Tokens that look like proper names in this list (e.g. massinissa, faukenbridge) are residue of incomplete name-masking, not register — a second masking pass is pending (PROVENANCE_LOG §7.3).
×lift = share of this cluster's members with the facet ÷ the same share over all 6,466 clustered characters (only facets carried by ≥5 members, lift ≥ 1.2, top 5 shown; authors ≥4). Raw counts are in the collapsed list below.
Shown for the prototype, typical, and familiar
members above — passages containing the cluster's distinguishing words (highlighted).
Plot summaries for the 173 plays represented
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.
Damon and Pithias
Edwards, Richard · 1564 · Comedy · Children of the Chapel (first) (Oxford's Boys) · before the Court;
Damon and Pythias, close friends since their schooldays, arrive in Syracuse, only to discover that the ruler, Dionysius, is a tyrant given to executing his subjects for trivial reasons, and whose court is a magnet for mercenary men. Eager to cement his position there, the parasite Carisophus tries to trap Damon into indiscreet talk, then seizes on his tourist’s interest in the city as a pretext to brand him a spy. Damon is arrested and condemned to death. Pythias seeks the help of the philosopher courtier Aristippus, who refers him to Eubulus, whose advice has already been rejected by Dionysius. Eubulus argues that kings should inspire their subjects’ love, but Dionysius is convinced that terror is the only effective instrument of rule, and orders the execution to proceed. Damon asks for leave to return to Greece to put his affairs in order, with the promise that he will then return to face his death. Dionysius will not accept his word of honour, so Pythias offers himself as pledge. He is imprisoned and Damon released. Dionysius grows more suspicious, to the extent that he will allow only his own daughters to shave him. Two pages induce Grim the collier to pass on the common talk about the Damon case and the court in general. When he expresses interest in being shaved by the King’s daughters, the pages offer to do it in the same style, and take the opportunity to rob him. The day of Pythias’s execution approaches, and Damon has not returned. Carisophus falls from favour…
The Interlude of Vice (Orestes)
Pickering, John · 1567 · Tragedy
The Vice (who gives several aliases but eventually reveals his name as Revenge) is sent by the gods to incite Orestes to avenge his father's murder. Orestes is living in exile in Crete under the protection of King Idumeus, who grants him permission to return home and supplies a thousand-strong army. Nature tries to dissuade Orestes from matricide. He lays siege to Mycenae, forcing Clytemnestra and Aegisthus to leave their life of sexual dalliance and give battle. After Orestes' ultimatum is answered disdainfully, he conquers the city, hangs Aegisthus, and orders his mother's death. In consequence, ill fame attends him, and Menelaus, his uncle, demands revenge in turn on him.
The Most Virtuous and Godly Susanna
Garter, Thomas · 1569 · Moral
Satan commissions Ill Report to bring about the downfall of Susanna, a paragon of virtue. Since pride, gluttony, envy, sloth, and covetousness have failed to achieve this, Ill Report decides to use lust. He selects the elders Voluptas and Sensualitas as his instruments of temptation, and they are tempted in turn when they see Susanna. Susanna’s husband Joachim leaves to inspect his realm, leaving the elders to administer justice in his absence. The elders spy on Susanna as she bathes in her orchard after dinner, and proposition her for sex. When she refuses, they slander her with whoredom. Meanwhile Joachim discovers that the elders are corrupt and hated by the people. The elders’ perjured testimony ensures that Susanna is sentenced to death, but God intervenes, sending Daniel to reveal the truth. The elders are stoned, and die penitent. Ill Report is hanged, and a frustrated Satan arrives to carry him to hell and tormenters for his failure. Susanna and her family count their blessings.
The Conflict of Conscience
Woodes, Nathaniel · 1572 · Moral
Satan, concerned about the spread of godliness on Earth, procures Hypocrisy, Tyranny, and Avarice to counteract it by propagating vice through the Roman Catholic church. Philologus and Mathetes discuss the danger to Protestantism, and conclude that worldly torments are sent by God to test men’s faith. After arguing about their mutual precedence, the vices resolve to help the papal legation, and adopt innocuous aliases. Tyranny is commissioned as an inquisitor to hunt heretics, while Avarice accepts their bribes to save them from arrest. Caconos alerts the vices to the heresies of Philologus, who is arrested and tried by the Cardinal in consistory court. He is examined on the topics of papal authority and transubstantiation, and found guilty. His property is confiscated and his family’s distress used to put psychological pressure on him; he is also threatened with imprisonment, torture, and execution, but promised money and power if he recants. He does, persuaded by the glass of vanity given by Sensual Suggestion. Spirit and Conscience call on Philologus to renounce his apostasy and embrace martyrdom, but he rejects them. In prosperity, he is visited by Horror, who torments him with the knowledge of his own damnation. Theologus and Eusebius urge the continuing availability of God’s grace, but Philologus blasphemes and curses God. Despairing of salvation, he hangs himself. (In the B-text, he is given grace to repent at the last moment.)
Abraham's Sacrifice
Golding, Arthur, trans.; Beza, Theodore · 1575 · Biblical
In their old age, Abraham and Sara have been blessed with a son, Isaac. They show concern for his proper upbringing and give thanks for God’s mercy. However, Satan has designs on Abraham’s soul. An angel brings Abraham God’s command to sacrifice Isaac, and, despite Sara’s reluctance, he sets out with his shepherds on the three-day journey to the place of sacrifice. Satan rejoices at a situation in which he cannot lose: either Isaac will die, thus removing a long-term threat, or Abraham will disobey God and be damned. As they approach the appointed place, Abraham leaves the shepherds and goes on alone with Isaac. On arrival, Isaac is puzzled by the absence of any sacrificial offering. Abraham struggles with himself. Can he trust the angel? Since God has told him that Isaac will be father to a far-flung race of people, will the sacrifice negate a prophecy? He becomes resolute, and confronts Isaac with the knife. The child begs for mercy, but submits himself to God’s will and is bound. As Abraham is about to strike, the angel stops him: he has proven his love for God, and is given a sheep as an alternative offering, and the promise of divine favour in times to come.
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.
1 Promos and Cassandra
Whetstone, George · 1578 · Comedy · Unacted
The King of Hungary appoints Lord Promos as his deputy in the city of Gyula. Believing in the efficacy of judicial severity, Promos re-enacts legislation against promiscuity. The brothel business instantly goes from prosperity to disaster, and Cassandra’s brother, Andrugio, who has had premarital sex with Polina, is condemned to death. Cassandra pleads with Promos, and, attracted to her, he grants a temporary stay of execution to allow her to plead further, At this meeting, ===== PAGE 167 ===== 1577 he offers her a reprieve in return for her love: the price of her brother's life is her participation in the very crime for which he was condemned, She refuses, but he gives her two days to think about it; if she changes her mind, she is to come to court at night dressed as a page. When she visits her brother to tell him to prepare for death, they dispute which is the lesser of two evils, and he persuades her to submit to Promos. Phallax, Promos’s corrupt deputy, is busy making himself rich by taking bribes. His accomplices bring in the courtesan Lamia, but he dismisses them and tries to seduce her. She invites him to her house the following night. Lamia can now live with impunity, and her servants lay in food to entertain Phallax. Grimball is keen to seduce Dalia, the maid, but when he goes to clean himself up, Rosko arranges for him to be robbed while being barbered. Cassandra submits to sex with Promos, but not before extracting from him a promise of marriage. Promos…
2 Promos and Cassandra
Whetstone, George · 1578 · Comedy · Unacted
Alerted by the raped @assandra, King @6nihGs is coming to Gyula to investigate the activities of his deputy, Lord Promos. PHalaX has to organize the city’s dramatic welcome at short notice. The King makes his royal entry, but refuses the town’s gift of a purse. Sir WIFIES is appointed and proclaimed as the ombudsman to investigate allegations of official corruption, pending a hearing before the King. The complaints flood in, and promoters take the opportunity to extort money with the threat of arrest. At the hearing, Phallax is accused of extortion, and confesses; his goods are seized and he is forced to resign his office, but his admission saves him from other punishment. Then Cassandra discloses Promos’s treachery in raping her and murdering her brother. Promos confesses, and the King sentences him to death, but requires him to marry Cassandra first. Vice is suppressed in Gyula: Baila the courtesan is arrested and carted, and Phallax leaves town in search of easier pickings. AaTuBIG has been living in the forest. Told of recent events by John A@roynes, he returns to the town in disguise, where he witnesses Cassandra’s pleas for her new husband’s life. Promos is led to execution, but is reprieved when Andrugio reveals himself to the King. Promos and Andrugio are pardoned, and Andrugio required to marry P6lifia. Promos is restored to office, with a warning to act justly and beware his subordinates’ corruption.
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…
Campaspe (Alexander, Campaspe, and Diogenes)
Lyly, John · 1583 · Comedy · Children of the Chapel (first) (Oxford's Boys) · before the Court;
King Alexander has conquered Thebes and brought its captives to Athens, where he means to spend a peaceful interlude with the philosophers. Mo~t 1.:on 1 e and debate for him, but Diogenes churlishly refu:;t:"s to comply. Alexander becomes enamoured of Campaspe, and has her painted by Apelles, who himself falls in love with her. Knowing he must not challenge Alexander in love, he creates an excuse to see her again by blemishing the painting so that a second sitting is needed. Diogenes sends his servant to draw a crowd with a report that he will fly, but it is only a pretext to rail at them. Using a false report of a fire in Apelles' shop, Alexander tricks the painter into revealing his feelings for Campaspe, and, establishing that she reciprocates them, graciously withdraws his suit and allows them to marry. Having subdued his own amorous feelings, he will now go to war with Persia and conquer the world.
Fedele and Fortunia (Two Italian Gentlemen)
Munday, Anthony, trans. (?); Pasqualigo, Luigi · 1584 · Comedy · Children of the Chapel (first) (Oxford's Boys) · before the Court;
Bedelé and Bortunid, rivals for the affections of WWictoria, are both melancholy for love. Victoria once favoured Fedele, who still loves her; but he has been away, and she now loves Fortunio instead. A third would-be suitor is @aptain§@rmekstenée, whom Fortunio has asked for help. Fedele in turn is loved by Mirginia, his original love whom he jilted when he fell for Victoria. Victoria seeks M@@USA’s magical help to compel Fortunio’s love. Both Fedele and Crackstone see her going to raise spirits at night. They throw candles into a tomb, but Crackstone has hidden inside it; his emergence convinces them that they have raised the devil, and they run away, leaving behind a wax image which was to be used in the spell. Crackstone sends the incriminating image to Fedele, who confronts Victoria and tells Fortunio everything. Victoria engages Crackstone to kill Fedele. Meanwhile P@danté has been promoting Fedele’s cause through Victoria’s maid, Alttilia, and has fallen in love with her. He visits Victoria’s house disguised as a beggar. Fedele shows this to Fortunio, convincing him that Victoria has a lover. Attilia leaks the murder plot to Pedante, who tells Fedele. Crackstone pretends to kill Fedele, fighting with the air, with the intention of telling Victoria that he is dead and marrying her before she discovers the truth. However, Fedele catches him in a net, and Victoria mocks him and pours urine over him. Crackstone swears revenge, and Pedante offers to help; but for his part…
Gallathea
Lyly, John · 1585 · Comedy · Children of Paul's (first) (?) · before the Court;
Every five years, Lincolnshire’s fairest and chastest virgin is sacrificed to N&@ptumé; this ancient custom keeps the land safe from the monster Agat. The fathers of Galatea and PHyllidd independently attempt to preserve their respective daughters from selection for sacrifice by disguising her as a boy and sending her to hide in the woods. They meet: each takes the other for the boy she seems, and falls in love with ‘him’. Meanwhile, to make mischief among Diana’s nymphs, @upid cross-dresses too and gives them all amorous thoughts about the two disguised girls; but Galatea and Phyllida reject them all, each preferring the other. Cupid is captured, and set fiddly tasks by way of punishment. The day of the sacrifice arrives. M@be, the most suitable remaining virgin, is offered in sacrifice, but Neptune has seen through Galatea and Phyjllida’s disguises and will not take her; Hebe is relieved to-have survived and disappointed not to be the fairest virgin. WenGsS arrives to release her son, and appeals for Neptune’s help. He offers to discontinue the custom of sacrifice if Dia@iia will release Cupid, and, knowing it will save the lives of future virgins, Diana agrees. Galatea and Phyllida each discover the other's true gender, but Venus agrees to change one of them into a boy, but they are not to know which of them it is until they are married. In the sub-plot, three brothers are shipwrecked on the Lincolnshire coast, and seek their fortune by some other means than the sea.…
Dido, Queen of Carthage
Marlowe, Christopher; Nashe, Thomas · 1586 · Tragedy · Children of the Chapel (first) (Oxford's Boys)
JMipHEEE tries to seduce Gahiymiede] who complains of Juno’s ill usage, but succumbs when offered gifts. Meanwhile J@m6 has suborned Aeolus to wreck Aeneas’ fleet, which is carrying refugees from Troy to Italy; WEMUS seeks Jupiter’s help: Jupiter prophesies that ASHEa8 is destined to wander until he founds a new Troy in what will become Rome; but also sends Mereury to calm the seas. Separated from his fleet, Aeneas lands on the coast of north Africa and meets the disguised Venus, who encourages him to present himself at Dido’s court. The Trojans are reunited in Carthage, where Dido greets them. At her request, he recounts the fall of Troy. Venus abducts AS€amius and substitutes @apid in his shape. He makes Dido fall in love with Aeneas, and she offers to help repair his ships on condition that he remains with her in Carthage; her attentions make her suitor [aeba8 jealous. Juno attempts to kill the sleeping Ascanius, but Venus intervenes, warned by her doves. Submitting to destiny, Juno agrees to help Dido win Aeneas, and causes a storm during their hunting expedition. They shelter together in a cave, and, wooed by Dido, Aeneas promises never to leave Carthage during her lifetime. Iarbas prays for Jupiter’s help against Aeneas; AiR tries to interest him in her instead of her sister, but fails. Hermes appears to Aeneas in a dream and instructs him to leave for Italy, but Dido crowns him King of Carthage. As further insurance, she has ‘Ascanius’ taken into the country, and the…
Alphonsus, King of Aragon
Greene, Robert · 1587 · Romance · Queen Elizabeth's Men (?)
Twenty years before the action, Alphonsus’ branch of the royal family of Aragon was dispossessed of the crown through the Duke of Milan’s treachery, and banished, along with their supporters. Now, a generation later, the usurping King is making war on Naples. Alphonsus poses as a common soldier and is recruited to King Belinus’ defending army; he makes the condition that he will unconditionally own anything he wins by fighting. In battle he kills the usurping King of Aragon, and King Belinus grudgingly gives him the crown; he then claims sovereignty over Naples. After rescuing a follower from beheading by Belinus, he conquers Italy and crowns his followers. Albinius, his oldest ally, is made King of Aragon in his place, while he pursues Belinus, who has fled to the court of the Great Turk Amurack. Amurack promises Belinus military help, and summons armies from throughout his wide dominions. Encouraged by the anxious Empress Fausta, the enchantress Medea seeks supernatural information about the coming wars, and it comes in a vision to the sleeping Amurack: defeat, captivity, then release through Alphonsus’ love for his daughter Iphigina, and the expulsion of paganism. When Fausta speaks against this, she and Iphigina are banished from the court; encouraged by Medea to accept the inevitable, they go to gather their Amazon troops. The prophecy is also overheard by the god Muhammad, who withdraws his support from Amurack, but encourages his pagan allies to attack Alphonsus; when…
1 Tamburlaine the Great
Marlowe, Christopher · 1587 · Tragedy · Admiral's (Nottingham's) Men
Encouraged by a prophecy that he will one day rule Asia, Mambuarlainé robs travellers passing through Persia. He ambushes the party escorting Zénderate to her husband-to-be, purloins their treasure, and. woos her. [iferidamas is sent by Mycetés, the Persian King, to attack Tamburlaine, but Tamburlaine persuades him to switch sides with eloquent promises of wealth and power. The Persian nobles conspire to depose Mycetes in favour of his brother @GSEGE] Mycetes offers battle, and Cosroe joins forces with Tamburlaine against him. Advised by his counsellor M@amdgét Mycetes plans to beat Tamburlaine’s soldiers by laying out gold on the battlefield: they will stop fighting to pick it up, and so be massacred. The stratagem fails. Tamburlaine encounters Mycetes on the battlefield, but rejects the opportunity to steal the crown Mycetes is trying to hide: he will win it in battle instead. MIyG8tés is killed: Tamburlaing presents @6sf6e with his crown, and is created Regent of Persia; but the prospect of coronation attracts him. He betrays and kills Cosroe and makes himself king. Zenserate remains with Tamburlaine, nominally as his captive; though reputed his concubine, she grows to love him. When Ajpydaas tries to persuade her to reject Tamburlaine, the Scythian induces him to commit suicide. The Emperor of the Turks, Bajazethi leaves the siege of Constantinople to challenge Tamburlaine. He is defeated and taken captive with his wife Zabifial Tamburlaine refuses to ransom him, and…
The Spanish Tragedy (Hieronimo is Mad Again)
Kyd, Thomas · 1587 · Tragedy · Unknown
Don Andrea) Beleimiperia’s secret lover, was separated from her by the war with Portugal and killed in battle by Baltazar Now the powers of hell have promised him vengeance, and he and R@Véfige sit down to watch it worked out in the play. In the course of the action Andrea expresses mounting impatience, while Revenge makes him wait, sleeps, and finally takes control of the action. Spain wins the war and Portugal agrees to pay tribute. Balthazar has been taken prisoner, and is committed to DGFSHZO!s custody. BElAImperia is wooed by Balthazar, and the King plans to settle the succession on their issue, thereby uniting Spain and Portugal. But Bel-Imperia cannot accept her dead love's killer, and opts for MGFatiG instead. Lorenzo learns of this by suborning her servant Pédfingafio, who then assists him and Balthazar in murdering MOratio! Miéroninie finds his son’s body hanging in his arbour and swears revenge, but his wife counsels patience while heaven puts matters right. In Portugal, Willipps falsely accuses AUSXandrS of murdering Balthazar in battle. At the last moment Alexandro is saved from burning at the stake by the arrival of the Ambassador from Spain with news that Balthazar is alive. Alexandro is released and Wiliippo condemned. Béleimpera is imprisoned by DGFeHZ6) but writes Hieronimo a letter in her own blood. Fearing a trap, Hieronimo investigates, but his suspicions alert Lorenzo. PR@HigaHG is persuaded to murder his accomplice]/Sérbenine] on promise of a pardon;…
Andria (The Woman from Andros)
Kyffin, Maurice, trans.; Terence (Publius Terentius Afer) · 1588 · Comedy
Simo has given his son Pamphilus free rein upon his coming of age, in order to allow his character to develop freely; but he is alarmed to discover that he has been paying court to Glycerie, a poor young foreigner, sister to a recently dead courtesan, Chrysis. Although Simo has arranged for him to marry Philumena, the daughter of his neighbour, Chremes, the contract is cancelled when Chremes discovers the intimacy with Glycerie; but Simo intends to press ahead as if the marriage was still going to happen, so that Pamphilus’ refusal to comply may give him an opportunity to assert his paternal authority. The liaison with Glycerie is even more complicated than expected, however: she 1587 is pregnant and about to give birth to Pamphilus’ child. Charinus, who wants to marry Philumena himself, is distraught at the news that she isto marry Pamphilus, but reassured when Pamphilus admits that he doesn’t want her. The observant servant Davus notices that no wedding preparations are being made, and advises Pamphilus to call his father’s bluff by consenting to the marriage. Simo overhears Glycerie giving birth to a baby boy, but, reassured by his son’s submission, convinces himself that it is all a ruse: obviously Pamphilus and Glycerie have had a quarrel, and she is trying to get him back. Thinking it best to get Pamphilus married before such a reconciliation can take place, he persuades Chremes to withdraw his objections—which means that the wedding is now to be for real. Davus takes…
A Looking Glass for London and England
Lodge, Thomas; Greene, Robert · 1588 · Biblical Moral · Derby's (Strange's) Men
Triumphant over the King of Jerusalem, the Assyrian king Rasni declares himself divine and marries his sister, Remilia; a viceroy who objects is banished and the flatterer Radagon given his place. Inordinately proud of her beauty, Remilia is struck by lightning. Rasni is unable to revive her, and buries her in state; but is encouraged by Radagon to think of the living rather than the dead, and to take Alvida, wife of the King of Paphlagonia. When her husband objects to the adulterous liaison, she poisons him. Alvida continues to be unfaithful: her ambition attracts her to Rasni, but her sexual appetite favours the Viceroy of Cilicia, so she takes both. Thrasybulus and Alcon are both cheated by a usurer to whom they are trying to repay money: he keeps them talking beyond the due hour and then secures possession of Thrasybulus’ farm and Alcon’s cow as a penalty for non-payment. They attempt to sue him, but he bribes both the judge and their lawyer, and they lose their cases. Alcon appeals to Radagon, his son, to help his starving family, but Radagon is too proud to acknowledge his parent, and Rasni has him ejected from the court. Radagon’s mother curses him, and: he is swallowed by subterranean fire. Thrasybulus ard ===== PAGE 473 ===== 1589 Alcon turn to begging and theft in their destitution, and try to pawn stolen clothes to the usurer. Adam, a smith’s man, goes off with some ruffians to get drunk. After a drunken quarrel over a woman, one of them is killed. Rasni finds…
The True Chronicle of King Leir (King Lear and his Three Daughters)
Anonymous · 1590 · History · Queen Elizabeth's Men (?)
King Lear deems it a good moment to marry off his three daughters: with his wife recently dead, they no longer have a mother to direct them. His plan is to retire and divide the kingdom between them as their dowries, and to marry them to neighbouring kings in order to forestall foreign aggression. Cordella, however, is determined to marry for love rather than for diplomatic convenience, so Lear plans to circumvent her by laying on a test: the daughters will make a public declaration of how much they love their father, and he will then ask Cordella to show that love by complying with his wishes over her marriage. Scaliger warns the other daughters, Goneril and Regan, of what Lear has in mind, and misleads them into believing that their shares of the kingdom will reflect the extent of their declared love. Jealous of their younger sister’s beauty and renown, they flatter Lear so that Cordella’s simple statement of due filial love pales in comparison. Lear gives the kingdom wholly to them, summons the Kings of Cornwall and Cambria to be their husbands, and assigns them their shares by lot. Against the advice of the good counsellor Perillus, Lear banishes Cordella from court, and she plans to make her living working as a seamstress. By chance, she meets the King of France, who has come to Britain disguised in search of a wife, and he takes her back to France as his Queen. Lear goes to live with Cornwall and Goneril, but annoys her with his criticisms of her extravagance. Scaliger…
The 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.
1 Henry the Sixth
Nashe, Thomas; Marlowe, Christopher; Shakespeare, William; Anonymous · 1590 · History · Derby's (Strange's) Men
King Henry Vis dead, and England's French lands are lost. After a military setback, the French accept the offered aid of Joan Pucelle , who claims supernatural powers from the Virgin Mary; but they also release Talbot in an exchange of prisoners. With Joan 's help the French recapture the occupied town of Orleans, but the English take it back in a night attack led by Talbot. The Countess of Auvergne invites Talbot to visit her. intending treachery, but he second-guesses her and brings soldiers with him. In England, feuds brew between Gloucester and Winchester, and between Richard Plantagenet and the Duke of Somerset, whose supporters show their allegiance by picking different coloured roses. Richard , who has been deprived of his titles through the attainder of his father, learns from the imprisoned and dying Mortimer that he has a claim to the throne . King Henry restores him to his inheritance, creating him Duke of York. Joan takes Rouen by a ruse , but Talbot recaptures it the same day; she then persuades England's ally Burgundy to join the French. After King Henry's coronation in Paris, York is left in command of Prance, but personal tension between him and Somerset means that troop reinforcements arrive late; in consequence, Talbot is defeated, surviving only long enough to learn that his son has perished in battle. Joan conjures devils, but they will not help her: she is captured by York and burned at the stake. The French and English agree a peace which will entail…
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.
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…
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 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 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…
Summer's Last Will and Testament
Nashe, Thomas · 1592 · Comedy · Unknown
The ghost of WillNSWRIRIERS) assigned to speak the prologue to the play, is irritated that he has not been given a better part, and decides to remain on stage throughout the play and mock the actors. Siiiiier is mortally ill, He summons his officers to account for the wealth with which he has entrusted them. All M8, the Spring, has to show for his stewardship is a morris dance and other seasonal sports; he justifies his prodigality with the argument that gold is contemptible. Summer imposes a penance: he will always be attended with the abstinence of Lent. SGIStiEMm received little from Summer in the first place and can only render his loyalty and faithful service. Sol is criticized for arrogance above his station: he withers plants and dries up rivers, most recently the Thames. He insists that his haughty demeanour is appropriate for a servant of the great Summer, and tries to blame the moon for his misdeeds; so Summer sentences him to be eclipsed. @HiGh has left his celestial hunting-ground to look for game on Earth. After Abin disparages dogs, he declares their glories at length. He has no tribute to offer Summer, so he is banished for a year. H@EVE8t is more interested in singing than in rendering his account. He faces charges of corruption and hoarding corn, but denies them: it has simply been a poor harvest this year. Summer is satisfied and awards him a year’s rest from his labours. is too busy drinking to answer questions. He gets Will Summers drunk and ‘knights’ him…
A Knack to Know a Knave
Anonymous (?) · 1592 · Moral · Derby's (Strange's) Men
. . Concerned for the good order of his kingdom, King Edgar commissions Honesty to seek out and expose knaves. The dying Bailiff of Hexham advises his four sons to live by fraud and deceit in their various: professions, and to enrich themselves at the expense of the commonweal and the poor..He dies and is carried off by the devil. While Edgar deals with the case of 1592 Philarchus, a courtier who has abused his father, Honesty observes the corrupt dealings of the Bailiff’s sons: Cuthbert, a cony-catcher, who bears false witness in an attempt to take possession of a farm; Walter, a farmer, who oppresses his neighbours and exports corn to feed the enemy; John, a priest, who refuses to give to charity; and Perin, a courtier, who misuses the royal seal and sells Walter an export licence for his corn under pretext of raising revenues for the crown. Meanwhile honest members of the state, from knight to ploughman, complain of their economic decline. Edgar sends Ethenwald to woo Alfrida by proxy, but Ethenwald falls in love with her himself and marries her. The King forgives him and visits the couple (receiving a petition from the mad men of Gotham on the way), but the jealous Ethenwald is convinced that Edgar plans to cuckold him, and has Alfrida and the kitchen maid swap identities during the royal visit. An outraged Edgar sees through the subterfuge and plans to take revenge, but Bishop Dunstan, with the help of the devil, persuades him to pardon Ethenwald instead. Honesty…
Doctor Faustus
Marlowe, Christopher; Anonymous (?) · 1592 · Tragedy · Unknown
DrFaustls is dissatisfied with the limited rewards and power offered by traditional academic disciplines, including logic, medicine, law, and divinity, and instead turns to magic. He conjures up a devil, Mephistopheles. Partly confident that this act has already damned him, and partly out of disbelief in Hell, Faustus proposes a bargain: 24 years of guaranteed life and pleasure, with Mephistopheles as his servant, in exchange for his soul. Mephistopheles secures Lucifer’s agreement, and Faustus writes out a deed of gift in his own blood; Mephistopheles distracts him from his doubts with a show of Ganeinglaevils. Faustus’ first request is for a wife, but Mephistopheles brings him a cross-dressed devil and persuades him to embrace promiscuity rather than marriage. He discourses with Mephistopheles about astronomy, but the devil refuses to answer his theological questions. When Faustus seems ready to repent, DWGifEH arrives and distracts him with a show of Hi@§S@VenuDeadly Sins. Faustus journeys into space in a chariot drawn by dragons, to study astronomy at close quarters. He next ===== PAGE 422 ===== travels to Rome, where Mephistopheles makes him invisible. At a papal banquet, he snatches the Pope’s food and boxes his ears; the clerics take him for a ghost and attempt an exorcism. RObin steals one of Faustus’ magic books and attempts to impose his will on Rafe. He conjures up Mephistopheles, who is not pleased to be summoned all the way from Constantinople, and turns Robin…
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 Knack to Know an Honest Man
Anonymous · 1594 · Tragicomedy · Admiral's (Nottingham's) Men
Sempronio has attempted to commit adultery with Lelio’s wife, so Lelio fights and wounds him in a duel. The affray is witnessed by three shepherds, who pursue him as a murderer, leaving Sempronio dying. He is found by an old hermit, Philip, who attempts to heal his wounds. His uncle, Servio, appeals to the Duke of Venice for justice against Lelio - though, glad to inherit Sempronio’s estate, he is motivated more by malice than moral outrage. The Duke pronounces Lelio guilty of murder and sentences him to death in his absence; his estate is confiscated, but his wife and daughter are allowed to keep his house. The Duke m ===== PAGE 250 ===== further puts a price on his head and orders that nobody should succour him on pain of banishment. Lelio’s father-in-law Brishio helps him to escape from Venice, but Servio sees him being winched into the ship. Brishio is arrested and banished, and his sons, Zepherius and Orphinio, are left destitute. Philip revives Sempronio, whose near-death experience has made him chaste and ascetic. Philip disguises him as an old man, and he swears not to reveal his true identity until the hermit permits it. He assumes the alias Penitent Experience, and meets Fortunio and Marchetto, who are discussing their interest in Lelio’s family and estate: Fortunio wants the love of Lelio’s daughter, Lucida, but Marchetto is more interested in the money. Sempronio tells them that both gold and beauty are evanescent, and offers to show them how to recognize an…
Love's Labor's Lost
Shakespeare, William · 1595 · Comedy · Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men · before the Court;
The King of Navarre has proclaimed a three-year period of study during which his courtiers must live abstemiously and refrain from seeing women; no woman may even approach the court. Unfortunately the Princess of France is due to arrive on a diplomatic mission concerning a dispute over money and territory, and the King is forced to meet her; however, the evidence in support of France’s claim against Navarre has not arrived, and the issue is deferred. Costard is caught canoodling with Jaquenetta and is remitted to Don Armado’s custody. Armado is himself enamoured of Jaquenetta, and sends Costard to her with a love-letter. Biron also pays Costard to carry a similar letter to his love, Rosaline, and Costard mixes up the two letters. Armado’s causes amusement to the French ladies when they receive it; Biron’s causes embarrassment to himself when, directed by Holofernes, Jaquenetta brings it to the King just after Biron has attacked him and the other lords for falling in love. Biron argues the illegitimacy of their original vows, and they set about wooing the ladies, first with gifts, then by appearing in a masque of Russians. The ladies confound the latter by wearing masks themselves and swapping gifts so that each lord woos the wrong lady; they also refuse to dance. Don Armado and the locals offer the court a pageant of the Nine Worthies, devised by the schoolmaster: it is mocked by the lords and breaks up in confusion when Costard accuses Don Armado of fathering the pregnant…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The Maid's Metamorphosis
Anonymous · 1600 · Pastoral Romance · Children of Paul's (second)
Considering Eurymine too low-born to be a suitable match for his son Ascanio, Duke Telemachus orders two of his gentlemen to escort her from the court and murder her. In the event, however, Phylander persuades his colleague that they have no obligation to follow unlawful orders. They plan to present the Duke with an animal’s heart, claiming it to be hers, and Eurymine agrees to live away from the court in country exile. She meets a forester and a shepherd, each of whom wants her to live with him; when they become competitive, she agrees to accept a cottage from the forester and a flock of sheep from the shepherd. Ascanio goes into the woods looking for Eurymine. Juno finds him asleep and, eager to prove her superiority to Venus, arranges for him to dream of where to find his love. Meanwhile, Eurymine meets Apollo, who is also attracted to her. To save herself from rape, she claims to disbelieve his claims of godhead, and asks him to prove himself by working a miracle: specifically, she asks him to change her sex. He does, but with an associated curse: as a man, she will fall hopelessly in love with another man, and long to be a woman again. Ascanio learns from an echo that Eurymine is nearby but inaccessible, and the hermit Aramanthus, who is also a dispossessed prince, explains her metamorphosis. This disappoints not only Ascanio but also her country admirers, and Aramanthus recommends that she should ask the Graces to intercede with Apollo on her behalf. Apollo eventually…
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…
Patient Grissel
Dekker, Thomas; Chettle, Henry; Haughton, William · 1600 · Comedy · Admiral's (Nottingham's) Men
Gwaltef has vowed to choose a wife. On the day of decision, he goes hunting instead, but leads his companions to the low-born (GHiSSil] whom he has been wooing in secret. D@WFe6) Grissil’s brother, comes home from university in poverty, but he and his father become courtiers after Gwalter and Grissil are married. Grissil becomes pregnant. Gwalter’s subjects object to his marrying beneath him. Though obsessively uxorious, he is determined to test her patience, and attempts to humiliate her by making her tie a servant’s shoe; she complies without protest. He then banishes her family from court; again she accepts this patiently. She gives birth to a twin son and daughter, and Gwalter has the babies taken away from her: they are sent to PaWia to be looked after by his brother, and Grissil is expelled from court. She ===== PAGE 196 ===== GRISSIL, Janicola’s daughter, Laureo’s sister: later Gwalter’s wife and mother of Prince Gwalter and the Princess; also called Lady Grissil returns to her father’s house, and Gwalter sends Fan to tell her she will never see her children again; he watches the conversation in disguise, and BABULO, Janicola’s man; formerly a traveller ‘accidentally’ drops a piece of gold to ensure that Master LAUREO, a poor young scholar; Janicola’s son, she will not starve. In the sub-plot, Eiiul6 and Siff{Oweni are rivals for Grissil’s brother; later uncle of Grissil’s children Two LapIgs attending Gwalter (sc.2, non-speaking) the Welsh widow GwWénthian, while…
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-…
The Trial of Chivalry (This Gallant Cavaliero Dick Bowyer)
Anonymous · 1601 · Romance · Derby's (Strange's) Men
France is on the point of battle over its claim to suzerainty over Navarre, but the children of the two royal families call for peace: Ferdinand and Philip love Katharine and Bellamira. A truce of three months is agreed; if the marriages take place, the war will end permanently. Neither courtship is successful, however. Katharine is in love with the Earl of Pembroke, Navarre’s ally, and treats Ferdinand with disdain. Ferdinand appoints Pembroke to woo her on his behalf, but her behaviour afterwards convinces him that Pembroke has wooed her on his own account. He challenges Pembroke to a duel; they wound one another, and are reported dead. Meanwhile, the French traitor Bourbon aims to secure the crown of Navarre for himself by marrying Bellamira, then poisoning Ferdinand and the King. Balked by the planned diplomatic marriage and rejected by Bellamira herself, he uses a poison supplied by his ally, Duke Roderick, to disfigure Bellamira’s face. Philip insists that he will marry her anyway, but she runs away before the wedding can take place. Duke Roderick reports untruthfully that Katharine too has run away after being raped by Ferdinand. France accepts Bourbon’s submission and offer of troops; both kingdoms are back on a war footing. In fact, unknown to each other, both Ferdinand and Pembroke have been found by countrymen and nursed back to health. Believing Ferdinand dead, Pembroke erects a tomb to him and demands that passers-by leave their shields in tribute. Katharine…
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…
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…
Twelfth Night, or What You Will
Shakespeare, William · 1601 · Comedy · Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men
Orsino is in love with Olivia, but she is in mourning and has renounced the company of men. Shipwrecked in Illyria and believing her twin brother dead, Viola enters Orsino’s service posing as a eunuch, ‘Cesario’. She falls in love with him, but is sent to woo Olivia on his behalf. Olivia in turn falls in love with ‘Cesario’. Olivia’s uncle, Sir Toby, is trying to marry her off to his idiot acquaintance, Sir Andrew. After her steward Malvolio interrupts their raucous nocturnal sing-song, and unjustly accuses her gentlewoman Maria of complicity, the offended parties plot to humiliate him. Maria writes a letter, in handwriting similar to Olivia’s, and leaves it for him to find. It encourages him to believe possible his fantasies of marrying his mistress, and induces him to behave and dress inappropriately in her presence. Olivia thinks he is mad or possessed, and has him confined in Sir Toby’s charge. Sir Toby and his accomplices take the opportunity to mock him. Sebastian, Viola’s brother, is alive after all: he was rescued from drowning by Orsino’s enemy Antonio. They too come to Illyria, and Antonio entrusts Sebastian with his purse. Sir Toby encourages Sir Andrew to challenge ‘Cesario’ to a duel, and makes each afraid of the other. They are on the point of fighting when Antonio intervenes to help the youth, believing him to be Sebastian. When he is arrested by Orsino’s officers, Viola is unable to return the purse he gave to Sebastian; he reproaches ‘Sebastian’s’…
Il Pastor Fido, or The Faithful Shepherd
Dymoke, Tailboys, trans.; Guarini, Giovanni Battista · 1601 · Pastoral
Years ago, AWAVRE, two-timed by DUST prayed to DiSNa for vengeance. She sent death to Arcadia, and the oracle decreed that her wrath could be appeased only when Lucrina is sacrificed at the hands of Amyntas. Lucrina was brought to the altar, but Amyntas took pity on her and killed himself; recognizing the truth of his love, Lucrina then herself committed a remorseful suicide in turn. But the curse was remitted only temporarily, and {i#@@nnualhuman SAGHHEES must continue; Diana will be permanently pacified only by a marriage between a couple, both of GivVi@NGSS2hH) and by the pity of a faithful shepherd. Such a couple has been identified: SHMSl and AMmamillis; but Silvio is uninterested in women, preferring to hunt the boar which has been ravaging the countryside. ; A chain of failed amours proceeds from. this. AMaHGS is loved by MEFGHG) who thinks himself too poor and lowly to be worthy of her. He has tried to get access to her by dressing as a nymph; in this disguise he became unwittingly involved in a Sapphic kissing contest, and was adjudged the winner by Amarillis. Returning home to tend to his sick father, he pined away, and an oracle reported that his only hope was to go t@NAIRGadial — so here he is. He in turn is both loved and hated by G&HiSE4) who has learned the amorous arts in the city: she loves him for his beauty, hates him for his interest in Amarillis. She offers to promote his suit to ABZ) in order to take revenge on them both. Corisca has led on a…
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…
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.
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…
Antonio's Revenge (2 Antonio and Mellida)
1602 · Tragedy · Children of Paul's (second)
The war between Venice and Genoa is over, and peace is to be sealed with a marriage between Antonio and Mellida, the children of the two dukes; Antonio's mother Maria is on her way to Venice to attend the wedding. But Duke Piero's commitment to peace is not sincere: he secretly murders Felice and Duke Andrugio, and hides Felice's body in Mellida's bedroom. When Antonio comes to wake her on the wedding morning, he finds the body hanging in the window, and Piero claims that he killed Felice in rage upon finding him and Mellida fornicating; Mellida herself is imprisoned. Andrugio in tum is reported to have died of joy. Piero's plan is to kill Antonio, marry Mellida to the heir to the duchy of Florence, and marry Maria himself, thereby extending his dominion across three Italian states. To this end, he plans to frame Antonio and establish Mellida's innocence. Antonio visits Andrugio's tomb and sees his ghost, who calls on him to avenge his death, assures him of Mellida's chastity, and warns him that Maria is going to marry Piero. Antonio murders Piero's son. The day before Maria's intended wedding, the ghost appears to her in her bedroom and reproaches her for disloyalty in widowhood. He further tells her that he was poisoned by Piero, and insists that Antonio should flee the court in order to seek revenge. Instead, Antonio stays at court disguised as a fool, and has it put about that he is dead. Mellida is put on trial, and Strozzo makes a false confession vindicating her and…
The Fair Maid of the Exchange
Anonymous (?) · 1602 · Comedy · Unknown
Phyllis and Ursula are assaulted by two ruffians as they go to deliver wares to a customer at night. A cripple rescues them, and a second assault is foiled by the intervention of Frank Golding; the cripple promises to help Frank if ever he can. Frank's two brothers are both in love with Phyllis, and, though he scorns amorous passions, Frank has fallen for her too. Phyllis, however, loves the cripple, and woos him by giving him a handkerchief to embroider “for a friend’. Meanwhile, Bobbington poses as a sailor going on a voyage, and borrows money from Phyllis’s father, Flower, leaving a diamond ring with him as security. Ferdinand and Anthony overhear one another's plans to woo Phyllis, but neither knows that Frank is also a rival. Ferdinand writes to her; Anthony plans to intercept the letter and substitute his own, but Ferdinand disguises Frank as a porter and gets him hired as Anthony's messenger. Planning to double-cross them both, Frank enlists the cripple's help. The cripple supplies him with two rejection letters to take back to his brothers, as from Phyllis. They each enlist the help of one of Phyllis’s parents, ===== PAGE 378 ===== who then quarrel over which brother shall marry their daughter. _ Knowing Phyllis loves him but thinking himself unworthy, the cripple lends Frank his clothes. Frank courts Phyllis in disguise, and she gives him her ring; then. he brings the parents forged letters from his brothers withdrawing their suits. Each parent decides to:spite the…
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…
All's Well That Ends Well
Shakespeare, William; Middleton, Thomas, rev. (?) · 1603 · Tragicomedy · King's Men
When Béftrami’s father dies, he becomes a royal ward, and is summoned to court. H@léfhi loves him and is sad to see him go, but knows she can never have him because of the disparity in their rank. Phe@uDowager (@GuntEesS learns of her love and permits her to go to court and use her father’s medical knowledge, passed on to her on his deathbed, to cure the King of the fistula which afflicts him. ‘The Kimig has been advised to remain neutral in the war between Florence and Siena, but allows his lords to join on either side; Bertram, however, is deemed too young and required to stay at court. Helen wagers her life on the efficacy of her cure, and asks as her reward to be allowed her own choice of husband. She successfully heals the fistula and selects Bertram. He protests vehemently, but the King browbeats him into marriage. Rather than consummate the union, however, he runs away to the war and sends Helen word that he will only acknowledge her as his wife if she gets the ring from his finger and presents him with a child which he has lawfully begotten on her. She takes herself off, leaving word that she is going on a pilgrimage. Bertram acquits himself well in battle, but his companion Paroles allows the company’s drum to be captured by the Sienese. Passing through Florence, Helen encounters a widow whose daughter, Diama, is being solicited by Bertram for sex. She arranges for the widow to agree, on condition that Bertram gives up his ring; Helen then takes Diana’s place in…
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…
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…
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…
Law Tricks
Day, John · 1604 · Comedy · Children of the Queen's Revels
Prince Polymetes arrives home with news that his sister Emilia has disappeared after an attack by the Turks on her temple; grieving at the news, Duke Ferneze goes to seek her, leaving Polymetes as his deputy. Meanwhile Emilia has escaped from the galleys by feigning lunacy, and now arrives in Genoa. She adopts an alias in order to test her brother, whom she has never met. His interest in her is not very brotherly: he loses his bookish tendencies and grows prodigal, spending public money on her. He arranges for her to lodge with his uncle, Count Lurdo, in order to facilitate access. Lurdo, who has just divorced his wife, the Countess, for alleged unchastity, tries to seduce Emilia with a view to getting his hands on the money Polymetes is spending on her. Meanwhile, Horatio fails in his efforts to seduce Lurdo’s ex-wife, the Countess, and takes her steadfastness in chastity badly. ===== PAGE 127 ===== 1604 He and Lurdo plot to get rid of her by poison, administered by Horatio. Ferneze returns in disguise with news of his own _death, and Polymetes makes plans to squander his inheritance. Then Ferneze returns in his own person, and Polymetes has to reassume his original studious persona. The Countess is buried, and the penitent Horatio visits her tomb; his page, who swapped the poison for a sleeping potion, is also there to take charge of her when she wakes, and scares Horatio by pretending to be her ghost. Polymetes pretends that his dissolute behaviour was just an act to test…
The London Prodigal
Anonymous · 1604 · Comedy · King's Men
Old Flowerdale returns secretly from Venice and hears tales of his son’s prodigality. Wanting to think the best of his offspring, he tests the young man by posing as Christopher, a sailor bringing news of his own death and a will disinheriting his son. Under his new identity he lends his son money to enable him to pursue an advantageous marriage to Sir Lancelot’s daughter Luce, and enters his service to observe him at close quarters. Sir Lancelot is trying to get husbands for all three of his daughters, but Delia prefers a virgin life. For Luce, Sir Lancelot initially favours the wealthy bumpkin Oliver, and takes his part when Young Flowerdale challenges him to a duel. However, ‘Christopher’ forges a will which makes Flowerdale seem richer than Oliver, so Sir Lancelot changes his mind and persuades Flowerdale to go to his own wedding rather than keep his appointment to fight Oliver. It is to be a double wedding: another daughter, Frances, is marrying a merchant’s son. Flowerdale makes no secret of the fact that he intends to exploit Luce financially. Disappointed in him, Old Flowerdale arranges for his uncle to have him arrested for debt immediately after the wedding; apart from teaching the young man a lesson, it will also establish whether Luce genuinely loves him. When Sir Lancelot tries to shrug off the debt, the will is exposed as a fraud. Luce, who only married Flowerdale in obedience to her father, now insists on honouring her marital vows. Intending that Flowerdale…
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…
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…
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…
Nobody and Somebody
Anonymous · 1605 · History; Satire · Queen Anne's Men
The British nobles are discontented at the way Archigallo, recently succeeded to the throne, has grown vicious and lascivious. This is demonstrated in the way he decides a series of disputes among his subjects. Morgan and Malgo both claim the ownership of an island; Archigallo takes it for himself and appoints Lord Sycophant as its governor. The clown has stolen and married Rafe’s fiancée; Archigallo adjudicates in the clown’s favour, but then promises the woman advancement if she will stay at court. ===== PAGE 191 ===== 1605 Finally, a petition is presented against Nobody for his excessive charity; at Sycophant’s suggestion, Somebody is appointed to bankrupt Nobody. The nobles plot rebellion, but are overheard by the unworthy princes Vigenius and Peridure. Realizing they have been caught, the nobles continue the conversation by suggesting that the princes will become joint rulers after Archigallo is deposed. The princes decide not to expose the treachery after all, but as they discuss how they will divide the kingdom, they are themselves overheard by Archigallo and sent to prison. The Council deposes Archigallo. Elidure is reluctant to take the crown, but his wife, eager to lord it over the Queen, forces him to do so. He releases Vigenius and Peridure. Out hunting, he meets Archigallo, who was banished but has remained in the kingdom. Elidure decides to resign the crown, but the Council is initially unwilling to have Archigallo back: they would rather have a foreigner as…
King Lear
Shakespeare, William · 1605 · Tragedy · King's Men · before the Court;Globe;Whitehall;Outdoor Professional
King Lear intends to divide his kingdom between his sons-in-law: they will become the effective rulers, while he remains titular king with a retinue of knights, residing with each by monthly turns. His elder daughters, Goneril and Regan, are already married to dukes of the north and west of Britain; his youngest, Cordelia, is being courted by two suitors from mainland Europe. Lear requires that each daughter make a public statement of her love for him, to determine her merit and therefore her share of the kingdom. Goneril and Regan give it their all, but Cordelia refuses to make a self-serving and insincere statement which will encroach on the rights of her future husband. In consequence, she gets nothing, and the Earl of Kent is banished when he tries to intervene; the King of France marries her anyway, without a dowry. Kent stays in the kingdom, disguises himself, and gets himself a place in Lear’s service. Lear proves a difficult house-guest, and Goneril an ungracious hostess. When she asks him to reduce his retinue, he angrily moves on early to stay with Regan. Father and daughter both send letters ahead to explain the situation, carried by Kent and Oswald respectively; Goneril’s messenger meets with a better reception. Kent brawls with Oswald and is put in the stocks, which offends Lear when he arrives, closely followed by Goneril. The two daughters demand progressively greater diminutions in the number of Lear’s knights. Rather than stay with either of them, he…
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 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 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody (The Second Part of Queen Elizabeth's Troubles)
Heywood, Thomas · 1605 · History · Queen Anne's Men
GhomasyGresham is in long legal dispute with Sir (homaspRamisay over a land deal: Gresham outbid Ramsay after contracts were exchanged, bought the land and built on it, so each man now claims ownership. DEINGWEll adjudicates fairly between them and makes them friends. Under the terms of the settlement, Gresham is to pay Ramsay £100, but his nephew John misappropriates the money and contrives ===== PAGE 115 ===== 1604 to get Timothy the factor arrested for debt. Caught out, Timothy admits that he has embezzled £500 from Gresham, and Gresham applauds John’s misbehaviour as an example of good financial management. Gresham sees the need for a dry place in London where merchants can do business; and, inspired by portraits of famous Londoners responsible for important civic buildings and institutions, he gets permission and funding to build it himself. He is unabashed by heavy losses through war and shipwreck (including a change of king in Barbary after the battle of Alcazar, which costs him his trade monopoly in Barbary sugar). Eventually an impressive Burse is built, and opened by Queen Elizabeth: she names it the Royal Exchange, and knights Gresham. Another strand of the action focuses on the comic eccentricities of old M@bSGH, who records an honest pedlar’s account under a nickname, Bawny2@oat, so that the man is unable to pay what he owes when he returns to the shop. “Tawny-Coat’ is ruined by his debts to Hobson and by his own charity, but Hobson takes pity when he finds him…
Eastward Ho
Chapman, George; Jonson, Ben; Marston, John · 1605 · Comedy · Children of the Queen's Revels · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
The goldsmith [owehstone has two apprentices, the rebellious prodigal QUIEKSIWVEF and the virtuous Golding, and two daughters, the proud Gertrude and the modest Mildréd. Mistress Touchstone insists that Gertrude should marry above her rank to Sim@PéetronelFlash, while Touchstone bestows Mildred on Golding. Quicksilver is sacked after appearing for work drunk; Golding is also released from his indentures to become his former master’s son-in-law. Quicksilver considers becoming a merchant, then conspires with Security to entrap Sir Petronel Flash into debt to finance the secret expedition to Virginia he is planning. While Gertrude travels to her new husband’s fictitious country castle, Sir Petronel plans a _ - sexual liaison with [Winifméd| Security’s wife. Quicksilver and Sir Petronel both set sail, each in a different vessel, with the jealous S€@uirity following in a third, but a storm wrecks all three boats at Cuckold’s Haven. Winifred convinces Security that his suspicions are groundless. Quicksilver and Sir Petronel are arrested and sent to prison by Golding, now a deputy alderman, on suspicion of stealing from Touchstone. They and Security become penitent in their incarceration, but Touchstone is determined to prosecute them. Golding wishes to be more forgiving, and feigns his own imprisonment to bring his father-in-law to the jail. There Touchstone sees and accepts the sincerity of the miscreants’ repentance; Quicksilver, Sir Petronel, and Security are released, and…
The 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 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…
The Revenger's Tragedy
Middleton, Thomas · 1606 · Tragedy · King's Men
Nine years ago, the DUKE poisoned Gl@fiana when she refused to submit to his sexual advances; Windies has preserved her skull. HippOlit6 is given the task of recruiting a pander for the Duke’s son [iisstinioso, and brings Mimdiee, his brother, to court in disguise. The object of seduction turns out to be their sister, @AStiZa. Vindice undertakes the task, incognito as the pander (Piato’; he is delighted at Castiza’s outraged rejection, but less pleased at their mother’s venal readiness to countenance a liaison between her daughter and the heir apparent. ‘Piato’ reports this limited success back to Lussurioso. The Prince changes his initial plans to visit Castiza that night when he learns of a chance to catch his bastard brother Spud in bed with the DweHessl However, Spurio has changed his plans too, in the expectation of catching Lussurioso in the act of raping Castiza; so when Lussurioso bursts in on the Duchess with his sword drawn, it is the Duke who is with her, and he is arrested. Two of the Duchess’s sons plead insincerely for their stepbrother’s release, and put their pleas into reverse when the Duke, recognizing their malice, agrees to pardon him. Finally, without their knowledge, he sends order for Lussurioso to be freed. Meanwhile, the Duchess’s younger son, Jaimi6r has raped Ammtonio'siwifé at a recent court masque. He is tried and convicted for the crime, but the Duke defers sentencing until a later date. The victim poisons herself in shame; and a group of lords,…
Volpone, or The Fox
Jonson, Ben · 1606 · Comedy · King's Men
The wealthy Welpone has no family to inherit his gold. Seeking to augment his riches, he pretends to be mortally ill, and receives visitors bringing gifts and false solicitude in the hope of being named his heir. His servant Mosea encourages one of them, SlG@IGGrbaccio} to make a will in Volpone’s favour in hope of reciprocation, temporarily disinheriting his own son Bonario. He also engages Volpone’s interest in @éliaj the wife of @Grvinid) another visitor. Eager to see her, Volpone poses as a mountebank selling potions; Celia watches from a window and expresses her interest by dropping her handkerchief before the jealous Corvino intervenes and locks her away. The sight of Celia has inflamed Volpone’s sexual desire, so Mosca makes the necessary arrangements. He tells Corvino that the mountebank’s medicine, bought by his rivals, has wrought an improvement in Volpone’s condition, and that physicians have prescribed a cure: Volpone must sleep beside a healthy, vigorous young woman. @6rviniG decides to proffer Gélid for the purpose, getting himself back into favour; even if the cure works, Volpone can always be murdered later once he has made his will. On the way back to Volpone’s house, Mosca meets BOnari6, tells him of Corbaccio’s plans to make a new will, and counters Bonario’s scepticism by offering to place him where he can watch it happen. He then returns in time to free Volpone from the unwelcome company of the loquacious Dady§WoOulasBe: on being told that her husband…
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.…
A Yorkshire Tragedy
Middleton, Thomas · 1606 · Tragedy · King's Men · Globe;Outdoor Professional
News arrives from London that a young woman's absent lover has married somebody else. It was a lucky escape for her: he has turned out to be a wastrel and a gambler, has got into debt, and is treating his wife badly; he will not listen to remonstrance and responds ungratefully to attempts to help him. An appeal by the Master of his brother's college, made after the brother is imprisoned for his debts, finally makes him realize what his prodigality has cost his family and descendants. Stricken with remorse, he takes command of his fate by murdering his son and heir, then assaulti
Bussy D'Ambois
1607 · History;Foreign History · Children of Paul's (second) · Paul's;Indoor Professional
Monsieur is heir presumptive to the French crown: only his brother's life stands between him and the throne. He seeks to engage the services of the poor, discontented, and ambitious soldier Bussy D'Amboise, and sends Maffé to him with money. Maffé tries to fob off Bussy with a smaller sum, intending to pocket the difference; but Bussy takes offence and assaults Maffé. Monsieur introduces Bussy to court as an attendant on the King, but many courtiers regard him as an upstart, especially the Duke of Guise, who considers him inappropriately familiar with his Duchess. A fight breaks out between Bussy and a group of courtiers; only Bussy escapes alive, and Monsieur procures a royal pardon for him. Monsieur attempts to seduce Tamyra, but she is more interested in Bussy and engages her confessor, Friar Comolet, to act as go-between. While her husband, Montsoreau, is away overnight, she has an assignation with Bussy. Unbeknown to them, this is witnessed by Tamyra's maid, Pero, who tells Montsoreau what she has seen. Monsieur is jealous of Bussy's intimacy with Tamyra, but his higher plans take precedence - until Bussy declares that he will serve him in any way except by killing the King. Monsieur and Guise conspire to inform Montsoreau of Tamyra's adultery. In order to discover what they know and what they intend, Comolet conjures the spirit Behemoth, who is unable to procure the letter containing Guise's information, but declares that Tamyra is the greatest danger to Bussy and…
The Alexandraean Tragedy
Alexander, William · 1607 · Tragedy
Juno remains angry that a Trojan adjudged Venus the most beautiful goddess. Through the centuries, she has sought to avenge herself by harrying the Trojans’ 1607 descendants, the Romans, most recently by fomenting a civil war. But the victor of that war was Caesar, who traces his descent from Venus; he has conquered much of the world and established his ascendancy in Rome, but Juno now intends to work his overthrow. Caesar explains to Antonius that he wants to be a king not for personal ambition but to comply with a Sibylline prophecy which makes monarchy a precondition for a Roman victory in the east. Antonius warns him that there are Romans who desire his death. Cicero laments the loss of Rome’s liberty, and Decius Brutus agrees that, though Caesar’s past actions have been honourable, he should have demobilized his armies now that there is no further external threat. Brutus and Cassius agree that they will not participate in any ceremony aimed at making Caesar a king. Brutus is Caesar’s friend, but reasons that he must assassinate the tyrant for the public good. His wife Portia wrings the secret of the conspiracy out of him. Brutus and Cassius recruit conspirators, both patriots and men who have a personal grudge against Caesar. However, they exclude Cicero and agree not to kill Antonius. Caesar’s wife Calpurnia tries to persuade him not to go to the Senate on the Ides of March — an astrologer has foretold his death, and she herself has had bad dreams - but Decius Brutus…
The Turk (Muleasses the Turk)
Mason, John · 1607 · Tragedy · Children of the King's Revels
Julia, the under-age Duchess of Florence, has been promised by her uncle, Borgias, in marriage to the Duke of Ferrara; but the Senate has promised her to the Duke of Venice. The rival dukes lay siege to Florence, but Borgias gets them to raise the siege by hiding Julia and telling them that she is dead. To supply a body for the funeral, he has his wife Timoclea poisoned by the Turk Muleasses. Borgias intends to marry his daughter Amada to Muleasses, marry Julia himself now that he is a widower, and make himself King of Italy; Muleasses will help him in order to secure Turkey a foothold in Christendom. They also plot to murder Venice and Ferrara, using a poison with a thirty-day time delay, so that they will not die until after they have left Florence. But Borgias still has another dead body to find, to stand in for Timoclea at her funeral, and he asks Eunuchus to help supply one. Eunuchus inveigles Bordello into a false assignation with Timoclea, intending to leave him instead in Borgias’s bedchamber to be killed. In fact, Timoclea is not dead: Muleasses only gave her a sleeping draught, and when she wakes he releases her from Julia’s tomb and promises to help her take revenge on her husband. She appears to Venice posing as Julia’s ghost, and denounces Borgias as her murderer. Bordello sees her en route to his assignation, and is scared off. Eunuchus is also haunted, flees, and ends up running into Ferrara’s dagger, with fatal consequences. After overhearing Muleasses…
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…
Timon of Athens
Shakespeare, William; Middleton, Thomas · 1607 · Tragedy · King's Men
; Timon gives freely of his riches to his acquaintances: every little gift will trigger disproportionate largesse by way of requital. He intervenes financially to secure Ventidius’ release from a debtors’ prison, and settles money on his servant Lucilius to enable him to marry the girl he loves, a wealthy man’s daughter. He entertains guests at a lavish feast at which a masque of Amazons is performed. But his creditors. are alarmed by his uncontrolled spending, and call in his debts, which amount to more than the value of his entire estate. He imagines that he can still call on the former recipients of his liberality, but they make their excuses and leave him in difficulties; he is failed even by Ventidius, now a rich man after his father’s death. Timon lays on a second feast, and invites his unreliable friends; they think normal service has been resumed, but are discomfited to find that the menu consists of water alone. Timon drives them off with abuse and leaves Athens in misanthropic fury. Alcibiades attempts to save a friend from execution for murder, but the Senate dismisses the appeal; when he persists, they banish him. In the forest, Timon digs for roots to eat, but finds only buried gold. He meets Alcibiades, marching against Athens with his soldiers, and gives him gold to ensure the city’s destruction; he also pays the army’s whores to spread venereal disease. He encourages a band of thieves to prey upon mankind, but his words persuade them to rethink their way of…
The Dumb Knight
Markham, Gervase; Machin, Lewis · 1608 · Tragicomedy · Children of the King's Revels
The King of Cyprus, in love with the Queen of Sicily; lays siege to her city, but accepts the Queen’s proposal that they settle the affair with a trial by combat: the King and his champion Philocles versus the Duke of Epire and Lord Alfonso. Epire defeats the King but is bested in a play-off with Philocles; the Queen accepts the outcome and submits to the King’s love, but Epire swears to avenge his dishonour. Philocles woos Epire’s sister, Mariana, but gets the brush-off. Asked to set him a task to prove his love, she demands that he remain silent for a year; when he swears to do so, she is pleased not to have to listen to any more love-talk from him. His dumbness is taken to be a malady, which medicine fails to remedy. The King offers a reward for a successful cure ~ but those who try unsuccessfully will be executed. Mariana offers to achieve the cure, but Philocles will not speak at her command and she is duly sentenced to death. Philocles waits until the headsman is about to strike before speaking out. She is spared, but Philocles refuses to marry her until she demonstrates that she cares as much for him as he for her. Epire’s vindictive vexation grows. Epire suggests to the King that the Queen is having an affair with Philocles: he takes his opportunities to put the Queen into Philocles’ company, and arranges for the King to see them dancing and playing cards together. They are arrested and imprisoned, and parliament condemns them to death. Epire’s plan is to proclaim…
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…
A Shoemaker a Gentleman
Rowley, William · 1608 · Romance · Prince Charles's Men (first) · Red Bull;Outdoor Professional
The Roman Emperors, Diocletian and Maximinus, bring an army to Britain to crush the Christians. Alured, the British King, is killed in battle. His sons, Eldred and Offa, change their identities and get themselves apprenticed to a shoemaker. They see their mother taken to prison after being captured on the battlefield; their sympathy for her plight impresses their new master. Alban is appointed to rule Britain and continue the persecution. Amphiabel comes from Wales and converts him to Christianity. Maximinus arrests Alban, and Amphiabel flees back to Wales, pursued by the Roman army. Meanwhile, the Welsh Queen Winifred, also converted by Amphiabel, asks her suitor Sir Hugh for a moratorium on his wooing efforts; when he completes the agreed period, however, she announces that she has given herself wholly to heaven and cannot marry him. One of the Romans pursuing Amphiabel mocks the power of Winifred’s holy well, and smears the water on his eyes; it blinds him. His sight is restored, but he ascribes the miracle to the pagan gods. Winifred and Amphiabel are both arrested and brought to see the martyrdom of Alban. Leodice, Maximinus’ daughter, becomes enamoured of her new shoemaker, Crispin, who is really Offa; she continually finds reasons to asks for new shoes and new fitting sessions. She offers to show him the image of his future wife in a magic mirror; but in fact it is an ordinary mirror, and he sees her reflection. He confides that he is not really base-born, but a…
The Tragedy of Charles Duke of Byron
Chapman, George · 1608 · Tragedy · Children of the Queen's Revels
The ambitious Duke of Biron has been offered the crown by a conspiracy of France’s foreign enemies. He pacifies a Huguenot rebellion in Brittany, but suspects - that, now the country is at peace, his military services will no longer be required or even valued by the King. His ally, La Fin, supplies the King with incriminating evidence of his involvement in a plot. [A lacuna in the text follows. The Queen has a quarrel with the King’s mistress, and slaps her.] The two rival ladies make it up by performing together in a masque: Biron is recalled to court. La Fin assures him that all suspicions about his loyalty have been cleared, and- encourages him to go. Against the advice of his other friends, Biron does, thinking his reputation for valour — will make his enemies think twice about arresting him. Henry’s declared intention is to spare him if he will only confess, but Biron is proud and stubborn. He finds himself shunned by the courtiers, and learns that various horses he was given have all died, just as happened when the Earl of Essex fell. He and his ally D’Auvergne are both arrested. A Spanish ambassador asks permission for an army to cross French soil en route to Flanders; King Henry suspects it was originally levied to invade France, but nevertheless gives his permission. He sends despatches to inform foreign courts of Biron’s treason. The French - peers decline to be present at the trial. Biron is confronted with La Fin as chief prosecution witness, and claims that La…
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…
A Woman Is a Weathercock
Field, Nathan · 1609 · Comedy · Children of the Queens Revels (Children of the Whitefriars) (?) · before the Court;Whitefriars;Whitehall;Indoor Professional
Scudmore is in love with Bellafront, and his friend Nevill persuades him, with difficulty, to show the love- letter he has received from her. There is a slight complication: Nevill is on his way to .Bellafront’s wedding. She is to marry Count Frederick that morning. The whole family is mired in matrimonial competition. Bellafront’s sister Lucida also loves Frederick, and has sworn never to marry for his sake; but she is being courted by the foolish Sir Abraham Ninny, who has got himself knighted expressly to make himself a more eligible son-in-law. The youngest daughter, Katherine, is also to be married that morning, to Strange the merchant, but she too has another admirer, Captain Pouts. Unbeknown to Scudmore, Nevill impersonates the parson who is to officiate at the wedding. Scudmore tries to catch Bellafront at the church door, but she refuses him; this convinces him that all women are perfidious. After the wedding, Pouts publicly declares that Katherine has slept with him on many previous occasions. Strange seems reluctant to seek legal redress for this slander, but only because he doesn’t want anyone to stop him secretly taking a more immediate revenge. He tries to see Pouts at his lodging, but Pouts assumes he has come to serve a writ and will not let him in. Pouts then prepares to flee England and his creditors, but Strange intercepts him disguised as a soldier, claiming that Katherine engaged him to murder her new husband and that she loves only Pouts. Pouts admits…
The Maid's Tragedy
Beaumont, Francis; Fletcher, John · 1610 · Tragedy · King's Men · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
At: the King’s request, Al@minf6f breaks off his engagement to his fiancée AlSpatia and instead marries Evadne) sister of his friend Melantius. After a wedding masque, Evadne prepares for bed. When Amintor arrives, however, she refuses him sex and explains that she is the King’s mistress: the marriage has been arranged as a cover for their continuing relationship, and to provide a nominal father for any bastards that may result; it will never be consummated. Amintor is unable to satisfy his impulse to take revenge, because his wronger is the King, but on learning the truth, Melantius has no similar scruples. A successful rebellion depends upon control of the city’s: defensive fort, but this is in the hands of Melantius’ enemy, ASpatia’sifathier Caliana who partly blames Melantius for the way Aspatia has been treated. Melantius asks Calianax to hand over the fort, knowing this will be reported to the King; but when the King confronts him with the accusation, his bare-faced denial. discredits Calianax and makes the accusation look like senile malice. Calianax is sent away from court and sees no option but to give Melantius the fort after all. M@@lantivis]? threat of violence secures a confession from Bya@méj and she agrees to join the conspiracy. Summoned by the King that night, Evadne ties him to the bed and kills him when he wakes. Melantius retreats to the fort and agrees to come out only once the mew King has granted him a pardon on his own terms. The despairing AlSpatia…
The Golden Age, or The Lives of Jupiter and Saturn
Heywood, Thomas · 1610 · Classical Myth · Queen Anne's Men · Red Bull;Outdoor Professional
King Uranus of Crete is dead. Titan is the eldest son, but his younger brother Saturn is the popular choice to ascend the throne. Titan agrees to make way for him provided that he agrees to settle the succession on Titan’s issue and kill his own sons as soon as they are born. Saturn is declared a god, and under his benevolent rule, the people learn agriculture, ship- building, and architecture, and begin to make weapons for hunting. His wife, Sibylla, becomes pregnant, but Saturn keeps his promise to Titan and kills the baby. During a second pregnancy, an oracle foretells that the child will depose Saturn. This time Sibylla demands the privilege of killing her own child; but neither she nor her women can bring themselves to do it, so the baby is sent to a foster mother, the Princess of Epirus, and Saturn is deceived with the blood of a goat. Jupiter grows up in the court of King Melisseus of Epirus, and is sent as an envoy to conclude a peace with King Lycaon of Pelasgia; but Lycaon has murdered the Epirote hostage and offers his limbs to Jupiter as a cannibalistic banquet. Jupiter deposes Lycaon and the people elect him their King. During the conflict, he encounters Callisto, Lycaon’s daughter, and is attracted to her. She asks him to grant her a boon to prove his love; he promises, but her request is to live a chaste life as a nymph of Diana. She joins Diana, but the nymphs are already paired off, so she must await the next recruit to have a bedfellow. This turns out to be…
The Winter's Tale
Shakespeare, William · 1610 · Romance · King's Men
Polixenes of Bohemia is coming to the end of a nine-month stay at the Sicilian court of Leontes, his childhood playmate. Leontes cannot persuade him to extend his stay, but the pregnant queen, Hermione, has more success. Leontes conceives a suspicion that Polixenes and Hermione have committed adultery, and that her unborn child is a bastard. He commands Camillo to poison Polixenes, but instead Camillo warns the intended victim and escapes with him to Bohemia. Leontes arrests Hermione and sends to the oracle of Apollo for confirmation of her adultery. She gives birth to a daughter in prison, and Paulina hopes to bring Leontes to his senses by showing him the baby; instead, he orders her husband, Antigonus, to take it out of his dominions and abandon it. Hermione is tried for adultery and treason. The oracle, when read, exonerates her and foretells that, unless the lost be found, Leontes will have no heir. Leontes refuses to believe it, whereupon his son Mamillius, who fell sick when his mother was arrested, dies. Hermione collapses in court and is later reported dead. Antigonus abandons the baby on the coast of Bohemia, and is eaten by a bear. The child, Perdita, is found and adopted by an old shepherd. Sixteen years pass. The penitent Leontes, still mourning Hermione, attempts to recall Camillo to Sicily, but Polixenes will not let him go. Worried by rumours that Prince Florizel is courting a shepherd’s daughter, Polixenes attends the sheep-shearing feast in disguise. When…
The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois
Chapman, George · 1610 · Tragedy · Children of the Queen's Revels · Whitefriars;Indoor Professional
Before the start of the action, the Duke of Guise had Bussy D’Amboise and his brother Clermont brought ===== PAGE 63 ===== 1610 to court. Montsoreau had Bussy killed in reprisal for his adultery with Tamyra, and he died prophesying the deaths of Monsieur and Guise; his ghost then appeared to Clermont demanding revenge. Their sister Charlotte also seeks to avenge Bussy, and made her marriage to Baligny conditional on his swearing to participate in the plot; but Clermont insists on doing it alone, as the ghost commanded. Baligny’s role is, therefore, to deliver Clermont’s challenge to Montsoreau; but he cannot get access because Montsoreau has fearfully barricaded himself into his house. Two allies help him. Renel, who is selling his lands to Montsoreau, enables him to get in. When Montsoreau refuses to accept the challenge, Baligny leaves it behind anyway and Tamyra, who has reluctantly gone back to her husband, promises to make him read it. Unknown to the others, Baligny is reporting to the King on potential troublemakers like Clermont and Renel. The King is concerned at the growing power of Guise’s faction, so he and Baligny arrange for Clermont to be arrested: Clermont is to travel with Baligny to inspect the troops at Cambrai, and there he will be taken into custody by Baligny’s lieutenant, Maillard; thus Baligny will not have to participate directly in his brother-in-law’s downfall. Clermont has to leave Paris before concluding his business with Montsoreau. In Cambrai,…
A Christian Turned Turk (The Two Famous Pirates)
Daborne, Robert · 1610 · Tragedy · Unknown
By a ruse, the pirate Ward takes prisoner two French merchants, Ferdinand and Albert. He attacks the ship taking Alizia to her bridegroom, Young Raymond, and kills her brother; she escapes by disguising herself as a ship-boy, Fidelio. Another pirate, Francisco, challenges him for the spoils; they engage in single combat, and ultimately agree to share the booty. During the fight, Ward’s men Gismund and Gallop mutiny and steal a ship, and make for Tunis, taking the disguised Alizia with them. Ward swears vengeance, seizes further prisoners, among them Alizia’s fiancé, and sells them into slavery in Tunis. Gallop makes his peace with Ward by pretending he was abducted, like ‘Fidelio’. The Turkish authorities in Tunis attempt to convert Ward to Islam. He is initially reluctant, but agrees when Voada offers herself as his wife; even so, he evades circumcision by putting an ape’s tail under the knife instead of his penis. He marries Voada as planned and gives her ‘Fidelio’ as her page; but in fact ‘Fidelio’ has been the object of her affections all along, and she has no sexual interest in Ward. ‘Fidelio’ agrees to sleep with her if she arranges for a particular slave to escape, claiming him to be a brother (though of course it is really Young Raymond). To evade the sexual part of the bargain, ‘Fidelio’ then makes an alternative arrangement with Ward, who agrees to help her, but then double-crosses her by telling his wife. Voada kills Raymond, thinking he is trying to rob her of…
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…
A New Wonder, A Woman Never Vexed
Rowley, William; Heywood, Thomas (?) · 1611 · Comedy · Unknown
Old Forster has recently made his fortune by marrying a rich widow, but they are both dissatisfied with the financial irresponsibility of his brother and son, whom ===== PAGE 17 ===== 1624 they are on the point of disowning. Robert, the son, has purloined some of his stepmother’s money to buy his uncle, Stephen Forster, out of debtors’ prison; he also gives Stephen money to buy new clothes. Stephen uses the money for gambling, and is cheated. Robert is disappointed to find him in the gaming-house, and he himself likewise gets into trouble with his stepmother for going there, even though he only went in to look for Stephen. Mistress Forster has an uncommonly even- tempered friend, another rich widow, who enjoys miraculous good fortune. When she loses her wedding ring in the river, it turns up inside a salmon bought by her maid. She meets Stephen at the gaming-house and likes him. She suggests that he should marry for money, and offers herself. He accepts, and they perform a hand-fasting. Jane is being pursued by two undesirable suitors, an old knight and a young fool. Her father, Alderman Brune, suggests Robert Forster as a third option, if he can be reconciled with his father. Brune is Old Forster’s partner in a mercantile venture, but accepts Forster’s offer to buy him out; he takes payment in cloth rather than cash, which clears Forster’s warehouses for the new merchandise due in any day. However, Forster continues to look askance at Robert. News arrives that the ships…
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…
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…
The Brazen Age (The Age of Brass)
Heywood, Thomas · 1611 · Classical Myth · Queen Anne's Men
Hercules and the shape-changing Achelous fight for the hand of Dejanira; Achelous transforms himself into a series of monsters, but Hercules retains the upper hand, and Achelous concedes defeat after one of his bull’s horns is pulled off (later to become the cornucopia). Hercules takes Dejanira home, and en route they meet Nessus, the only survivor of Hercules’ massacre of the centaurs. Feigning friendship, the vindictive Nessus offers to carry Dejanira across the river on his back; but when he gets to the other side, he attempts to abduct her. Hercules shoots him and, dying, he tells Dejanira that his blood is a love-charm, which she should use on Hercules if he ever seems interested in another woman; in fact, it is poisonous. Hercules travels to Egypt, where King Busiris sacrifices foreigners, and kills him on his own altar, but refuses to accept his crown. During his absence, Diana, offended that King Oeneus has sacrificed to all the gods but her, sends a boar to ravage the Calydonian countryside. The lords of Greece gather to hunt the boar. One of them is Adonis, and Venus falls in love with him; he insists on hunting, the boar kills him, and she transforms him into a flower. Atalanta joins the hunt, and Meleager falls in love with her; when the boar is killed, he is awarded its head, but he offends his companions by presenting it to her. In the ensuing fight, Meleager kills his uncles. His mother Althea is torn between her duty to her brothers and to her son. Meleager’s…
Greene's Tu Quoque, or The City Gallant
Cooke, John · 1611 · Comedy · Queen Anne's Men
The gallant Geraldine woos the mercer’s daughter Gertrude. She is attracted to him, but feigns lack of interest. Her father, Sir Lionel, is newly knighted at court. He plans to give up life as a tradesman and leaves Spendall to run his shop. Spendall is prodigal with the shop’s money: he sups with a whore and her associates, borrows money, gambles, and_ lives extravagantly. Staines is in the clutches of a usurer, his servant Bubble’s uncle, and plans to cut and run: he dismisses Bubble and is about to flee London when news arrives that the usurer is dead. Bubble inherits the estate, hires his former master as a servant, and plans, with his advice, to make himself a gallant. Staines intends to bilk his money back from Bubble and then use it buy back his lands once Bubble is forced by prodigality to sell them. Bubble sends him to buy new clothes, but Staines wears them himself and uses the money to gamble; Bubble himself joins the game as one of his opponents. Staines cheats with false dice, but is discovered by Spendall. They fight a duel; after both sustain slight wounds, they become friends. Sir Lionel plans to marry Gertrude to Bubble, hoping to get control of his inheritance. Her sister Joyce tries to get her to accept Geraldine, but she is _ steadfast. Joyce tells Geraldine that Gertrude does love | him, and he induces her to reveal her true feelings by feigning suicide. Bubble comes to Sir Lionel’s house to woo Gertrude, but Staines advises him that the best way to win…
The 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…
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 Chaste Maid in Cheapside
Middleton, Thomas · 1613 · Comedy · Lady Elizabeth's Men · Swan;Outdoor Professional
Sir Walter Whorehound lives high on the expectation of an inheritance: unless Sir Oliver Kix produces an heir, his estate will pass to Sir Walter — and Sir Oliver is impotent. Sir Walter maintains Allwit and his wife, paying for everything, in return for exclusive sexual access to Mistress Allwit: he is the true father of the children presumed to be Allwit’s. But Sir Walter is ===== PAGE 327 ===== 1613 planning to discontinue the arrangement and get married: the goldsmith Yellowhammer has agreed to marry his son Tim to a Welsh gentlewoman whom Sir Walter has introduced as his niece, and Sir Walter hopes himself to marry Tim’s sister Moll. Moll has other ideas: her sweetheart Touchwood plans to elope with her, and has Yellowhammer himself make the wedding ring, umaware of the bride’s identity. The elopement is foiled, however: Yellowhammer and Sir Walter intervene just as Touchwood is putting the ring onto Moll’s finger, and Moll is taken home and locked up. Touchwood’s elder brother is poor but virile, and cannot afford to cohabit with his wife for fear that she may produce a legitimate child he will not have the means to support. He has fathered a prolific number of bastards, and refuses to acknowledge one of them when a former paramour, a country wench, brings it to him. She then disposes of the baby by duping two corrupt promoters set to prevent the illicit trade in meat during Lent: she hides the child in a basket and allows them to confiscate it as contraband. Lady…
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…
Sicelides (The Sicilians)
Fletcher, Phineas · 1615 · Pastoral · at University;
A year before the start of the action, Olinda rejected the love of Thalander, a friend of her brother Perindus. Thalander pined away, but sent Atyches to her with a final message and gift. Since then, Atyches has wooed her with equal lack of success. Now an enchanter has framed her for the crime of picking fruit from Neptune’s tree, and she is to be sacrificed to a sea-monster, the Orca, unless a champion comes forward to fight it on her behalf. Atyches does so, and kills the monster. In accordance with custom, she is - obliged to marry him. Atyches reveals to Perindus that he is really Thalander in disguise. Perindus once loved Glaucilla, but now refuses her after an oracle foretold trouble associated with both his and Olinda’s marriages: Olinda would die when married, and either Perindus or his bride would be cast from a rock. Cosma has come from the city to the seaside, where she attracts a number of lovers, including the foolish Pas, the ancient Fredocaldo, and the local Cyclops Rimbombo. She in turn is interested in Perindus, who does not reciprocate. She gives Glaucilla a medicine to cure the pangs of love, which Glaucilla gives to Olinda, who is secretly grieving for Thalander’s death; the medicine is poisoned, and Olinda dies. Glaucilla is condemned to be thrown from a rock for the murder. The long-lost father of Perindus and Olinda returns home to learn that his daughter is dead. Moreover, Perindus chooses to sacrifice his own life to save Glaucilla’s, and is thrown…
Thierry and Theodoret
Fletcher, John; Massinger, Philip; Anonymous · 1617 · Tragedy · King's Men · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
up her attempts lascivious to make his mother life and enter holy Brunhild orders. give Her · . 60 I 1848. Thierry, King of France, and his Brother Theodoret 1617 response is to abscond to her other son, Thierrv, whom she persuades to appoint her lover, Protaldi, tda senior military command. Theodoret follows her and Thierry faces a conflict of loyalty, which he resolves in his brother's favour. With Thierry's agreement, Martel demonstrates comprehensively that Protaldi is a coward, first by tricking him into giving up his sword without a fight, then showing to what lengths he will go to avoid having to fight a duel. Brunhild fears that Thierry's bride, Ordella, will eclipse her in preeminence, so at the wedding banquet she gives Thierry a potion that makes him impotent that night. Ordella is very understanding , but Thierry is concerned about the need to beget an heir, so Brunhild suggests he should consult a local hermit and astrologer. Her parasite, Lecure, impersonates the wise man, and tells Thierry that he will regain his potency ifhe kills the first female person he encounters the next day, whoever she may be. Lecure arranges for this to be Ordella herself. Not recognizing her in her veil, Thierry explains why she must die, and she agrees; but he cannot bring himself to go through with it when he realizes who she is. Martel dissuades Ordella from loyally committing suicide, and, suspecting a plot, has her pretend to be dead in order to smoke it out Meanwhile Brunhild…
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…
Orestes
Goffe, Thomas · 1617 · Tragedy · at University;
Agamemnon returns home after ten years of war. When he takes his neglected wife Clytemnestra to bed, she and her lover Aegisthus murder him. Roused by bad dreams, his son Orestes finds the body in bed. Feigning innocence, Clytemnestra curses the murderer, while the surviving Trojan glories in the death of the enemy commander: Troy is avenged. Recognizing that he is in danger, Orestes goes into hiding with Pylades until the murderer is identified, and sends a report that, unhinged with grief, he threw himself off a cliff into the sea, and that Pylades also went over trying to stop him. Aegisthus, the next in line, ascends the throne and marries Clytemnestra. She bears him a son, establishing his dynasty, and in celebration he proclaims a general pardon for all crimes. Orestes and Pylades consult the witch Canidia, who shows them a vision of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus committing the murder. They return to court in disguise. Their plotting is overheard by Misander, and they kill him to preserve secrecy, but are immediately arrested. In judging the case, Aegisthus faces two problems: the crime is covered by the general pardon, and each defendant, seeking to save the other, claims that he alone was the murderer. Aegisthus decides not to pass a death sentence on either, and is further impressed when Pylades introduces Orestes as a doctor who has perfected the secret of rejuvenation. Aegisthus asks for a demonstration, using himself and Clytemnestra as the subjects. Agamemnon’s…
The Fatal Dowry
Field, Nathan; Massinger, Philip · 1619 · Tragedy · King's Men · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
. Before the start of the action, the Marshal Charolais bankrupted himself to pay the army, and died in a debtors’ prison. Now his creditors seek to detain his body, preventing it from being buried. His son appeals in the courts, but the measure is pronounced legal; however, the creditors accept Young Charolais’s offer to be imprisoned himself, and the funeral takes place. Being poor, Charolais has no hope of ever being released, but Rochfort pays the debt and, in return, asks that Charolais marry his daughter Beaumelle. Before the marriage, Young Novall paid Beaumelle’s waiting-woman Bellapert to help him seduce her. Despite now being Charolais’s wife, Beaumelle proves receptive to his continued courting, but their meeting is witnessed by Charolais’s friend Romont. He intervenes and sends Novall packing, much to Beaumelle’s displeasure, then accuses her, first to Rochfort and then to her husband, but neither will believe him. Finally he confronts Novali and forces him at gunpoint to sign a confession and undertake never to see or contact Beaumelle again. Novall does not keep his word: Charolais catches him with Beaumelle and kills him. He then presents his wife to her father as the accused in an adultery trial. As a judge, Rochfort is obliged to condemn her to death, a sentence Charolais readily carries out; but as a father, he takes her part and accuses Charolais of ingratitude. The young man is arrested and tried for Novall’s murder. He admits the killing, but pleads that…
The Two Merry Milkmaids, or The Best Words Wear the Garland
Cumber, John (?) · 1619 · Comedy · Red Bull (Revels) Company (first) · before the Court;
Bernard sneaks into his tutor Landoff’s study, reads his magic books, and attempts to conjure up the devil. The spirit who appears is in fact Landoff himself in disguise: he has been trying to. find out why his pupil is melancholy, and left his study door unlocked so that the prospect of magic might cause him to reveal the answer. It does: Bernard wants to go home because he has fallen for a local girl, Julia, but has not yet plucked up the courage to tel her. Dorilus tries to court the proud, ambitious Dorigen, but she has her sights set on becoming a duchess. On - hearing that the Duke is coming to the area, she and Julia dress up as milkmaids and go to see him. The Duke is attracted by Dorigen’s flirtatious manner, and he grants her a boon. She asks that he make her father an earl, and, once that is done, she points out that there is no impediment of rank preventing him from 1619 marrying her. He does so, but Dorilus persists in his attentions after the wedding. She promises to reciprocate if he fulfils an impossible task: to bring her a garland containing every species of flower, which will remain fresh so long as he is constant in his love. Landoff, still posing as a spirit, agrees to fetch him the blooms, and Dorilus gladly signs away his estate to Bernard by way of payment. Presented with the garland, Dorigen is disconcerted to realize that she will have to keep her side of the bargain. She confesses to the Duke, who seems unconcerned at the prospect of her adultery,…
All's Lost by Lust
Rowley, William · 1619 · Tragedy · Prince Charles's Men (first) · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Spain is threatened by an invasion of Moors, but an ancient curse prevents King Roderick from opening his treasury to pay his troops. Julianus is appointed general and goes to the war. Roderick’s intention is to get Julianus out of the way while he attempts to seduce Jacinta, his daughter; Lothario engages a professional bawd to help. Jacinta resists Roderick’s advances, so he rapes her. She is then imprisoned in Lothario’s custody, but she escapes while he is asleep. Meanwhile, Antonio is in love with the base-born Margaretta, and procures her family’s consent to marry her before he leaves for the war. At the front, the Moors are reluctant to give battle, and seem undermanned. Antonio is attracted to Dionysia, the Castellan’s pugnacious daughter, and she encourages his advances. Lazarello advises him to keep quiet about his existing marriage, and pay Margaretta off. Margaretta learns that Antonio has married Dionysia bigamously, and sends her brother to the wars with a letter for him. Antonio is in a dilemma: he loves both women. Lazarello proposes that he should take Antonio’s place at the consummation of his marriage with Margaretta: she will mistake him for Antonio in the dark, and afterwards will be too ashamed to claim her husband. The plan is successful only to the extent that Lazarello is taken to be Antonio by the vindictive Margaretta: she strangles him in his bed. Julianus returns from war victorious, but Roderick orders him to stay away from court, and demands…
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…
The Heir
May, Thomas · 1620 · Comedy · Red Bull (Revels) Company (first)
In order to facilitate a marriage between his daughter Leucothoe and the wealthy Count Virro, Polymetes has the rumour put about that his son Eugenio has died during a trip overseas, which means that Leucothoe is now his heir. Among her many other admirers is Philocles, the son of Polymetes’ enemy, Euphues; he is barred from direct access to her, but is able to see her through the window of his friend Clerimont’s lodgings, next door to Polymetes’ house. He overhears her admitting that she does not love Virro, who is too old for her, but has fallen in love with a young man she saw riding in the street: Philocles. He throws a letter to her, and she plans an assignation with him in her father’s absence. Eugenio returns home disguised as the scholar Irus, but Polymetes seems less interested in the news of his son’s survival than that the rumour of his death should not be contradicted. Polymetes learns of Philocles’ assignation with Leucothoe; he and ‘Irus’ eavesdrop on it and hear the lovers plan to elope, even though stealing an heiress is a capital crime. Approving of his sister’s choice, Eugenio tells Virro that he will be marrying Leucothoe under false pretences, since the true heir is still alive; but Virro’s response is to hire ‘Irus’ to poison Eugenio. Polymetes catches Philocles and Leucothoe in the act of elopement, and Euphues’ attempts to secure a pardon are fruitless. Leucothoe’s pleading has more effect on the King, but only because he is attracted to her: he swears…
The World Tossed at Tennis
Middleton, Thomas; Rowley, William · 1620 · Masque · Prince Charles's Men (first)
The royal palaces of Richmond and St James now have a rival, Denmark House. Richmond is afraid that the newcomer will take all Prince Charles’s attention, leaving them neglected; but Denmark House assures them that each is suitable for a particular season (herself for winter, St James’s for spring, and Richmond for summer), and that the Prince will rotate among them equally. An unemployed scholar and an unemployed soldier consider their options. Their patroness Pallas descends, argues that the complete man combines both their professions, art and arms together, and invokes Jupiter's help. Jupiter presents the Muses and the Nine 1620 Worthies as an illustration of the virtue of former times. Time weeps at the encroaching vice of the present; he finds himself continually abused and hated. Deceit and pride have damaged the world in its latter days, and Jupiter summons the five coloured starches as illustrations of the absurdity of modern fashion. White Starch claims precedence over the others, but Yellow wins acclaim. Simplicity arrives to see what has become of the world (represented on stage by a globe), and is not reassured by his observations. Deceit wants to cozen him of the world, Simplicity to protect it from Deceit’s bad influence. Deceit successively gains the confidence of a series of men with worldly power: a king, a land- captain, a sea-captain, a flamen, and a lawyer. Each in turn is persuaded that the world should belong to him: the King takes it from Simplicity,…
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 Maid of Honor
Massinger, Philip · 1621 · Tragicomedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Before the start of the action, Aurelia, Duchess of Siena, refused a marriage proposal by Ferdinand, Duke of Urbino. In reprisal, Ferdinand attacked Siena, conquered it, but then found himself trapped inside the city by the regrouped Sienese troops. To raise the siege, he invokes a defensive treaty with Sicily, but King Roberto refuses to honour it because Ferdinand was the aggressor and has brought his troubles on himself. However, he allows his bastard half-brother Bertoldo to go to war with a volunteer army. The court favourite Fulgentio takes advantage of Bertoldu: absence to woo his fiancée, Camiola. But she misses Bertoldo and refuses Fulgentio; his mpaste 1s to produce Roberto’s ring and make it a reval order that she accept him. She wishes Bertoldo were present to defend her honour: another suitor. Adurni. steps in. fights a duel, and wounds Fulgentio, which gets him into trouble with the King. Far trom raising the siege. Bertolde is routed by Gonzaga, Aurelia’s general. Both men are kKrughts «1 Malta, and Gonzaga is affronted to find Bertalds: unmindtul of chivalry as to be leading an ara searnst a lady’s interests. Roberta seuds Astutio te ransens: the Sicilian prisoners of war, but Bertoldo from the payment of his ransam by any private cen © aiid, expressly crcbeudhe + a ' torbnds ihe arrangement and ignores the order and sends Adurnt Go pay the ratsern Bertoldy is released. abligation to marry Camtola: bat Aurelia asks 1) him, falls in love with huni. arranges a…
The Bondman (The Noble Bondman)
Massinger, Philip · 1623 · Tragicomedy · Lady Elizabeth's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Carthage has territorial designs on Sicily, so Corinth sends its general, Timoleon, to take charge of the defence of Syracuse. On arrival, he criticizes the Sicilians for appointing unworthy and inexperienced senators and for general corruption. He decrees that all private wealth should be sequestered to pay for the war. It is an unpopular measure until Cleora public- spiritedly gives up her jewels, forcing the others to follow her example. Cleora has several suitors, including Pisander of Thebes; but her brother Timagoras, keen for her to marry his friend Leosthenes, slandered Pisander to induce their father to send him away. Now that the young men are going to war, Leosthenes is jealous about what she may get up to in his absence, so she promises literally not to see or say anything until his return. The slaves of Syracuse take advantage of the absence of the army and rebel, enslaving their former masters. The ringleader is Cleora’s slave Marullo, who claims to be motivated by unrequited passion for his mistress, but, when he gains access to her, disclaims any intention of raping her and receives in return a wordless acknowledgement of her regard for him. He encourages the former slaves to treat their former masters well, since their positions may again be reversed. News arrives of a victory over the Carthaginians, with particular military distinction achieved by Leosthenes. The rebellious slaves man the city’s walls and gates to keep out the returning army; from the…
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…
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 Duchess of Suffolk
Drue, Thomas · 1624 · History · Prince Palatine's (Palsgrave's) Men
King Edward VI orders the widowed Duchess of Suffolk to marry the Count Palatine, newly elected the . King of Poland. Other aristocratic suitors present themselves, but she contracts herself to her servant Bertie. Bishops Gardiner and Bonner are imprisoned, and Bonner swears revenge when the Duchess insults him. Queen Mary succeeds to the throne, releases the imprisoned bishops and appoints them commissioners to exterminate heresy. Bonner has Bertie arrested, but permits him to go abroad; he then has the Duchess arrested and her household broken up. Forced to choose which of its members will remain in her service, she selects Cranwell above Fox, who takes it badly. Bonner’s men have little success in detaining the Duchess and her associates: Dr Sandys escapes by impersonating a workman, and the Duchess also sneaks out of London with Cranwell, her baby daughter, and its nurse. The workmen are arrested and brought before Bonner, who orders them burned, but forgets about them when he hears news of the Duchess’s whereabouts. He goes with Fox to Leigh, where she and her remaining household have assembled in disguise at Gosling’s house, but Fox helps them to escape by ‘accidentally’ knocking Bonner into a well. The Duchess and Bertie meet at Emden. Still wanted by the English authorities, they decide to travel separately, but Bertie is concerned for his wife’s safety and is on hand to rescue her from being raped when her party is attacked by thieves. The nurse first flees with the…
A New Trick to Cheat the Devil
Davenport, Robert · 1625 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men (?); Lady Elizabeth's Men (?)
Anne Changeable wants to marry Slightall, with her father’s consent, but her mother persuades her that marriage to Lord Scales will be better for her social standing. Slightall takes rejection badly: he turns to misogyny and voluptuous hedonism. One of his servants, Roger, tries unsuccessfully to dissuade him from squandering his money, while the other, Geoffrey, helps make an arrangement with a usurer to supply him with a further £1,000 — the usurer’s objective being to acquire his land. Lord Scales visits Anne, and she finds that he is not a good kisser: Slightall is the better catch in every respect save his lack of a title; but when she tries to reactivate the romance, Slightall rejects her. He has been ruined by prodigality and pays off his servants; Geoffrey is taken on by Lord Scales, but Roger declines a similar offer. Anne insults everyone who persuaded her to jilt Slightall, but this only makes Lord Scales more attracted to her. Changeable promises Anne that he will get Slightall back for her. Driven out of his wits with melancholy, Slightall conjures up Beelzebub, and makes a contract: the devil will give him enough money to pay his debts in exchange for the right to take his soul when he no longer owes anyone anything. On the day his debt to the usurer falls due, he turns out to have ample money to pay, so the usurer gets his money back rather than the lands he coveted. Asked by Anne to give Slightall some financial support, Lord Scales finds his offer rejected…
The Elder Brother
Fletcher, John; Massinger, Philip · 1625 · Comedy · King's Men · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
Louis wishes his lazy daughter Angelina would take more exercise, but her woman Sylvia has a better idea: she should get married. Unfortunately Angelina has high standards: when Louis proposes one or other of Brisac’s sons, Charles the scholar and Eustace the courtier, she objects that neither will have the money to keep her as she would wish. Louis pursues the idea anyway, but the bookish Charles, who has only ever seen one woman, his mother, has been put off marriage by the bad examples of antiquity. Louis is willing to accept Eustace, the younger brother, so long as Brisac agrees to disinherit Charles. Much to the disgust of Charles’s uncle, Miramont, a legal instrument is drawn up for the purpose. Charles seems unconcerned by his father’s plans, until he sees Angelina, whereupon he changes his mind about women, refuses to sign away his birthright, and woos the girl himself. She finds him more attractive than Eustace, and the wedding is aborted. Brisac throws him out; Angelina goes with him, and they live together in unmarried chastity. Spurred on by his father, Eustace visits them at night and tries to seize Angelina, but Charles puts up a fight and takes Eustace’s sword from him. Brisac has arranged for Charles’s servant Andrew to marry Lily, and given the couple a farm; but in reality Lily is his mistress and, on the same night as the brothers fight, he visits her for sex. Andrew brings Miramont to the farm to see the liaison for himself, and intervenes as Brisac is…
The Vow Breaker, or The Fair Maid of Clifton
Sampson, William · 1625 · Tragedy
Though Young Bateman is betrothed to Anne Boot and loved by her, her father reneges on the ===== PAGE 347 ===== 1628 arrangement. Meanwhile, war looms: England enters an alliance with a federation of Scottish lords hostile to the French Queen Regent of Scotland, and troops are being recruited to march north. Bateman joins up, hoping that his absence will make Old Boot’s heart grow fonder, and Anne vows to love only him; but her father puts pressure on her to marry German, and, seduced by his wealth, she agrees. The French are vanquished, and Bateman distinguishes himself in battle; but he is troubled by dreams about Anne, and returns home on the day of her wedding, just missing the ceremony. German goes away on a long business trip, leaving Anne in her father’s house. Old Bateman sues Boot for breach of the pre-contract; Young Bateman hangs himself outside Anne’s door, and his ghost haunts Anne, invisible to the rest of her family. Anne gives birth to a baby girl. While the women around her sleep, she sees the ghost and runs out of the house; following her footsteps in the snow, the household find her drowned in the river. The two bereaved fathers, Boot and Bateman, commiserate together. In Scotland, Sir Gervase Clifton insults the Queen Regent by drawing an unfavourable comparison with Queen Elizabeth, and captures Martigues in a single combat, but releases him with honour. Joshua the Puritan intends to hang his cat for Sabbath-breaking - she killed a mouse on Sunday - but…
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…
The Maid's Revenge
Shirley, James · 1626 · Tragedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
PLOT Sebastiano hopes that his friend Antonio will marry one of his sisters, and introduces him to the family, even though the girls both have suitors already. Antonio falls for Berinthia, but her father, Vilarezo, will not allow her to marry until the elder daughter, Catalina, is wed. Catalina herself becomes enamoured of Antonio, which makes her jealous of her sister and annoys her suitor, Montenegro. After Antonio is called away, Catalina plots to frustrate his wooing: she persuades Valasco, Berinthia’s other suitor, to damn her reputation by claiming that Berinthia has promised to marry him; Vilarezo responds by ordering Berinthia’s confinement in Catalina’s custody. Antonio writes to Berinthia, but the letter falls into Catalina’s hands. Catalina proposes that Valasco should force the issue by kidnapping Berinthia; but her real plan is for him to take the blame for Berinthia’s death by poison. Antonio’s servant overhears the plot and warns his master. Antonio comes to rescue Berinthia, and is admitted by Catalina’s chambermaid, who takes him for Valasco; together they escape to Antonio’s castle. Upon realizing that Antonio is his daughter’s abductor, Vilarezo sends Sebastiano to take reprisals. Though told the truth and treated honourably, he feels obliged to fight a duel with Antonio, and wins: Antonio is killed and Berinthia brought home. Antonio’s sister Castabella, who has fallen in love with Sebastiano despite her brother’s death, follows him disguised as a page.…
The 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 Cruel Brother
Davenant, William · 1627 · Tragedy · King's Men · Blackfriars;Indoor Professional
As a favour to Lucio, to whom he is devoted, the Duke appoints the low-born Foreste his secretary, the first port of call for ali suitors seeking monopolies and preferment. Lucio also wants to marry Foreste’s sister, 1627 Corsa, arguing that she is ennobled by her virtue, though not her ancestry. He goes through with the marriage secretly, without the Duke’s permission; but the Duke is impressed by Corsa when they are introduced, and has her brought to court so that the marriage can be properly celebrated with masques and revels. Foreste humiliates the satirist Castruccio, but his elevation to the secretaryship prevents Castruccio from challenging him to a duel. The poet initially takes a literary revenge, but, when the Duke asks about his satires, he is too cowardly to admit that Foreste is the target. The rustic Lothario comes to court, dressing foppishly in the hope of becoming a ducal favourite. Castruccio persuades him that his lack of success is Foreste’s fault. Lothario accosts Foreste offensively and finds himself imprisoned in a tiny cell. The Duke’s real intention in bringing Corsa to court is to seduce her. He engages Foreste’s wife as an unwitting go-between, then sends Lucio away overnight on a diplomatic mission. With Castruccio’s assistance, he visits Corsa, and rapes her. Foreste learns of the rape and slits the dishonoured Corsa’s wrist; she bleeds to death. On his return, Lucio takes a more lenient view than Foreste — he places more weight on the compulsion…
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 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 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 Grateful Servant (The Faithful Servant)
Shirley, James · 1629 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
PLOT The Duke of Savoy was to marry Leonora, Princess of Milan; but with the death of her father, the Milanese feared falling under the dominion of Savoy and have tried to force her to marry her uncle instead. Rather than go to war, the Duke redirects his amorous attentions to Cleona, who is Savoy-born and so poses none of the problems of language and obedience associated with a foreign wife. Cleona has just lost another lover, Foscari, who was reported dead on a journey. In fact, he has returned with a new page, Dulcino, whom he rescued from the banditti. He sends Dulcino with a letter announcing his return. Cleona at once loses all interest in the Duke; but when Foscari learns that he is the Duke’s rival in love, he decides to bow out: Dulcino is sent back to make a false confession that the letter was a forgery and that Foscari is dead after all, clearing the way for the Duke’s suit and Cleona’s advancement. The Duke, however, finds himself unaccountably attracted to Dulcino. Foscari intends to become a monk, taking Dulcino with him. Dulcino does not share this ambition: ‘he’ is really Leonora, who fled Milan to escape the forced marriage. The monk sent to negotiate Foscari’s admission to the abbey turns out to be the one who also helped her to abscond, Valentino, and he promises to arrange matters. Meanwhile the Duke learns that Foscari is alive, but promises to keep it from Cleona until after the monastic initiation ceremony, which they are both to witness. In the…
Amyntas, or The Impossible Dowry
Randolph, Thomas · 1630 · Pastoral · King's Revels Company · before the Court;Whitehall;
More than sixteen years before the start of the action, Claius stole Lalage, the girlfriend of Philaebus. Philaebus grew melancholy and his father Pilumnus prayed to Ceres for vengeance on Lalage, who duly died in childbirth. This didn’t help Philaebus, who pined to death on her grave. Ceres declared that she will remain angry until the blood of Claius both quenches and kindles fire; so Claius fled, pursued by Corymbus, determined to kill him and lift the curse. But Ceres also disapproved of Pilumnus’ vindictiveness, and further declared that his daughter Urania will have 1630 an unhappy marriage unless her fiancé Amyntas, Claius’ son, gives her as a dowry something he does not, may not, and cannot have. The riddle so occupied his mind that he went mad. All this strife convinces Medorus that the time is not right for his daughter Laurinda to fall in love. She is herself averse to committing herself in marriage (since marriages always seem to end in unhappiness), and cannot make up her mind between her two suitors, Damon and Alexis. Damon is also the object of Amaryllis’ affections, but he is only interested in Laurinda. The two suitors would like to settle matters by fighting a duel, but bloodshed is a capital crime in the sacred vale, so they make a suicide pact instead. Laurinda dissuades them from carrying it out, and promises that she will finally accept one of them tomorrow: all three must accept the decision of the first virgin they meet coming out of the temple in the…
The Spanish Bawd (Calisto and Meliboea) (Celestina)
Mabbe, James, trans.; Rojas, Fernando de · 1631 · Literary Tragicomedy
Looking for a lost hawk, Calisto meets Melibea in a garden and falls in love with her, but she rejects his attentions, thinking them presumptuous. His servant Sempronio tries to talk him out of love, and, having failed, agrees to help. He calls in the services of the bawd Celestina (partly to give him an excuse to visit Elicia, a prostitute, whom he himself loves), and she comes lo Calisto's house. There she meets another servant, Parmeno, who served her when he was a boy. She tells him that his dead mother entrusted her with the secret of where his inheritance is hidden, and promises him the love of Areusa, if he will leave his master and patch up his feud with Sempronio.Having paid for Celestina's assistance, Calisto becomes impatient and sends Sempronio to chivvy her. She casts a spell, creating an enchanted clew of yarn which will compel Melibea to love Calisto. She goes to Melibea's house and sells her the clew, but it does not have the desired effect: she tells Melibea about a sick man, and Melibea seems ready to take pity on him until she hears his name, whereupon she orders Celestina out of the house. Celestina insists that she was not procuring under cover of a metaphor: Calisto has a toothache and has sent her to fetch Melibea's magic girdle, which will cure it. Melibea agrees to send the girdle, but cannot write out the accompanying charm straight away; Celestina will have to return and collect it the following morning. Celestina reports to Calisto, asking for new…
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 Traitor
Shirley, James · 1631 · Tragedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men
PLOT Lorenzo plots against both the Duke and his political rivals. He induces Pisano to jilt his fiancée Amidea and transfer his affections to the wealthy Oriana, who loves Cosmo; this will block Cosmo’s political ascent by denying him Oriana’s money. Cosmo, motivated by male friendship, agrees to give up his girlfriend. The Duke is warned against Lorenzo, but when he publicly confronts Lorenzo with the letter of denunciation, the traitor argues plausibly that it is a malicious libel. The sexually undisciplined Duke is attracted to Amidea, and Lorenzo arranges an assignation for him, but also inflames her brother Sciarrha with a desire for revenge: the liaison is to be the occasion for the Duke’s assassination. When he comes to Sciarrha’s, the Duke is shown a moral masque rebuking royal lust, but he is so busy chatting up Amidea that he doesn’t watch the entertainment. He visits Amidea in her bedroom, but she keeps him off by threatening suicide, and he returns to his senses. Sciarrha is satisfied: he denounces Lorenzo to the Duke, but when Lorenzo is told that the assassination has taken place, with the Duke eavesdropping, the traitor disclaims all knowledge and again re-establishes his good faith. De Pazzi, Lorenzo’s ally, worries that his part in the treason will lead to his execution, and asks to be excused from further complicity; he gets his wish to leave court when the Duke banishes him. Oriana’s mother, believing Cosmo is a poor match while his enemy Lorenzo is in…
Holland's Leaguer
Marmion, Shackerley · 1631 · Comedy · Prince Charles's Men (second) · Salisbury Court;Indoor Professional
Six years ago, Faustina’s father sent her abroad to keep her away from her love, Fidelio, and made her swear not to marry for seven years. Now the old man is dead, she has returned to London, known only to Fidelio, but insists on keeping her oath for the last remaining year. Her brother Philautus is in love with himself, which distresses his friends and offends his wife, but gives his servant Ardelio the opportunity to steal from him by conveying away property into storage at an accomplice’s house. Fidelio plans to make him fall in love with Faustina; this will both cure him and test her fidelity. He explains it to Faustina as a plan to humiliate a lord who has cast aspersions on women. Philautus makes advances to Faustina on the assumption that all women are libidinous and enjoy being raped from time to time; but he is impressed by her militant chastity, and accedes to her demand that he prove his honour in battle. He later returns from the wars, cured of narcissism, and asks Faustina’s pardon for his earlier insolence. She identifies herself as his sister, and he gives his blessing to her marriage to Fidelio; so she agrees to abandon her oath before the seven years are out. On learning that Ardelio is a villain, Philautus dismisses him. He goes to collect the stolen goods, only to find that his partner in crime will not acknowledge that the items even exist. The ensuing argument is overheard, and the miscreants are both arrested, In the sub-plot, Agurtes intends to cheat…
The Wonder of A Kingdom
Dekker, Thomas · 1631 · Comedy · Prince Charles's Men (first) (?)
The Duke of Florence has betrothed his daughter, Fiametta, to the Prince of Pisa, and, to facilitate the political marriage, banished her lover, Angelo. Fiametta sickens for her absent love, and he returns to court disguised as a French doctor, offering the Duke his services to save her life. He diagnoses sexual frustration, and proposes a cure which requires the patient to drink a potion made from the beloved’s powdered heart: she will then hate him. In order to obtain the key ingredient, Angelo must be murdered. Angelo reveals his presence to Fiametta, but she insists on identifying him to her father, in the expectation that the Duke will relent. Angelo passes this off as an insane delusion, then flees to sanctuary. He is found and brought to court with a friar. He seems to reject Fiametta, and she agrees to marry Pisa the following day, but asks for the friar to hear her confession overnight. In fact, he secretly marries her to Angelo, pre-empting Pisa; the Duke and Prince are annoyed, but recognize there is nothing to be done about it. In the sub-plot, Lord Vanni has amorous inclinations younger than his physical age, and sends a love-letter and jewel to the chaste Alphonsina Neri. Meanwhile, Alphonsina’s brother Tibaldo has fallen sick for love of Vanni’s wife Dariene. He asks Alphonsina to accept Vanni’s advances, and Vanni duly excuses himself from Dariene’s bed. Tibaldo has arranged for himself to be present disguised as Alphonsina’s sister, and offers himself as an…
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 Jealous Lovers
Randolph, Thomas · 1632 · Comedy · before the Court;at University;
Simo lives an ascetic life so that his son Asotus will inherit a large fortune. Asotus asks for money now, and is given some. His tutor Ballio persuades him that it is vulgar to carry his own purse, and undertakes to do so for him. Tyndarus and Techmessa are both prone to jealousy of their respective lovers, Evadne and Pamphilus; Tyndarus even doubts Evadne’s chastity when she kisses him over-enthusiastically. Asotus tries to chat up Evadne, but she refuses him. He manages to purloin one of her ear-rings and, to avenge himself for the rebuff, shows it to Tyndarus, who reacts predictably. Ballio makes a play for Techmessa by encouraging her to think Pamphilus unwilling to defend her honour, and she charges him to take Pamphilus’ sword from him. He steals it from Pamphilus’ page while he is delivering letters to Techmessa, then tells her that he was given it by Pamphilus rather than rise to the provocation to fight. The page summons officers to arrest Ballio, and he confesses the ruse. Asotus also admits his slander of Evadne, and both are allowed to choose their own punishment; they elect to cudgel one another. Techmessa and Tyndarus decide to test their lovers: Tyndarus asks Pamphilus to woo Evadne, and Techmessa asks Evadne to respond to Tyndarus’ advances; the result confirms them in their jealousy, until the situation is explained. Techmessa’s mother Dipsas is keen to cross Evadne’s love, partly because she resents the fact that Evadne was brought up in her household…
Love's Riddle
Cowley, Abraham · 1633 · Pastoral
Before the start of the action, Callidora was the victim of an attempted rape when she was alone in her absent parents’ house. Aphron, who was obsessed with her, broke into the house, but she hid in a corner and evaded him. Afraid of a second encounter, she borrowed a suit of her brother’s clothes and fled into the forest. Aphron went mad, and initially believed every woman he met to be Callidora. In the forest, the cross-dressed Callidora becomes ‘Callidorus’. She meets Alupis, a shepherd who sold his inheritance to see the city and came home penniless but with a witty devotion to pleasure. She takes him on as her man, and asks him to teach her indifference to love. She sets up home in the country, only to find that, seeming to be a beautiful youth, she attracts the amorous attentions of the local women, young and old. Palaemon is interested in marrying Hylace, but her father Melarnus refuses the match, thinking him too poor. But Hylace has only been leading him on, more interested in his gifts than himself. Alupis encourages him to turn the tables: she will come to heel if he treats her with masterful disdain; but when this doesn’t bring about her immediate devotion, he loses his nerve and tells her it was all a joke. Alupis decides to recruit her mother, the ancient but amorously inclined Truga, to support Palaemon’s suit. Though infatuated with ‘Callidorus’, Truga transfers her affections to Alupis when he speaks politely to her, and gives him a ring as a lover’s token.…
A Fine Companion
Marmion, Shackerley · 1633 · Comedy · Prince Charles's Men (second) · before the Court;Salisbury Court;Whitehall;Indoor Professional
Aurelio was disinherited after his father perceived him as a rival in love, so the estate passed to his younger brother, Careless. As a result, Littlegood the usurer no longer considers Aurelio an eligible son-in-law; but Valeria, Aurelio’s girlfriend, is determined to stick with him despite the material disadvantages. Careless has capitalized his inheritance by mortgaging the lands to Littlegood; intending to use his wealth to acquire the reputation of being a fine companion, he has taken up with Captain Whibble and his crew of drinkers. Littlegood favours Spruce as a husband for Valeria. Spruce is really only interested in sex, and intends to jilt her afterwards; but her refusal only increases his interest. Aurelio sends Valeria his ring, but she drops it; Spruce finds it and uses it to make Aurelio jealous. Aurelio had planned a ruse whereby Valeria would feign madness, but now he intends to drive her truly mad. Reports of her distress bring him back to his senses: he confronts Spruce and makes him admit that the accusation against her was malicious and mendacious. Dotario, appalled at his nephew Careless’s prodigality, plans to marry and beget an heir so that the young wastrel will not get his hands on a second estate. He woos Littlegood’s younger daughter, Aemilia, who puts him off by describing what a shrewish spendthrift of a wife she would be. She is more interested in Careless, who pays her a drunken visit, but is pressured by her father into giving Dotario a more…
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 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,…
The Young Admiral
Shirley, James · 1633 · Tragicomedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Cesario has provoked a war between Sicily and Naples by wounding the King of Sicily’s favourite, Horatio, and by refusing to marry his daughter, Rosinda; he is more interested in Cassandra, the girlfriend of the Neapolitan Admiral Vittori. He pesters her unsuccessfully while Vittori is away fighting the war, then has Vittori’s father Alphonso imprisoned. When Vittori returns in triumph, he finds the city gates shut against him on Cesario’s orders. Offered a reward by the King, Cesario’s father, Vittori asks for Alphonso’s freedom; the King agrees only on condition that Vittori and Cassandra go into exile. The banished pair are shipwrecked on the Neapolitan coast and fall into the hands of the regrouped Sicilian army. Cassandra is taken into Rosinda’s custody and Vittori offered a choice: if he agrees to lead the army against Naples, Cassandra’s life will be spared. Torn between love and honour, he chooses love. He goes to Naples, disguised as a herald, and tries to persuade the King to surrender; but Cesario complicates his dilemma by sending back the message that Alphonso will be executed if Vittori fights. The threat is a bluff: after the message is sent, Alphonso is appointed to command the Neapolitan army against his son. Rosinda is with the invasion forces because, despite everything, she loves Cesario. Cassandra writes to him to set up an assignation, intending that Rosinda should go in her place. Cesario agrees to come into the Sicilian camp for the meeting, but the…
Love's Sacrifice
1633 · Tragedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
D'Avolos induces Roseilli to leave court by inventing a ducal order of banishment, then intervenes in a developing love-quadrangle: the Duke has recently married Bianca, who is loved by Fernando, who in turn is loved by Fiormonda. Bianca repeatedly refuses to hear Fernando's protestations, but later visits him in bed while the Duke is away hunting, and admits that she reciprocates his love. However, he will not take dishonourable advantage of the situation, and adultery does not occur. D'Avolos learns of their mutual attraction, andtells Fiormonda. With Fernando's connivance, Roseilli returns to court disguised as a fool, and is placed in Fiormonda's household. Ferentes woos three women-Colona, Julia, and old Morona-and under promise of marriage gets each of them pregnant; he then refuses to honour his word to any of them. Fernando proposes to welcome Bianca's uncle to court with a masque, but the jilted women use it as a front for revenge, and kill Ferentes during the performance. They are bailed into male custody and eventually pardoned, but old Mauruccio, the only other masquer deemed criminally responsible, is imprisoned. Bianca and Fernando plead for his release, which is granted after Morona agrees to marry him, but the couple are then banished. D'Avolos casually draws the Duke's attention to Bianca's solicitude towards Fernando, and works with Fiormonda to foster his jealousy: they insinuate that Ferentes was killed to silence him, but the Duke asks for ocular proof…
The Example
Shirley, James · 1634 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Money troubles have driven Sir Walter Peregrine to go to war in Europe to keep him away from his creditors in England. In his absence, his wife Bellamia is being pursued by Lord Fitzavarice, who plies her with rich gifts. She chastely refuses him, but he feels that, since he is known to have courted her, it is a matter of honour that the seduction should succeed. He pursues her to her chamber and offers to surrender her husband’s mortgage if she will sleep with him, then pay off his debts £100 a time in return for subsequent nights of passion. When she still refuses him, he threatens rape, and she faints. The experience converts him from his louche ways: he is relieved to learn that she is not dead, and returns the mortgage anyway, impressed with her virtue. A captain comes from the Netherlands on a recruiting mission. Sir Walter takes the opportunity to accompany him and pays a flying visit to his wife. She proposes to pay his debts with Lord Fitzavarice’s gifts, but he assumes that these are the rewards of adultery and challenges the Lord to a duel. Fitzavarice, recognizing that he is obliged to answer the challenge, appoints Confident as his second. But Confident’s reputation for valour is undeserved: rather than have to prove it by fighting, he tips off Sir Walter’s creditors and has him arrested for his debts before the duel can take place. Lord Fitzavarice disowns the ploy and secures Sir Walter’s release by paying his debts. Sir Walter realizes that his suspicions…
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 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.
A Challenge for Beauty
Heywood, Thomas · 1635 · Tragicomedy · King's Men · Blackfriars;Globe;Indoor Professional;Outdoor Professional
The marriage of Sebastian and Isabella unites the crowns of Portugal and Spain. Covetous of excessive praise, the proud Isabella solicits flattery from her courtiers. Two comply, but Bonavida criticizes her arrogant self-regard and is banished: he may return only when he can produce a woman who is Isabella’s equal in beauty, so he travels the world in search of one. Petrocella thinks she might be in with a chance, and is disappointed when her next caller is not Bonavida but her suitor Valladaura, who has returned injured from a sea-battle. She disparages his exploits and rejects him, but speaks well of the Englishman who wounded him. The soldier in question, Ferrers, has been captured by the Turks; Valladaura finds him in a slave market and buys him and his friend, Manhurst. Though Ferrers is suspicious of his motives, Valladaura frees them both: Manhurst goes back to England, and Ferrers is introduced to Petrocella, in the hope that he will testify to Valladaura’s bravery and court her on his behalf. In England, Bonavida finds the beautiful woman he is searching for: Helena. He proposes marriage, but plans to go home to have his banishment rescinded before bringing Helena there as his wife. They exchange tokens, and Bonavida takes his leave; but when he arrives in Spain, he is imprisoned for breaking his exile, having returned without the woman he was charged to find. Isabella sends her two flatterers to England to get the ring Bonavida left with Helena, and they trick her…
Adrasta, or The Woman's Spleen and Love's Conquest
Jones, John · 1635 · Tragicomedy
Adrasta, Duchess of Florence, objects to the amours between her son Lucilio and Althea, a woman of lower rank. She forges a letter from Lucilio to Althea which describes a plan to murder the Duke; Althea’s reply provides evidence to have her arrested for treason. Lucilio visits her in prison, convinces her that the original letter was a fake, and arranges her escape. Dressed in women’s clothes, he takes her place in the cell, stands trial as her, and is sentenced to death. The substitution is discovered only just before the execution; Lucilio attempts to kill himself anyway, but is prevented by his friend Antonio. He leaves Florence, fearful of his parents’ reprisals, and asks Antonio to assume his name and go to Greece, hoping that his father’s agents will follow this false trail and so leave him in peace. Worried that he may yet take his own life, Antonio passes on the responsibility to the villainous servant Alastor, and shadowys Lucilio in disguise. Consulted by Adrasta, the witch Micale conjures up spirits, who locate Althea living as a shepherdess in the mountains and supply poison to dispose of her. Micale is magically transported there and tries to share food with her, but Althea is melancholy and only her friend Camilla will drink the poisoned wine. Micale’s second strategy entails getting her to despair and kill herself, so she claims that both Lucilio and Althea’s mother Julia have been executed. Camilla dies, and Althea covers her face with a scarf she was given…
Messalina, the Roman Empress
Richards, Nathaniel · 1635 · Tragedy · King's Revels Company
Having successfully competed with the prostitute Calpurnia to see which of them can sleep with more men in 24 hours, the Empress Messalina sets her sights on the chaste Silius as her lover. He is summoned to the brothel and successfully seduced. The Emperor Claudius leaves Rome for an annual religious ceremony. While he is away, Messalina’s debauchery has free rein. Romans are summoned to court to participate: the actor Mnester is tortured into compliance, and three women taking refuge with Lepida, Messalina’s mother, are murdered when they refuse to come. Messalina invokes the Furies to make her sexy, and resists Lepida’s attempts to persuade her to a chaste life; Lepida goes mad. Silius is sent to murder his wife, Silana, but finds himself unable to go through with it; instead he conceals from Messalina the fact that she is still alive. Messalina’s seduction programme is not universally successful: she identifies Montanus as a desirable sexual partner, but he resists her and flees Rome. She decides to go through a ceremony of marriage with Silius, and has a document of approval drawn up and authenticated with the imperial seal. A wedding masque is planned, in which the Vestal Virgins are to be raped; but Lepida overhears the arrangements being discussed, and rescues the Virgins through a secret passage before they are called on to perform. They are pursued by Messalina’s agents, but the earth swallows them and the Virgins are saved; the pander Saufellus is confronted by…
The Seven Champions of Christendom
Kirke, John · 1635 · Romance · Red Bull Company (second) · Red Bull;Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional;Outdoor Professional
Years ago, the witch Calib stole a child, George, intending to bathe in his blood; but she fell in love with the baby and brought him up with her own son, Suckabus. She has always refused to let him know the identity of his real parents, but after much importunity she relents and tells George that he was a bastard whom she saved from infanticide. She asks her diabolic lover Tarpax how long she has to live; the demon prophesies that she will die only when love causes her to lose control of her magical powers. She shows George six Christian champions whom she keeps in her cave, and grants him their ransom. When George feels pity for them but pretends severity, she gives him her magic wand. The ghosts of his parents visit him, and he learns that Calib poisoned them, and that he is really of noble birth. He uses the magic wand to kill Calib, but agrees to take on Suckabus as a servant; Tarpax encourages Suckabus to spread his seed widely around the earth by taking every opportunity for procreation. George joins the six champions, bringing them up to the number prophesied by a Sibyl, seven. They go their separate ways into pagan lands. Trebizond is troubled by monsters: a dragon and a lion terrorize the land and kill knights who attempt to dispose of them. The Emperor proclaims a reward for anyone who will deal with the menace. The champions Andrew and Anthony arrive in Trebizond, and the Princess and Carintha fall in love with them; but their welcome evaporates when the Emperor…
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 Hollander (Love's Trial)
Glapthorne, Henry · 1636 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · before the Court;Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Dr Artless has grown rich by taking in resident lady patients, and is concerned that his house should keep its good name. One of his current guests has a jealous husband, Sir Martin Yellow, who believes the house is really a place of assignation, and sends his nephew Popinjay there in search of evidence. Popinjay meets Artless’s daughter, Dalinea, and falls in love. Meanwhile, the apothecary Mixum has sent Artless a young man, Sconce, as a potential son-in-law; Artless is unconcerned that he is a fool because he is also rich. Sconce’s main preoccupation is with Mixum’s weapon-salve which will cure any wound if applied to the weapon that made it. When Sir Martin wounds him in a jealous rage, he takes away Sir Martin’s sword but finds the salve ineffectual and concludes that there must be something wrong with his blood. Another visitor to Artless’s house is Freewit, a suitor to Mistress Know-worth, but she breaks up with him, having heard from Lovering, her servant, that he has slept with the servant-girl Martha and got her pregnant. When he proves reluctant to marry Martha, Mistress Know-worth gives him an alternative: she will consider his suit if he can persuade Martha to release him from his prior obligation. Artless’s servant Urinal offers to prove to Sir Martin that Lady Yellow is chaste: he is to visit his wife in her bedroom, incognito, while the rest of the household is out at Dalinea’s wedding. The problem is that Dalinea doesn’t want to marry Sconce, to her parents’…
Microcosmus
1637 · Morality;Masque · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Salisbury Court;Indoor Professional
The four elements, children of Nature and Janus, fight with one another. Janus' attempts to discipline them prove ineffectual, so Nature tries to persuade them to procreate. She invokes the help of Love, who creates concord between the elements through the music of the spheres. Earth gives birth to Physander, the perfect being. The four humours become his servants, and Love brings him Bellanima to be his wife. But Bellanima brings with her a good and bad genius, who can each influence Physander's moral actions. He succumbs to temptation, dismisses the good genius, and seeks out the whore Sensuality. The four humours suggest ways of wooing her: Choler proposes violence, Blood, dance, Phlegm, language, and Melancholy, pathos. The five senses, Sensuality's servants, conduct him to her, and she seduces him with the promise of luxury. Bellanima attempts to reclaim him, but he refuses her. After sleeping with Sensuality, Physander falls ill. The humours drunkenly attack him, and Sensuality disowns him. He feels ashamed at having left his wife for a whore. Bellanima summons Temperance to cure his wounds; she prescribes a simple life and frugal diet, and he is cured. The evil genius still maliciously seeks his destruction, and plans to drive him to suicide through remorse. He is tormented by Furies and accused before the court of Conscience; Despair prosecutes, andHope speaks for thedefence. Physander admits his marital crimes, but his penitence and commitment to future fidelity…
Covent Garden
1638 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men
Dungworth comes to London from the country with his servants, Ralph and Dobson, intending to sell some of his lands and buy himself a knighthood. Artlove aims to woo Dorothy Worthy, and Mistress Tongueall offers her services as matchmaker —but also helps the foolish Littleword to the same ends. Hugh Jerker's objective is to cuckold Dorothy's father, Sir Generous Worthy: Lady Worthy was Jerker's mistress before she was forced to marry Sir Generous to get her away from him. Warrant and Spruce are both interested in the waiting-woman, Susan, and meet to fight a duel over her. Warrant has taken the precaution of procuring an advance pardon for killing Spruce, and Spruce anticipates that, if he kills Warrant, Susan will save his life with a gallows wedding. In the event, both are too cowardly to fight, and Susan and Dorothy, who are watching, engage Dobson and Ralph to attack them. Both talk their way out of a beating, leaving behind clothes and money. The servants consider taking up robbery as a profession. They have an altercation with Dorothy's brother, but Artlove intervenes and sees them off. Young Worthy vets his rescuer as a potential brother-in-law, and recommends him to Dorothy. She resents this interference, but eventually accepts Artlove. At the tavern, Ralph and Dobson are arrested for the robbery and brought before Sir Generous; but Warrant refuses to admit that he was robbed, and the case collapses. Ralph and Dobson conduct a mock-trial, with themselves as judge and…
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 Fancies Chaste and Noble
1638 · Comedy · Queen Henrietta Maria's Men · Phoenix/Cockpit;Indoor Professional
Before the start of the action, Lord Julio was advised by his physicians that his malady could be cured b narriage to a particular woman, Flavia. He duly arranged to purchase her from her husband, Fabricio, who procured a divorce by pretending a pre-contract. Flavia's brother Romanello is outraged and refuses to see her. Flavia herself feels ashamed of the arrangement and, at her request, Julio pensions off Fabricio and sends him into exile; he goes to Bologna and becomes a Capuchin monk. The gallants Camillo and Vespucci pursue Flavia, hoping that her track record indicates a propensity to adultery, but later see the error of their ways. Troilo Savelli procures a place at court for his friend Livio; but the price is that he must bring his sister Castamela to join the Bower of Fancies, a group of chaste young women visited by the Marquess Octavio for recreational purposes, and debarred most other company. Livio complies, breaking off Castamela's liaison with Romanello. The situation is not what it may seem, however: Octavio is impotent. Romanello comes to court disguised as a mountebank and manages to see the Fancies. Left alone with Castamela while the Fancies have a singing lesson, Octavio asks for her love, but she refuses, and later vents her annoyance on her brother for bringing her to court. Livio decides after all to give his blessing to her marriage to Romanello. Octavio is annoyed that scandalous rumours are in circulation concerning his relationship with the…
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 Bloody Banquet
Dekker, Thomas; Middleton, Thomas · 1639 · Tragedy · Queen Anne's Men (?)
Although peace between Lydia and Lycia is guaranteed by an exchange of hostages, the King of Lycia persuades the Lydian hostage, Lapyrus, to betray his country. When hostilities resume, Lydia solicits military assistance from Armatrites, King of Cilicia, who repels the invaders - but then seizes the Lydian throne. The Queen flees with her infant children into the forest, where Lapyrus rescues her from the advances of two soldiers. In remorse for his treachery, he gives her the opportunity to kill him, but she cannot bring herself to do it. He becomes her protector, and goes in search of food, but falls into a wolf-trap. One of the babies dies of starvation. The old King of Lydia rescues Lapyrus from the pit, but the Queen has gone when Lapyrus shows the King where he left her. Armatrites’ son, Zenarchus, promises Tymethes, the heir of Lydia, that he will give back the kingdom when he succeeds to the throne. Tymethes falls in love with Zenarchus’ sister, Amphridote, who has been promised in marriage to the court favourite Mazeres. Zenarchus and Tymethes visit the young Queen of Cilicia, whom Armatrites has jealously locked up in a castle. She conceives a passion for Tymethes, and bribes her keeper Roxano to arrange an assignation, with the proviso that Tymethes must not know her identity lest he boast of his conquest; but Mazeres also bribes Roxano to kill Tymethes, and his gold seems to weigh the heavier. Tymethes keeps the appointment, is taken to the Queen with a hood over…
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…
1 Saint Patrick for Ireland
1640 · Neo-miracle · Ogilby's Men
public office. Araspas argues that reason should be the