro has wooed her for himself, but the truth soon purges Claudio’s jealousy and he and Hero are engaged to be married in a week’s time. In the interim, Don Pedro undertakes to make Beatrice and Benedick, who have a humour of mutual hatred, fall in love with each other. This is done by letting each of them overhear a conversation about how much in love the other is. Don John attempts to prevent Claudio’s marriage by showing him what he takes to be a nocturnal assignation between Hero and another man; in fact it is Margaret in Hero’s clothes, wooed by Borachio whom Don John has suborned. Claudio rejects Hero at the wedding, and the Friar proposes that she feign death to inculcate remorse in him. Borachio and his associate Conrad are arrested and examined, and confess the plot. As penance, Claudio undertakes to marry another ===== PAGE 61 ===== 1598 lady, said to be Leonato’s niece, without first seeing her; she is actually Hero. Benedick and Beatrice join Hero and Claudio to make it a double wedding. Don John flees Messina, but is apprehended and brought back to face punishment.
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…
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…
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…
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…
Histriomastix, or The Player Whipped
Marston, John · 1599 · Moral · Unknown
Under the benevolent rule of Peace, various orders of society turn to learning in their different ways: Mavortius and his fellow noblemen and gentlemen become students of the liberal arts, professional people appoint the scholar Chrisoganus as their lecturer, and some artisans organize themselves as a company of players, Sir Oliver Owlet’s Men. However, the new reign of Plenty tempts many of them away from their studies, leaving only Chrisoganus loyal. While the lawyers and merchants take advantage of the leisure of the vacation to go hunting, Mavortius entertains his guests with a play given by Owlet’s Men. Plenty is succeeded by Pride, who encourages a dedication to fashion and a neglect of proper decorum: the lawyers and merchants enrich themselves unjustly, Mavortius dismisses many of his servants to release more money to spend on pleasure, and both Chrisoganus (who has turned playwright) and Owlet's Men price themselves out of the market. Next, Envy comes to power, causing class resentment in the realm: the citizenry’s adoption of the latest fashions causes resentment among the nobility, envious behaviour disrupts the players’ rehearsal, and Mavortius becomes belligerent. The next ruler is War, under whom the players are conscripted as soldiers, Mavortius fights with his friends, the common people rise in rebellion against their social superiors, and the Spanish invade the realm. Out of this chaos comes Poverty, leading aristocrats, merchants. and peasants alike to…
1 Sir John Oldcastle
Munday, Anthony; Drayton, Michael; Wilson, Robert; Hathaway, Richard · 1599 · History · Admiral's (Nottingham's) Men
Despite a royal prohibition on disorder during the preparations for the invasion of France, Lords Herbert and Po·wys fall out over their religious differences, and brawl with their followers in the streets of Hereford;Herbert is wounded, and Powys flees, with orders given for his arrest. The Bishop of Rochester does his best to associate dissent and conspiracy with Sir John Oldcastle, but the King is not convinced. Powys takes refuge in Oldcastle's house, just before two orders arrive: one to attend at court, the other to answer charges before Rochester's ecclesiastical court; Oldcastle's servant Harpoole forces Rochester's summoner to eat his own summons, wax and all. The King advises Oldcastle to keep his religious views private: he can believe what he likes so long as he does not antagonize the bishops or encourage Protestant rebellion. In turn. Oldcastle intercedes for Powys, and the King signs his pardon. Rebellion is brewing in England. On the basis of a superior dynastic claim, the Earl of Cambridge intends to seize the throne with French support. Oldcastle is invited to join the plot, but he procures an incriminating document and takes it to court. Meanwhile, Protestant rebels muster their forces in London. The King plans to spy on them in disguise, but is robbed by the renegade priest Sir John; the priest gets him to promise to secure the King's pardon for robbery, and gives him half a coin as a token by which they can know one another again. On the night before the…
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…
Look About You
Anonymous · 1599 · Comedy · Admiral's (Nottingham's) Men
Before the start of the action, Queen Eleanor had her rival, Rosamund, poisoned by Skink, and was imprisoned for it; Skink escaped and has taken the identity of a fortune-telling hermit. Her son Henry and his brothers attempted a coup, and there are now two kings in England, father and son. At a parliament, the younger King Henry offers to split the kingdom with the elder, but alienates his supporters by his readiness to seize their lands. Skink, summoned to the parliament by Prince Richard, is rewarded with Gloucester’s lands, and Gloucester imprisoned when he protests and strikes Skink. Richard, who has an interest in Gloucester’s sister, Lady Falconbridge, promises to free him. Eavesdropping on a meeting between them, Sir Richard Falconbridge sees his wife reject the Prince’s advances. Pursued by the watch, Skink evades arrest by swapping clothes with Redcap, but is taken to the Fleet prison for identification by Redcap’s father, the porter. Gloucester swaps clothes with him in turn and escapes, and finally Skink too gets away by purloining Prince John’s clothes. Lady Falconbridge disguises Gloucester as her husband, fooling the watch sent to search for him. The substitutions cause misunderstandings when Skink (as John) is given a chain by Falconbridge and Gloucester (as Falconbridge) is given John’s sword; in each case the real man denies what his doppelganger has done. The porter of the Fleet is to be hanged for Gloucester’s escape, but the old King is persuaded to…
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…
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…
Thomas Lord Cromwell
S., W. · 1600 · History · Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men
So devoted is young Thomas Cromwell to his studies thathe tries to stop his father's workmen from making a noise. Old Cromwell is concerned at his ambitious son's lavishness with money: he seems not to understand the economic realities of life. He is making a living by working as a copyist, but accepts a job as a secretary in Antwerp. Banister owes Friskiball £1,ooo. Bagot has him arrested in Friskiball's name, and hardens the creditor's heart by telling him that Banister has enough money to pay his debts, if he were willing to do so. Frisk.iball relents after Mistress Banister pleads for her husband, and defers the debt until the couple have become prosperous; but the vindictive Bagot buys Banister's debts in order to oppress him. Banister flees to Antwerp, but Bagot pursues and arrests him. Cromwell agref!S to help the Banisters, and speaks to Bagot; but fails to move pity in him. Bagot negotiates with the Governor of Antwerp over some jewels, w:hich turn out to be stolen. Bagot is arrested and sent back to England; Banister is released, and awarded his confi.s.cated property. Cromwell goes to Florence with his servant Hodge, but they are robbed of their clothes. Following Italian custom, they set up bills describing their misfortune, and the anglophile Friskiball gives them money. They travel on to Bologna to relieve the Earl of Bedford, who is trapped in a house surrounded by French troops. Cromwell rescues the Earl posing as a Neapolitan hired by the French to abduct…
Cynthia's Revels, or The Fountain of Self-Love
Jonson, Ben · 1600 · Satire · Children of the Chapel (second)
Cynthia proclaims a revels at which all are welcome. Mercury and Cupid, who is usually banned from her court, go disguised as pages. Resurrected by Mercury, Echo curses the fountain beside which Narcissus died, so that all who drink of it will be afflicted with self-love. Amorphus does so and reports its wonders, so that the water is much in demand. He undertakes to make Asotus, a citizen’s heir, into a courtier, and gives him intensive training in courtly behaviour and the practice of wooing, but Asotus’ plebeian tastes keep betraying him. While the court ladies impatiently await the arrival of the fountain-water, Asotus courts his father’s old love, Argurion. He accepts her gifts, but then gives them away to the other courtiers in an effort to ingratiate himself. Argurion faints, then transfers her affections to the page Morus. The water arrives and is eagerly consumed. Arete brings the courtiers Cynthia’s instructions that they are to prepare an entertainment for her that evening. They 1600 suggest a masque, but are offended when Arete decides to ask the scholar Criticus to write it: they will only be the performers. Cynthia makes her appearance, and the masque is performed: Anteros (played by Cupid ) introduces four virgins, and a page ( played by. Mercury ) introduces four brothers, all of them representing virtues associated with Cynthia. Cupid attermpts to make the masquers fall in love with one another, but his arrows cannot counteract the influence of the fountain-…
Satiromastix, or The Untrussing of the Humorous Poet
Dekker, Thomas · 1601 · Comedy · Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men and Children of Paul's (second)
Celestine and Sir Walter Terrill are married. At the wedding dinner, the King becomes enamoured of Celestine and induces the bridegroom to swear to give up his first night of sex with her: he must deliver her to court that evening, still a virgin. Her father, Sir Quintilian, devises a scheme to save both her honour and Sir Walter’s: he gives her a cup of poison, and she drinks it. She keeps her marriage vows, and Sir Walter delivers her body to the King as part of a masque. The King is abashed to discover that she is a chaste, faithful wife. Then she wakes up: it was only a sleeping draught, and Sir Quintilian has proved both the bride’s constancy and the bridegroom’s love. In the sub-plot, Sir Quintilian and two other knights all become interested in marrying the widow Mistress Miniver, and each independently bribes Tucca to advance his suit. Miniver seems most interested in the bald Sir Adam, so Sir Vaughan engages Horace to write a satire against baldness. He invites the ladies, including Miniver, to a banquet of plums, and there Horace recites his poem on the glories of hair. The poem has the desired effect on Miniver; but Sir Adam hires Horace’s rival, Crispinus, to write a defence of baldness. It all comes to naught, however, for Tucca ends up marrying Miniver himself. In the third plot, Horace’s bitter epigrams against Tucca get into circulation among the gallants. Tucca swears vengeance, and stabs Horace, but with an edgeless sword; Horace’s response is shown to…
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.
Blurt, Master Constable, or The Spaniard's Night Walk
Anonymous · 1601 · Romance · Children of Paul's (second)
Camillo and Hippolito return home to Venice after a war with France. Camillo brings the French lord Fontinelle as a prisoner, and presents him to his love Violetta. She falls for the Frenchman, so Camillo sends him to prison. Hippolito takes charge of the situation. He makes the courtesan Imperia dote on Fontinelle by sending her his picture; but Fontinelle refuses to accept her love and is taken back to his dungeon. Meanwhile Camillo’s attempts to woo Violetta back are met with rejection. Fontinelle escapes by changing clothes with Frisco, and, using Violetta’s page as a go-between, makes an assignation at a chapel, where they are secretly married. Afterwards, though, he takes up with Imperia. Camillo swears revenge on all three and leads a party of armed men to kill them and hang out their dead bodies. Violetta also goes to find her husband at Imperia’s, and is invited to join him in bed. Camillo’s men, the watch, and the Duke all arrive simultaneously at the brothel. The Duke prevents murder being done, but has Fontinelle arrested for adultery, which is a capital crime in Venice. Violetta denies that infidelity has occurred: it was all a plot laid by her and Fontinelle. In the sub-plot, Lazarillo also arrives in Venice from the wars and gets lodgings with Blurt the constable. He goes to Imperia’s house to lecture the ladies on Spanish marital conduct, and makes a nocturnal assignation with Imperia. Simperina makes another assignation with old Curvetto, but when he tries…
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…
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…
How a Man May Choose a Good Wife from a Bad
Anonymous (?) · 1602 · Comedy · Worcester's Men
Arthur has fallen out with his wife: he is bored with her, convinced she is always trying to put him down, and also just wants a change. When the couple’s fathers visit in an effort to achieve marital harmony, they enter without knocking and find Arthur beating his wife. Her father, Old Lusam, wants to take her home, but she won’t go; she also resists the efforts of Anselm to seduce her and rejects his criticisms of her husband. The fathers take her to Justice Reason in an attempt to have him intervene, but she will not co-operate and Reason will not get involved. Arthur becomes attracted to Mary, a courtesan whom the schoolmaster Aminadab also loves. Seeing her attentions to Arthur makes Aminadab suicidal, and he tries to obtain poison from Fuller, pretending he needs it for an infestation of rats; Fuller gives him a sleeping potion instead. Seeking to kill his wife, Arthur takes the ‘poison’ from Aminadab under cover of preventing his suicide, and holds a dinner party. One of the guests is Mary, but Mistress Arthur puts up even with this, only to be given ‘poisoned’ wine by her husband. Mistress Arthur is interred in her family vault. Anselm visits her tomb and she revives when he kisses her. He hides her in his mother’s house, but despite everything she remains faithful to her husband 1601 and resists her rescuer’s advances. Meanwhile Arthur marries Mary, but finds her an unloving, disobedient, spendthrift wife. In an attempt to win her trust, he tells her the guilty…
The Merry Devil of Edmonton
Anonymous (?) · 1602 · Comedy · Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men · Globe;Outdoor Professional
The magician Peter Fabell’s bargain with the devil falls due, and Coreb comes to collect his soul; but Fabell traps him in a magic chair and demands another seven years as the price of freedom. Millicent Clare loves her fiancé, Raymond Mounchensey; but her father Sir Arthur, unsure of Sir Richard Mounchensey’s financial stability, plans to break off the match and place her as a novice in a nunnery for three months while he arranges an alternative marriage with young Jerningham. Feeling sorry for Raymond, his friend and one-time fellow student, Fabell, tells him what Sir Arthur has in mind, and the young men plot to frustrate the old man’s plans. Millicent is entered in the nunnery, and is dismayed at her new life of abstinence, prayer, and flagellation. Posing as the Abbot of Waltham, Fabell substitutes Raymond for one of the friars, Benedick. Taking him for the novice he seems, Sir Arthur tells Raymond everything, and takes him to hear Millicent’s confession. This enables him to plan Millicent’s escape. The young men succeed in getting Millicent out of the nunnery, but are separated from her when they encounter some locals on a poaching expedition: assuming them to be Sir Arthur, they lead the locals off the scent. Millicent is found by the keeper. The poachers rendezvous in Enfield churchyard and scare the sexton into thinking he has seen a ghost. Sir Arthur complains to the real Abbot of Waltham about Millicent’s abduction, but is discomfited when the Abbot produces the…
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,…
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 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…
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…
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…
Parasitaster, or The Fawn
Marston, John · 1604 · Comedy · Children of the Queen's Revels · Blackfriars;Paul's;Indoor Professional
After failing to persuade his son Tiberio to marry, Hercules, the widowed Duke of Ferrara, plans to marry Princess Dulcimel of Urbino, and sends Tiberio to negotiate the treaty. Hercules goes to Urbino himself, assumes the alias Faunus, meets Nymphadoro and Herod, and hears some unflattering remarks about himself in his other persona, Hercules. He gets them to introduce him at court, and becomes a favourite with the Duke of Urbino. Dulcimel would rather marry Tiberio than Hercules, and contrives to woo him using her father, Duke Gonzago, as an intermediary. She brings him a scarf which she has embroidered with a message, and tells him that it was sent by Tiberio; the outraged Gonzago gives it to the young man, thinking he is returning an unwanted would-be lover's gift. She then reports to ===== PAGE 176 ===== Gonzago that Tiberio intends to climb up the tree by her bedroom window and surreptitiously marry her. Gonzago repeats the plan back to Tiberio, revokes his diplomatic status, and orders him to leave Urbino. Instead, Tiberio. puts the plan into effect and marries Dulcimel in her bedroom. Faunus: observes the foolish behaviour of the courtiers at Urbino. Herod cuckolds his brother, the impotent Sir Amoroso, and gets his sister-in-law with child — in effect, dispossessing himself of the estate by producing an heir apparent. Donna Zoya, who bas not slept with her husband Zuccone for four years, feigns pregnancy, and the gossip spreads rapidly through the court, each person…
The Malcontent
1604 · Tragicomedy · Children of the Queen's Revels
AltSffont, Duke of Genoa, has been deposed in a coup backed by the Great DukelofiFlorence, and replaced by Pi2tf5) the husband of Florence’s daughter Alurelial Though banished, Altofront has remained in Genoa disguised as the court malcontent Malevolg) his identity known only to his ally @@lS. He tells Pietro that (Mendez, who brokered his marriage to Aurelia, is cuckolding him. So he is, but Femniezé replaces him in Aurelia’s affections when he claims that Mendoza 1603 prefers another woman. Pietro confronts Mendoza, who names Ferneze as the true adulterer, and they lay a plot to surprise the couple in bed: Ferneze flees by a back entrance, but Mendoza lies in wait and attacks him as he leaves, then, when Aurelia comes out, pretends that he was protecting Ferneze. Pietro believes that his objective is to gain Aurelia’s confidence so that he can position himself to spy on her, and rewards his supposed fidelity by adopting him as his successor; but Mendoza’s real motive is to avenge himself on Pietro for suspecting him, on Aurelia for rejecting him, and on Ferneze for supplanting him. Ferneze is left for dead, but Malevole finds him still alive and takes him to safety. Bili6SG is sent as an ambassador to inform Florence of his daughter’s misbehaviour. Aurelia conspires with Mendoza to assassinate Pietro; she will then install him as Duke, with Florentine support. Mendoza engages Malevole, recently banished from court, to murder Pietro during a hunt, and explains his future…
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…
The Phoenix
Middleton, Thomas · 1604 · Comedy · Children of Paul's (second) · before the Court;
The old Duke of Ferrara has reigned 45 years, and is now near death. He accepts his nobles’ advice that his son, ===== PAGE 76 ===== Prince Phoenix, should travel to other nations in order to prepare himself for government. Phoenix suspects a stratagem to have him out of the country at the time his father dies, jeopardizing the succession, so he decides instead to travel incognito within Ferrara itself, witnessing abuses which require reformation, but which would be concealed from a visitor known to be of high rank; he will be attended only by his servant Fidelio. Fidelio has a new stepfather, a sea-captain: against all advice, his mother Castiza has remarried, only to find herself tied to an abusive bully. The captain also regrets the marriage and is looking for a way out of it; so he agrees to sell his wife to the courtier Proditor. Phoenix and Fidelio hear of this and infiltrate the sales meeting in disguise: Fidelio poses as the scrivener who has.drawn up the contract, and Phoenix as a potential investor in the captain’s next voyage. Once the contract is signed and the money handed over, they confront the captain and force him to go into exile, giving the money to Castiza. Fidelio’s girlfriend has just lost her father, whose will leaves her in the custody of her uncle, the corrupt Justice Falso. He proposes to marry her, threatening to withhold payment of her dowry if she should marry anyone else (such as Fidelio). Fidelio goes to see her in disguise, bringing a letter…
The Queen's Arcadia (Arcadia Reformed)
Daniel, Samuel · 1605 · Pastoral · before the Court;at University;
Arcadia is no longer the place of pastoral simplicity it once was: old shepherds have grown litigious, young ones are falling in love unwisely and unrequitedly, and the nymphs, who seem less beautiful than before, have abandoned the modest simplicity of traditional Arcadian dress in favour of quirky new fashions. The problems arise from foreign influences on this previously sequestered land. Colax has travelled abroad, and brought back with him the city woman Techne, and they are selfishly interfering in the love- lives of the nymphs and shepherds: they have made Silvia and Palaemon jealous of one another with mendacious tales of infidelity; and Colax has persuaded Dorinda to jilt Myrtillus in his favour, making her the latest in a string of sexual conquests. Meanwhile Lincus, a lawyer, and Doctor Alcon have both come from town to set up practices in Arcadia. Lincus has found the local amity bad for business: the Arcadians do not covet one another’s property and so never go to law. For Alcon, however, the Arcadians’ fellow-feeling is profitable, because when one falls ill, others follow suit, and they all want the same medicine from him — which is just as well, because he has only one to offer, and that is a placebo. Both are keen to drum up trade, so Lincus has set Montanus and Acrisius against one another, and Alcon has introduced the Arcadians to an unhealthy habit: tobacco-smoking. Carinus (who has recently jilted Amaryllis) and Amyntas are rivals for the love of Cloris,…
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…
The Dutch Courtesan (Cockle de Moye)
1605 · Comedy · Children of the Queen's Revels · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
Mulligrub is morose: Cocledemoy has stolen some goblets from him. As the play goes on he gets increasingly infuriated as Cocledemoy continues to get the better of him. First the cheater borrows barber's instruments, visits him posing as a northern barber, and steals his bag of money while shaving him. Next, Mulligrub buys a goblet from Burnish and has it sent to his wife. Posing as Burnish's man, Cocledemoy pretends that he has been sent to arrange a meal for the Mulligrubs and Burnishes, leaves a gift of salmon, and takes the goblet back for engraving. Mulligrub returns home and, knowing nothing of the meal, decides to eat the salmon before anyone realizes the mistake, but loses his appetite on realizing that the goblet is gone. After he leaves to raise the alarm, Codedemoy returns and cons the salmon out of Mistress Mulligrub too. Finally Cocledemoy arranges for Mulligrub to pick up his cloak, then has him arrested for theft.Freevill invites his friend Malheureux to join him on a visit to the courtesan Francischina, in the hope that he will reconsider his disapproval of prostitution. He does: on seeing the courtesan, he falls in love. She grows jealous on hearing that Freevill is to marry Beatrice, and asks him to give her Beatrice's ring. When he refuses, she asks the infatuated Malheureux to prove his love by killing Freevill; she will reward him sexually when he brings her the ring. Malheureux soon comes to his senses: he tells Freevill everything, and they conspire to…
The Wonder of Women, or Sophonisba
Marston, John · 1605 · Tragedy · Children of the Queen's Revels · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
King Masinissa marries the Carthaginian princess Sophonisba. His unsuccessful rival, Syphax, allies himself with the Roman general Scipio, who is mustering troops to expel Hannibal from Italy and take the Punic War to Africa. Masinissa and his father- in-law, Hasdrubal, are appointed generals, and Masinissa defers his wedding night to go to war, with Sophonisba’s full approval. : The Carthaginian Senate votes to appease Syphax by giving him Sophonisba, because his army is larger than Masinissa’s; Hasdrubal is promised Masinissa’s kingdom in return for his connivance in poisoning his son-in-law, and Sophonisba is sent to Syphax’s palace. Gelosso, a senator who dissented from the decision, warns Masinissa. Syphax defects to Carthage, and the Romans are beaten; but Masinissa joins Scipio, and their combined troops march again on Carthage. The senators panic and quarrel. Syphax threatens to rape Sophonisba if she will not submit to him, and tells her that Masinissa is dead. He agrees to an hour’s respite while she fulfils her vow to sacrifice before touching a second husband. She gets the servant Vangue drunk, and he tells her that Syphax’s bedroom has a secret passage to enable escape from the palace in the event of a siege. Vangue collapses into an alcoholic stupor, and Sophonisba puts him into Syphax’s bed, then escapes through the passage. Coming to bed for sex with Sophonisba, Syphax finds Vangue and kills him. He then follows Sophonisba and recaptures her; she is taken…
The Isle of Gulls
Day, John · 1606 · Comedy · Children of the Queen's Revels · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
Three members of the audience ask the Prologue about the play they are to see, The Isle of Gulls. They prove to have irreconcilable tastes in drama: one wants satire, one bawdy, and one bombast, but all eventually agree to give the play a chance. Concerned about his daughters’ unsuitable suitors, Basilius retires with them for a year to an uninhabited, fortified island, leaving his brother to rule Arcadia in his stead. A proclamation challenges royal would-be suitors to win the princesses by stealth. This attracts Julio and Amintor to the island, alerted by Basilius’ unworthy favourite Dametas; and also Lysander and Demetrius, respectively disguised as Zelmane, an Amazon, and Dorus, a woodman. ‘Zelmane’ becomes Violetta’s companion, and Demetrius enters Dametas’ service. Dametas arranges an opportunity for Julio and Amintor to rape the princesses by isolating them during a hunt. They kidnap the girls, but ‘Zelmane’ and ‘Dorus’ rescue them. ‘Dorus’ is rewarded with an appointment as Hippolita’s attendant, but the incident also casts doubt on ‘Zelmane’s’ gender, so Lysander loses his access to Violetta. Basilius and Gynecia are both enamoured of Lysander (each believing him to be a different sex), and each persuades him to accept the other’s advances for sport. Meanwhile Dametas’ daughter Mopsa falls in love with ‘Dorus’. Amintor and Julio continue to have ill success: they pose as envoys from Basilius’ brother, appealing for him to deal with an outbreak of abuses, corruption,…
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…
Michaelmas Term
Middleton, Thomas · 1606 · Comedy · Children of Paul's (second)
Rearage and Andrew Lethe are rivals for the hand of Quomodo’s daughter: her mother favours Rearage and her father Lethe. Lethe has assumed gentry status, and is concerned when his plebeian mother arrives from the country; but she does not recognize him, and he employs her as a go-between. Hellgill brings a country wench to London, promising to pass her off as a gentlewoman. He dresses her up and she begins to attract gallants, including Lethe. Her father comes looking for her, and, not recognizing him, she takes him on as a servant. A third visitor from the country is Richard Easy, who is entrapped by Shortyard and Falselight, the agents of Ephestian Quomodo. Shortyard gambles with Easy, persuading him to keep on betting in the hope of breaking his losing streak. In consequence, he needs money to fund his social life, and seeks to borrow it from Quomodo. He is induced to take the loan in cloth, which he can sell on to realize the money; ===== PAGE 155 ===== 1604 posing as the fictitious ‘Blastfield’, Shortyard also signs the bond. Quomodo and his accomplices engineer a downturn in the market: the cloth has to be sold for less than half its true value. When the bond falls due for repayment a month later, Blastfield cannot be found, and Easy is arrested. Quomodo’s accomplices pose as wealthy citizens and stand bail for Easy, so long as he signs over all his possessions to them. When Blastfield still cannot be found, the bailsmen give Quomodo Easy’s lands in lieu of the bail…
The Two Maids of More-Clacke
Armin, Robert · 1606 · Comedy · Children of the King's Revels
Before the action, James Humil wrote to his wife from what he took to be his deathbed. Believing herself widowed, she made swift arrangements for her remarriage to Sir William Vergir, with the support of her son, who hoped to marry one of Sir William’s daughters, Now, on her way back from the wedding, she sees James in the street. She loses her glove, and offers a reward for its discovery: the person who finds . it will have the honour of deciding the festivities in celebration of her second marriage. This is a ruse to enable her to see James, who has found the glove. She tells him that, though she genuinely thought him dead, she contracted her second marriage as a means of paying his debts and securing a desirable match for ===== PAGE 471 ===== 1608 their son. She takes on James as a servant, and tells her second husband that she will only consummate the marriage once Young Humil is married to his elder daughter, Mary. Since both daughters are already engaged, Sir William tries to put off the fiancés by setting impossible conditions: Toures will only be allowed to marry Mary after she has died and come back to life; Young Filbon will get Tabitha only if he becomes a woman. Filbon sends a letter to Tabitha via Touch, Sir William’s servant, but the letter is found and Touch dismissed; Tabitha becomes estranged from her father. Toures visits Mary disguised as a tinker, and they go off to Putney to get married. Tabitha has two other suitors ~ Auditor, Toures’s father, and the…
A Mad World, My Masters
Middleton, Thomas · 1606 · Comedy · Children of Paul's (second)
Sir Bounteous Progress is much sought after for his generosity, but one person who has not benefited is his heir, Follywit. Down on his luck, Follywit decides to take some of his inheritance early. He poses as a lord and invites himself to stay with Sir Bounteous, and, during the night, changes clothes and burgles the house. Sir Bounteous is aghast that a lord has been robbed under his roof, and reimburses Follywit’s pretended losses. Harebrain is suspicious of his wife: he hires men to watch the house, takes away her bawdy reading matter, and allows her only the company of Lady Gullman, whom he takes for a pious virgin. In fact, Gullman is a courtesan working as a go-between for Penitent Brothel, and devises a plan to allow him access: she feigns sickness, and Harebrain allows his wife to visit her; Penitent Brothel poses as her physician. Other visitors include Sir Bounteous, Gullman’s principal client, and two other would-be clients, all of whom give money to ‘the doctor’. Mistress Harebrain arrives and has sex with Penitent Brothel. Meanwhile Gullman pretends to hold a conversation with her for the benefit of the eavesdropping Harebrain, who takes his wife home confident in her chastity. Worried that Sir Bounteous may leave his estate to a courtesan, Follywit poses as Gullman, visits the knight’s country house, and steals jewels. Back in London, he persuades Gullman to marry him on the expectation of his inheritance, not realizing who she is. Meanwhile, Penitent Brothel…
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 Gentleman Usher (Vincentio and Margaret)
1606 · Comedy · Children of the Chapel (second) or Children of Paul‚Äôs (second)
Duke Alfonso and his son Vincentio are rivals for the love of Lady Margaret. The court visits her father Lasso's house, and two dramatic entertainments are staged. First the Duke engages his resented new favourite, Medice, to perform a wooing speech in a masque. The illiterate Medice forgets his lines, but the Duke has anticipated this and primed an understudy: Strozza describes how the Duke was taken captive while hunting a boar, and can only be released by Margaret's love, which she duly grants. Lasso reciprocates with a pastoral about the discontents of virginity; Margaret is invited to watch it from the place of honour as if she were Duchess. Privately, however, Margaret prefers Vincentio, and makes an assignation with him. As go-between, she selects her father's gentleman usher, Bassiolo, whom she .considers easily corruptible: Vincentio suborns him with the expectation of advancement when he succeeds his father as Duke. and he carries a love-letter to Margaret; she gets him to draft a reply, but then writes her own letter instead. The lovers meet, and attempt to pre-empt their fathers' plans by taking an oath of marriage.Strazza. is shot while out hunting in a failed assassination attempt instigated by Medice. The doctor is unable to remove the arrow-head safely, but Strozza acquires precognitive vision and predicts that in seven days it will fall out of its own accdrd. Medice investigates Margaret's coyness. and enlists the help of her aunt Cortezza by getting her…
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 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…
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…
Croesus
Alexander, William · 1607 · Tragedy
Alexander the Great is dead, poisoned by Cassander. He leaves behind a pregnant widow but no definite heir. Unable to get into the underworld because as yet unburied, his ghost returns to earth and recounts his life story, a tale of escalating atrocity as power progressively divorced him from ordinary humanity. He decides to inspire his captains with ambition and bloodlust. The captains are unable to agree on how best to secure the Macedonian Empire, and various proposals are advanced: to await the birth of Alexander's posthumous child, and appoint a regent in the interim; to crown either Alexander’s bastard brother or his elder son, who is half-barbarian and so unacceptable to the people; to split up the empire between themselves. The only thing they can agree on is that the common foot-soldiers should have no say in the decision. Lysimachus and Seleucus decide to bide their time, let their fellow captains wear themselves out with wrangling, and then step in to take the empire for themselves. Meleager tries to have Perdiccas, his rival, murdered, but the plot fails and Perdiccas responds in kind with more success. When Alexander’s child is born, it is a son. Perdiccas and others become his joint regents, but Perdiccas schemes for personal supremacy. He removes his two colleagues in the regency, gives the other captains their own kingdoms in an effort to secure their loyalty, and plans to marry into the royal family. Two of his new subject kings, Antigonus and Ptolemy, ally…
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 - =====…
Antony and Cleopatra
Shakespeare, William · 1607 · Tragedy · King's Men
Antony dallies with Cleopatra in Egypt while the Roman world collapses into faction. His wife and brother make war on Caesar, and Pompey takes advantage of his absence to foment a sea war with the state and avenge his murdered father. At first Antony ignores Caesar’s messages, but his wife’s death draws him back to Rome, where he and Caesar are reconciled; to seal the league, Antony marries Caesar’s sister, Octavia. A soothsayer, who has told the fortunes of members of Cleopatra’s court, warns him that, although he is a better man than Caesar, Caesar will always prove the more successful of the two. Antony, Caesar, and Lepidus meet Pompey with an army, but war is averted. Lepidus gets egregiously drunk at the feast on Pompey’s galley to celebrate the treaty. Pompey refuses his ally Menas’ dishonourable proposal to kill the triumvirate and make him master of the world. Antony’s lieutenant Ventidius defeats the Parthians in battle, but is cautious about taking too much of the credit for himself. Meanwhile, news of Antony’s marriage reaches Cleopatra; she does not take it well. Antony leaves Rome with his new wife, but absence breeds suspicion between him and Caesar. Caesar breaks the truce with Pompey and deposes Lepidus on a pretext. Antony, in turn, sends Octavia home and returns to Egypt, where he creates Cleopatra queen of several dominions. War between east and west follows. Antony perversely chooses to fight by sea, and Cleopatra insists on being present at the battle.…
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.
Humor Out of Breath
Day, John · 1608 · Comedy · Children of the King's Revels
Octavio has just won a war against Mantua, which has resulted in the banishment of Antonio, the Mantuan ===== PAGE 427 ===== 1607 Duke, and his family. Now Octavio sends his sons out into Italy to look for wives, but accompanies them incognito to keep an eye on them. His daughter Florimell protests that she wants love too, but Octavio leaves her in the custody of Hortensio, giving him a brief to restrain her wanton tendencies. Antonio and his family are living a rustic life, eating fish they have caught themselves. Aspero, the son, goes to Venice, eager to assassinate Octavio in revenge. With Octavio gone, he meets Florimell, who is attracted to him. When he does not reciprocate, she concurs in Hortensio’s decision to arrest him, but asks that he should be imprisoned in her own chamber. On hearing that she is planning to have him executed, but only because she is playing hard-to-get, he pretends to be dead. The sight of his body shocks her into declaring her love openly, and this brings him back to life. Hortensio has just received information as to his identity, and has him committed to close prison. Florimell and Hortensio visit him, and Hortensio is persuaded to play blind man’s buff in the cell. While Hortensio is hoodwinked, she disguises Aspero in his clothes and removes him from the prison; Hortensio is left behind in the cell. The jailer is given orders to allow nobody to see the prisoner, even if he should pretend to be Hortensio or imitate his voice. Aspero and…
The Faithful Shepherdess
Fletcher, John · 1608 · Pastoral Tragicomedy · Children of the Queen's Revels
Having buried her love, @I6Tifi swears to live a life of chastity ever after, abstaining from her fellow shepherdesses’ amorous sports; instead she will live by his grave and devote herself to herbal medicine. She attracts the attentions of a passing Saji, but he only wants to give her fruit; as her mother always told her, preserving her virginity has protected her from harm. Périgot makes a date with Almoret] and refuses the advances of Almiaryllis} who then plots with a sullen, malcontented shepherd to cross their love. Using herbs and a magic well, she transforms herself into Amoret’s shape, and makes unchaste advances to PeHgOu thinking the worst, Perigot then attacks the real Amoret. After he has gone, the sullen shepherd tries to finish the job by throwing her into the well, but the God of the River rescues her and heals her wounds. GhIGE) eager for sex, propositions a number of boys. [HEHE is only interested in Ql6rin, but(GHIGe manages Daphnis turns out to want a chaste lover, so Chloe sends him off on a fool’s errand looking for a hollow tree, and hopes for better luck with Alexis. She also takes the fancy of the sullen shepherd, who attacks and wounds Alexis; but the confrontation is interrupted by the chance arrival of the Satjr. The sullen shepherd is scared off, and the Satyr brings \ANGRIS to Clorin for medical treatment. Chloe decides that joining Daphiig inside his hollow tree will be better than nothing. Ammaryllis confesses her shape-shifting ruse to a…
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Shakespeare, William; Wilkins, George · 1608 · Romance · King's Men · Globe;Outdoor Professional
Pericles comes to Antioch to woo the daughter and heir of King Antiochus. Her suitors must solve a riddle about her, or be executed. Pericles realizes that the riddle cryptically reveals that she and her father are an incestuous couple. Seeing that the game is up, Antiochus pretends that Pericles is mistaken, grants him a forty-day reprieve so that he can try again, and makes arrangements to have him poisoned. Pericles flees to Tyre, but the murderer, Thaliard, follows him. On realizing the danger, Pericles leaves his principality in the care of Helicanus; he has already gone by the ===== PAGE 413 ===== 1607 time Thaliard arrives. He goes to Tarsus, which has been stricken by a famine, and supplies corn to Cleon, the Governor. In Tyre, Thaliard’s murderous intentions are discovered, and Pericles is recalled home. In Antioch, the King and his daughter are destroyed by fire from heaven. On his way home, Pericles is shipwrecked on the coast of Pentapolis, where King Simonides is holding a tournament for the hand of his daughter, Thaisa. Some fishermen retrieve Pericles’ armour from the sea, and, though it is rusty, he is able to compete. He is victorious, and Thaisa falls in love with him. Simonides sends away the other knights, telling them that Thaisa has taken a vow to the goddess Diana not to marry for another year. She insists that she will marry Pericles, with or without her father’s consent. Simonides makes a show of disapproval, but in fact her choice accords with his…
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…
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…
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 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…
If It Be Not Good, the Devil Is in It (If This Be Not a Good Play, the Devil Is in It)
Dekker, Thomas · 1611 · Comedy · Queen Anne's Men · Red Bull;Outdoor Professional
Hell has a population problem: so few new souls are arriving that Charon’s earnings are in decline, but Pluto is reluctant to allow him to raise his fare lest the new price should prove a deterrent. Instead, he sends devils to Naples in human disguise to tempt people into sin in the court, the abbey, and the city. They are later to rendezvous in a grove to report their progress. Ruffman goes to court, assuming the identity of the foreign courtier Bohor. The newly crowned King of ===== PAGE 144 ===== Is In It Naples, Alfonso, intends to be a just and godly ruler, and plans out his week to devote each day toa different state task. Bohor persuades him to spend more time on pleasure and less on duty, so Saturday is designated a day of hedonism. Alfonso proclaims a reward for whoever entertains him best, and Bohor wins with a display of airborne fireballs. Alfonso’s devotion to pleasure starts to extend beyond Saturdays, and he neglects his state duties. He also breaks off his engagement with Princess Ermenhild, who retires to a convent and lets it be known that she is dead. Shackle-Soul becomes Friar Rush, a novice in the abbey. On learning that the friars eat frugally, he tempts them to gluttony and is appointed the abbey cook. Only Clement, the Sub-Prior, dissents, and Rush identifies him as an enemy who will have to be dealt with. He also makes an enemy of Scumbroth, his predecessor as cook, when he lays an untrue accusation of unchastity. Obtaining gold from a spirit, he…
A King and No King
Beaumont, Francis; Fletcher, John · 1611 · Tragicomedy · King's Men · Globe;Outdoor Professional
Arbaces has been away from his kingdom for many years fighting a war with Armenia, which he has just won. He has received reports from his Lord Protector, Gobrias, about the virtue and accomplishments of his younger sister Panthea, whom he has not seen since she was nine years old. He offers her hand in marriage to Tigranes, the vanquished Armenian King, but Tigranes demurs. Arbaces takes him back to Iberia to see her for himself. Tigranes’ objection lies in the fact that he already has a girlfriend, Spaconia, and he bribes the cowardly Bessus to bring her along and place her in Panthea’s household. Once there, she begs Panthea not to marry Tigranes, and Panthea agrees. Arane, Arbaces’ mother, has been trying to assassinate him since he came to the throne. Another attempt is foiled, but he pardons her when he returns in triumph. She clearly has an ulterior motive which is known to Gobrias, but both are discreet about its precise nature. Arbaces’ first meeting with Panthea as an adult proves unsettling: he falls in love with her. So does Tigranes. Identifying a rival, Arbaces imprisons him. Torn between desire and conscience, he also imprisons Panthea. Panthea gives Spaconia a token authorizing her to visit Tigranes in prison. He rejects her, but Arbaces finds them together and assumes that she is a go-between. Gobrias importunes him to release Panthea, who persuades him that his suspicions are unfounded: she loves him, and would act upon that love if to do so were not…
Match Me in London
Dekker, Thomas · 1611 · Tragicomedy · Red Bull (Revels) Company (first) · Red Bull;Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional;Outdoor Professional
It is midnight, and Tormiella is missing from her father Malevento’s house. He wonders if she is visiting Gazetto, her fiancé, but in fact she has eloped to Seville with the man she loves, Cordolente. There they get married and open a shop. The bawd Dildoman recommends her to the King, who comes to the shop on the pretext of buying a glove. Tormiella is taken to court and her escort disposed of by a ruse; Dildoman tries to persuade her to yield to the King. The Queen becomes jealous of Tormiella and attempts to stab her. Cordolente realizes he has been cuckolded; he and Malevento are both offered places at court, but only Malevento accepts. Don John intends to depose the King, his brother, with the help of the Portuguese nobility. He persuades his doctor to poison Don Valasco, the Queen’s father, having first told him that the King is having an affair with Tormiella. Valasco eats some grapes, falls sick, and is then poisoned with the medicine the doctor administers; Don John sends the body home. In fact, it was only a sleeping potion, and the King confronts Don John with the living Valasco; when their quarrel escalates to the point of a duel, the King puts Don John under house arrest. He discovers documentary proof of the conspiracy, and sends Valasco to supervise Don John’s execution, which is to be done in private and using a method selected by Don John himself from an illustrated book of deaths. Valasco reports him dead. The King uses Martines, who is implicated in Don…
Amends for Ladies
Field, Nathan · 1611 · Comedy · Children of the Queen's Revels · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
Three ladies debate the relative happiness of maids, wives, and widows. The maid, Lady Honour, is courted by Ingen, but she disdains him and he speaks ill of some women. He sends her word that he has married,and she seeks revenge. The wife, Lady Perfect, has her chastitytested by her jealous husband, Sir John Loveall, who engages his friend Subtle to seduce her; Subtle secretly hopes to succeed, but Lady Perfect is determined to uphold the honour of her sex by remaining chaste. The widow, Lady Bright, accepts a waiting-gentlewoman preferred by Lord Fee-Simple; but the servant is really his rival in love, Bold, in disguise. Lady Honour visits Ingen disguised as an Irish footboy with a message, meets his 'wife', who is really his brother Frank in disguise, and is accepted into his service. Her brother, Lord Proudly, comes looking for her at Ingen's house, and Frank's true identity is revealed; but Ingen challenges Proudly to a duel the following morning. This leaves Lady Honour in a quandary whether she should support her brother or her lover. Proudly plans to marry Lady Honour to the Count, Lord Fee-Simple's father. Hearing that in consequence he is likely to be disinherited, Fee-Simple wants to be able to quarrel, and so needs a cure for his longstanding phobia of drawn swords. Well tried introduces him to the swaggerers ofTurnbull Street and they get into a drunken brawl. Meanwhile, Bold undresses Lady Bright and is asked to sleep with her; but ·when his true gender is…
The Roaring Girl, or Moll Cutpurse
Dekker, Thomas; Middleton, Thomas · 1611 · Comedy · Prince Henry's Men · Fortune;Outdoor Professional
Sebastian Wengrave was contracted to marry Mary Fitzallard until his father, dissatisfied with the dowry, cancelled the arrangement; Sebastian plans to reverse 1611 his father’s decision by pretending infatuation with Moll Cutpurse. Sir Alexander employs Trapdoor to enter Moll’s service as a spy and agent provocateur. Trapdoor forewarns Sir Alexander of an assignation between Sebastian and Moll, and they plot to entrap her in.a false charge of theft. In fact, Moll uses the meeting to bring Sebastian together with Mary. Sir Alexander eavesdrops on them and gives Moll counterfeit coins. Moll recognizes Trapdoor as a spy and sacks him. He turns to begging, posing as an discharged soldier, but she sees through his disguise and buys his true allegiance. Sir Alexander hears that Sebastian has absconded with Moll to get married, but is stymied when Trapdoor brings him additional, contradictory (and false) information about their movements. This enables Sebastian to carry out his clandestine marriage with Mary unmolested. Relieved that his son has not married into the criminal classes after all, Sir Alexander settles lands on the couple and forgives Moll. In the second plot, Laxton and Goshawk are having adulterous affairs with the citizen wives, Mistress Gallipot and Mistress Openwork. Laxton also has a date with Moll, but changes his mind about it when she turns up cross-dressed. He sends Mistress Gallipot a love-letter and asks her for money. Gallipot catches her reading it, and…
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 Scornful Lady
Beaumont, Francis; Fletcher, John · 1613 · Comedy · Children of the Queen's Revels · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
The Loveless brothers are in trouble. The younger owes money to Morecraft and stands to lose his land, while the elder has been ordered by his lady-love to go into exile for a year as penance for his over-eagerness. He leaves his brother in charge of his house during his absence, with an allowance for his maintenance, and the steward Saville to restrain him, but the young man associates with rogues. Together they reinterpret his brother’s written instructions in order to license his prodigal behaviour. While they are drinking and wenching, the elder Loveless returns in disguise bringing news of his own death: young Loveless inherits his brother’s land, and promptly mortgages it to Morecraft. The elder Loveless also reports his death to the Lady, who consoles herself by chatting up another lover, Welford. When Loveless reveals his true identity, she retorts that she knew it was him and sends him on his way, but also disappoints Welford. Loveless returns and abuses her, pretending to be out of love. She faints and he relents: it was a trick to test her; but, she says, she knew that all along, and Loveless is sent away again. The elder Loveless dismisses Saville for negligence and reclaims his mortgaged property, but his younger brother not only keeps the money but also steals Morecraft’s intended fiancée, a rich, socially ambitious widow. She objects to his low-life friends, but he persuades her that they are cheaper than servants. The Lady’s affections begin to turn: she…
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…
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 Duchess of Malfi
Webster, John · 1614 · Tragedy · King's Men · Blackfriars;Globe;Indoor Professional;Outdoor Professional
There are two new arrivals at the Duchess of Malfi’s court. One is Antonio, her steward, who has returned from an extended visit to France. The other is Bosola, an ex-convict who committed a murder for the Cardinal, and who is now placed at court by the Duchess’s brother Ferdinand, with instructions to supply information. Ferdinand and the Cardinal leave the court, enjoining their sister not to marry again, but she defies them and secretly woos and marries Antonio. She clandestinely gives birth to a son, which Bosola discovers after Antonio accidentally drops the baby’s horoscope. The news is duly reported to the infuriated Ferdinand. The Duchess has two more children. Ferdinand visits Malfi, planning to marry her to Count Malateste. He visits her private chamber and catches her talking to Antonio, whose identity remains unknown because he has hidden as part of a practical joke. She banishes Antonio as a pretext to get him out of court, and follows him on a feigned pilgrimage to the state of Ancona. Bosola wins her confidence by speaking well of Antonio, unlike the other court flatterers; she entrusts him with the secret of their marriage, which he duly reports to his paymaster. The Cardinal is commissioned to fight in the war, and ceremonially puts off his ecclesiastical office. By papal decree, the Duchess and Antonio are banished ===== PAGE 347 ===== 1613 from Ancona and the Duchy of Malfi is seized by the Holy See; Antonio flees to Milan with his eldest son, and Bosola…
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…
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…
Work for Cutlers (Sword, Rapier, and Dagger)
Anonymous · 1615 · Academic Entertainment · at University;
Sword quarrels with Rapier. Dagger intervenes in an effort to stop them fighting one another, and threatens to call in the cutler to deal with them. The two weapons boast of one another’s martial prowess, and comment on the soldiership of other weapons they know. When the quarrel threatens to erupt again, Dagger reminds them that duelling is now illegal, and offers his services as an arbitrator. He allows each of them their own distinctive sphere of influence: Sword will hold sway in the army camp and Rapier in the court. With this agreed, the weapons go off for a drink at the Dagger inn.
Metropolis Coronata: The Triumphs of Ancient Drapery
Munday, Anthony · 1615 · Civic Pageant
As he is about to embark for his trip to Westminster, the new Lord Mayor of London is met, first by the Argonauts and then by the ghost of Sir Henry Fitz-Alwin, attended by eight virtues representing eight previous Draper Lord Mayors: Neptune has allowed him to ride on his sea-chariot, a whale, to greet the new incumbent. When the Lord Mayor gets aboard his barge, Sir Henry salutes him, pleased that the Lord Mayor is to be a draper fora — second year running: he will bring fame to the city, as Jason brought the golden fleece from Colchis. ; Five pageants are presented on land: a ship named the Joel; Neptune and Thames, riding on a lion and a sea-horse; the Argo; the chariot of man’s life, driven by Time; and a pageant of London and the twelve livery companies. Time expounds the devices to the Lord Mayor. In the evening, the Lord Mayor is being conducted home. Sir Henry Fitz-Alwin returns and bids him farewell. But the entertainment is not over: the day has been so busy that Robin Hood and his merry men have not had the chance to pay their respects; at Friar Tuck’s request, they sing a song.
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…
The Bloody Brother (Rollo, Duke of Normandy)
Fletcher, John; Massinger, Philip; Field, Nathan (?) · 1617 · Tragedy · King's Men
The old Duke of Normandy has left his dukedom to be shared by his two sons, Rollo and Otto, but the brothers are mutually antagonistic. Civil war is averted by the intervention of their mother Sophia, and they agree to celebrate the new accord at a banquet. Latorch persuades Rollo to renege on the truce, but proposes to dispose of Otto by craft rather than by force, and suborns the kitchen staff preparing the banquet to poison Otto's food. At the feast, however, Otto is off his food and will not eat. Rollo pretends to take offence, claiming that Otto's reluctance is tantamount to accusing him of a poisoning attempt, and leaves the banquet. He later murders Otto in their mother's presence, and sends Latorcb to convince the citizens that he was acting in self-defence. Gisbert and Baldwin, two senior courtiers, are beheaded for refusing to abet his usurpation; a third, Aubrey, recognizes that, the murder notwithstanding, Rollo is the only legitimate heir left. Rollo makes it known that the poisoning plot was instigated by Otto, and has the caterers hanged. Rollo proves to be a tyrant who preys not only on his nobles but also his meaner subjects. Among the latter is Allan , Gisbert's servant, who is condemned to death for burying his executed master; his brother Hamond, the Duke 's Captain of the Guard, cannot persuade Rollo to spare him. Latorch asks permission to have Rollo's horoscope cast; his objective is to get the astrologers to foretell danger to the Duke's life from a…
Technogamia, or The Marriages of the Arts
Holyday, Barten · 1618 · Academic Comedy · at University;
Astronomia has several suitors: Geographus (whom her mother dislikes), Geometres (whom her friends favour), and Poeta (who has recently jilted Historia to pursue her). Against her kinsman Polites’ advice, Historia still wants to marry Poeta, consummating the long-standing association between history and the poetic imagination. Poeta quarrels with Grammaticus, and Logicus becomes involved in the ensuing affray. Unsure whether to fight a duel with Poeta or sue him for assault, Logicus sets both courses in train. Hearing that Poeta has been hurt in the fight, Historia sends to Medicus for help, but Magus, who is helping Geometres, sees an opportunity to dispose of one of his client’s rivals, and persuades Medicus to send poison instead. Medicus’ man, Sanguis, delivers the poison, but spots that it isn’t medicine. Poeta infers Historia's treachery, but persuades himself out of absolute misogyny by thinking of Astronomia. To reconcile Poeta with Logicus and Grammaticus, Ethicus arranges a banquet. Several of the wooers use magical help in their suits. Poeta meets two gipsies, who pick his- pocket and foretell that he will marry Astronomia. Using sieve- divination, Magus predicts that Geometres will marry Astronomia, and will achieve this mainly through hypnotism, with a little pharmaceutical help. (Geometres finds the third option, conjuration, too frightening to try.) However, when Astronomia drinks the supposed love philtre at Ethicus’ feast, it poisons her. Meanwhile, Poeta…
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.
Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue
Jonson, Ben · 1618 · Masque · before the Court;
Comus’ attendants steal Hercules’ cup for use in their drunken orgies. Fresh from kiWing Antaeus, Hercules sees them off, then is lulled to sleep. Some pygmies try to steal his club and avenge Antaeus, but are scared off when he wakes. Mercury proclaims the coming of a time when the opposites of Pleasure and Virtue shall be reconciled: for the time being Hercules does not need to choose between them. Virtue brings forth twelve princes bred inside the mountain, led by Daedalus, who directs and explains their dances as allegories of the interpenetration of virtue and pleasure, then beauty, and finally love. However, pleasure and virtue are only temporarily reconciled: the masquers must return to the mountain, where virtue remains its own reward.
Two Wise Men and All the Rest Fools
Anonymous · 1619 · Satirical Dialogue
Proberio returns to England from his overseas travels, bringing with him the Italianated Antonio. Aton sets up in business, giving Proberio employment an house-room in return for an investment in the business. Simplo asks to enter his service as an apprentice in order to learn his tricks, and is ies ar provided that Antonio is granted the use of his lan and money. ” Securus asks Hermito to.advise him on a series © issues. They sit down to watch the debates, and witness the rest of the play’s action. Several rustics argue over whether holy days should be abolished: because no work gets done, weeds grow in the gardens and os in the fields. They appeal to Hermito, who rules in favour of Sunday observance. Sperato and Spurco disagree over whether hawking or hunting is the better sport, while Gulato avers that drinking is better than both. The husband Rustico and the bachelor Hortano debate the virtues of marriage: Hortano is afraid of marrying a shrew, whereas Rustico has already done so. His wife Lamia has conceived her son in his absence, and now ===== PAGE 161 ===== 1619 spoils the boy whilst beating Rustico, who reflects that at least he will go straight to heaven when he dies, having endured purgatory on earth. A lawyer, a merchant, and a farmer debate the relative merits and vices of their professions; asked for an opinion, Securus rules in the farmer’s favour, but Hermito argues that all three have their place in society and all three are open to abuse. They also…
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 Devil's Law Case (When Women Go to Law the Devil Is Full of Business)
Webster, John · 1619 · Tragicomedy · Queen Anne's Men
Contarino, who has been wooing Jolenta, asks her family’s permission to marry her, but her widowed mother Leonora misunderstands his oblique request and thinks she is herself the object of his interest. Meanwhile Jolenta’s brother, Romelio, would prefer her to marry Ercole; but she refuses him and Ercole takes offence. Contarino fights a duel with Ercole, and they wound one another. The bodies are sent to a 1618 monastery. Ercole recovers and decides to forgo his interest in Jolenta to Contarino, should he too survive. Concerned that he should not, Romelio visits the monastery disguised as a Jewish physician, and stabs Contarino’s body. He is seen by two surgeons, who plan to blackmail him; but ironically the stab clears Contarino’s wound and facilitates his recovery. Romelio’s financial situation is perilous: he has lost his mercantile carracks of spice. Contarino has named Jolenta his heir; Romelio plans to make her Ercole’s too, by fabricating the story that she is pregnant by him. Romelio himself will supply the eventual baby: he has got a nun, Angiolella, with child, and wants both to cover this up and ensure that his issue will inherit both suitors’ property. Jolenta, however, claims that she really is pregnant, by Contarino; so Romelio proposes that she should produce twins. Knowing of Leonora’s interest in Contarino, he fosters jealousy between mother and daughter. The Spanish judge Crispiano comes to Naples in disguise with three objectives: to observe his son’s…
Pan's Anniversary, or The Shepherds' Holiday
Jonson, Ben · 1620 · Pastoral Masque · before the Court;
It is the shepherds’ holiday, the annual feast of Pan. A group of Boeotians come to Arcadia to challenge the shepherds to a dancing contest. The Arcadians prove the better dancers. The Boeotians make a second attempt, but are turned into sheep and sent home.
The Duke of Milan
Massinger, Philip · 1621 · Tragedy · King's Men · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
Sforza, Duke of Milan, dotes on his haughty Duchess Marcelia, and fears the prospect of losing her. Her birthday banquet is interrupted by bad news: Sforza rebuffed Charles the Emperor’s overtures and chose to ally Milan with France instead; but now the Empire has routed France at the Battle of Pavia. Sforza expects imperial reprisals, and goes to submit himself to Charles. Before he leaves, he appoints Francisco his deputy, with instructions that, should he not return, Marcelia is to be murdered so that nobody else shall enjoy her. He submits himself to Charles, offers an explanation but no excuse for his supporting France, and expresses his willingness to pay with his life in order to prevent the imperial army from sacking Milan, thus sparing his subjects further bloodshed. His dignity impresses Charles, who confirms his ducal title. In Sforza’s absence, the tensions between Marcelia and his sister Mariana break out into open violence. Though Mariana is his own wife, Francisco takes Marcelia’s side in the quarrel and imprisons Mariana. Believing that Sforza will not return, he propositions Marcelia, shows her the warrant for her execution, and suggests that they should seize power together. She refuses him, so he explains the excessive love which led Sforza to order her death. This annoys her. When Sforza returns to Milan, she greets him coldly, which gives offence. Mariana learns of Francisco’s efforts to seduce Marcelia, and informs Sforza, who will not believe her.…
The Entertainment at Sir Francis Jones's Welcome (Comus the Great Sir of Feasts) (The Servant of Comus)
Middleton, Thomas · 1621 · Civic Entertainment
The new Lord Mayor is served an emblematic dish based on the arms of his livery company, the Haberdashers.
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…
The Renegado, or The Gentleman of Venice
Massinger, Philip · 1624 · Tragicomedy · Lady Elizabeth's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
PLOT Paulina has been kidnapped by the pirate Grimaldi and brought to stock the Viceroy Hassan Bey’s seraglio in Tunis. However, she wears a relic given to her by the Jesuit Francisco, which protects her from violence and ensures that she cannot be raped. Hassan Bey’s attempts to seduce her are proving ineffectual. The Pasha Mustapha arrives in Tunis and presents himself to Donusa with a letter from her uncle, the Sultan, recommending him as a prospective husband. She expresses an interest in seeing the market, and he escorts her there. One of the merchants, Vitelli, is really Paulina’s brother. He is selling pictures of beautiful European women, so Donusa unveils herself to invite a comparison. Vitelli instantly falls in love with her, and, to bring him out of his reverie, she smashes some of his glassware and tells him to present the bill for the damage at the palace the following day. Seeing an opportunity to rescue Paulina, he goes, is admitted to the seraglio, and ends up having sex with Donusa. He returns to the market a made man, and passes on his business to his servant Gazet. The Maltese raid the harbour at Tunis and capture a ship. Having failed to prevent this, Grimaldi is dismissed from Hassan Bey’s services; his seraglio recruitment work counts for nothing. He goes to the market in despair, believing he can never be forgiven the act of sacrilege for which he originally fled Venice: dashing the host out of a priest’s hand as he was saying mass. The priest was, in…
The Unnatural Combat
Massinger, Philip · 1624 · Tragedy · King's Men · Globe;Outdoor Professional
Malefort Junior, son of the Admiral, has committed treason by allying himself with pirates and threatening the ruin of Marseilles. The Admiral is suspected of complicity and imprisoned. Theocrine, his daughter, reluctantly offers herself to Beaufort Junior, son of the Governor of Marseilles, if he will only persuade his father to allow hers a hearing. Beaufort Senior can refuse his son nothing, so the Admiral gets his opportunity to protest his innocence. Malefort Junior ‘challenges his father to a duel over a wrongdoing which he will not specify. The Admiral refuses to be held accountable by his son, and accepts the challenge. Malefort Junior is killed: the threat to Marseilles is over, and Admiral Malefort is lauded a hero. Malefort suggests that Theocrine should marry Beaufort Junior; Beaufort Senior half-heartedly agrees and invites them to a nuptial feast. The Governor's table is open to any former soldier who needs a free ~ meal, a custom regularly invoked by Belgarde, who is unemployed in peacetime and angry at being denied - his -back pay. Fearing embarrassment at the feast, Beaufort Senior has his steward discourage Belyarde with the suggestion that he is underdressed for the ===== PAGE 200 ===== occasion; but the upshot is that Belgarde turns up in a suit of armour and declares his worthiness. His plain- speaking wins him respect and a gift of money from the Governor. He spends it all on new clothes, but the signs of prosperity attract his creditors, and he is…
A Game at Chess
Middleton, Thomas · 1624 · Comedy · King's Men · Globe;Outdoor Professional
Ignatius Loyola returns to Earth to find that the Jesuits do not yet rule the world — which serves them right for ===== PAGE 93 ===== 1624 having taken so long to canonize him. Error shows him a vision of a chess game between the forces of Catholicism (the Black house) and Protestantism (the White house). The White Queen’s Pawn has broken off her engagement to the White Bishop’s Pawn after the latter was castrated by the Black Knight’s Pawn. Now the Black Queen’s and Bishop’s Pawns attempt to seduce her, in both religious and sexual terms; the Black King also hopes to use her as a way of getting at the White Queen, both to satisfy his lust and as part of the Black house’s scheme for world domination. In the event, however, she rejects the advances of the Black Bishop’s Pawn and he attempts to rape her, but is interrupted. The discovery of his hypocrisy provides ammunition for the White cause. However, the victim loses credence when the Black Knight produces forged documents purporting to show that the Black Bishop’s Pawn was not in the country at the time of the incident. The White King allows the Black house to determine her punishment, but the Black Knight's stratagem is exposed and the pawn vindicated. The Black Knight takes the White King’s Pawn, who turns out to be an agent of Black anyway; he expects to be made a cardinal, but the Black Knight double-crosses him and he ends up in the bag. The Black Queen’s Pawn pretends sympathy for her White opposite number, and tries…
The Knave in Grain, New Vamped
D., J. · 1625 · Comedy · Unknown · Fortune;Outdoor Professional
Jorezzo, banished after his father’s conviction for treason, has returned to Venice under the alias Julio, confiding his identity only to his old schoolfellow Franciscus. He plans to raise his fortunes by marrying Franciscus’ sister Phemone. Unfortunately for him, she is already in love with Antonio; so he tells Franciscus that Antonio is attempting to seduce his wife Cornelia. The jealous Franciscus fights a duel with Antonio, leaves him for dead, and goes into exile. Antonio is found and nursed bya shepherd. Franciscus’ property is seized by the state, and Cornelia’s father, believing the accusation of adultery, turns her out of his house; Phemone leaves Venice with her. They are given shelter by the disguised Antonio, but do not realize his identity. Antonio’s father Arbaces offers a reward for the capture of the fugitive Franciscus, who is living in disguise near Venice. Julio seeks him out, pretending remorse, but really intending to claim the «reward. Franciscus accepts his company, but sneaks off to fetch Arbaces and the watch. Franciscus is arrested and brought before the Duke. At first he is condemned for Antonio’s murder, but the judgement is reversed when Antonio himself comes to the court. Franciscus generously asks the court to spare Julio, but his plea backfires when he lets it slip that Julio is really Jorezzo, the son of a traitor. The Duke sentences him to be branded on the forehead with the word ‘knave’, then banished. In the sub-plot, Stultissimo comes off…
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 School of Compliment (Love Tricks)
Shirley, James · 1625 · Comedy · Lady Elizabeth's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Selina and Hilaria have each attracted the attention of several suitors. Selina’s brother Antonio is one of those interested in Hilaria; and Hilaria’s recently widowed father Rufaldo, who disapproves of Antonio and would rather she married the wealthy Bubulcus, would nevertheless like Selina for his second wife. Antonio has his friend and servant distract Rufaldo while he sneaks in to visit Hilaria; they do it by persuading Rufaldo that he has been miraculously rejuvenated. Selina’s father is happy to let her have her own way in ===== PAGE 140 ===== her love-life, because her sister Felice absconded after he interfered in hers. He proposes that she should be cautious about marrying Rufaldo, but she declares enthusiasm for the idea and asks for a hasty wedding; on the appointed day, however, she disappears and goes to live in the country disguised as a shepherd. Felice’s abandoned suitor Gasparo sets up a school of compliment to teach people refined behaviour. His clients include: Bubulcus, who wants to learn how to woo Hilaria and scorn Antonio; Delia, a chambermaid keen to brush up her etiquette: a judge who wants to learn how to address the jury; Medulla, a social-climbing widow; an old countryman who wants to turn his oafish son into a courtier; a quarrelsome gentleman; Ingeniolo, a justice’s clerk in love; and Jenkin, an amorous Welshman in search of poetry to turn a shepherdess’s head. The search for Selina sends several people off to the country, including her true…
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 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…
Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt
May, Thomas · 1626 · Tragedy · Unknown
PLOT Though he has a wife in Rome, Antonius is devoted to Cleopatra. Provocatively, he bestows on her three eastern Provinces which were under Roman rule. News arrives from Rome that all but one of his rivals have been eclipsed; the remaining politician, Caesar, is too proud to share power and has engrossed the others' confiscated estates to himself rather than dividing them with Antonius. Antonius abandons hedonism to prepare for war, and Cleopatra forces him to allow her to accompany him. Portents appear in Egypt and Rome, including a comet. During the decisive battle, Cleopatra flees and Antonius follows her, leaving his navy to be massacred; his soldiers transfer their allegiance to Caesar. Antonius goes to live in misanthropic seclusion, madly taking on the name and identity of Timon of Athens. Cleopatra offers Caesar gold to keep herself and her dynasty on the Egyptian throne. Caesar wants the gold, but also wants to display her at his triumph; but, knowing that she will never allow herself to be humiliated, he decides on a ruse. Meanwhile, Cleopatra investigates suicide methods, only to be told that there is no chemical poison which is both fast-acting and painless: her only option is the bite of an asp. She tests the claim on two condemned prisoners, administering the asp to one; when it does indeed appear to be a tranquil death, the other man is spared. Antonius is brought back to his senses by the news of his army's defection, and prepares to return to Cleopatra.…
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.…
Apollo Shroving
Hawkins, William · 1627 · Comedy
The people are summoned to do Shrovetide homage to Apollo and'present any grievances they may have; it is rumoured that many will be indicted for encroaching on the god’s prerogative, Novice gets himself enrolled in Compliment’s school of etiquette, which is currently fashionable. Compliment hopes to be granted a licence to run his school, and asks Lauriger to intercede with Apollo to that end. He tries to cheat his rich pupil Jingle, who ===== PAGE 261 ===== LGo2y. pays monthly fees, by reckoning a month as four weeks, so that there are thirteen months in the year. At Apollo’s court, Compliment is launched into the air with fireworks, and his page Implement is sentenced to a year repairing damaged school books. Jingle is sentenced to spend all his inheritance on bodily pleasure, leaving him with nothing to live on in his old age. Novice is simply sent back to school. Amphibius is in love after receiving an amorous letter from Queen Hedone, delivered by Siren, but his friend Philoponus points out that the address is in a different handwriting from the letter: it is a forgery. In fact, Siren is tempting many votaries of Apollo to apostasy. She also attempts to seduce Lauriger into devotion to Hedone, but he resists her alluring song. At the court, Siren is exposed as an ugly monster. For overestimating his academic abilities, Retro was awarded a three-year penance of only being able to speak backwards. His father seeks Apollo’s clemency, and it is granted. Ludio, who prefers…
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…
The Great Duke of Florence
Massinger, Philip · 1627 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
The Great Duke -Gosimo, a childless widower, rejects his courtiers suggestion that he should marry his: ward Fiorinda. His: nephew Giovanni; who-has been educated by Carolo in the country, is recalled to court and adopted as his heir. Giovanni's main regret is that he must-leave Lydia, Carolo’s daughter, so he asks Fiorinda to bring her to court as a lady-in-waiting. Fiorinda asks that, in-return, he intercede. with the Duke to stop sending his favounte, Sannazaro, to war; she is attracted to ‘him, though he seems ‘not to notice. Cosinio announces his intention that Giovanni should marry Fiorinda and, hearing of his interest in Lydia, sends Sannazare to investigate. Sannazaro completes the love-quadrangle by becoming enamoured of Lydia himself. - Sannazaro infers that Cosimo is considering Lydia asa bride, which puts him in a quandary; ifhe faithfully reports his estimation of Lydia’s beauty, he will lose his own: chance: of having her. He tries to persuade Giovanni that it-would-be a bad thing for Cosimo to remarry and disinherit hini by begetting a son, but Giovanni is only concerned that Cosimo might deprive him of Lydia. They both talk down Lydia's beauty in order to dampen Cosimo’s imagined ardour. Then Fiorinda asks Cosinio's permission to introduce Lyxlia to her court, citing Giovanni's recommendation. ===== PAGE 274 ===== Realizing he has been deceived, Cosimo visits Carolo’s home. Giovanni writes to give Lydia advance warning of what he understands to be Cosimo’s…
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.…
Albovine, King of the Lombards
Davenant, William · 1628 · Tragedy · Unacted
Before the start of the action, King Albovine killed a vanquished king and took his daughter Rhodolinda prisoner; another prisoner of war, Paradine, has risen to be his favourite. Albovine marries Rhodolinda, but at the wedding banquet he drunkenly forces her to drink from a cup made of her father’s skull. She responds by refusing to consummate the marriage. Hermegild, who has a grudge against Paradine, encourages Albovine to make advances to Paradine’s wife, Valdaura, but then arranges for Rhodolinda to witness the encounter and tells her that Albovine is promiscuous. She swears revenge and promises to take Hermegild as her second husband if he will help her. Valdaura spends every night away from her nuptial bed, claiming that Rhodolinda requires her overnight attendance. A court lady, Thesina, offers to arrange an opportunity for the frustrated Paradine to sleep with his own wife. The following morning, however, he learns that his nocturnal partner was Rhodolinda. She tells hirn of Valdaura’s adultery and demands that he ki}} Albovine, or be denounced as a rapist. Hermegild sees to it that Valdaura eavesdrops on the meeting, arouses her jealousy, and gives her a slow-acting poison with which to kill her husband; his plan is to ensure that Paradine kills Albovine before the poison takes effect. Yaidaura pretends to adetintster the poison and goads Paradine into killing her; but she dies affirming that the pyisoning was only a bluff. At Hermiegild’s instigation. Paradine |is…
The Northern Lass
Brome, Richard · 1629 · Comedy · King's Men · Blackfriars;Globe;Indoor Professional;Outdoor Professional
Against the advice of his kinsman Triedwell, Sir Philip Luckless has contracted to marry Mistress Fitchew, a rich lawyer’s widow. He has second thoughts when he meets his future brother-in-law, the idiot Widgeon, and realizes that he may have allied himself to bad stock. Mistress Trainwell comes to remind him that he is already committed to marry the northern lass Constance, but he is unco-operative, calling Constance a whore and Trainwell a bawd. It later emerges that Constance sent Trainwell in the naive belief that a kiss from Luckless at a fleeting encounter was a binding offer of marriage. Triedwell attempts to save Luckless by dissuading Fitchew from the match. His arguments about the discontents of wifely obedience make no headway: Fitchew has already had her own dominance written into the marriage contract. Moreover, Triedwell falls 1629 in love with her himself. Fitchew suspects Luckless is trying to wriggle out of his obligations. When Luckless proposes having the marriage solemnized early, she takes it to be a bluff, and calls it; by that evening, they are married. They are presented with a wedding masque of forsaken lovers; Triedwell wears the willow for Fitchew and Constance for Luckless. This so offends Fitchew that she refuses to sleep with her new husband; Luckless regrets his hasty marriage. Constance falls into a melancholy over her lost love. Her uncle, the justice Sir Paul Squelch, tries to induce her to marry Nonsense, but she sees through an attempt to…
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 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 Just Italian
Davenant, William · 1629 · Tragicomedy · King's Men · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
A few months ago, Altamont married Alteza against the wishes of her uncle, the Duke. She brought a handsome dowry with her, and expects to be the dominant partner in the marriage; in turn, he finds her rebellious, proud, and prodigal, and determines to tame her. Now it is clear that the marriage has broken down, she refuses him access to her bed and proposes to divide the house between them: they will be. in effect, next-door neighbours rather than husband and wife. Altamont tries to discipline his wite by pretending to take a mistress (impersonated by his sister Scoperta'. but Alteza openly receives a lover. the rake Scialte:. However, she savs he must wait for sex and leaves him alone in the house to amuse himself. Wandetinyg around the house, he encounters Scoperta and courts her under the eavesdropping ears of Altamant: she agrees to go away with him if his intentions ware honourable. Once Alteza ts ready to entertamn Scrotte, he is no longer interested in her and is giving up the libertine life. Alteza is reconciled with her husband ond asks him to kill Sciolto. By a ruse, Altamont pets Scoperta to adnut that ste is a willing object of Sciolto’s attentions. He locks her up, and his men seize Sciolte as he scales Che en tora wall for the elopement. Altarmont and Scrolte heb a duel; Sciolto is beaten, but Altamont is wounded in the chest. Alteza is told that he is dead. and giver the power to pass sentence on Sciolta and Scoperta as tin people responsible; she orders them…
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…
Love's Cruelty
Shirley, James · 1631 · Tragedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Hippolito has decided to avoid seeing his friend Bellamente’s fiancée Clariana before they are married, for fear that he will fall in love with her. On learning this, Clariana pays him a visit, without revealing her identity, and he woos her. The session is interrupted by a summons from the Duke, so Hippotite leaves Clariana in his room, locking the door behind him. The Duke’s business turns out to take longer than anticipated: he has brought the virgin Eubella to court to be his mistress, but, despite bestowing promotien: on her father Sebastian, he cannot persuade Rubella into bed, and wants Hippolito to do the jab ter him. Hippolito asks Bellamente to go and release the unnamed gentlewoman from his unsuccessfully attempts his blandishments on Bubs Meanwhile, Bellamente is dismayed to find dit bh: friend’s visitor was Clariana; she argues coyenth thet her visit was innocent curiasity. but decides to make sure of her by advanciny the dete their wedding. , Having seen Clariana, Hippolite: talix fur her ia he expected. Bellamente’s servant discevers thet i + locked room together and, iooking threuuh os oralt the wall, sees them having sex. Puid «4 the on Bellamente swears revenge and catuhe: thera ten in bed. He forces Hippolito inte the Gosct ani oa orders Clariana to tidy the bed. and thes --2 the servant and rebukes him te: Released from his hiding-place. Hipruiies.: Bellamente to be a true Italien amd biit si Bellamente cannot bring himiselt tc: declares that he will…
The Emperor of the East
Massinger, Philip · 1631 · Tragicomedy · King's Men · Blackfriars;Globe;Indoor Professional;Outdoor Professional
Paulinus agrees to introduce Athenais at court: she wants to petition the virtuous Protectress Pulcheria after being cheated of her inheritance by her brothers. Pulcheria adopts her as a handmaiden and arranges for her to be converted to Christianity; she also catches-the eye of the Emperor, Theodosius. Urged by his eunuchs, Theodosius declares that his minority is at an end, and takes the reins of power from Pulcheria. She encouragés him to marry, but when he refuses the two diplomatic offers which are under consideration, she presents a third option: Athenais, whom he had been thinking of all along. The eunuchs suspect a stratagem to enable Puicheria to hang onte power by proxy. Theodosius disregards their warnings and insists on marrying as soon as Athenais has been baptised, which also entails her taking 2 new name, Eudoxia. He celebrates the wedding with extravagant largesse. Pulcheria asks the new Empress to use her influence to discourage her husband from prodigality, but Eudoxia contemptuously refuses. Theodosius grants Pulcheria a boon, and he seals it without troubling to find out what it contains. [t turns out to be a deed of gift, conferring ownership of Eudoxia. Pulcheria uses this to teach them beth a lesson, Eudoxia about pride and Theedosius about the dangers of being unwisely bountiful; she then destroys the deed and gives Theodosius back his wife. A countryman presents Theodosius with the gitt of a splendid apple. He in turn sends it to Eudoxia, whe in turn…
The Ball
Shirley, James · 1632 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Lord Rainbow is to hold a ball. Ladies practise their dancing, coached by Monsieur La Frisk, and engage in amours. Lucina has four suitors whom she teases with the prospect of marriage. She plans to see each of them in turn, but unknown to her, her servant Scutilla conceals one of them, Colonel Winfield, in her room, and he witnesses her scornful treatment of his rivals: Sir Marmaduke is mocked for his money-making schemes, Sir Ambrose for his baldness, and Bostock, who habitually boasts of his imagined kinship with noblemen, is told she will only marry a commoner—which induces him to suggest that he may be illegitimate, and therefore eligible after all. The Colonel takes a more masterful line with her at his meeting. He then suggests to the other insulted suitors that they go back and treat her with contempt. Bostock nominates himself the spokesman, and is duly rude to her, whereupon the Colonel steps in to defend her honour. She agrees to marry him, on condition that he proves himself to be a virgin; he infers another jeer on her part, and takes offence. She is in earnest, however. She tests the Colonel’s fidelity by telling him that he will be taking on her debts and children (both imaginary) and that he will have to live in the country; when he is undaunted, she accepts him. In another plot, before leaving on a journey to Venice, Freshwater sold his land and laid out money to be paid back fivefold on his safe return. When he gets back, the men who took his money seem…
Changes, or Love in a Maze
Shirley, James · 1632 · Comedy · King's Revels Company (?); Prince Charles's Men (second) (?) · Salisbury Court;Indoor Professional
Goldsworth’s twin daughters, Chrysolina and Aurelia, are daily courted by numerous suitors, including the foolish knight Simple, whom Mistress Goldsworth favours for his title, and the would-be poet Caperwit. Both girls favour the same suitor, Gerard, but with selfless sisterly affection, each wants the other to have him. Gerard comes under pressure to choose between them, not only from Goldsworth but also from his friend Thornay, who wants to woo whichever one he leaves; but, loving them equally, he cannot decide. Thornay decides to seize the initiative and woos Chrysolina (who consequently thinks him disloyal to Gerard), then misleads Gerard into thinking that she has reciprocated and that he should concentrate on Aurelia. But Chrysolina is offended by Gerard’s sudden neglect, and Aurelia takes it as a sign of his fickleness, and refuses him. She also rejects Simple’s suit, but her attempts to be polite about it to her mother are misconstrued, and Mistress Goldsworth sets about making wedding plans. Sir John Woodhamore keeps his niece Eugenia inside, away from the world and its temptations, while he seeks a husband worthy of her; he has decided on Youngrave. When Youngrave is left alone to woo her, however, she asks him to carry a letter to Thornay, the man she loves. Thornay protests that he isn’t interested: he loves Chrysolina. To get her own back on Gerard, Chrysolina pretends to return Thornay’s love; but she is upset to hear that he has rejected Eugenia, and sends…
The Gamester
Shirley, James · 1633 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Wilding is sexually uninterested in his wife, but propositions her ward, Penelope, with the promise that afterwards he will find her a husband. Penelope agrees to sex with him only if Mistress Wilding consents, so Wilding duly asks his wife. Mistress Wilding encourages Penelope to agree—in order to facilitate a plot. Penelope insists on a midnight assignation: Wilding is to come in the dark and neither of them shall speak during the encounter. The plan is for Mistress Wilding to take Penelope’s place. When the evening comes, however, Wilding is more interested in a gambling event at an ordinary, and sends Hazard to sleep with Penelope in his place; but after losing his money in the game, he envies Hazard his more pleasurable night. Then Mistress Wilding tells him of the substitution, and he is tormented with the thought of being a cuckold, until he realizes that Hazard still thinks he slept with Penelope. He puts it to Hazard that they should marry, but Hazard is unwilling, until he hears of Penelope’s £2,000 estate. He woos and marries her, then tells Wilding that the earlier assignation did not go as expected: both Mistress Wilding and Penelope were there, armed with a light and planning to rebuke Wilding for his lechery. No sex took place, and so Wilding is no cuckold. In the second plot, the friends Delamore and Beaumont fall out in a drunken argument about their respective girlfriends, Leonora and Violante, and Beaumont wounds Delamore. One man is taken to a surgeon,…
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…
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…
The Shepherds' Holiday
Rutter, Joseph · 1634 · Pastoral · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · before the Court;Whitehall;
Thyrsis, who was found by Montanus as a baby with a mysterious inscribed circlet around his neck, is distraught. He left his girlfriend Sylvia in a grove, and she has disappeared; he self-reproachfully worries that she has been raped by a passing satyr, and neglects his flocks. The oracle of Apollo reassures him that he will get her back, but only when they cease to be Thyrsis and Sylvia. Sylvia is really the Princess, Calligone. She fell in love with Thyrsis when the shepherds last came to court with some musical entertainment, and went into the country in pastoral disguise to be with him; she was also hoping to escape the amorous attentions of Cleander, but he found her in the grove and took her home. Her father, Euarchus, suspects the reason she absconded, and summons the shepherds to perform at court again, in the hope of identifying one of them as her lover. They prepare a masque. Cleander is warned off Calligone by his father, Eubulus. Before she was born, the oracle foretold that King Euarchus would see his only son after having a child who is not really his own, that he would twice condemn that son to death, and that the son would marry Euarchus’ daughter. The King took this to mean that, should the pregnant Queen produce a baby boy, it would be a bastard, so he ordered Eubulus to have the infant killed if male. When the child was indeed a boy, Eubulus plotted with the Queen to swap it for his own new-born daughter, who grew up to be Calligone. He then left the baby…
The Opportunity
Shirley, James · 1634 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Arriving in Urbino for the first time, Aurelio is surprised to find the inhabitants greeting him as a long-lost friend. It turns out that he looks identical to Borgia, who had been banished for killing the brother of Ursini, a court favourite. Accepted by Borgia’s father Mercutio, he seizes his opportunity and steps into his alter-ego’s shoes. They are summoned to court, where Ursini, in love with Borgia’s sister Cornelia, has procured a pardon for Borgia in order to gain the family’s favour. Complications arise when Aurelio falls in love with Cornelia himself, while the Duchess falls in love with him and appoints him her secretary. Aurelio decides to keep his options open, maintains his assumed identity, and pursues both ladies, circumventing any suspicion of incest by telling Cornelia that he is acting on Aurelio’s behalf: Aurelio fell for her on seeing her picture, he says, and engaged him to woo her. Other suitors have come to woo the Duchess, including the Duke of Ferrara, posing as his own ambassador; he takes offence at the favours shown to ‘Borgia’. There is a mix-up in the dark: posing as the Duchess, Cornelia tells ‘Borgia’ that she will marry Ferrara; then the Duchess arrives; ‘Borgia’ takes her for Cornelia, and, on hearing she is to marry Ursini, admits his true identity. Having overheard Cornelia’s comments, Ferrara arrives in Urbino in his own person to claim the Duchess as his bride, but she denies ever promising herself to him. Aurelio’s servant Pimponio…
The Late Lancashire Witches
Heywood, Thomas; Brome, Richard · 1634 · Comedy · King's Men · Globe;Outdoor Professional
Arthur hopes for a subvention from his uncle, Seely, to help him redeem a mortgage, but strange things are going on in the Seely household: the father is dominated by the son, Gregory, who is mastered in turn by his servant, Lawrence; there is a similar inversion of hierarchy among the women of the house. Gregory disapproves of his father’s plans to help Arthur, so the money is not forthcoming; but fortunately Arthur’s friend Generous helps out instead. The truth is that the Seelys have been bewitched in reprisal for some harsh words spoken to an old woman. Many other supernatural events are going on. Mall Spencer, owner of an amazing self-propelled milk-pail, gives Generous’s groom Roberta a high-speed horse so that he can fetch wine from his master’s favourite London tavern in a single overnight journey. Anyone who spends the night in a haunted mill is assaulted, so Gretty the miller gives up his tenancy, and Generous gives it to a poor, demobilized soldier. A witch and her spirit take the form of greyhounds; when Gretty’s son tries to whip the dogs, they scare and then abduct him. Lawrence marries his fellow servant Parnell, but a spirit turns the wedding cake into crumbs, and the rest of the meal magically becomes even less appetizing; the real food is taken to supply the witches’ feast. Mall Spencer gives Lawrence a codpiece point, which makes him impotent, causing marital difficulties. He and Parnell are mocked with a skimmington, but the relationship returns to normal…
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 Conspiracy (Pallantus and Eudora)
Killigrew, Henry · 1635 · Tragedy · King's Men
Two foreign princes arrive on Crete after a storm. One is Clearchus, who is finding an excuse to land with a shipful of troops which he intends to use to rescue the Princess Hianthe from a forced marriage to the usurping King’s son, Timeus. The other is Pallantus, whose ship has been wrecked. Afterwards he discovers that this was a lucky escape: Timeus suborned the sailors to kill him. He disguises himself as a soldier and both he and Clearchus fall in with a group of courtiers who are conspiring to restore the rightful King, Cleander, to the throne. (Cleander disappeared in infancy when the present King seized power sixteen years ago, and was wrongly presumed murdered.) Timeus learns of the plot, but open rebellion breaks out before he can do anything about it: Clearchus’ troops storm the city, Hianthe is rescued, and Pallantus kills the usurping King. In the ensuing sack, Pallantus encounters the Princess Eudora, the King’s daughter, and falls in love with her. He later returns to her in his own person, and counters her objections to him as her father’s killer by producing the evidence that Timeus attempted to have him murdered. Meanwhile, Timeus and his associates take refuge in the fort. Pallantus is sent to parley with them, and succeeds in persuading him to abandon villainy and accept Cleander’s mercy. Timeus and Eudora are reunited, and Timeus shows remorse for the attempted murder of Pallantus. Eudora agrees to marry Pallantus, and the dead King is cremated.
The Coronation
Shirley, James · 1635 · Tragicomedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
When King Theodosius seized power in Epirus, he agreed to make his opponent Cassander the next heir should he himself die without issue. Now his daughter Sophia is Queen and Cassander the Lord Protector during her minority. She appears to favour Cassander’s son Lysimachus as a potential husband, but this is only a stratagem to secure Cassander’s support for her forthcoming installation as Queen regnant. Wishing to find a legitimate way of killing Arcadius, Seleucus proposes settling a family feud by single combat with themselves acting as champions. Sophia agrees, and schedules the fight immediately after her coronation; but the two heads of the families disapprove and prevent it by announcing that they have settled their differences. Sophia now declares her choice of husband: not Lysimachus as expected, but Arcadius. Arcadius accepts, even though he has sworn a vow of constancy to Polydora. Seleucus is imprisoned when he protests, and the disappointed Cassander plots treachery. Macarius, Arcadius’ uncle, produces documentary evidence that the proposed marriage would be incestuous: Arcadius is really Sophia’s brother, Demetrius, Theodosius’ younger son, who was bestowed on Macarius in infancy for fear of Cassander’s ambition; his claim to the throne is therefore better than Sophia’s. He and Sophia both try to reactivate their former relationships, but Polydora and Lysimachus are both less than compliant. Cassander plans to pull off the same trick twice: he arranges Seleucus’…
The Royal Slave
Cartwright, William · 1636 · Tragicomedy · King's Men · before the Court;at University;
Five Greeks are taken prisoner by the Persians after a war with Ephesus. According to a local custom, one of these slaves must be given royal power for three days, but then killed as an offering to the sun god. Cratander, who denies the efficacy of human sacrifice, is selected, and has his fellow captives released to serve him at court. Cratander takes his royal responsibilities seriously. The lords fear that he will use his power to harm the state, and offer him the sensual pleasures of kingship, but he refuses to be distracted. Atossa, the Queen, is impressed by his self-control, and gives him a chain, exciting the jealousy of her husband, King Arsamnes. The other Greeks, however, enjoy a bibulous, lascivious good time, and are only prevented from raping Atossa’s women by the chance arrival of Cratander. Fearing further attempts, the women of Sardis take refuge in the castle. Two members of the Ephesian army who are still at liberty take the risk of coming to see Cratander at the palace. They ask him to use his power to send the Persian army back to war, with the intention that they will be massacred by the forewarned Ephesians. Cratander conscientiously refuses, but asks the Ephesian army to rendezvous with him at the castle. His plan is to allow them to be defeated in battle, but have Atossa intervene with her husband to spare them and free Ephesus. The other Greeks plan to ambush Cratander in the woods, disguised as beggars; but he recognizes them and sends them back to…
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…
Hannibal and Scipio
1637 · Tragedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
rebukes them, but finds himself attracted to one of the A MESSENGER, who brings news from Spain (1.5) local ladies. News from Spain snaps him out of it: BOMILCAR, Hannibal's kinsman Scipio has taken several Carthaginian cities. He decides SYPHAX, King of Numidia, a young, unmarried man; to attack Rome, but is recalled to Carthage before he later Sophonisba's first husband can do so. Carthage has recently lost an African ally, Masinissa, who has been wooed to the side of Rome. In an effort to counterbalance him, Hannibal goes to Numidia to seek an alliance with its king, Syphax. He also finds Scipio there, and suspects Syphax of treachery, but makes the offer anyway: Syphax's military support in return for marriage to Sophonisba, who was previously promised to Masinissa. The lady herself is reluctantshe still loves Masinissa and thinks herself above a petty king like Syphax-but Syphax is agreeable and the marriage goes ahead. The alliance does not help the Carthaginians: Masinissa defeats Syphax's forces in battle, takes Sophonisba prisoner, and marries her (even though Syphax, her husband, is still alive). Scipio wants her to be sent to Rome, but she takes poison rather than be handed over. Hannibal meets with Scipio and offers him a peace, but Scipio refuses, and Hannibal is routed in the ensuing battle. When he returns to Carthage, the Senate rebukes him for initiating unauthorized peace negotiations, and also suspects him of attempting to set himself up as a king. He…
Tottenham Court
1638 · Comedy · Prince Charles's Men (second) (?); King's Revels Company (?) · Salisbury Court;Indoor Professional
Worthgood and Bellamie intend to marry, and have absconded to London with her uncle in pursuit. Bellamie is separated from Worthgood in Marylebone Park. She meets the censorious Cicely, and faints when Cicely voices her suspicions of sexual impropriety. She dreams that she will have Worthgood that very day, and is revived by Cicely's father, the park-keeper, who takes her home and seems interested in the name Worthgood. Worthgood meets the keeper, who promises to reunite him with Bellamie; but she and Cicely have already left for London, exchanging clothes to deceive any pursuers. Worthgood and the keeper follow them. Bellamie and Cicely arrive at an alehouse in Tottenham Court. Bellamie unexpectedly meets her brother, Sam, but denies her identity when recognizes her; he infers that she has become a common prostitute. Also at the alehouse is Cicely's unwanted admirer, Frank, who intends to seduce the tailor's wife, Mistress Stitchwell, and has piqued her interest by posing as a misogynist. Mistress Stitchwell intends to cuckold her husband in his presence, but the first attempt backfires: alone in the alehouse bathroom with her, Frank's friend George hides in the tub when Stitchwell arrives, and has water poured over him. Sam's friend James visits Cicely, thinking her a prostitute too, but hides in a trunk when others arrive. Importuned by Frank, Cicely proposes having herself smuggled to his room in the trunk; she and Bellamie then send it there, with the sleeping James…
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.
The Bride
1640 · Comedy · Beeston's Boys · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Wit is charged by his father to woo and marry Wisdom, or lose his inheritance, Ignorance sends her son Idleness to mislead him. Posing as Honest Recreation, he introduces Wit to Wantonness, who gives him a fool's headdress and steals his money. Good Nurture restores him to sense and introduces him to the true Honest Recreation, whom Wit finds boring. Two sailors blindfold Idleness and rob him of the money he stole from Wit. Wit rescues Idleness and fights Irksomeness, who leaves him for dead. Wisdom revives him and promises to be his lady if he will kill Irksomeness. She gives him a sword, Perseverance, which he uses to behead the monster. Idleness is proclaimed an outlaw, and is arrested after he steals Mother Bee’s porridge pot while Doll and Lob are kissing in the barn. Wit falls into Fancy’s clutches and is imprisoned. Good Nurture releases him and takes him to be married to Wisdom. Idleness also intends to go to the wedding, disguised as a priest.
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…