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n5021   2.1 Video Act 2 is in two scenes, the first outside Camelion's shop in the New Exchange. As in the first act, what happens here in public is more suited to privacy, and Hannah is mortified by the possible damage to her reputation.
The scene takes place in the New Exchange of the play's alternative title, with a counter for Hannah to stand behind while serving customers. The setting is integral to the play's themes: Hannah is being used as an advertisement for her husband's wares. Perhaps that is too coy: she is bait to draw the amorous young men to the shop. She knows this, as does her husband, and she is humiliated by the tactic. Camelion's exposure of his wife resembles the representation of merchants' wives in Middleton and Decker's The Roaring Girl, Scene 3: 'The three shops open in a rank ... Mistress Gallipot in the first, Mistress Tiltyard in the next, Master Openwork and his wife in the third'. The sexual advertisement echoes through the scene, but in The Roaring Girl the wives show no sign of displeasure or resentment (Middleton, Collected Works, pp. 734-741). Brome may also be remembering this play as he makes Camelion a devoted participant in duck hunting at the Islington ducking ponds: in The Roaring Girl Scene 3 'Master Gallipot [and] Master Tiltyard' enter, 'with water spaniels and a duck', on their way to Hogsden (p. 741); and the earlier play's shopwomen discourse on the nature of the gallants in ways that are clearly pertinent to Valentine in particular (Scene 9; pp. 760-761).
The scene's tensions are essential preparation for Scene 2 in Lady Nestlecock's house. There, people and bodies are also being bought and sold, although the transactions are cloaked in poetry and the diction of romantic passion. Arriving at that scene through Hannah's humiliation makes inescapable such an interpretation of the 'new exchanges' of the cross-marriages of Lady Nestlecock and Whimlby and of Nehemiah and Blith.
The relationship between Hannah and Camelion is both funny and disturbing, with the husband's distinctly dubious motives being cloaked in embarrassing baby-talk. The dialogue between husband and wife is followed by the conversation between Erasmus and Valentine, before Valentine moves in to try to extort money from Hannah. Erasmus is the cool observer of his amusing but ultimately reprehensible friend; and Brome makes Valentine amusingly self-obsessed and persuaded by his own self-presentation as an irresistible lover. Having represented him as something of a figure of fun, however, Brome switches the emotional tone, showing us a Valentine who is crude and oppressing in his relations with a woman he thinks is powerless before him. This gives Erasmus the opportunity to comment to the audience on Valentine's moral character, preparing us to see Erasmus and Hannah as the two characters in the play with the most certain moral foundation.
Exploring this sequence of interactions -- Camelion and Hannah, joined ultimately by the Footpost; Erasmus and Valentine with Hannah in the background; Valentine and Hannah; lastly Erasmus and Valentine -- with actors revealed a remarkably complex set of possibilities. Much depended on the playing of Camelion. Is he simply a fool, naive and harming his wife without intent to do so? Or is he a manipulator, playing the fool but actually fully conscious of what he is about? Similarly, Hannah can be played with differing degrees of strength, acquiescence, and resentment. In exploration of the initial conversation between them, use of the playing area became crucial, interpretation of the characters being expressed through relative mobility on the stage -- Hannah, in a sense, trapped and her husband free to range about her ; or Camelion being circled by an accusatory Hannah -- and invasions of personal space .
Both the small role of the Footpost and the somewhat larger, but still seemingly marginal role of Erasmus in this scene emerged as contributing crucially to the tone. Erasmus's interactions with the audience shaped responses to Valentine; the Footpost's response to Camelion crystalised reactions and judgements.
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of this scene is that Brome leaves the audience in the dark about why Hannah gives Valentine money. At the end of the play she reveals that he is her half-brother and that she has been commissioned to fund him by Captain Hardyman, her father and Valentine's step-father. Normally, though the characters might remain in ignorance of such an explanation, the audience would be informed; much of the energy of the plot might come from the audience knowing more than the characters. But here Brome provides the audience with no explanation: though Hannah proclaims her chastity and fidelity to Camelion, her actions seem to suggest otherwise. Valentine appears correct: she gives him her husband's money purely because of his 'delineaments'.
As a result, the audience experiences confusions and discomfort that parallel those of the characters on stage. And, as Julie Sanders reminded actors and editors in the detailed and lengthy discussion of this scene, we should bear in mind the fact that the audience was not monolithic or necessarily homogenous. There would have been young men who, at least initially, would have seen little amiss in Valentine's conduct; other audience members would probably have registered from the outset Hannah's discomfort and revulsion, in response to both her husband and Valentine. Some members of the audience may also have been shocked at the casually-expressed class disdain that permeates Valentine's (and Erasmus's) attitudes to both Hannah and Rachel, Matchil's new wife: they are dehumanised, as 'things'. Valentine's assumptions about Hannah -- that as a shopkeeper's wife she is 'fair game' and that her loss of integrity would be without significance -- are ironic: she turns out to be his half-sister. But both he and the audience learn that only much later; for the time being the audience is left uneasy, complicit in the contempt, unable to reconcile what she says (that she is chaste and faithful to her husband) and what she does (apparently betraying Camelion by giving away his money to a gallant). [go to text]

n5020   [Outside CAMELION's shop in the New Exchange] There is no indication of setting in the original printed edition. [go to text]

n8951   [Enter] CAMELION and HANNAH Video The entry of these characters shapes the scene, making it clear that the audience is witnessing the latter stages of an argument that has been going on offstage. Beginning with the characters already onstage resulted in a strikingly different mood from versions in which the characters emerge already in debate . [go to text]

n4637   pidee Video Camelion frequently uses 'baby language' and childish pronunciation in his conversations with his wife Hannah. This could signal his simplicity and perhaps immaturity, particularly since he does so in this scene in a public area. But it may be that he uses terms of affectation and endearment to masks the cynicism of his use of his wife as a form of sexual advertising and potentially as one of his 'goods' for sale. As a result of the cloak of affection and trust, he is able to manipulate her without open challenge to his motives.
Actors performing these lines were able to find in them a wide variety of different degrees of affection, manipulation and hostility. The public nature of the conversation was made all the more powerful and potentially uncomfortable when Sam Alexander, the actor playing Camelion, hinted at acknowledgement and involvement of the audience . [go to text]

n5053   You show you love, Rafe. Throughout this tense exchange, Camelion addresses Hannah as 'thou', but she maintains a formal distance, always addressing him as 'you'. Camelion as husband is the head of the household, though Hannah, a gentleman's daughter, has higher social origins. This line could be spoken with different degrees of ingratiation, resignation, or assertiveness.
The complexity of performance led the actors to ask for guidance: does she love her husband? The question is unanswerable, but one that must be in the audience's mind. Hannah, a gentleman's daughter, has married a shopkeeper -- was this a love match? Or was the daughter married off for economic advantage, as often the case in the period? We see the Camelion/Hannah relationship in the first half of Act 2; in the second we see another intelligent young woman, Mistress Blith, being forced towards marriage with a man not worthy of her, the immature Nehemiah. Does Brome prepare us to see the stark dangers facing Blith by first showing us Hannah as 'fool-clogged' (Blith's phrase from Act 5)?
The comparison between Hannah and Blith is all the more suggestive given the presence within a few lines of Erasmus, the play's most admirable young and marriagable man. Erasmus will eventually marry Blith; later in this scene he will express his respect and admiration for Hannah; but she is already married, and so the 'Erasmus option' is not available to her. [go to text]

gs593   Nan a diminutive of Hannah [go to text]

n4638   cock Video Camelion uses 'Cock' as an affectionate nickname for his wife Hannah (still in use in a phrase like 'my old cock'). However, 'Cock' primarily means a male domestic fowl, and applications to a female are rare. The term is prominent in The New Academy: Matchil's sister is Lady Nestlecock, and in her name it has a clear anatomical meaning.
As a playful name for Hannah, Camelion may be using it to suggest that she is really the one with power in the relationship, holding the position of the male bird. If so, this may be another example of his attempt to manipulate her, since he seems to be - until the end of the play - the one pulling the strings.
Camelion's repeated use of the term in this scene was explored with actors: it could be affectionate ; it could be possessive ; it could be almost a challenge to Hannah, close to insulting in its inappropriateness .
Judgements on how to play Hannah's response to the nickname were similarly complicated. She could be offended or she could go along with the intimate lovers' language at least at first, perhaps in the hope that this would enable her to argue Camelion out of his resolution. After Camelion has left, Hannah comments on his folly, calling her husband 'Cockscomb'. She turns the inappropriate nickname back on him in pungently adapted form. [go to text]

n5494   pity nittle nansy cocksy Video Again, Camelion uses lovers' baby talk: 'my pretty little nansy cock'. Sam Alexander, picking up on Hannah's use of 'assaults' in the previous speech, emphasized the transparency of the pretence of affection, by 'playfully' striking his wife . [go to text]

n8960   Unreasonable requests Camelion plays the rationality card, well known in male-female disputes: he, the male, is being rational; she is being 'unreasonable'. [go to text]

gs594   construction the interpretation put upon conduct, action, facts, words, etc.; the way in which these are taken or viewed by onlookers; usually with qualification, as to put a good, bad, favourable, charitable (or other) construction upon (OED n. 8a) [go to text]

gg1251   wittol 'man who is aware of and complaisant about the infidelity of his wife; a contented cuckold' (OED 1a); a fool, idiot (1b) [go to text]

n4639   Honi soit qui maly pense. 'Evil to him who evil thinks', the motto of the Order of the Garter. Camelion claims that other people's misinterpretation of his wife's conduct and position is their problem, not his or hers. But, in the commodified world of new consumer London, appearances and reputation do matter, are real, and have value.
There appears to be no other reason beyond this meaning for Camelion to associate himself with the Order of the Garter. No direct contemporary connection to the Order has been found. [go to text]

n8962   Kiss me Video Again, Camelion's words are open to a wide range of possible performances. Is this genuinely affectionate , or more a command that demonstrates his power in the relationship? Do they kiss or does she, in effect, submit to being kissed? [go to text]

n4640   yellow sickness Yellow is the colour associated with jealousy [GLOSS gg3076], so 'yellow sickness' is like the 'green sickness' of envy. [go to text]

gg3076   yellow a figurative meaning for jealousy, derived from "yellow", the colour traditionally emblematic of jealousy (The OED cites Every Man In His Humour, where Ben Jonson makes aural (and in terms of the printed text, a visual) pun which explains wittily the connection between the psychological state and the colour: "You have a spice of the jealous yet both of you, (in your hose I mean)". The quotation is to be found only in the Quarto text of 1601 (5.3.389-390), see Herford and the Simpsons, vol.III.) [go to text]

n4641   careless of my credit Hannah means 'reputation', 'that which is believed about me'. But her choice of words associates moral reputation with the reputation for honest dealing necessary for good credit as a merchant in a modern commercial economy. She will continue laying bare the commercial nature of Camelion's behaviour later in this scene and elsewhere. He has already associated her 'honesty' with 'all the wealth i' the Exchange'. [go to text]

n8964   I not desire you should, but only that You will not seem so careless of my credit, Exposing me to all temptations Of the wild gallantry of the wanton time. By whom – although my chastity remains Untouched – my name and your discretion suffers. By this stage in the exchange the audience cannot be unaware of the contrast between the speech patterns of husband (immature, babyish, colloquial) and wife (extended sentences with complex clause structures, more formal and consciously patterned word choices). Hannah is trying to get her husband to be more responsible; she addresses him in language that claims dignity and authority. [go to text]

n8969   Pish Video Camelion exclaims in this way frequently. It could be innocent, but he seems to be belittling her arguments rather than answering them, often with a confrontational tone . [go to text]

gg3269   Pish an interjection 'expressing contempt, impatience, or disgust' (OED) [go to text]

n4642   let the horn-curse take me And let me be with hornets stung to death No specific curse has been found, but possible meanings are clear: Camelion deserves to be really cuckolded if he falls into jealousy. One other appropriate meaning might be impotence ('horn' is sometimes used to mean penis). Camelion's mind continues to run on 'horn' and 'hornets'.
Camelion's phrase sounds proverbial, though no similar instances have been found. [go to text]

n8966   Still you fly from the point. I would not have Video Hannah could easily be erupting with frustration at this point . [go to text]

n5181   seem A little watchful o’er my reputation, Video Hannah does not necessarily expect her husband to be really watchful, but at least to give the appearance that he is. The illusion alone will deter some attacks on her chastity. Olivia Darnley played Hannah's exasperation at Camelion's obtuseness and refusal to take seriously the threats to her reputation. [go to text]

n4643   I were a thing Set out, as in your shop, for common sale. Video Hannah drops all circumlocution here, shedding a cold light on Camelion's use of his wife as bait and advertising. Her use of the word 'thing' is particularly stinging: she has no human identity but is simply a thing to be deployed cynically and perhaps sold by her commercial husband. [go to text]

gg3445   snook snoop, pry [go to text]

gg1186   hare-brained having or showing no more 'brains' or sense than a hare [go to text]

gg3337   point-tagger a maker of point tags, the metal terminations of laces [go to text]

n8971   Enter FOOTPOST Video Using the stage space, Hannah (Olivia Darnley) moved away from her husband in frustration, making space for the arrival of the Footpost. [go to text]

gg598   FOOTPOST messenger, or early version of a postman, though not publicly funded [go to text]

n4644   This superscription will inform you, sir. The footpost's diction is strikingly formal and latinate. [go to text]

gg2350   superscription address or direction (OED 3) [go to text]

n5228   her shop or house in or near the New Exchange.' As Steggle (2004), pp. 91-92, points out, the letter from Captain Hardyman to his daughter is addressed not to a single location that doubles (as many did) as both residence and shop, but to either her house near the New Exchange or to her shop within it. The physical structure of the New Exchange did not permit residential apartments. [go to text]

n5022   Cock 'Cock' is set as a Speech Prefix in the original, but it is clearly part of Camelion's speech. [go to text]

gg3444   ’Sbobs 'an unmeaning oath' (OED); but it probably begins with a variant of 'God's', so perhaps 'God's bobs' [go to text]

n4645   forty pound The number forty recurs in this scene, though it is not clear exactly why. There may be a topical reference, now lost. [go to text]

n4646   forest of fools This phrase, with its memorable alliteration, is likely to be common. Ben Jonson uses it in The Staple of News (3.2.309), printed first in 1631:
CUSTOMER 4: Ha'you any Forest-newes? THOMAS: None very wild, Sir,
Some tame there is, out o'the Forrest of fooles .... [go to text]

n4647   ducking-pond A pond specifically for the hunting of ducks, either with a gun or, more commonly, with a dog. Topographical references in this play locate the pond as that on the site that is now Spa Fields Garden. Samuel Pepys writes of visiting these Ducking Pond Fields in 1667, noting that they were much altered from when he saw them as a child with his father (Pepys, Diary, 5 p. 101). [go to text]

gg3338   foreslow to make slow, delay, hinder, impede, obstruct; to slacken (OED foreslow v, 2) [go to text]

n5121   writes It becomes clear in Act 5 [NA 5.2.speech1170] that he has written his catchphrase (the Order of the Garter's motto): 'Honi soit qui maly pense'. [go to text]

n4648   That lives by his wits, and yet is seldom sober That goes so gallantly, and has no credit, Nor ever buys with ready money, but Barters commodity for commodity, Such as it is, with tradesmen’s wives, they say. Camelion's description of a gallant is shrewd and precise, recognising the bargain such a one will try to make with his wife, trading sexual favours for goods. Yet he hastens her to the shop counter.
Brome's representation of the gallant and Camelion's speech defining at least one prominent type thereof take their place in a vigorous tradition on the Jacobean and Caroline stage, and in some popular printed texts such as Thomas Decker's The Gull's Hornbook. In particular, Brome may be influenced by Thomas Middleton, whose comedies repeatedly address the figure of the gallant (as in Your Five Gallants [c.1607] and The Roaring Girl [c.1607], especially Scene 9). [go to text]

n5182   thy shop The selling spaces in the New Exchange were often small, little more than a counter for the salesperson to stand behind. See Dillon, pp. 110-113. [go to text]

gg3339   silliness foolishness, intellectual feebleness; sometimes innocence [go to text]

n8970   Something I’ll do. Hannah's final comments on Camelion's obtuseness or callous recklessness convey her frustration even through their indefiniteness, like Lear's angry 'I will do such things -- / What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be / The terrors of the earth!' (King Lear 2.4). [go to text]

n11333   Enter ERASMUS and VALENTINE. [They talk unheard by HANNAH] Video Workshop experiments with this scene resulted in prolonged discussion among actors and editors, all responding to the discomfort produced by Valentine's conduct and Hannah's exposed situation. Julie Sanders began by pointing out that the original theatre audience was likely to have been quite various and it would probably have included 'gallants' who would, at least initially, have identified with Valentine. Alan Morrissey and others pointed out the different ways in which the young men could be performed, asking how sophisticated they might be and what evidence from elsewhere in the play there was for Valentine's success as a seducer; Olivia Darnley, fresh from taking the role of Hannah, questioned how Hannah would respond to such offensive conduct, and this was situated by Liz Schafer in relation to the disturbing presentation of women's responses even by a female playwright like Aphra Behn . [go to text]

gg222   humour mood, temper, attitude, frame of mind [go to text]

n4649   nothing There may be a pun on the word 'nothing', based on what appears to have been very similar pronunciation of 'nothing' and 'noting' in the period. Hitherto Joyce was worth noting as a potential marriage partner; now, without the prospect of inherited wealth, she has become nothing. [go to text]

n8909   trade Erasmus makes no attempt to conceal his judgement that Valentine's way of extracting money from merchants' wives is a trade. Valentine seems not to resent at all the implications. This is all happening in the play's great site of commerce, the New Exchange. The emphasis on trade picks up on Hannah's increasingly pointed wordchoice in seeking to shame Camelion into protecting her: 'credit', 'a thing set out, as in your shop, for common sale'. [go to text]

gg2387   maintenance support, means of subsistence (OED n. 3a) [go to text]

n8980   to let you know that I can live Video From the beginning of this sequence Brome makes it clear that Valentine is more interested in money than sexual opportunity; and more interested in impressing his friend Erasmus than in either. He consciously performs, perhaps also acting out a fantasy of himself as more sophisticated and persuasive than he is in actuality. [go to text]

n5122   Dost Val. Doest An unnecessary duplicate Speech Prefix has been removed. The ms. annotators of several copies make this emendation. [go to text]

n4650   mumping piece 'Mumper' is usually defined as 'beggar' or low-life person, but Brome's characters frequently use it of women to mean sexually available, close to prostitution. 'Piece' is also frequently used as a dismissive term for a woman, particularly when viewed as a sexual object. [go to text]

n5495   tribute in to my exchequer Valentine imagines himself as reigning over an empire of desiring women, all of whom make payments (tribute paid into his account) to try to secure his favour. [go to text]

n4651   fool-husband’s word Valentine imitates Camelion's habit of repeating 'Not I, not I'. [go to text]

n4652   And that I lay with, drink, and wear her money. Valentine's line makes no attempt to conceal the interchangeability in his mind of Hannah's body and her husband's money. [go to text]

n4653   straight ran over my delineaments In his vanity, Valentine preens by using Latinate diction. [go to text]

gg3340   Boldface impudent [go to text]

n5183   She then demands, 'Is your name Askal, sir?' I answer, 'Yes'. 'Pray, of what country, sir?' Valentine is enjoying his self-promoting narrative so much that he moves into the historic present tense, remembering and imagining himself as playing the leading role in a drama. The New Academy, like so many of Brome's plays, is highly conscious both of its own theatricality and of the theatrical nature of life, especially as lived in contemporary London. Valentine shows himself caught up in this, but without the self-awareness to recognise the disparity between his fictional self and the altogether less heroic reality. [go to text]

n4654   Did in her face betray the fire of love Again, Valentine dramatises through his diction, this time adopting the vocabulary of love poetry. [go to text]

n5184   when a sudden flaming blush Did in her face betray the fire of love, That was at th’ instant raging in her breast. She looked me through and through, sighed, turned away, do you think a woman’s so quickly brought to the point? Video This play concerns itself with the use of appearances and costumes to communicate and persuade, and with the issues of sight, looking, and gazing. Here, ironically, Valentine is shown to misinterpret visual signs, for all his emphasis on looking. His unrecognised half-sister 'look[s] [him] through and through'; but instead of being overpowered by desire, she is dismayed by him. He interprets her blush of shame as the expression of overpowering sexual attraction.
In this speech particularly, but throughout the dialogue, Brome plays on the homophones 'I', 'eye', and 'Aye', to drive home Valentine's the self-absorbtion. Occasionally, Erasmus participates in the game also, wryly amused by his friend's impenetrable vanity. [go to text]

n4655   under her hat-brims thus A pose recognisable from contemporary illustrations. Valentine's 'thus' shows that he is acting this out for Erasmus, continuing to perform and conceive of himself theatrically. [go to text]

n4658   I nimbly caught her with mine eye Valentine here begins a series of references to 'catching' and particularly to fishing. His bait is his 'eye'; but 'eye' can also be a term for a looped piece of metal, used in fishing, and -- in combination with 'hook' -- as a fastening for clothes, especially doublet and hose. The first instance given for this usage in the OED is 1626. [go to text]

n4656   eye Erasmus and Valentine are bantering in this passage, playing with homophones. Erasmus's response may be a dry, sceptical, ironic commentary on Valentine's flight of fancy; it also continues the emphasis on the eye, visual signs, and the self-regarding creation of identity. [go to text]

n4657   turn her whites up Turn up the whites of her eyes, swoon [go to text]

n5184   when a sudden flaming blush Did in her face betray the fire of love, That was at th’ instant raging in her breast. She looked me through and through, sighed, turned away, do you think a woman’s so quickly brought to the point? Video This play concerns itself with the use of appearances and costumes to communicate and persuade, and with the issues of sight, looking, and gazing. Here, ironically, Valentine is shown to misinterpret visual signs, for all his emphasis on looking. His unrecognised half-sister 'look[s] [him] through and through'; but instead of being overpowered by desire, she is dismayed by him. He interprets her blush of shame as the expression of overpowering sexual attraction.
In this speech particularly, but throughout the dialogue, Brome plays on the homophones 'I', 'eye', and 'Aye', to drive home Valentine's the self-absorbtion. Occasionally, Erasmus participates in the game also, wryly amused by his friend's impenetrable vanity. [go to text]

n5184   when a sudden flaming blush Did in her face betray the fire of love, That was at th’ instant raging in her breast. She looked me through and through, sighed, turned away, do you think a woman’s so quickly brought to the point? Video This play concerns itself with the use of appearances and costumes to communicate and persuade, and with the issues of sight, looking, and gazing. Here, ironically, Valentine is shown to misinterpret visual signs, for all his emphasis on looking. His unrecognised half-sister 'look[s] [him] through and through'; but instead of being overpowered by desire, she is dismayed by him. He interprets her blush of shame as the expression of overpowering sexual attraction.
In this speech particularly, but throughout the dialogue, Brome plays on the homophones 'I', 'eye', and 'Aye', to drive home Valentine's the self-absorbtion. Occasionally, Erasmus participates in the game also, wryly amused by his friend's impenetrable vanity. [go to text]

gs595   struck to cause the hook to pierce the mouth of (a fish) by a jerk or sudden movement of the tackle; to hook; also said of the hook or the rod; and to cause (a hook) to pierce the mouth (OED strike v, 33f); there may also be a reference to being struck by the arrows of love [go to text]

n5186   service Valentine's word has multiple potential meanings and the precise point here is left purposefully vague. As Hannah's potential lover, he could be the 'servant' of a mistress; but Valentine seems to see himself as dominant in this relationship: Hannah, because she is overwhelmed by desire for him, is to be his sexual servant (as well as giving him money). [go to text]

n5187   comes Valentine reverts to the historic present. [go to text]

n4659   that’s your last. I’ll hold you ten o’that. Valentine has received thirty pieces from Hannah so far, which Erasmus asserts will be the end of her generosity. But Valentine will now ask for ten more, adding up to forty, the number that dominates this scene. [go to text]

n8985   See, she has spied me. Video Throughout his exchanges with Hannah, Valentine is highly conscious of the effect on Erasmus, though he ultimately misinterprets it. In working on the sequence with actors there was experimentation with where Hannah should be placed. The scene is set in front of Camelion's shop counter in the New Exchange; and Hannah was initially placed as herself an object for the gaze and, in a sense, for sale, sitting as though in a shop window. . Further discussion resulted in agreement that this overly trapped the actor; but the experiments made clear the importance of her being subject to gazing and, in a sense, trapped by structure of shop, Exchange, and societal attitudes. [go to text]

n4660   What lack ye, gentlemen? 'What lack ye' or 'What do you lack' are the traditional shopkeeper's or inn-keeper's cries. However, there is a sense that this common phrase is extended here to a bigger question: what is it that shallow young men like Valentine lack? Money alone, or a sense of honour or larger purpose beyond the pursuit of pleasure? [go to text]

gg3341   cut-work openwork embroidery [go to text]

gg3342   bands the collar of a shirt, neck-band [go to text]

gg3343   boot-hose boot stockings [go to text]

gg3749   boot-hose tops elaborate decorative work displayed at the top of boot hose [go to text]

gs596   Bounce (as a noun) a braggart, boastful man [go to text]

n8990   Walk off a little. Video Throughout the triangular sequence with Erasmus and Hannah, Valentine manipulates the space in front of her shop counter and, indeed, the stage space. He seeks, not least, to create self-flattering stage pictures for Erasmus.
Erasmus, being commanded to stand apart, also frames the action for the audience, who see Valentine's conduct through the appraising and sceptical eyes of the onstage observer. [go to text]

n9029   ’Tis not your life can salve that, being wounded. Video Attacks on a woman's reputation for sexual honesty were particularly damaging in this period. In discussions of the scene, Julie Sanders and Lucy Munro stressed the causes of Hannah's anxiety. [go to text]

gs686   salve figuratively and as a verb, to heal [go to text]

n4661   thirty pieces Hannah's reference to 'thirty pieces' recalls the payment to Judas Iscariot of thirty pieces of silver, for the betrayal of Christ. [go to text]

n4662   forty pound Again, the text stresses that Valentine will receive forty pounds. [go to text]

n8991   I’ll pay thee like a gentleman, as I am one Video Valentine's speech shows anything but a gentlemanly respect for Hannah, insinuating a baseness of motive to her and insulting her husband to her face. Valentine is too absorbed in his own fantasy and the performance being seen by Erasmus to consider Hannah's likely response, as Olivia Darnley's performance conveyed.
Staging the scene with greater mobility for Hannah enabled Valentine's presumption to be made manifest in his invasion of her space, her retreat, and his oppressive pursuit of a woman trapped by both the physical need to remain near her shop counter and by her commitment to their father to assist her brother. However, it should be remembered that this latter motive remains a mystery to the audience. [go to text]

n4663   what shall please thee better Valentine leeringly assumes that Hannah's primary motive is to gain him as a lover. Note that he uses 'thee' and 'thou', while she maintains the distance by using 'you'. [go to text]

n4664   dull ducking gamester Video 'Gamester' can mean 'gambler' or, figuratively, a lewd person. Valentine seems to suggest that Camelion is both a dull gambler and a dull lover.
As Lucy Munro pointed out when working on this scene, the offensiveness of Valentine's words and attitudes here begins of a series of speeches in which Hannah tries to shock Valentine into desisting. But he is too insensitive to notice. [go to text]

gg409   gamester one who gambles (OED 3); lewd person of either sex (OED 5) [go to text]

n4665   Kennels his water-dog in Turnbull Street This is literally true, in the sense that Camelion keeps his dog near the Ducking Ponds; but Valentine implies that he is also engaged in extra-marital activity. Camelion later comes close to confirming that. [go to text]

n5498   Turnbull Street Previously known as Turnmill Street, this was a road or lane in Clerkenwell notorious for prostitution. It is regularly referred to in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, from Henry IV, pt. 2 (3.2.279) onwards (Norton Shakespeare, p. 1374). [go to text]

gg1314   outleaps destination of excursions; places of assignation [go to text]

n4666   Tottenham? Or cross o’er The water, or take coach to Kensington Or Paddington; or to some one or other O’ th’ City outleaps for an afternoon, And hear the cuckoo sing to th’ purpose? When? Video Valentine proposes assignations in some of the well-known places for illicit sexual activity (hence the reference to the cuckoo) outside the area controlled by the City of London authorities. Apart from the liberties in Southwark 'across the water', these are in the villages to the west: Tottenham, Kensington, and Paddington.
The enumeration of places has an air of sexual fantasy or euphemism, as actors and editors suggested in working through the scene. Valentine's strategem is going so badly that he may be embarrassed; but he may also be as confused as the audience: why, if she so resents his conduct, does she keep giving him money? Julie Sanders and Helen Ostovich pointed out that the place names, the proposal to go by coach, and the use of the term 'outleap' would have left no-one (not Hannah, not the audience) in any doubt about the sexual purpose of the excursion. Valentine's attitude shows class disdain: however she responds, Hannah is a shopworker and therefore of low morals.
Experimenting with the scene, this speech became a crucial moment: it will provoke Hannah to her most stark rebuke of Valentine. Rather than being a manifestation of an urgent sexual desire, the actors found that Valentine's conduct was more a response to his need to impress Erasmus by appearing to take liberties with Hannah. Using the diagonal placing on the stage of the characters, Valentine's consciousness of the success of his performance in Erasmus's eyes could be expressed in highly visible, nervous glances, checking on the results. But with her vehement response Valentine's show begins to disintegrate; his insistence then on whispering seemed a way of limiting the damage. [go to text]

n4667   loose-hilted Video Hannah uses vocabulary with obvious sexual connotations - 'thrust', 'loose-hilted' - to convey her disdain for the easy-virtued women with whom Valentine associates her. At this point Hannah seems to turn back on Valentine his own kind of offensive diction, challenging him and taking control of the scene. Working on the scene with actors, the director, Brian Woolland, made a connection with a similar moment earlier in the scene when Hannah seized rhetorical control from her husband Camelion. Both Hannah and Valentine are acutely aware of being observed by Erasmus.
A second version of this exchange emphasised more Valentine's offensively insinuating invasion of Hannah's space and the vigour of her response. Rather than remaining close to him she moved to the far edge of the stage; Valentine then used the need to whisper as a means of coaxing or compelling her to come close to him again, for the benefit of Erasmus's observation. Alternatively, Hannah's sense of her integrity could result in her refusal to cede physical space to Valentine, causing him to back down in the face of strength. This staging was discussed, and thought perhaps to be preferable, but not performed.
Lucy Munro also suggested that Valentine could be played as finding Hannah's vehement rebuff sexually exciting or encouraging: because she nonetheless funds him, he may think she is playing hard to get. [go to text]

gs609   close secret, covert (OED adj. 4a) [go to text]

n4668   as for traducing as I do blame him for traducing [go to text]

gg3446   shark to prey upon, to victimize, sponge upon, swindle (OED) [go to text]

n4669   I have always liked his company till now, And shall hereafter be more wary of him. Video Erasmus's judgements on conduct and morals are the surest in the play (and hence his reward of a sensible, wealthy wife in Mistress Blith at the end). Here, his decision to distance himself from Valentine validates and confirms the audience's disquiet.
Once more in this scene, Erasmus speaks for and to the audience. [go to text]

n5037   your pour. The unemended reading could be defended (poor), but this looks like a compositor's misreading. Later in this Act the compositor seems to have difficulty with this word again, when Lady Nestlecock labels her son 'pure' or 'poor' thing. [NA 2.2.speech395] [NOTE n5058]. The Newberry Library Y135.B779 ms. annotator corrects to 'your'. [go to text]

n4670   lavish tongue Video Hannah asks that Valentine does not corrupt her reputation by bragging of her favour and his power over her.
The actors experimented with playing this speech to give an impression of Hannah's authority and Valentine's discomfiture at the stark revelation that he is, for all his posturing, dependent on her for money. In particular, Valentine does not dare look across at Erasmus, for fear Hannah will lose any patience with him. In the case of such an interpretation, the actor playing Valentine would need to convey the character's irrepressibility: he immediately recovers and resumes lewd insinuation. The difficulties were explored in discussion. [go to text]

gg3344   a spirt a sudden burst of activity; a variant of 'spurt', also used in the seventeenth century. [go to text]

n8910   Pish Valentine uses a word that has already become closely associated with Camelion in the first moments of this scene. Both men patronise Hannah, both treat her as a 'thing', and both belittle what she says with the same exclamation. [go to text]

n8992   You slight him now, but he knows all your counsels. Video Hannah is at least as aware as Valentine of the effect of the stage pictures he is creating. She is constantly conscious of Erasmus's observation and possible interpretations.
Experimenting with the scene, the actors themselves commented on how Erasmus's presence on stage affected the tone and that there were two different impressions being made: one by the conversation between Hannah and Valentine and one by their physical actions.
There was also discussion of how threatened Hannah feels by being observed by Erasmus. Though Valentine claims antagonising Erasmus would not matter, Hannah's line may mean that Erasmus is dangerous and must not be alienated, because he knows all Valentine's secrets. [go to text]

n4671   unbegotten Hans that I mean to clap into thy Kelder Valentine employs an Englishing of the Dutch saying, that an unborn child is 'Hans in Kelder', 'Jack in the cellar'. Again, he is veneering over an ugly meaning by employing wit and a diction that he hopes will predispose his listener to accept his stance. Here the jocularity is entirely inappropriate, savouring of all-male sexual banter and, as such, completely counter-productive with Hannah. [go to text]

n4672   Pinch Pinching appears to be the fairies' favoured form of torment, as most memorably in The Merry Wives of Windsor and, perhaps uppermost in Brome's mind, in Jonson's The Alchemist. [go to text]

gg2147   Go to an exhortation, equivalent to 'come, come', or the modern 'for heaven's sake' (OED go v, 93b) [go to text]

n5023   [VALENTINE counts out his money] The numbers, '1, 2, 3, 4, etc.' are set as a stage direction in the original; and it is possible that the actor is suppose to count audibly. But Valentine stresses that he has been enjoined to 'make no words on it' by Hannah, so this is probably an exaggerated action of counting. [go to text]

gg2651   gypsy cunning, deceitful; also used as a derogatory term for a woman, similar to 'hussy' or 'baggage' (OED n. 2b), so could refer to the actions of such a woman [go to text]

n5189   So’t seems, by trusting thee that hast no power to keep a secret. Erasmus is ironic once more, questioning how clever Hannah can really be, if she trusts Valentine. [go to text]

n4673   Yet thou hast the conscience Erasmus's cool and unvarnished statement exposes the contrast between the real virtues of honesty and concern for others and the breezy, self-serving immorality of an exploitative gallant. Valentine is prepared to corrupt Hannah and drive Camelion to financial ruin. [go to text]

n5190   break his back Erasmus means that Valentine will undermine Camelion financially, but his phrase opens the way for Valentine to respond with a sexual meaning. [go to text]

gg3345   back sexual stamina [go to text]

n4674   ’Tis rather to be feared she may break mine. Valentine picks up Erasmus's phrase for Camelion's possible financial ruin ('break his back') and makes a sexual joke: Hannah's sexual demands may exhaust him physically. [go to text]

n8993   She’s a tight, strong-docked tit. Video Valentine's vulgarity provokes Erasmus to exclaim a response, again framing the exchange for the audience verbally and visually. Liz Schafer, Julie Sanders, and Sam Alexander expressed the power of Erasmus's commentary as a device for framing and focusing the audience's attention. [go to text]

gg3347   tight (figuratively of a person, expressing somewhat indefinite commendation) competent, capable, able, skilful; alert, smart; lively, vigorous, stout; (OED tight a, 3); often with sexual connotations [go to text]

gg3346   strong-docked having firm buttocks (OED: 'strong-docked, "that has strong Reins and Sinews, lusty, stout" (Phillips 1706)'; found in East Anglian dialects, frequently applied to women assumed to be sexually vigorous [go to text]

gg3348   tit a girl or young woman: often qualified as little: cf. chit; also applied indiscriminately to women of any age:(a) usually in depreciation or disapproval: esp. one of loose character, a hussy, a minx; or (b) sometimes in affection or admiration, or playful meiosis (common in 17th and 18th c.; now low slang) (OED n. 3 and 2a) [go to text]

gg3455   make engender, conceive, procreate [go to text]

n5191   want Valentine puns on two meanings of 'want': desire and have the need of. [go to text]

gg3432   father-in-law step-father [go to text]

n5054   Thank your own sweet courses Valentine has behaved so badly that he has been cut off without funds by his step-father, Hardyman. [go to text]

gg29   courses way of proceeding, action; also trick, way of gaining money illicitly [go to text]

n4675   they serve me to live upon Valentine's complacent acknowledgement of his immoral exploitation of others links him with Strigood in the older generation. [go to text]

n4676   Ha! Valentine uses the exclamation characteristic of Matchil, Lady Nestlecock, and Strigood, another indication that he resembles them in his egocentrism and tendency to be immoral in the exploitation of the virtuous and weak. [go to text]

n5055   I was upon I was thinking about or upon [go to text]

gg3349   malkin a servant or lower class young woman [go to text]

n5192   coarse Valentine puns using the homophones 'coarse' and 'course'. [go to text]

n5192   course Valentine puns using the homophones 'coarse' and 'course'. [go to text]

n4677   Would’st thou touch such a thing Erasmus expresses class disdain for servant girls as sexual partners. Hannah has already sought to shame Camelion by comparing herself to a 'thing', an object for sale; and Valentine has also labelled Hannah a 'thing'. [go to text]

n4678   not for money Valentine's response reveals him as being close to male prostitution, though he would protest against being so identified. [go to text]

n5497   winking Valentine's crude assertion -- that he can stomach having sex with an ugly woman for money if he keeps his eyes closed -- is another example of his self-centredness, lack of emotional sympathy, and immorality. [go to text]

n8994   Tell not me What any woman can or cannot be. Video Valentine's underlying mysogyny and class disdain manifest themselves unmistakably here. [go to text]

n5024   ERASMUS and VALENTINE exit together Ex. Ambo. [go to text]

n5240   2.2 Act 2's second scene returns us to the main plot but introduces a new element: Lady Nestlecock's intriguings to achieve a pair of cross marriages, matching herself with Sir Swithin Whimlby and her son, Nehemiah, with Whimlby's niece, Blith Tripshort. Most of these characters are broadly comedic: Lady Nestlecock is given to passionate utterance, particularly in indulgent praise of her immature son. Nehemiah himself is a wonderful creation: well of an age to be assuming the responsibilities and attitudes of adult manhood, he remains obsessed with children's games and apparently unaware of adult sexuality. Whimlby is an aged and decrepit lover, and he seems most in love with himself as a grieving widower. As with the other young women in the play, Blith is represented as a victim of the follies of the others, about to be sacrificed in marriage to the idiot Nehemiah so that her uncle -- or is it her natural father? -- can achieve the cross marriage with Lady Nestlecock. Added to this is another upwardly mobile servant, Ephraim, who is Malvolio-like in his aspiration to marry Lady Nestlecock.
In the second half of the scene these characters are joined my Lady Nestlecock's brother, Matchil, and his new wife, Rachel, who had hitherto been his domestic servant. On discovering that Lady Nestlecock has lost Matchil's daughter, relations between brother and sister spiral into antagonism, leading Matchil to deter Whimlby from marrying Lady Nestlecock, or indeed anyone at all, advising him that marriage results in the loss of freedom. Incautiously, he does this in front of his own new wife, who reveals that her meekness and silence as a domestic servant have been replaced in the wife by a capacity for forthright and vigorous expression of her own views. Matchil's discomfiture is enjoyed by everyone else on the stage. [go to text]

n5019   [In LADY NESTLECOCK's house] There is no indication of location in the original, but the setting is clear from the dialogue. [go to text]

gg2214   scape escape [go to text]

n4679   Not since the rape Of Helen, I’m persuaded Ephraim alludes to the story of the cause of the Trojan war, Paris's abduction of Menalaus's wife, Helen. The analogy is over-stretched and thus bathetic. Throughout his interactions with Lady Nestlecock he attempts to make a good impression, hoping to become her husband, by inflating his diction and manner of speech. The effect is gained not least by the contrast with her sometimes coarse responses. In this speech Ephraim is repeatedly forced to reformulate his statements, in case his florid phrasing and circumlocutions have lost Lady Nestlecock. There are obvious resemblances here to ambitious servants like Malvolio in Twelfth Night. [go to text]

gg3048   narrow rigorous, painstaking [go to text]

n4680   To do? Much may be done Ephraim picks up on Lady Nestlecock's question, 'What to do, ha?', and draws on the sexual sense of 'doing'. [go to text]

n4681   suburbs Outside the boundaries of the City, the suburbs were supposed to be places for illicit sexuality and prostitution, because of the absence of strict control of morality by local authorities. [go to text]

n4682   adverse in religion A commonly used phrase (see The Alchemist 3.2.57), meaning a Catholic, a papist. [go to text]

n4683   he is of none As often in this period, an association is made between atheism and adherence to Catholicism, which was deemed no religion by more extreme Protestants. [go to text]

n4684   ballet 'Ballet' is a variant spelling of 'ballad', still in use by Samuel Pepys in the 1660s. It is retained here because Ephraim may again be elevating his diction through vague anachronism to impress Lady Nestlecock. [go to text]

gg3350   jew’s trump a variant term for 'jew's harp', a simple musical instrument [go to text]

n4685   exercise of arms Ephraim sardonically applies to Nehemiah's schoolboy games a term for the practice of fighting and tournament skills. At nineteen he should be developing more manly attainments. [go to text]

n5066   castingtop, a cat and catstick Throughout the play, Nehemiah - though nineteen years old - is represented as being excited most by children's games. Often, Brome chooses games whose names are capable of bawdy meanings; but always these are the most popular children's games of the time, games that continued well into the twentieth century but which have often died out in the age of television, video, and computer games.
Nehemiah's games usually involve 'things' (the term taken from Iona and Peter Opie's study, Children's Games with Things (Oxford: Oxford University Pres, 1997). Most of Nehemiah's games are to do with spinning tops (here he's been given a 'castingtop'; when he comes on he asks if his prospective wife will play 'peg-top') or ball ('cat') and bat ('catstick'), the latter a variant of 'tipcat'. [go to text]

gg3351   castingtop a variant of 'pegtop', a game in which an opponent knocks over another's pegs with a spinning 'top' [go to text]

gg3352   a cat and catstick a bat or stick used in games of tip-cat and trap-ball (see [NOTE n5066]) [go to text]

gg1803   government direction, control, orders [go to text]

n8911   had you married me – which was as likely As that your brother would have ta’en his maid Ephraim touches on a gender and class difference here. He, like Matchil's servant Cash, aspires to marry above himself; and the play treats this as inherently ridiculous. But Ephraim is right to challenge the audience: why is this so different from Matchil marrying 'down', making his former servant Rachel his wife? [go to text]

gs597   play sometimes extended to mean sexual activity [go to text]

n5087   up and ride A variant of the phrase commonly found in early modern texts, 'Nothing but up and ride' (Tilley N284), meaning sexual activity. [go to text]

n5229   Go La. Duplicate speech prefix deleted. [go to text]

n4686   F’sooth Brome gives Nehemiah a characteristic verbal exclamation, 'F'sooth', which he will use frequently. [go to text]

gg3353   peg-top a children's game in which a player tries to knock down an opponent's pegs with a spinning 'top' [go to text]

n4687   And she ha’ not good box and steel, I shall so grull her. Nehemiah's brags are all to do with children's games, but he seems always on the fringes of double-entendres. [go to text]

n5067   box and steel This is likely to be a reference to a playground game, but no other instance has been found. [go to text]

n5068   grull No other use of this word has been found. It may be a nonsense word of Nehemiah's invention, heard as vaguely obscene by the audience. [go to text]

gg3354   Mumbledepeg a variant of 'mumble the peg' or 'mumblety-peg', a children's game in which a participant has to try to remove with his teeth a peg driven into the ground [go to text]

gg2864   firk drive, urge on [go to text]

gs598   fagaries whims, eccentricities [go to text]

gg3355   wag-tricks the tricks of a mischievous or playful young man [go to text]

gg3356   Amardla an oath, of unknown origin [go to text]

n5193   For I did beat a boy as high as myself Yesterday, with one hand. Where was thy tother? The boy had but one hand f’sooth. I used both. This is an old comic routine, drawing on verbal ambiguity and the audience's assumptions. There is often a clown-like quality to Nehemiah and his scenes. [go to text]

n4688   too witty to live long A common proverbial compliment concerning a young, intelligent person [go to text]

n4689   colours Nehemiah means that he expresses his mourning in a consciously rhetorical manner (as in 'colours of rhetoric'). But there may also be a hint that Sir Swithin is suspected of 'colouring', slightly falsifying his grief. Is it sufficiently excessive to be something of a pose? As an old man seeking to engage in amours, he may also be 'colouring' in the sense of using face-paint, though there are no other indications in the text to support this. [go to text]

n5056   Knight Powel No similar usage has been traced, but there is probably a popular saying or character from a romance behind this phrase. [go to text]

n4690   kill the furious itch Lady Nestlecock's diction rises to the latinate and euphemistic as she describes Sir Swithin's flights of poetry. But she then descends to monosyllables and more Anglo-Saxon diction, with the effect that the 'furious itch of it', by which she presumably means 'of the infection of poetry', is associated by the audience at least in part with the itch of sexual desire, to be satisfied by a new wife. [go to text]

n4691   a long one and two round ones Nehemiah's description of the plums obviously suggests the male genitalia. As usual he seems naively unconscious of the double entendres. 'Plum' is still used in colloquial American English for 'testicle'. [go to text]

gg3357   a month’s mind a great or irresistible longing [go to text]

gg3358   cross match a pair of marriages between members of two families [go to text]

n5499   This is no crafty child. Lady Nestlecock's remark could be an aside, but there is no indication of that in the original printing. It more likely that she is, characteristically, responding her son's disconcerting perceptiveness about the dynamics of the cross marriages by praising him to others on the stage. [go to text]

n4692   I’ll come over her with small jerks Again, Nehemiah's speech is capable of obscene meaning, though he appears not to know it. [go to text]

gg390   jerks witty gibes; can also refer to copulation [go to text]

n8912   Ha, ha, ha. Blith laughs a lot here. Is the laughter hysterical, as she finds herself in the nightmare of being forced to marry a fool? [go to text]

n5028   she puts me out she puts me on't. The original reading makes little sense, but 'puts me out' is exactly what Blith does. This emendation is also proposed by the manuscript annotator in Folger Shakespeare Library B4872. The phrase is drawn from theatrical jargon, where an actor may be 'out', lost in his lines. [go to text]

n4693   [Aside]And that’s the way to win her Ephraim's cryptic commentary to the audience frequently matches the metre of Sir Swithin's verse. It acts as a kind of refrain and is set against the right margin in the 1659 text. [go to text]

n5029   [Whimlby] No speech prefix in the original. [go to text]

n4695   Grissel The name of Sir Swithin's dead wife alludes to the story of Patient Grissel, which appears in Chaucer's 'Clerk's Tale' and frequently elsewhere in English literature, including the play Patient Grissel by Thomas Dekker, Henry Chettle, and William Haughton (c. 1599), mentioned in Henslowe's Diary. 'Grissle' is also a Scottish word for 'cry' or 'weep'. [go to text]

n4694   the proverb 'Proffered service is little valued', probably Dutch in origin. [go to text]

n5027   He weeps pure Helicon Whimlby's self-indulgently poetic grief expresses itself in trivial poetry. [go to text]

gg3359   Helicon a mountain in Beotia, in myth the haunt of the Muses, and thus a figure for art, especially poetry [go to text]

gg3360   numbers verse, poetry [go to text]

n4696   With her full dowry of four thousand pounds Though Lady Nestlecock portrays herself as overwhelmed by romantic emotion, she remains clear and unambiguous about the financial basis for the pair of marriages. [go to text]

gg1144   jointure marriage settlement (usually the part of a husband’s wealth or property that he elected to assign to his wife in the event of his death) [go to text]

gg3361   star fortune, destiny [go to text]

gs687   crosses a vexation, a misfortune (OED n. 10b) [go to text]

gg3362   gally-pots small earthenware pot often used by apothecaries and for trapping insects [go to text]

gg1292   cordial invigorating, hearty [go to text]

gg3363   electuaries a medicinal paste made with syrup, sugar, or other sweetener [go to text]

gg3364   crop-sick with an upset stomach, often from over-eating [go to text]

gg3365   sere dried up and withered [go to text]

n4697   outlives his labours Ephraim says that Sir Swithin is likely to be impotent, so Lady Nestlecock's willingness to match with him is futile in sexual terms. [go to text]

gg2445   cross (v) thwart, forestall; contradict; afflict, go against [go to text]

n4698   in prose. Lady Nestlecock again drops the veneer of romance to focus on the matter of money. [go to text]

n4699   bounding stones A children's game, perhaps related to marbles or 'fives'. Abraham Cowley mentions it in his essay 'Of Greatness' (1668): 'Would one think that Augustus himself, the highest and most fortunate of mankind, a person endowed too with ex­cellent parts of Nature, should be so hard put to it sometimes for want of recreations, as to be found playing at Nuts, and bounding stones, with little Syrian and Moorish Boys, whose company he took delight in, for their prating and their wantonness' (p. 122). Apart from The New Academy, I have not found an earlier use of the term before that in Cowley's essay. [go to text]

gs599   trunk pea shooter [go to text]

n4700   my stone-bow A catapult or two-stringed crossbow firing stones or baked clay pellets at birds and small game. [go to text]

n5194   Trou This is probably a card game, otherwise known as Tru or Truc. See David Partlett, A History of Card Games, pp. 170-173. [go to text]

n5057   And yet I’ll have her too, if she will promise to do as I would have her hereafter. Nehemiah suddenly says he would marry Blith if she promises to obey him, mirroring the simple-minded conclusion his uncle reached when he chose to marry his servant Rachel. [go to text]

gg3366   inwardly intimately, deeply, spiritually, not solely superficially [go to text]

gg3008   conformable compliant, adaptable, submissive, disposed [go to text]

gs688   tied to be bound in marriage [go to text]

gg3368   town-trick a trick played on an unsuspecting country visitor to the town [go to text]

n5058   poor pure. The original reading is possible: Lady Nestlecock thinks her son is a pure young man. But 'poor thing' seems more likely, a more usual phrase. However, the compositor seems to have had particular difficulty with the writing of this word, misinterpreting it on at least one other occasion [NA 2.1.speech277] [NOTE n5037]. The National Art Library Dyce 25.E.45 ms. annotator emends this to 'pore'. [go to text]

n4701   till it be at it As usual, the imprecision of 'it' opens Lady Nestlecock's phrase to an obscene meaning. [go to text]

n5500   Poor heart, he licks his lips; and look how arseward she is. Having spoken in verse throughout this speech up to this point, Lady Nestlecock manages three iambic feet ('Poor heart, he licks his lips'), then falters, finally collapsing into the crude and prosaic. [go to text]

gg3367   arseward backwards or contrary and perverse [go to text]

gg3369   Gip an intensitive; an exclamation of anger or remonstrance addressed to a horse; an expression of surprise, derision, or contempt addressed to a person; the equivalent of 'get out', 'go along with you' (OED) [go to text]

n5244   hussy housewife. Lady Nestlecock's tone clearly indicates that she uses the term 'housewife' pejoratively [GLOSS gg1940]. [go to text]

gg3751   down to be depressed or in low spirits (OED down adv, 18) [go to text]

n5030   Lady Nestlecock Lady Nestlecock's speech is set as part of Nehemiah's in the original, but with the Speech Prefix 'La.' as part of the line. The lines have been separated and the necessary next Speech Prefix, '[Nehemiah]', added. Several ms. annotators make this change. [go to text]

gs689   forbear put up with (OED forbear v, 2) [go to text]

n4702   brought a sister of yours Now married to Matchil, the servant Rachel is Lady Nestlecock's sister-in-law. This introduction tests Lady Nestlecock's willingness to acknowledge the new status of her brother's former servant. [go to text]

gg3370   lady-bawd a female procuress [go to text]

gg3371   trounce trouble, harass, upset [go to text]

n4703   Hagship An insulting mock-title [go to text]

gg2774   drudge menial servant [go to text]

gg3372   droil a menial servant, a drudge [go to text]

gg3373   dispraised disparage, depreciate [go to text]

n8913   ha. Strikingly, Rachel now uses the exclamation 'ha!', hitherto the characteristic utterance of Matchil and his sister. [go to text]

n5501   Well said, Rachel; hold thine own, Rachel. Not yet realising that his wife's vociferousness will not be limited to judging his sister, Matchil praises her for her new-found assertiveness. Rachel's transformation echoes that of Morose's wife in Ben Jonson's Epicoene. See the Introduction for connections with this play. [go to text]

n5059   [MATCHIL attempts to bid farewell to WHIMLBY] Matchil is trying to avoid escalation in the conflict between his new wife Rachel and his sister, Lady Nestlecock, and therefore tries to make their farewells. [go to text]

n5060   [NEHEMIAH attempts to get LADY NESTLECOCK to leave]Mother, come away, mother. Nehemiah's speech indicates that, like his uncle Matchil, he is also trying to defuse the argument by getting Lady Nestlecock to withdraw. [go to text]

n4704   lady’s sister every day in the week, and have been any time these three days, ha Rachel's comic assertion of her new status recalls that of the Clown in The Winter's Tale:
AUTOLYCUS: I know you are now, sir, a gentleman born.
CLOWN: Ay, and have been so any time these four hours.
(5.2.121-122)
[go to text]

n5244   hussy housewife. Lady Nestlecock's tone clearly indicates that she uses the term 'housewife' pejoratively [GLOSS gg1940]. [go to text]

gg3374   Cods variant of 'God's', an oath [go to text]

n5245   housewife, ha? If you be no housewife huswife. Stung by Lady Nestlecock's calling her a 'hussy', a pejorative contraction, Rachel responds by returning to the original meaning and accusing her new sister-in-law of not being in control of her household affairs. [go to text]

n4705   From whence came you, trow, ha? The question silences Lady Nestlecock. The play does not reveal the source of her title, but her brother Matchil is a merchant and commerce, rather than inherited land, is probably the source of the family's wealth and status. If so, Lady Nestlecock's origins are not so remote from Rachel's. [go to text]

n4706   her face is not varnished over yet Rachel attacks Lady Nestlecock for her excessive use of cosmetics, which conceal a face at least as bold as her own. [go to text]

n4707   as a bald mare at Midsummer There is probably a proverbial saying behind this. Rachel is moving from 'bold' to 'bald', as has the term 'boldfaced' to 'baldfaced', for a brazen lie. [go to text]

n5512   [MATCHIL seizes NEHEMIAH] There is no stage direction in the original printing. It is introduced here because Nehemiah, in his next speech, says 'mine uncle holds me'. [go to text]

n5513   [NEHEMIAH attempts to hit MATCHIL] There is no stage direction in the original printing. It is introduced because Matchil, in his following speech, is reacting to something Nehemiah has done in response to being seized: 'did a so gi' me a stroke'. [go to text]

gg503   juggling act of trickery, practice of deception (OED) [go to text]

n4708   your small worm here, to catch up for gudgeons Matchil draws on the vocabulary of angling here, as Erasmus and Valentine did in the first scene of this act. The implication is that Lady Nestlecock and her son, like Valentine, are preying on the innocent, seeking to trap them. 'Gudgeon' is used contemporaneously to mean a gullible person [GLOSS gg3748]. [go to text]

gg3748   gudgeons (literally) a small fresh-water fish; (figuratively) a gullible person (OED gudgeon n1, 2a) [go to text]

n4709   mother’s milk drops at his nose Nehemiah is obviously 'snotty', dropping mucus from his nose; but Matchil is also suggesting that he is practicing arts learnt from Lady Nestlecock, absorbed with 'his mother's milk'. [go to text]

gs690   look look after (OED look v, 12f) [go to text]

n4710   play with’s cock A 'cock' in this period is a toy (mentioned by Francis Bacon in Sylva sylvarum (1627): 'Children have also little Things they call Cocks, which have Water in them; And when they blow, or whistle in them, they yield a Trembling Noise; Which Trembling of Water, hath an affinity with the Letter L' [p. 51]) and Matchil's comment could mean that his mother joined in Nehemiah's games. But it is also a term, then as now, for 'penis'. Matchil's representation of the unhealthy relationship between doting mother and immature boy becomes starkly sexual here. [go to text]

gg3375   ifac a mild oath: in faith [go to text]

n5031   thy my. Whimlby's mother is nowhere else invoked or mentioned, and 'my' makes no sense. This emendation suggests that Whimlby speaks this line to Nehemiah, noting that, once married to her, he might be thus treated by Lady Nestlecock. [go to text]

n5032   [Matchil] This exchange is set as a single speech, continuing from Whimbly's previous line. But the question is clearly not Whimlby's but Matchil's; the response must therefore be Whimlby's. It is clearly an exchange of dialogue. [go to text]

n5032   [Whimlby] This exchange is set as a single speech, continuing from Whimbly's previous line. But the question is clearly not Whimlby's but Matchil's; the response must therefore be Whimlby's. It is clearly an exchange of dialogue. [go to text]

n5033   [Matchil] This speech is set as a continuing from Whimlby's laughter in the original, but the lines clearly belong to Matchil, both for what he says about their respective dead wives and to provoke Rachel's withering response. Several manuscript annotators spot the need for this emendation. [go to text]

n4711   'Ha'? Do you 'ha' Matchil is caught up short by the realization that Rachel has appropriated his characteristic exclamation - 'Ha!' - and that this is a sign that she is going to be as domineering as he has been, linguistically and otherwise. [go to text]

gg1993   Pax an interjection, a shortened form of 'a pox on it!' (OED pax n2, with further examples) [go to text]

n5034   [Lady Nestlecock] This line continues from Whimlby and Lady Nestlecock's laughter, but the words should be spoken by her alone. [go to text]

n4712   chimney piece Lady Nestlecock insults Rachel's looks but also her origin as a servant. [go to text]

gg1752   familiar private; unduly intimate [go to text]

gg3376   snuffs small quantity of liquid left at the bottom of a container [go to text]

n5061   spaniel Rachel's analogy links her interpretation with Hannah's literal problem and Camelion's involvement with the games of the ducking pond. [go to text]

n4713   freeman Rachel emphatically states the paradox that applies to her and maybe no other woman in the play: as an unmarried woman she was constrained by her poverty. She was a servant. The other unmarried women (Joyce, Gabriella, and Blith Tripshort) are constrained by dependence on their fathers and guardians. Now married, Rachel is free because financially untroubled. Conversely, her new husband was free when unmarried, but he has trapped himself, assuming that the power structure would not be changed by Rachel's 'elevation'. [go to text]

n4714   piece of kitchen-stuff Lady Nestlecock brings together many of the insulting terms used to brand Rachel as inferior and not quite human: 'bold', 'piece', 'kitchen-stuff'. [go to text]

n5035   Brother, you’re Brothery, 'are. The emendation is made by the National Art Library Dyce 25.E.45 ms. annotator. [go to text]

n5062   ha la [go to text]

n4715   comb so cut to cut a comb, to humiliate, take down a peg; a common idiom in the period and the basis of labelling someone a 'coxcomb' or foolish, vain person. [go to text]

n4716   of nuptials treat The sharing of a rhyme here shows Lady Nestlecock and Sir Swithin emerging united, having seen Matchil humiliated and abashed by his new wife Rachel. [go to text]

n5036   [LADY NESTLECOCK, WHIMLBY,NEHEMIAH and BLITH exit] No stage direction in the original [go to text]

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