Dramatis Personæ [in order of appearance]

VERMIN,gg3865 an old usurer

DRYGROUND,n5780 an old decayedgg84 knight

ALICE, Vermin’s daughter

[FIRST] SERVANT,n5781 [one of Vermin’s servants]

WAT, Vermin’s son

BUMPSEY,n5782 an old justicegs630

Mistressn5783 MAGDALEN,n5784 Bumpsey’s wife

VALENTINE,n5785 Dryground’s son

JANE, [Bumpsey’s] daughtern5796

Oliver, [a] gallant [and friend of Valentine]

Ambrose, [a] gallant [and friend of Valentine]

Sir AMPHILUS,n5797 a Cornish knight

TREBASCO, Sir Amphilus his footman

BROOKALL,n5798 a gentleman undone by Vermin

PHYLLIS,n5799 a poor wenchgg285

Lawyers

ATTORNEYn5800

FRIENDLY, a Templern5801

FRANCES,n5802 a young gentlewoman

[SECOND]n5803 SERVANT, [one of Bumpsey’s servants]

RABBLE

[MEMBER OF RABBLE]

[Two] SERGEANTS

ELEANOR, [Phyllis’s mother]

Prologue.

---

gg3865   VERMIN, a term used to refer to various kinds of ‘noxious or objectionable’ (OED n, 1) animals, including parasitic insects (OED n, 2); used more generally to refer to vile or depraved human beings (OED n, 3) [go to text]

n5780   DRYGROUND, ‘Dry’ here means ‘withered’ (OED a, 2a) or ‘barren’ (OED a, 15a), referring to the fact that Dryground has wasted his resources and fortune, and to the mortgaging of his land which has just been concluded when the play opens. [go to text]

gg84   decayed fallen into ruin through loss of prosperity, health, or fortune; impaired, or reduced in quality or condition (OED 1) [go to text]

n5781   [FIRST] SERVANT, ] Servants [go to text]

n5782   BUMPSEY, ‘Bumpsey’ or ‘bumsy’ can mean tipsy or intoxicated (OED a.): OED quotes Tarlton’s Jests (London, 1613), ‘Tarlton being a-carousing, drunk so long to the watermen that one of them was bumpsy’ (sig. A2v), and John Taylor, The Nipping and Snipping of Abuses (London, 1614): ‘Straight staggers by a porter, or a carman / As bumsy as a fox’d flapdragon German’ (sig. K1v). His name therefore reflects the way in which Bumpsey becomes intoxicated by his own ideas, and it can be linked to Oliver’s description of him as a ‘free-cost drunkard’ [DM 2.1.speech183]. Bumpsey’s name may seem to modern audiences to have links with ‘bumptious’ (self-assertive or self-conceited), but the OED’s earliest example of this word dates from 1803. [go to text]

gs630   justice judge or magistrate (justice of the peace) [go to text]

n5783   Mistress ] Mrs. [go to text]

n5784   MAGDALEN, Pronounced ‘Maudlin’; the name is often associated with drinking, and is used to refer to ‘repentant (female) sinners’, and especially prostitutes (OED n, 2a). Compare Brome’s The New Academy, in which the former servant and wife of Matchil is called Maudlin in the dramatis personae, although she is called Rachel in the play proper, and Brome and Heywood’s The Late Lancashire Witches, in which one of the witches is called Maud, a diminutive of Magdalen. [go to text]

n5785   VALENTINE, sweetheart (OED n, 2); Brome uses this name elsewhere, in The New Academy; in The Demoiselle it carries less irony in being applied to the newly-married man than it does as the name of the would-be seducer of the earlier play. [go to text]

n5796   [Bumpsey’s] daughter ] his daughter [go to text]

n5797   AMPHILUS, the name of a Platonist philosopher who taught Epicurus, here used ironically [go to text]

n5798   BROOKALL, ‘brook’ here means ‘endure’, or ‘put up with’ (OED brook v, 3) [go to text]

n5799   PHYLLIS, Phyllis’s name derives from the Greek for ‘foliage’ or ‘green bough’; the name, which is widely used in pastoral literature, suggests her innocence and is perhaps mildly ironic in view of her occupation as a beggar in London. In the dialogue, Phyllis twice refers to herself as ‘Nell’, a diminutive of her mother’s name, Eleanor; nowhere is she referred to as ‘Phyllis’. I have retained the octavo’s use of ‘Phyllis’ in speech prefixes, but there might be an argument for adopting ‘Nell’, even if we assume that this is a nickname. [go to text]

gg285   wench young woman [go to text]

n5800   ATTORNEY A legal professional who conducts litigation in the courts of Common Law and prepares the case for the barrister, or counsel, who argues the case in open court (OED attorney n1, 3). [go to text]

n5801   Templer i.e. member of the Inner or Middle Temple, two of London’s Inns of Court. [go to text]

n5802   FRANCES, Frances is only called by name by Dryground, and he always refers to her as ‘Frank’. These names are perhaps more sexually ambiguous to modern ears that they would have been to those of 1630s playgoers, when not only could ‘Frank’ be a nick-name for men or women, but the spelling of Francis and Frances was often interchangeable. (A modern equivalent of the use of ‘Frank’ in The Demoiselle would be ‘Fran’ or perhaps ‘Frankie’.) Female characters called Frances or Francischina are referred to as ‘Frank’ in dialogue and/or stage directions in plays including The London Prodigal (King’s Men, c. 1604), Middleton’s The Puritan (Children of Paul’s, c. 1606), Chapman’s May-Day (Chapel Children, c. 1601); Marston’s The Dutch Courtesan (Queen’s Revels, c. 1604) and Shirley’s The Constant Maid (?Werburgh Street, Dublin, c. 1639). Female characters in Fletcher’s The Captain (King’s Men, c. 1612) and Middleton’s A Mad World my Masters (Children of Paul’s, c. 1605) are referred to only as ‘Frank’. Sexually ambiguous characters whose names are variations on Frances or Francis appear in at least three plays that pre-date The Demoiselle. In May-Day Francischina disguises herself as a boy in order to pursue an affair with Angelo, while in Field’s Amends for Ladies (Queen’s Revels, c. 1611), Ingen’s brother, Frank, is required to dress as a woman. The complexity of Brome’s plot is most closely paralleled by that of Jonson’s The New Inn (King’s Men, 1629), in which audiences are led to believe that a boy named Frank is disguised as a woman named Laetitia, the name being chosen for that of one of the central characters’ lost sister; at the play’s conclusion, however, it is revealed that ‘Frank’ is really Laetitia, the lost sister. For further discussion of the links between The New Inn and The Demoiselle see the Introduction.

The name ‘Frances’ also has other relevant associations. As Williams (2: 540-1), points out, it is a common name for a whore in early modern texts, due to the associations of the word ‘frank’ with ‘free’. See Samuel Rowlands, The Letting of Humours’ Blood in the Head Vein (London, 1600), Epigram 20:

Frank in name, and frank by nature,
Francis is a most kind creature:
Herself hath suffered many a fall
In striving how to pleasure all. (sig. B5v)

The prostitutes in Brome’s own The Weeding of Covent Garden are called Betty and Francisca, and the latter is referred to as ‘Frank’ in dialogue and stage directions. See also the prostitute Frank Gullman in Middleton’s A Mad World My Masters; Cicely in Nabbes’s Tottenham Court (Prince Charles’s Men, 1633; published London, 1638) uses the name as a stereotypical one for a whore, declaring, ‘I am not the blade’s intelligence whether Frank or Moll remove their lodgings to ’scape the constables’ search and Bridewell’ (sig. B3v).

Intriguingly, Brome uses the name twice in The New Academy, a play closely associated with The Demoiselle: according to the dramatis personae, the real name of Lafoy’s son is Frances, although it is not used on stage, while Gabriella uses the name Frances when she is working in the academy, Cash asking the two young women, ’Ha’ not you changed your names / From Joyce and Gabriella to Jane and Frances?’ [NA 4.1.speech846]. [go to text]

n5803   [SECOND] ] Servants [go to text]

gg3875   playmaker playwright (a deliberately down-to-earth term) [go to text]

n5804   Our playmaker – for yet he won’t be called Author, or poet, Brome (or the prologue on his behalf) deliberately disclaims terms which elevate the playwright’s activities to the status of literature. Bentley (Jacobean and Caroline Stage, 3: 66) speculates that Brome may have in mind playwrights such as William Davenant and Thomas Nabbes, both of whom had recently been described as ‘author’ on the title-pages of printed plays. [go to text]

n5805   Sir Laureate The term refers in general to any poet distinguished for their excellence (OED laureate a, 2b), but Brome also refers specifically either to the jockeying for places in the race to succeed Jonson (who died in August 1637) as poet laureate to the court, or to the appointment of William Davenant to that post in December 1638. (See Bentley, Jacobean and Caroline Stage, 2: 66; Steggle, Richard Brome, 121-2.) Brome also includes digs at courtier-playwrights such as Davenant in other plays of this period, notably The Antipodes (see NOTE n3914) and The Court Beggar. [go to text]

gg198   full abundant, satisfying (OED a, 6a) [go to text]

gs715   clean pure, chaste (OED a, 4a); elegant, free from faults (OED a,7); ‘neatly made’, ‘not unwieldy’ (OED a, 10a); clever, skilful (OED a, 11) [go to text]

n5806   whose tow’ring Muses scale the throne Of kings, This is another dig at courtier-playwrights such as Davenant. [go to text]

gs716   familiar domestic, homely (OED a, 1a); well-known (OED a, 6); ordinary, in every-day use (OED a, 6b); homely, plain, easy to understand (OED a, 6c); affable, friendly (OED a, 7) [go to text]

gg3876   approved commended, said to be good (OED ppl, 3; here the first citation is given as occurring in Milton’s Paradise Lost, first published 1667) [go to text]

n5807   understood, a key word for Brome, who takes it from Jonson; cf. Jonson’s Epigram 1, ‘To the Reader’ (in Ben Jonson: Poems, ed. Ian Donaldson [London: Oxford University Press, 1975], 7): ‘Pray thee, take care, that tak’st my book in hand, / To read it well: that is, to understand.’ [go to text]

gs717   strong powerful or formidable (OED a, 7a), powerful or loud (as of a voice) (OED a, 13d); intense, uncompromising (OED a, 13i), firmly convinced (OED a, 13j); having a powerful effect, hard to resist or control (OED a, 16) [go to text]

n5808   As if he’d writ strong lines and had the fate Of other fools for meddling with the state. This may be a reference to the Star Chamber trial of the ‘puritan’ writers John Bastwick, Henry Burton and William Prynne in 1637, after which all three men were fined, condemned to the pillory, and had their ears cropped. See Cyndia Clegg, Press Censorship in Caroline England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 179-81. On the other hand, if the prologue has been amended for a revival, it may refer to the incident in which the author and performers in The Whore New Vamped, a Red Bull play, were called before the Privy Council because they ’have lately for many days together acted a scandalous and libellous play wherein they have audaciously reproached, and in a libellous manner traduced and personated, some persons of quality, and scandalized and defamed the whole profession of proctors belonging to the Court of the Civil Law, and reflected upon the present Government’ (Privy Council Register vol. 50, p. 653 (Charles I, vol XVI), transcribed from C.W. Wallace Papers, Huntington Library, Box 3, BI18; see also Bentley, Jacobean and Caroline Stage, 5: 1441-2). Another possible target might be another courtier poet, John Suckling (a target for Brome’s satire in 1637, when he printed his play Aglaura in folio rather than the customary quarto format), and his involvement (with Davenant) in a royalist scheme of May 1641 the second Army Plot, which aimed to free the imprisoned Earl of Strafford. [go to text]

gs718   audients hearers or listeners (OED n.) [go to text]

n5810   they’re tyrants that devour The image of the tyrant devouring his people was a conventional one, with biblical authority: the translators of the Bishops’ Bible comment that ‘the scriptures compare tyrants to cruel and huge beasts, which devour all that be weaker then they, and such as they may overcome’ (The Holy Bible Containing the Old Testament and the New [London, 1568), sig. CLVIIr [Ezekiel, 32.2.2]). The comparison of the audience to devouring tyrants also fits neatly into the line of culinary imagery developed in the prologue. [go to text]

n5811   Laurel, laurel crowns or wreaths were traditionally as a symbol of distinction, especially in poetry [go to text]

gg2728   bays a wreath of laurel or bay leaves: an emblem of victory or of distinction in poetry [go to text]

gg483   sack white wine from Spain: sack is derived from 'sec', and usually meant a dry white wine; hence Falstaff's enjoyment of 'sack and sugar' [go to text]

gg3877   wetter, more addicted to drink (OED wet a, 14b); cf. Thomas Nashe, Pierce Penniless his Supplication to the Devil (London, 1592): ‘inveigh against all men but those that keep a wet corner for a friend, and will not think scorn to drink with a good fellow and a soldier’ (p. 33, fol. 16); see also ‘wetting’ below [DM 1.1.speech31]. [go to text]

n5812   1.1 Act 1 consists of two scenes, each of which introduces us to a family grouping. Scene 1 opens with an exchange between the decayed knight Sir Humphrey Dryground and the usurer Vermin; they have just agreed a deal in which Vermin has loaned Dryground money in exchange for a mortgage on his land. This was a conventional opening for a city comedy – we might compare, for instance, Thomas Middleton’s A Trick to Catch the Old One (Children of Paul’s, c. 1605), which opens with Witgood lamenting the loss of his lands. However, although Dryground looks like the familiar dramatic stereotype of a member of the gentry whose expenses exceed his income, it becomes clear that his ‘project’ is not a self-interested scheme, but one which aims to recover the fortune of another distressed gentleman, Brookall. Furthermore, Vermin’s mocking response to this plan informs the audience of the narrative’s pre-history: Dryground is keen to make (belated) amends to Brookall for his crimes against the latter’s sister, whom he seduced and then refused marriage. The plot thus recalls Brome’s earlier play The Sparagus Garden, in which the feud between Striker and Touchwood was provoked by Touchwood’s seduction of Striker’s sister; Brookall seems not to have thrown his sister out of doors, but she has nonetheless disappeared. The other plot element introduced in this scene is the planned marriage between Vermin’s daughter Alice and a Cornish knight, Sir Amphilus. Alice is wholly opposed to the match, and she escapes her father’s house with the assistance of her scapegrace brother, Wat, who appears in disguise as one of Sir Amphilus’ servants.

Scene 2 also focuses on a man’s thwarted desire to make a good marriage for his daughter. It features Bumpsey, a successful businessman who had hoped to marry his daughter Jane to a wealthy suitor but has instead just discovered that she has married Dryground’s son, Valentine (having apparently caught the pair in bed together). The marriage has the approval of Dryground, and of Bumpsey’s wife, Magdalen, and the scene focuses on the other characters’ attempts to reconcile Bumpsey to the match and to persuade him to make a suitable financial settlement on his daughter and her new husband. [go to text]

n5813   1.1 ] ACT. I. Scene I. [go to text]

n5814   [Enter] VERMIN [and] DRYGROUND. ] Vermine, Dryground. [go to text]

n7608   You have your money, full a thousand pound, Vermin may be holding a copy of the agreement and Dryground a purse containing the money he has just borrowed. [go to text]

n7607   And you have my mortgage. i.e. you have my agreement that if I default on the loan you will get my estate. [go to text]

gg1085   tax censure, accuse [go to text]

gg3878   spirited lively, energetic (OED a, 2) [go to text]

gs719   sleek plausible, specious (OED a, 3); also means 'perfectly smooth or polished' (OED a, 2), so Vermin may suggest that money slips through the hands of men like Dryground [go to text]

gg3879   oft-times, often [go to text]

gs720   conceive understand (OED v, 9c) [go to text]

n5817   ‘Youth keep thy money fast And tie it in thy purse, For that must be thine only friend For better and for worse.’ This song also appears in George Powell’s A Very Good Wife (first performed 1693; printed London, 1693), where it is sung by Hickman, a linen draper, as he refuses to give the hero, Courtwit, the money he owes to him. The text appears as:

Youth keep, oh keep thy money fast,
And tie it in thy purse,
For that must be thy friend at last,
For better, and for worse. (p. 4)

The setting appears to be lost. See Restoration Theatre Song Archive, compiled by Anthony W. Butler, with the assistance of Tracey Caulfield, Felicity Henderson and Harold Love, Item GPAVGW2. The song is not mentioned in Julia K. Wood’s 'Music in Caroline Plays', unpublished PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1991, the most extensive survey of Caroline theatre music. Powell draws extensively on Brome’s plays in A Very Good Wife, closely adapting material taken from The City Wit and The Court Beggar, and he probably takes the song directly from The Demoiselle. [go to text]

n5818   Aye, ] I [go to text]

gg3880   scripture, sacred writings (OED n, 1d); motto (OED n, 3) [go to text]

gg3881   pretend lay claim to, profess to have (OED v, 3); intend, plan (OED v, 10); aspire to, have pretensions to (OED v, 12) [go to text]

gg2656   admonition warning, 'authoritative counsel' (OED) [go to text]

gg758   subversion ruin, overthrow [go to text]

gg193   venture enterprise, commercial speculation [go to text]

gs182   project something projected or proposed for execution; a plan, scheme (OED n, 5a) [go to text]

gg3882   Out upon curses upon (in modern-day English this would mean something like ‘to hell with’) [go to text]

gg63   Fie, exclamation of disgust or reproach [go to text]

gg3883   out, an exclamation expressing grief, abhorrence, or indignant reproach: alas!, woe is me!; get out!, curses upon you! (OED out int, 1) [go to text]

gg3002   Prodigal extravagant, recklessly wasteful [go to text]

n5819   Be privy to share in the knowledge of, become accessory to (OED privy a, 4a) [go to text]

n5820   on it? i.e. of it [go to text]

gs721   in truly; indeed [go to text]

n5821   Goodwins? Goodwin Sands, ‘A shoal off the coast of Kent between the Isle of Thanet and the S. Foreland’ (Sugden, Topographical Dictionary, 227, s.v. Goodwin Sands), which was a notorious site of shipwrecks. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, 3.1.1-5: ‘Antonio hath a ship of rich lading wrecked on the narrow seas – the Goodwins I think they call the place – a very dangerous flat, and fatal, where the carcases of many a tall ship lie buried, as they say’. Also mentioned in Heywood, The Four Prentices of London (?Admiral’s Men, c. 1594?; printed London, 1615): ‘Were ye the four young London prentices, / That in the ships were wracked on Goodwins’ sands?’ (sig. I4v). [go to text]

gg3884   blow. (n) attack, act of hostility (OED n1, 3) [go to text]

gg2592   strong powerful; severe [go to text]

gs722   wrought shaped, moulded: in this context means something like 'reduced' or 'transformed' [go to text]

gg3528   covetise covetousness; excessive desire for the acquisition and possession of wealth; especially of possessing what belongs to another (OED 2) [go to text]

gg3885   to ‘To the highest or utmost degree; to the extremity; to the utmost’ (OED n, 19) [go to text]

gg3886   avarice greed, desire to acquire and hoard wealth (OED) [go to text]

gs723   waive shun; escape (OED v1, 6a) [go to text]

gg3887   vitiated corrupted, spoiled (OED) [go to text]

gs724   heat rage, ardour; passion, lust [go to text]

n5823   turned her off That is: dismissed her, sent her away (OED turn v, 74b). [go to text]

gg3888   Is’t is it [go to text]

gg3889   know have sexual intercourse with (OED v, 7) [go to text]

gg3890   ruthful lamentable, piteous (OED a, 2) [go to text]

n5824   expiatory means. ways of making amends [go to text]

n5825   Inhuman ] inhumane (could be modernised as either ‘inhuman’ or ‘inhumane’) [go to text]

n5826   inexpiable That is: cannot be atoned for (OED inexpiable a, 1). [go to text]

gg1799   move persuade, convince [go to text]

gs544   course line (course) of action, procedure (but with the suggestion too of a planned series of actions or medical prescriptions to effect a cure) [go to text]

gg3891   threefold consisting of three parts; three times as great [go to text]

gg462   restitution. 'The action of restoring or giving back something to its proper owner, or of making reparation to one for loss or injury previously inflicted' (OED 1a). [go to text]

n5827   in the way. i.e. on that path, in the right direction [go to text]

gg3892   hopeful promising, ‘giving promise of success or future good’ (OED a, 2a) [go to text]

gs377   means resources (especially financial) [go to text]

gs725   Declined decayed, debased (OED ppl.) [go to text]

gs1571   course; programme of study (OED n, 23a) [go to text]

gg3893   unrighteously unjustly, wrongfully (OED) [go to text]

gg3894   usurped seized, possessed unjustly (OED ppl. 1) [go to text]

gs704   dowry, the money or property which the wife brings to her husband; the portion given with the wife (OED dowry n, 2; dower n2, 2) [go to text]

gs726   quiet peaceful, undisturbed; free from agitation (of the conscience, etc.) (OED a, 10) [go to text]

gg3895   bestow give in marriage (OED v, 4) [go to text]

gg3896   by’t? by it: on account of it, because of it [go to text]

n5831   adder’s ears Adders were assumed to be deaf; Brome also uses this comparison elsewhere, in The Weeding of Covent Garden, in which Gabriel declares ‘Mine ears shall be that of the adder against the song of the serpent’ [CG 2.2.speech394]. [go to text]

n5833   break your day That is: fail to keep your arranged time for payment (OED break v, 15e). [go to text]

gg3898   wetting: being drenched with, or converted into, alcohol; cf. ‘wetter’ in the Prologue [DM 1.1.speech2] [go to text]

n5834   [VERMIN produces] the mortgage. ] The Mortgage. [go to text]

n5836   for a twelvemonth’s day, i.e. until a day twelve months from now [go to text]

n5837   break that day thy payment fail to make your payment on that day [go to text]

n5838   the sun Sets not more sure i.e. as surely as the sun will set [go to text]

n5841   Can can it [go to text]

gs727   match? husband; marriage [go to text]

gg3900   morn. morning [go to text]

gg3901   startle-brain, thing that upsets the brain (OED); this is OED’s only example, and I have not been able to find another: the word may be Brome’s invention [go to text]

gg3902   wildcat; mad or demented (OED 2; this is OED’s only example) [go to text]

gs728   sober, moderate, avoiding excess (OED a, 1); abstemious (OED a, 2); serious, staid (OED 5a) [go to text]

gs729   discreet prudent, cautious (OED a, 1) [go to text]

gs730   massy solid and heavy; ‘wrought in solid pieces’ (OED a, 1a) [go to text]

n5846   the stony wonders On Salisbury Plain Alice is referring to Stonehenge, which was well known in early modern England. In Ancient Funeral Monuments Within the United Monarchy of Great Britain, Ireland, and the Islands Adjacent (London, 1631), John Weever writes, ‘So here in England, the interments of the dead were anciently far out of all towns and cities, either on the ridges of hills, or upon spacious plains, fortified or fenced about, with obelisks, pointed stones, pyramids, pillars, or such like monuments; for example, England’s wonder upon Salisbury plain, called Stonehenge, the sepulchre of so many Britains, who by the treachery of the Saxons, were slain there at a parley.’ (p. 6). Given the context of the origin of her father’s wealth, Alice may also be thinking of Salisbury Plain’s reputation as a haunt of robbers and highwaymen. Brome also refers to Salisbury Plain in The New Academy, where Valentine, asked if he can read, says ‘I had done ill to venture on Salisbury Plain else’, meaning that he would have to be able to read his neck-verse and claim benefit of clergy to avoid being hanged [NA 5.2.speech1163]. [go to text]

gs1569   duty reverence (for you); moral obligation (to you) [go to text]

gg3903   thrift, industry, labour (OED n, 1 1b); economical management, frugality (OED n, 1 3a) [go to text]

gg3904   industry, effort, diligence [go to text]

gg3905   upright honourable, honest [go to text]

gs731   wrought worked, moulded [go to text]

gg3906   housewifery management of household affairs, housekeeping (OED 1); thrift, economy (OED 1b) [go to text]

gs732   stranger foreigner; someone unconnected by family ties [go to text]

gs733   blood, family, kindred, children [go to text]

n5852   wolf This alludes to the supposed savagery of the wolf. [go to text]

n5853   Your money. Alice suggests that Vermin’s avarice, not his son, is the ‘wolf’ that tears at him. [go to text]

gg3907   reprobate, someone rejected by God or lost in sin (OED n, 1); ‘an abandoned or unprincipled person’ (OED n, 2) [go to text]

gs377   means resources (especially financial) [go to text]

gg3908   turned, converted [go to text]

gg3909   compter! an obsolete spelling of ‘counter’ (a prison attached to a local magistrate’s court): used specifically in the seventeenth century to refer to London’s debtors’ prisons (OED compter; OED counter n3, 7) [go to text]

gg255   fast, secure [go to text]

gs734   idly carelessly, frivolously [go to text]

gs735   ging company, gang (OED n, 3); cf. Jonson, The New Inn: ‘I would not willingly / See, or be seen, to any of this ging, / Especially the lady.’ (Michael Hattaway, ed., The New Inn [Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984], 1.5.45-7) [go to text]

gg3910   stretch strain their abilities (OED v, 20) [go to text]

n5856   Jacks, his Toms, his Nams, Nolls, Gills, and Nuns, Common nicknames for John (Jack), Thomas (Tom), Ambrose or Abraham (Nam), Oliver (Noll), Gilbert (Gill); ‘Nuns’ was a slang term for prostitutes (OED n1, 2). [go to text]

gg3911   roaring (a) noisy, riotous [go to text]

gs736   fry crowd of young or insignificant people (OED fry n1, 4b) [go to text]

n5857   blade-brandishing That is: sword-wielding; swords were supposed to be carried only by those with a rank of gentleman or above, but in the 1630s the word ‘blade’ was associated with young gallants (known as ‘blades’) and, in particular, with gangs of riotous young men. Vermin has in mind a gang like the ‘Brothers of the Blade and Baton’ in Covent Garden Weeded. [go to text]

gg3912   mates, companions, comrades [go to text]

gs737   pieces coins, especially the unite of James I, a coin first issued in 1604, with a value of 20 shillings; OED says that these coins rose to a value of 22 shillings in 1611 (OED n.), but in 3.1 [DM 3.1.speech477] Wat assumes that a piece is worth 20 shillings [go to text]

gg3913   pilfered stole [go to text]

gg3915   counting-house. building, room or office used for business (OED c) [go to text]

n5858   He shall up. i.e. on the gallows, to be hanged. [go to text]

gs738   forfeit give up [go to text]

gg2469   crave ask, beg [go to text]

gg885   leave permission [go to text]

n5877   defy the name of brother in him, i.e. deny that he has any claim to be your brother. [go to text]

gg3917   Love Cupid: the personification of love [go to text]

gg3918   matchless peerless, incomparable [go to text]

gs1570   term? one of the four periods of the year during which London’s law courts were active [go to text]

gg776   on’t of it [go to text]

gs741   matchless incomparable in a negative sense: there is no other knight like him [go to text]

gs740   matchless without a match; i.e. without a wife [go to text]

n5878   I like those blushes well: Vermin reads Alice’s dismay as maidenly reticence. [go to text]

n5879   A selling knight, i.e. a knight who is forced to sell his lands. [go to text]

n5880   He’s well in years. Old [go to text]

gs742   lusty healthy, strong, vigorous, valiant [go to text]

gg3919   husbandry management of a household, thrift (OED n, 4) [go to text]

n5881   He was one o’th’ cob-knights in the throng When they were dubbed in clusters. On 17 July 1603, shortly after his accession to the throne of England, James I ordered that all people with an income of at least £40 per year were to be knighted or face fines. There were about 550 knights in the 1590s, but by the end of the first year of his reign James had tripled their number. See Linda Levy Peck, Court Patronage and Corruption in Early Stuart England (London: Routledge, 1993), 32. The word ‘cob’ can mean ‘miser’ (OED n.¹ 1.b), so Vermin may be saying that Sir Amphilus got his knighthood on the cheap, being knighted to avoid a fine rather than paying for the honour. There may also be a pun on ‘cob-nuts’, which leads into ‘clusters’ in the following line. [go to text]

n5882   Enter [FIRST] SERVANT. ] in the octavo this stage direction (‘Enter Servant’) is placed in the margins [DM 1.1.lines207-208]. [go to text]

gg3920   portmanteau. case or bag used for travelling (OED n, 1) [go to text]

gg3921   welcomest most welcome [go to text]

n5883   bestir you. busy yourself, get moving [go to text]

gs743   thrift; frugality, stinginess [go to text]

gg3922   rid ridden [go to text]

n5884   Go— This may be a bowdlerism in the octavo, or it may be Wat’s attempt to swallow a swear-word that would not be ‘in character’ for the servingman. [go to text]

n5885   or so, Or the like. [go to text]

gs744   carriage, action of carrying [go to text]

n5886   Holborn A major road running west from the City of London to Covent Garden, and one of the major entrances to London. Its many taverns included the George and Blue Boar, the Castle, the Old Bell, the Sun, the Bear and the Black Bull (Sugden, Topographical Dictionary, 252, s.v. Holborn). Sugden notes that it was ‘a great lawyers’ quarter’, as Inns of Court and Chancery surrounded it to the north and south; it was also close to the Middle and Inner Temple, the location for much of The Demoiselle. It supposedly had a reputation for activities connected with the sex trade: in Lording Barry’s Ram Alley (King’s Revels, 1607-8; printed London, 1611), Constantia says of her Boutcher, her lover,

what makes he here
In the skirts of Holborn, so near the field,
And at a garden house? ’A has some punk,
Upon my life. (sig. B1r)

[go to text]

gs745   Telling talking, gossiping (OED tell v, 15); counting out pieces of money (OED tell v, 22a) [go to text]

gg3923   Fitted prepared [go to text]

n5887   [VERMIN] exit[s]. ] Exit. [go to text]

gg3924   endless unending, eternal; infinite [go to text]

gg3925   methinks, it seems to me [go to text]

gs746   As because [go to text]

gs747   spirit. life-blood, breath of life (OED n, 1); ‘brisk or lively quality in things’ (OED n, 14a) [go to text]

gg2459   ’bove above [go to text]

gg2220   mark (v) pay attention to, observe [go to text]

gg3926   open free from obstruction; unrestricted; clear [go to text]

gg3927   sovereignty, rule, supremacy, authority [go to text]

gg3928   regent, ruling, governing, controlling (as sovereign) [go to text]

n5888   forty-shilling-wages Forty shillings was widely assumed to be a wage earned by more lowly kinds of servants. In Greene’s Tu Quoque (Queen Anna’s Men, c. 1611; printed London, 1614), Staines tells Bubble, ‘I am humble in body, and dejected in mind, and will do your worship as good service for forty shillings a year, as another shall for three pounds’ (sig. B4v). In one of the inset Antipodean sequences in Brome’s Antipodes, the gentleman offers Byplay ‘To mend thy wages t’other forty shillings / A year, for thy true care of me’ [AN 2.2.speech333]. For commentary see [NOTE n1548]. [go to text]

gg3929   spokesman. representative, mouthpiece [go to text]

gg3930   trick stratagem, crafty or fraudulent device (OED n, 1a); hoax, practical joke (OED n, 2a); thoughtless or stupid act (OED n, 2b) [go to text]

gg314   estate (n) condition of existence (OED n, 1a); status, position in the world (OED n, 3a); ‘condition with respect to worldly prosperity, fortune’ (OED n, 2a) [go to text]

gg3931   fooling acting like a fool [go to text]

n5889   this brief taste of his entertainment. That is: an example of the kind of welcome I will give him. [go to text]

gg3932   covetous greedy, grasping, avaricious [go to text]

n5890   paid three pence for. This suggests Sir Amphilus’s frugality: three pence would be a small amount for someone of his social standing to pay for a meal. [go to text]

gs748   squire, someone ranking immediately below a knight in the feudal system (OED n, 1a); personal attendant or servant (OED n, 1c); a contemptuous term for a servant (OED n, 1d); pimp (OED n, 4b) [go to text]

gg3933   qualities, character traits (OED n, 2a); accomplishments or attainments (OED n, 2b); ranks or positions in society (OED n, 4a) [go to text]

gg3934   casual produced by chance, fortuitous (OED a, 1a); uncertain, not to be relied on (OED a, 2); uncertain, precarious (OED a, 5a) [go to text]

gs749   matches contests on which Sir Amphilus has placed bets (see OED n1, 6b) [go to text]

gg3935   bounteous generous, full of goodness (OED a, 1) [go to text]

gs750   gudgeon a small fresh-water fish (Gobio fluviatilis), which was often used for bait (OED n1, 1); therefore used to refer to someone gullible, who ‘will bite at any bait or swallow anything’ (OED n1, 2a) [go to text]

gg558   slight mean, insubstantial, lowly, small, trifling [go to text]

gs751   base contemptible, degraded, unworthy; inferior, unrefined [go to text]

gg3936   worldlings people devoted to earthly pleasures [go to text]

gg316   study (v) seek to achieve (OED v, 11); in this context also suggests ‘plot for’ [go to text]

gg3937   scrape gather together or hoard up money (OED v, 5c) [go to text]

gg1245   ready money, cash [go to text]

n5891   Nor love to worldly pleasures above those Poor cobblers use. Alice claims that Sir Amphilus enjoys lower-class leisure pursuits that should be beneath him socially (and Wat defines them in the following lines). [go to text]

n5892   duck-hunting: Duck-hunting was a popular sport in many parts of London in the seventeenth century, often associated with citizens. In Brome’s The New Academy, the ‘city shop-keeper’ Ralph Cameleon is passionately fond of duck-hunting (like Sir Amphilus, he keeps his dog in Turnbull Street), and in Jonson’s Every Man in his Humour (Chamberlain’s Men, 1598) Stephen aspires to learn about hawking, asking, ‘Because I dwell at Hogsden, I shall keep company with none but the archers of Finsbury? Or the citizens that come a-ducking to Islington ponds? A fine jest i’faith! ’Slid, a gentleman mun show himself like a gentleman.’ (C.H. Herford, Percy and Evelyn Simpson, eds., Ben Jonson, 11 vols. [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925-52], vol. 3, 1.1.47-51). William B. Boulton (The Amusements of Old London: Being a Survey of the Sports and Pastimes, Tea Gardens and Parks, Playhouses and Other Diversions of the People of London from the 17th to the Beginning of the 19th Century, 2 vols. [London: John C. Nimmo, 1901]) notes, ‘The ducking-pond was a small affair, and boarded to the height of the knee round its edges to prevent the excited spectators from falling in in their eagerness to follow the incidents of the sport.’ (2: 251). The duck was pinioned so that it could not fly away, and was put into the water and hunted by one or more spaniels; its only escape from the dogs was to dive underwater. Sugden states that the principal duck-ponds were in the suburbs to the north of the City of London: on Islington Green, in the Back Road, near White Conduit House, and in East Lane (Topographical Dictionary, 158, s.v. Ducking-Pond); there were others in Mayfair and south London.

There may also be a double entendre here, since ‘duck’ can also refer to a woman, and especially a whore (Williams, 1: 423); cf. Richard Brathwaite, Barnabee’s Journal (London, 1638): ‘dainty Ducks ... Wenches that could play the wantons’ (sig. V1r). [go to text]

n5893   dunghill-scarab. In addition to referring to a beetle (especially those thought to live in dunghills), ‘scarab’ was used as an insult: cf. Jonson, The Alchemist (King’s Men, 1610), in which Face tells Subtle ‘You might talk softlier, rascal’, to which Subtle responds, ‘No, you scarab, / I’ll thunder you in pieces’ (The Alchemist, ed. F.H. Mares [London: Methuen, 1967], 1.1.59-60). [go to text]

n5894   water-dog-knight! A knight obsessed with water dogs: dogs trained to retrieve wildfowl, often spaniels or poodles. In Of English Dogs: The Diversities, the Names, the Natures, and the Properties, trans. Abraham Fleming (London, 1576), John Caius writes of the Water Spaniel: 'This kind of dog is properly called Aquaticus, a water spaniel, because he frequenteth and hath usual recourse to the water where all his game and exercise lieth, namely waterfowls, which are taken by the help and service of them, in their kind. And principally ducks and drakes, whereupon he is likewise named a dog for the duck, because in that quality he is excellent' (sig. C4v). [go to text]

n5895   wedlock to his age i.e. marriage to someone as old as him. [go to text]

gg3938   choicer more select or sophisticated [go to text]

n6566   through spectacles Williams (3: 1281) notes that spectacles are part of the iconography of the fool and of the 'erotic fool', the cuckold. [go to text]

gg1900   slight (v) disregard, treat with disrespect [go to text]

gs758   strangely ‘In an unfriendly or unfavourable manner; with cold or distant bearing’ (OED adv. 2); very greatly (OED adv. 4); surprisingly, oddly, wondrously, unaccountably (OED adv. 5) [go to text]

gs759   weighty telling, potent (OED a, 4a); earnest, solemn (OED a, 6) [go to text]

gg3976   confute overcome [go to text]

n8759   nor weigh, nor see him, That is: not weigh, nor see him. (The first ‘nor’ here now sounds archaic, but would not have done so in the 1630s.) [go to text]

gg2484   weigh, consider [go to text]

gg3977   ow’st owe [go to text]

gg1268   Hither here (to this place) [go to text]

gg2500   hence. away from here [go to text]

gg1781   ere before [go to text]

gs760   in serious [go to text]

gg3978   frighted, afraid [go to text]

gg3979   Beshrew me curse me, evil befall me (a not entirely serious curse: compare ‘hang me’) (OED v, 3b) [go to text]

gg3909   compter an obsolete spelling of ‘counter’ (a prison attached to a local magistrate’s court): used specifically in the seventeenth century to refer to London’s debtors’ prisons (OED compter; OED counter n3, 7) [go to text]

gg3980   obscured. hidden, disguised [go to text]

gg3981   frank free from obligation, unconditional (OED a2, 1d); liberal, generous (OED a2, 2) [go to text]

gg3982   enfranchiser. someone who enfranchises, or sets free (OED; earliest citation is 1632) [go to text]

gg3983   supply, (v) provide, furnish [go to text]

gs761   supply (v) satisfy the wants of (OED v1, 8) [go to text]

gg3984   Th’art thou art [go to text]

gg3985   dispatch. make haste, get a move on [go to text]

gg3986   rascal (a) wretched, mean (OED a, 2), with implications of low class status [go to text]

gg3987   power, authority, dominion [go to text]

n5976   at a sure guard. i.e. be alert, be on your guard [go to text]

gs762   sure firm, immovable (OED a, 5) [go to text]

gg3988   guard. posture of defence (in sword-fighting, etc.) (OED n, 3a) [go to text]

gg3989   bound obliged, indebted (OED a2, 7a) [go to text]

n5977   the ] thee [go to text]

n5978   by th’ way. i.e. on the way [go to text]

gs207   coxcomb, fool, from the hat in the shape of a cock’s comb worn by jesters (see the professional fool in Queen and Concubine) [go to text]

n5979   thee ] the [go to text]

gs763   shun escape from (OED v, 2a and 4a); flee from (OED v, 6a); avoid encountering (OED v, 3); keep away from (OED v, 6b) [go to text]

gg1141   slighted treated contemptuously, with indifference [go to text]

gg3990   delivery? action of setting free, deliverance (OED 1a) [go to text]

n5980   Tom Fool’s errand, A profitless undertaking (cf. OED ‘a fool’s errand’ [errand 2c]). OED glosses ‘tom-fool’ as a ‘quasi-proper name … a man mentally deficient; a half-witted person’ (n, a) and someone who acts the part of a fool in a play, or a laughing-stock (n, b) (the earliest citation in OED of the latter from 1650). The expression is the origin of present-day English ‘tomfoolery’. [go to text]

n5981   errand, ] Errant [go to text]

gg1313   whither (to whatever) place; where [go to text]

gg127   hard by, close by [go to text]

gg2549   wildfire furious or destructive fire (OED 1), used figuratively to refer to a destructive force (OED 5a); also used for a mixture of highly inflammable substances set on fire and used in warfare (OED 3) [go to text]

gs764   ’Slid, an oath, deriving from ‘God’s eyelid’. See Jonathon Green, Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang (London: Cassell & Co., 1998), s.v. ’slid! excl. [go to text]

gs765   e’en even: just now; completely [go to text]

gs766   pretty considerable, abundant (OED a, 4a) [go to text]

gs767   store. supply [go to text]

gs768   occasions? circumstances, situations (OED occasion n1, 6a); the course of events (OED occasion n1, 6b); needs, necessities, requirements (OED occasion n1, 9) [go to text]

gg3920   portmanteau case or bag used for travelling (OED n, 1) [go to text]

gs769   stuff textile material, cloth (see OED n1, 5b); property, household goods (OED stuff n1, 1g) [go to text]

gg3992   furnish, supply what is necessary (OED v, 5a) [go to text]

gg3991   whirr, seems to mean ‘hurrying along’, ‘moving swiftly’, or ‘flying’ (see OED v, 1b: ‘To carry or hurry along, to move or stir, with a rushing or vibratory sound’; OED v, 2: ‘To move swiftly in some way (rush, fly, dart, flutter, turn, etc.) with a continuous vibratory sound, as various birds, rapidly revolving wheels, bodies flying quickly through the air, etc.’) [go to text]

n5982   By this good steel, Wat is referring to the sword that he wears: he may draw it here, or he may put his hand on the hilt. [go to text]

gg3993   truss be tied up (i.e. imprisoned) or hanged [go to text]

gs770   on’s of (or for) us [go to text]

gg2415   sessions. series of sittings or meetings of a court (OED session n, 3a); judicial sittings (OED n, 4) [go to text]

gs764   ’Slid, an oath, deriving from ‘God’s eyelid’. See Jonathon Green, Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang (London: Cassell & Co., 1998), s.v. ’slid! excl. [go to text]

gs771   stranger someone unconnected by family ties [go to text]

gg2459   ’bove above [go to text]

n5983   What coals we stand on. i.e. how dangerous the basis of our family’s wealth and/or our inheritance is. [go to text]

gg3994   look to look after [go to text]

n5984   that? i.e. the house [go to text]

gs772   precious beloved (OED a, 1a); costly (OED a, 2) (the meaning could be shifted depending on the delivery of the line by the actor playing Alice) [go to text]

n5985   [They exit.] ] Exeunt. [go to text]

n5986   1.2 Video In this scene Brome switches to another strand of his narrative, and another family group. Again, our attention is on a mature man, and a father, and although there are some similarities between Bumpsey and Vermin, the successful citizen and businessman is a rather different proposition to the usurious Vermin. Both are seemingly self-made men, who have gained their wealth through their own labour, but Brome draws a distinction between Bumpsey, who gained his (enormous) fortune of £10,000 through what he calls his ‘thrifty industry’ [DM 1.2.speech129], and Vermin, whose fortune has been ground out of other men’s estates. Similarly, both are concerned to marry their daughters to well-off men, but Bumpsey’s concern is not with status but with solid worth; he tells Dryground, ‘land-lordship’s real honour, / Though in a tradesman’s son, when your fair titles / Are but the shadows of your ancestry’ [DM 1.2.speech116]. Bumpsey has only a daughter, whereas Vermin proclaims that his daughter is his only child because of his desire to disown his son. Another important difference in the presentation of the two men lies in the presence of Magdalen, Bumpsey’s wife, in this scene. Vermin never speaks of his late wife, and she is only mentioned as a means for Wat and Alice to assert their difference from their father, Wat declaring ‘thou and I had one mother (which / We both take after), so had not he and we. / And he takes after nobody that I know’ [DM 1.1.speech97]. Valentine’s mother is also dead, and although Phyllis’s mother finally appears at the end of the play she does not have much dramatic impact in her own right. In a play otherwise notable for the (not untypical in early modern drama) absence of mothers, the presence of Magdalen, and her desire to support her daughter’s choice of marriage-partner, is therefore significant.

The scene opens shortly after Bumpsey has discovered the secret marriage between Jane and Valentine, and it centres on his reaction to the marriage and the attempts of Jane, Valentine, Magdalen and Dryground to bring about a financial settlement that will benefit the young couple. The other characters attempt to manipulate Bumpsey in various ways, but Bumpsey never quite loses control: at the start of the scene he dominates linguistically, humiliating Dryground by pointing out at length his financial and parental shortcomings; it is noticeable that for the first 113 lines of the scene, beyond Dryground’s brief and sporadic attempts to intervene, the others characters’ responses are entirely in asides. Later, he seems to be manoeuvred by Magdalen into changing his mind about giving money to Jane and Valentine, but he quickly disconcerts her with his proposal not only to give half of his estate to Valentine, but also to mimic the younger man’s spending.

Our workshop on this scene focused on this latter section, from ‘But here’s the substance of’t’ to Bumpsey exclamation ‘And so God gi’ ye joy’ [DM 1.2.speech168], the point at which he finally utters the words conventionally addressed to a newly married couple. See this extract for a run-through of the whole sequence. The extract captures nicely Bumpsey’s volatility and his ability to adapt to a new situation: this is a man who is not used to being disconcerted; we also see a man who is used to responsibility reacting to events that are out of his control by abjuring that responsibility. Part of the comedy of this sub-plot lies in Brome’s presentation of Bumpsey as an elderly (and thus rather incongruous) prodigal. Unlike Vermin, he is rarely entirely unsympathetic; indeed, his increasingly generosity is a counter-point to the steadfast miserliness of the other man. Despite the focus on Bumpsey, however, the presentation of Magdalen is also important, as it suggests not only the relationships within the Bumpsey household, but exactly what is at stake in Bumpsey’s sudden willingness to squander his money: his widow’s livelihood. Magdalen has more to say in this scene than Jane, but it may be difficult for an actor playing her to signal her shifts of tone and attitude effectively, especially as during the middle part of the scene she is being deliberately obstructive in the hope of making Bumpsey listen to Valentine. Her aside to Dryground [DM 1.2.speech153] is crucial, as it suggests a complacency which is rudely undermined by Bumpsey’s new plan. The remaining member of the Bumpsey family, Jane, has comparatively few lines, and we get the impression that Bumpsey is deliberately avoiding talking to her directly. Nonetheless, her presence on the stage is crucial, and a range of effects might be created in performance depending on the physical proximity (or lack of it) between her and other characters. For instance, in this photograph from the workshop on this sequence [IMAGEDM_1_1], we see Jane seated, detached somewhat from Valentine and the action of the scene. In contrast, in this photograph [IMAGEDM_1_2] she is more integrated into the action, standing alongside Valentine. For much of this sequence Jane and Dryground act as an onstage audience, and although they say little their reactions may be crucial guides for the spectators. For more detailed comments on these issues see below, and for further discussion of familial relationships in The Demoiselle see the introduction. [go to text]

n5987   1.2 ACT. I. Scene II. [go to text]

n5988   [Enter] BUMPSEY, DRYGROUND, VALENTINE, MAGDALEN, [and] JANE. Bumpsey, Dryground, Valentine, Magdalen, Jane. [go to text]

n5989   needs not, is not necessary [go to text]

n5990   do your pleasure. Do as you please. [go to text]

gs773   course, method of proceeding, way of acting (OED n, 22a) [go to text]

n5991   this gentlewoman i.e. Magdalen [go to text]

gs774   right legal, equitable or moral title to possess (OED n1, 9a): i.e. that of the husband over the wife [go to text]

gs363   withal, substituted for ‘with’ (OED prep.) [go to text]

gs775   plain? evident, obvious (OED a1, 7); simple, clear, unambiguous (OED a1, 9); free from ambiguity, straightforward, direct, blunt (OED a1, 12) [go to text]

gs776   worship a title of honour, used to address people of high status (OED n, 5a) [go to text]

gg3995   whirly, not in OED; it may be short for ‘whirligig’, meaning a fickle, giddy or inconstant person (OED n, 3a); see also ‘whirl’, to make giddy, or to put into a whirl or tumult (OED v, 7) [go to text]

gg3996   twattle chatter, babble (OED v, 1) [go to text]

gg3997   cause affair, business (OED n, 10); in legal discourse, the subject of a lawsuit, or the case made by one of the parties (OED n, 7) [go to text]

gg3998   directly, plainly, evidently (Crystal and Crystal, Shakespeare’s Words, s.v. directly); straightforwardly (OED adv, 1b); completely (OED adv, 4); without any intervention or intermediary (OED adv, 5) [go to text]

gs777   indirectly, wrongly, dishonestly (OED adv. 1.b); with an intermediary (OED adv. 2) (Bumpsey may be referring to Magdalen’s apparent connivance at the marriage of Valentine and Jane) [go to text]

gs778   meddles interferes; ‘meddle’ can also mean ‘to have sex with’ (Williams, 2: 870), and the pun seems to bring Bumpsey on to that subject in his next accusation [go to text]

gg4001   bedded had sexual intercourse with [go to text]

gg4000   meddles interferes [go to text]

gs779   possess hold, enjoy (OED v, 1b); take possession of (OED v.,5a); have sexual intercourse with (OED v, 5b) [go to text]

gg4002   (hmh!) a variation on inarticulate exclamations such as ‘hum’ and ‘hem’, which can be used to express hesitation, embarrassment or dissatisfaction (see OED hum, int.; hem, int. A) [go to text]

n5992   I will not sue him out of her. That is: I will not attempt to have the marriage annulled (with sexual innuendo on ‘out of her’). [go to text]

n5993   ante copulam, That is: before sexual intercourse (Latin). In the absence of legal divorce, it was very difficult to annul a marriage after sex had taken place. [go to text]

n5994   post, after (Latin) [go to text]

gs780   cross oppose, contradict [go to text]

n5995   brother The fathers of a married couple were sometimes referred to as brothers-in-law, and might address one another as ‘brother’; Dryground tentatively claims kinship with Bumpsey, which the latter rejects. [go to text]

n5996   He will speake all himself. i.e. he will not let anyone else speak. [go to text]

gs781   plain simple, unpretentious (OED a1, 13); frugal, unostentatious (OED a1, 14); ordinary, unsophisticated (OED a1, 16); humble, not high-ranking (OED a1, 16); candid, frank, free from duplicity, blunt (OED a1, 11) [go to text]

n5997   Aye, ] I [go to text]

gg4003   run on. keep going [go to text]

gg4004   alliance, union through marriage, kinship (OED n, 1) [go to text]

n5998   to run beyond himself? i.e. to wear himself out, or to overtake himself. [go to text]

n5999   bring himself about, i.e. to reverse his opinion or change his own mind. [go to text]

gg859   warrant assure, promise [go to text]

gs782   joined connected, united (i.e. through the marriage of Valentine and Jane), possibly with a pun on ‘jointure’, the part of a husband’s estate that is assigned to his wife on marriage or on his death [go to text]

gg4006   houses families, lineages, especially those of high status [go to text]

gg4007   sound, (n) significance (OED n3, 4a); echo, a hollow noise, without significance (OED n3, 4e) [go to text]

gg4008   baronetess the wife of a baronet; this is the only early example in OED, and I have been unable to trace any others [go to text]

gg4009   reversion, right of succession after the death of the current holder of the title [go to text]

gs783   substantial firmly established, solid, of firm value (OED a, 10); in legal discourse, ‘Belonging to or involving essential right, or the merits of a matter’ (OED a, 5b); wealthy (OED a, 12a); of good standing or status (OED a, 13); consisting of solid material (OED a, 14); not imaginary, true (OED a, 15) [go to text]

gs784   fair desirable; considerable; unobstructed [go to text]

gg4010   lordships. the status and material goods of lords (by implication the goods gained from lords) [go to text]

n11562   land-lordship’s The status connected with owning land. Compare Bumpsey’s attitude towards land and status with that of Vermin generally in 1.1. [go to text]

n6000   tradesman’s ] Trades-man Son [go to text]

n6001   the shadows of your ancestry, And you walk in ’em, when your land is gone, Like the pale ghosts of dead nobility. Bumpsey argues that without the land that should underpin noble status the titles themselves are empty words. [go to text]

gs786   plain? evident, obvious (OED a1, 7); simple, clear, unambiguous (OED a1, 9); straightforward, direct, blunt (OED a1, 12): Bumsey probably intends the first or second meaning, but Dryground interprets his behaviour as the third [go to text]

gs787   privilege special licence or right (in this case, to speak as he likes in his own house) [go to text]

gs788   point issue, argument (OED n1, 10); puns on the meaning of ‘point’ in heraldry, where it refers to ‘One of nine recognized locations on a shield which serve to determine the position of a charge, etc.; a charge or device occupying such a location; also: one of a number of horizontal sections of different tinctures into which a shield may be divided, esp. a section at the base of a shield divided from the rest’ (OED point n1, 8d) [go to text]

gg4012   baronet the lowest hereditary rank in the English peerage, instituted in 1611 for the purpose of paying for the plantation of Ulster in northern Ireland; a baronetcy initially cost £1095, and although James I originally promised to limit their number to 200, Charles I continued to create them in the early years of his reign, and by 1629 there were just under 300; after 1628-9, however, what Kevin Sharpe calls 'the traffic in titles' was abruptly halted (see Sharpe, The Personal Rule of Charles I, second edition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), 419; Peck, Court Patronage and Corruption, 32-3) [go to text]

gs789   to boot: in addition, moreover [go to text]

n6002   dear-paid-for expensive, bought at a high cost [go to text]

gg4013   plainness? openness, honesty, bluntness [go to text]

gg4014   Freely. willingly, unreservedly (OED adv, 1a) [go to text]

n6003   bought honour, The rank of baronet cost £1095, a very substantial sum (equivalent to roughly £93,951 in today’s money). [go to text]

gg4015   ladify make a lady of [go to text]

gg1607   Withal along with the rest [go to text]

gg4016   complements qualities or amounts that complete (OED n, 4a); complementing accessories (OED n, 6) [go to text]

gg4017   warrens, ‘piece[s] of land enclosed and preserved for breeding game’ (OED warren n1, 1a); also used, as now, to refer to a piece of land used for breeding rabbits (OED warren n1, 2a) [go to text]

n6004   The goodly cornfields, meadows, woods and pastures That must maintain the house, the gowns, the coach, Withal by complements of horses, hawks, and hounds— Where be the parks, the warrens, herds and flocks? Besides the gardens, orchards, walks and fish-ponds? Bumpsey catalogues the features that he thinks belong to the kind of country estate that Dryground inherited but has now lost. [go to text]

gg4018   ’Od’s pity, an exclamation meaning ‘for the pity of God’ (‘’od’ is a corruption of ‘God’, often found in oaths). Brome is fond of ‘’od’s pity’, using it in The Demoiselle, The Lovesick Court, The Northern Lass and The Sparagus Garden; it is not common elsewhere, although Shakespeare uses ‘’od’s pittikins’ in Cymbeline (4.2.293) [go to text]

gg4019   wrought on manipulated [go to text]

gg4020   tonied cheated or swindled; OED cites only The Demoiselle for ‘tony’ as a verb, but notes the connection with the noun, ‘a foolish person; a simpleton’ (Tony, n1, 1), which may have its origin in Middleton and Rowley’s The Changeling (first performed by Lady Elizabeth’s Men in 1622, and revived by Queen Henrietta Maria’s Men in 1635; in 1639 it was owned by Beeston’s Boys) [go to text]

n6005   trois cents per annum That is: three hundred a year (French/Latin). [go to text]

gs790   providence foresight; divine intervention (Bumpsey is probably being ironic) [go to text]

gg4021   entailed settled so that it cannot be bequeathed to anyone else, or used by anyone else (OED entail v2, 1) [go to text]

gg4022   wasted been consumed or spent needlessly or lavishly (OED waste v, 9) [go to text]

gg4023   proportion quantity (OED n, 7) [go to text]

gg4024   smoke (n) tobacco smoke [go to text]

gg483   sack white wine from Spain: sack is derived from 'sec', and usually meant a dry white wine; hence Falstaff's enjoyment of 'sack and sugar' [go to text]

n6006   Milford Lane, A street running off the Strand to the south towards the river, to the west of the city of London. Milford Lane appears to have been a sanctuary for debtors. In an apparently autobiographical epigram in A Strappado for the Devil: Epigrams and Satires Alluding to the Time (1615), Richard Brathwaite writes,

Where shall I fly to? ’las I know not where,
For Milford Lane is grown too monstrous dear.
No, there I must not go, for know you how
That place is styled? The gallants’ rendezvous. (55)

[go to text]

n6007   Fullers Rents, A court ‘opposite the end of Chancery Lane, leading from Holborn into Gray’s Inn Walks’ (Sugden, Topographical Dictionary, 211, s.v. Fuller’s Rents). It was mainly occupied by taverns and inns, and was a haven for debtors and other fugitives. See also Careless's comment in A Mad Couple Well Matched: 'I need no more ensconcing now in Ram Alley, nor the sanctuary of Whitefriars, the forts of Fuller’s Rents and Milford Lane, whose walls are daily battered with the curses of bawling creditors' [MC 2.2.speech337]. [go to text]

gg4025   skills matters (OED skill v1, 2b) [go to text]

n6008   Must I hear this too? Now he has almost done. These lines might be delivered as a whispered exchange between Dryground and Magdalen, or Valentine and Jane might also be included. Given that the smooth flow of Bumpsey’s speech is uninterrupted, it seems likely that he hears neither line. [go to text]

gg3919   husbandry management of a household, thrift (OED n, 4) [go to text]

gg4026   gamesome merry, playful (OED); but with a pun on ‘game’, meaning sexual act, and ‘gamester’, someone who indulges in sexual play [go to text]

n6010   But here’s the substance of ’t, you have my daughter. Video The tone of these lines can be varied, as these two different readings from the workshop demonstrate. In the first extract, Bumpsey is self-satisfied and relatively jovial. In the second, in contrast, there is a degree of anger and reproach, especially towards the end of the speech; this is underlined by the way in which Alan Morrissey (reading Bumpsey) physically disengages himself from the rest of the group at the end of the speech. [go to text]

n6009   But here’s the substance of ’t, As Alan Morrissey (reading Bumpsey) commented during the workshop, this is a ‘great line’ for an actor, coming as it does after Bumpsey has been setting out his position in inordinate detail, and it is recalled in ‘There’s the point / And the whole substance on’t’ below [DM 1.2.speech164]. [go to text]

gg4027   substance what the speech amounts to (OED 11a); essence (OED 14); puns on possessions, estate, fortune (OED 16) [go to text]

gg4028   exacts demands, extorts [go to text]

n6011   ten thousand pounds, £10,000 would be worth around £850,000 in today’s money. [go to text]

gg4029   thrifty economical, provident (OED a, 4) [go to text]

n6012   Only one thousand, I confess, my wife Bumpsey gained £1000 as Magdalen’s dowry; he now returns it to her, saying that she is free to give it to Jane (which would mean that it would become Valentine’s property) if she pleases. £1000 would have the spending power of around £85,000 in today’s currency. [go to text]

n6012   Improved my fortune with. Here’s the just sum. Bumpsey gained £1000 as Magdalen’s dowry; he now returns it to her, saying that she is free to give it to Jane (which would mean that it would become Valentine’s property) if she pleases. £1000 would have the spending power of around £85,000 in today’s currency. [go to text]

n6013   [Produces the money.] Video There is no stage direction in the octavo. In the workshop on this sequence we used a purse, but it would also be possible to have Bumpsey count out notes or coins, or to produce a cheque or credit-card, depending on the period in which a production is set. In the workshop extract, Bumpsey presents the purse to Magdalen, and she holds it in front of her, ensuring that it holds the audience’s attention, until she gives it to Jane on ‘Now chop in with him’ [DM 1.2.speech130]. [go to text]

gg4030   endow enrich, furnish (OED v, 3b) [go to text]

gg2768   note (v) observe, pay attention to [go to text]

n6014   With ] Which [go to text]

n6015   – that’s left – Video ] -- that’s left; the punctuation in the octavo suggests that the final words on this line may be spoken in aside, or as a qualification of the previous statement. See this extract from the workshop on this sequence [go to text]

gs773   course. method of proceeding, way of acting (OED n, 22a) [go to text]

gg4031   chop in intervene, break in (OED chop v 1, 8) [go to text]

gg4032   apt given, inclined, prone (OED a, 4b) [go to text]

n6016   you know how apt He is to cross you in these moods. Jane claims that Madgalen can manipulate Bumpsey because he is liable to automatically do the opposite of whatever she suggests; her statement also hints that they have been accustomed to manoeuvring him in this manner. [go to text]

gs780   cross oppose, contradict [go to text]

n6017   Dear, worthy, honoured, sir— It is not clear whether Valentine’s intervention is part of Jane and Magdalen’s plan, or whether it threatens to derail it. If it is the latter, Magdalen quickly adapts to the changed circumstances, persuading Bumpsey to listen to Valentine by suggesting that he should not listen to him. [go to text]

n6018   Sh’t, sh’t, sh’t. Video Bumpsey is attempting to block out what Valentine is saying: he may put his hands over his ears or, as in this extract from the workshop on this scene, hold up a hand to indicate that the younger man should stop speaking. [go to text]

n6019   Woman, A deliberately brusque form of address. [go to text]

n6021   Aye, Bump. Let us go our way, and let them take theirs a’ God’s name. Video Magdalen is at this point playing a role, performing the opposite of her true feelings in an attempt to manipulate Bumpsey. In this extract from the workshop, a shift in Olivia Darnley’s tone and style of performance is clear, as is the effect of her role-playing on Alan Morrissey’s Bumpsey, who quickly takes offence and changes his mind about hearing Valentine. [go to text]

n6020   Aye, ] J [go to text]

gg4033   a’ in [go to text]

gg4018   ’Od’s pity! an exclamation meaning ‘for the pity of God’ (‘’od’ is a corruption of ‘God’, often found in oaths). Brome is fond of ‘’od’s pity’, using it in The Demoiselle, The Lovesick Court, The Northern Lass and The Sparagus Garden; it is not common elsewhere, although Shakespeare uses ‘’od’s pittikins’ in Cymbeline (4.2.293) [go to text]

n6022   Are you pleased to speak, sir? Video The comedy in this part of the sequence lies in Bumpsey’s constant re-iteration of his desire to hear Valentine speak, which actually prevents the younger man from speaking. See this extract from the workshop for a demonstration of how it might work in performance: Alan Morrissey’s Bumpsey keeps control of the conversation, but Hannah Watkins’ Valentine gradually gains in confidence. [go to text]

gg4034   fiddlestick. something insignificant: ‘fiddlestick’ is often substituted for another word when a remark is repeated scornfully (OED n, 2) [go to text]

n6023   tell ] yell [go to text]

gg2370   for’t, for it [go to text]

gg4035   firm steadfast, determined (OED a, 6a) [go to text]

gg201   favour. goodwill, kindness; partiality, approval, encouragement [go to text]

gs381   work bring about; stir; urge; manipulate [go to text]

gg773   suit— (n) petition, supplication [go to text]

n6024   Would I could hear it once. This line is especially ironic, as Bumpsey has spent much of the scene refusing to allow the other characters to have their say. [go to text]

n6026   With re-acceptance of this thousand pound Video This is a key moment in the scene, as Valentine’s action disconcerts Bumpsey, who expects Valentine to behave in a manner suiting the grasping prodigal he thinks he is, and it provokes his new course of action. He apparently sees something in Valentine that he did not expect to see, something that distinguishes him from his spendthrift father, and decides to test him further. In this extract from the workshop on this scene, Valentine takes the purse from Jane and gives it back to Bumpsey; this means that we still pay attention to Jane, and her claim to her mother’s money, even as it is passed from one man to another; in an earlier version, Valentine had already taken the purse from Jane when he moved to speak to Bumpsey on ‘Dear, worthy, honoured sir’ [DM 1.2.speech131]. In this version Bumpsey is more obviously taken aback by Valentine’s offer. [go to text]

n6025   re-acceptance i.e. taking back. [go to text]

n6027   into your family. That is: into Bumpsey’s household. [go to text]

n7177   [Valentine] ] the speech prefix is missing in the octavo [go to text]

gg376   meat food of any kind, not necessarily just flesh, fowl, or fish [go to text]

gg4036   little-left diminished [go to text]

n6028   A hundred yearly In terms of spending power, this is equivalent to approximately £8500 in today’s currency. [go to text]

gg1257   necessaries. essential items [go to text]

n6029   [Dryground] Video ] Bump. Although this speech is attributed to Bumpsey in the octavo, it seems more effective and makes more sense if it comes from Dryground. Contrast this version from the workshop on this scene, with Dryground delivering the line, with this version from the first read-through, where the line is spoken by Bumpsey. [go to text]

gs791   bounty, kindness, generosity [go to text]

n6030   Humh! A pretty odd speech this! Video In this workshop reading of the scene, this is the point at which Bumpsey begins to devise his plan for his money. His plan seems to be driven by a desire both to test Valentine and, as he states below, to find an entertaining way of putting into action a pre-existing plan to spend all of his estate before his death, and so ensure that there is nothing left for Valentine and Jane to inherit. [go to text]

gs792   pretty clever, crafty, ingenious (OED a, 1); fairly, very (OED adv, 1a) [go to text]

gs793   odd remarkable (OED a, 7a); singular (OED a, 7b); peculiar, eccentric, unexpected (OED a, 9a) [go to text]

gg776   on’t. of it [go to text]

n6031   Strong probability high likelihood [go to text]

gs794   point proposition, idea (OED n1, 10a) [go to text]

n6032   Mark him now, Sir Humphrey. Video Magdalen’s aside demonstrates the complicity and, possibly, forward planning between her and Sir Humphrey; it can also signal her complacent satisfaction with the way things are progressing immediately before Bumpsey announces his plan, which disconcerts her and seems to pull her out of the role that she has been playing. In the lines that follow, she interjects with increasing desperation, but unfortunately for her, Bumpsey is now reacting against her true feelings rather than assumed ones. Compare these two versions of the sequence from this line to Bumpsey’s ‘God gi’ ye joy’ [DM 1.2.speech168]. In the first, Magdalen is initially sitting beside Jane, from which position she delivers her aside to Sir Humphrey, but she first stands (on ‘Half? What mean you half?’ [DM 1.2.speech155] and then moves across to Bumpsey (on ‘Pray be advised.’ [DM 1.2.speech159]). In the second version, all the actors are standing, and Magdalen is initially positioned beside Bumpsey. She moves across to Sir Humphrey for her aside, then moves to stand beside Jane during Bumpsey’s speech. She is initially slower to take Bumpsey seriously, and there is a nice progression in which she gets more serious and Bumpsey (more volatile and less jovial in this version) gets more lighthearted. [go to text]

gs795   right, legal, equitable or moral title to possess (OED n, 1 9a) [go to text]

n6033   By husbanding of nothing. Punctuation here follows the octavo; other options would be an exclamation mark or a question mark. [go to text]

gg4037   husbanding managing; saving up or storing [go to text]

gg2156   ta’en taken [go to text]

gg4038   d’ye do you [go to text]

gg4039   ha’ have [go to text]

gg1781   ere before [go to text]

gs796   Even precisely (OED adv. 6) [go to text]

gs797   deal behave (OED v, 19); act, proceed (OED v, 20); distribute or bestow (OED v, 4a); negotiate (OED v, 12) [go to text]

gg4040   deals does business, trades (OED v, 13); behaves (OED v, 19); acts, proceeds (OED v, 20) [go to text]

gg2413   ’gainst against [go to text]

gs798   free unrestricted, unrestrained [go to text]

gs799   mark: pay attention [go to text]

gg2966   doubtless, without doubt, unquestionably, certainly [go to text]

gs800   t’other the other (of two) (OED A. 1) [go to text]

gg4041   do’t. do it [go to text]

gs773   course, method of proceeding, way of acting (OED n, 22a) [go to text]

gs801   Thrive be successful, prosper [go to text]

gg4042   scatter, squander [go to text]

n6034   make ducks and drakes (1) play a game in which participants skim a flat stone over a body of water, trying to make it bounce as many times as possible before it sinks (OED duck and drake 1); (2) throw away carelessly, squander (OED duck and drake, 2) [go to text]

gs737   pieces, coins, especially the unite of James I, a coin first issued in 1604, with a value of 20 shillings; OED says that these coins rose to a value of 22 shillings in 1611 (OED n.), but in 3.1 [DM 3.1.speech477] Wat assumes that a piece is worth 20 shillings [go to text]

gs802   match a (financially) advantageous wife [go to text]

n6035   match Or no match of my daughter. A common formulation; compare the title of Beaumont and Fletcher’s A King and No King (King’s Men, c. 1611). [go to text]

gs803   point proposition, idea (OED n1, 10a); main subject or focus of a discussion (OED n1, 10b); objective, aim (OED n1, 10c); conclusion (OED n1, 11) [go to text]

gg4027   substance what the speech amounts to (OED 11a); essence (OED 14); puns on possessions, estate, fortune (OED 16) [go to text]

gg4043   husband manager of an estate; someone who manages his affairs well; marriage partner [go to text]

gs804   husband manager of an estate; someone who manages his affairs well [go to text]

gs446   sport entertainment, amusement, recreation, diversion (OED n1, 1a) [go to text]

gs773   course, method of proceeding, way of acting (OED n, 22a) [go to text]

gg3995   whirly. not in OED; it may be short for ‘whirligig’, meaning a fickle, giddy or inconstant person (OED n, 3a); see also ‘whirl’, to make giddy, or to put into a whirl or tumult (OED v, 7) [go to text]

gg4044   set down. settled, as if it has been put down in writing; decided [go to text]

gs793   odd remarkable (OED a, 7a); singular (OED a, 7b); peculiar, eccentric, unexpected (OED a, 9a) [go to text]

gs805   humorous capricious, whimsical (OED a, 3); suffering from an imbalance of bodily humours (in old-fashioned physiology, the four chief fluids of the body, blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile) (OED a, 2) [go to text]

gs207   coxcomb fool, from the hat in the shape of a cock’s comb worn by jesters (see the professional fool in Queen and Concubine) [go to text]

gg2370   for’t for it [go to text]

n6036   God gi’ ye joy. Video ‘God give you joy’ was commonly said to newly married couples, so by using it here Bumpsey signals that he has at last accepted the marriage between Jane and Valentine. In one version from the workshop on this sequence he spreads his arms; in another he addresses the comment directly to the young couple. [go to text]

gg4045   take my leave, leave you; bid you farewell [go to text]

gs806   business, affairs, concerns, tasks to attend to [go to text]

gs807   charge: instruction (i.e. about his responsibilities) [go to text]

gs808   husband, marriage partner; manager of an estate [go to text]

gg4046   y’ you [go to text]

gg5322   (hark you) listen to me [go to text]

gs809   ’gainst against: in preparation for [go to text]

gg4047   nets traps, means of catching or securing someone or something (OED n1, 1b) [go to text]

gg4048   fare you well. farewell, goodbye [go to text]

n6037   At your pleasure, as you please [go to text]

n6038   At your own good time, i.e. whenever you wish [go to text]

n6039   DRYGR[OUND exits]. Exit Drygr. [go to text]

gg4049   grope feel their way, as if they are in the dark [go to text]

n6040   I’ll blindfold them with money, And by a new way try if they can grope The right way into th’ world. At the end of this long sequence in which Bumpsey’s motives have been unclear, he suggests that his actions are aimed at educating his daughter and his new son-in-law. [go to text]

gg4050   Come your way. come along [go to text]

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