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n5575   3.1 Act 3 is one continuous scene, like Act 1 and, following the usual practice of his master, Jonson, Brome introduces another batch of new characters into the plots, gradually adding other complications, as the story of the four lovers reaches a turning point. The four lovers' 'rebirth' as beggars forced to walk the walk and talk the talk of the jovial crew has not been entirely happy, although Meriel and Rachel continue to laugh at their misfortunes, while Vincent and Hilliard continue to grumble. Neither the men nor the women will admit that they'd rather go home to comfort, and yet they cannot abandon their gentry upbringing to scrounge money out of passers-by.

On the road, they meet Oliver, a young cad, who insults Hilliard offstage but then agrees to meet him for a duel, when Vincent, as the second, approaches with a challenge. Oliver also insults Meriel and Rachel onstage, trying to buy their favours and, that failing, then trying to rape them both. Springlove leaps to the rescue without the violence that Vincent and Hilliard want to exact.

Oliver, like the other gentlemen on the road, is looking for his uncle's ward Amy, an heiress who has run away with Martin, the uncle's clerk, because she does not want to marry the foolish Master Tallboy, her guardian's choice of husband for her. Unfortunately, Amy soon discovers that Martin is more interested in her fortune than in herself, and that -- worse -- he is miserly and cold. Springlove decides to help this obviously mismatched couple, setting up a change in Amy's love-life. [go to text]

gg704   Repining grudging, grumbling [go to text]

gg3626   tonight that is, last night [go to text]

gg3627   litany an ecclesiastical term: a form of public prayer, usually of a penitential character, consisting of a series of supplications, deprecations, or intercessions in which the clergy lead and the people respond, the same formula of response being repeated for several successive clauses (OED 1); generally, it may be any form of repetitive supplication or complaint [go to text]

gg3628   quarter lodging, room (now usually plural) (OED 16a) [go to text]

n5565   hogs This term generally refers to swine; but possibly 'hoggs' or young sheep up to the time of first shearing. Either might be noisy neighbours. On the other hand, the reference might be to the beggars, the term applied opprobriously to coarse, self-indulgent, or filthy persons (OED n1, 1a, 4, 7a). [go to text]

gg3768   hovel shed used as a shelter for farm animals, or for wretched human habitation; more specifically, a pigsty, whether literally for swine, or figuratively for dirty people, especially an abode of bestial lust, or of moral pollution generally; a place inhabited or frequented by the morally degraded (OED hovel, n1; sty n3, 1 and 2) [go to text]

gs663   cast reckoned, calculated, as in astrology; interpreted or forecast [go to text]

n5568   further — ] This edition. further. Q1. The next line makes it clear that Hilliard interrupts Vincent, since he apologizes to his friend for taking over the conversation. [go to text]

n5566   Vince nickname for Vincent, and the sole use of this boyish nickname in the play. Its use may prompt a mute but expressively negative reaction from Vincent, who tends to be serious, even humourless, and earnestly formal in his conversations. Hilliard is more relaxed socially; nevertheless, neither Hilliard, Meriel, Rachel, nor Springlove attempts to address Vincent so familiarly in any subsequent scene. [go to text]

gs664   suffer wait out patiently [go to text]

n5567   birthnight This term represents the rebirth of the four young people as beggars, but also is a reminder that this night was also a birthnight for the beggars in Act 2, when one of their women went into labour, and the metaphorical rebirth of Oldrents, slowly emerging from his depression and gradually discovering who he really is. [go to text]

n5422   all come crying into the world King Lear utters this same placebo for suffering in this life: 'When we are born, we cry that we are come / To this great stage of fools' (4.6.200-201), but Lear's point is that our birth-cries are simply the beginning of pains we endure in this life. Springlove's purpose is the contrast between the pain of birth and the joys of life spent close to nature. [go to text]

n4307   arrant That is: manifest, downright (punning on errant, or wandering, vagrant). [go to text]

n5423   to turn their hearts from you That is: to make them reject you. [go to text]

gg1946   undone ruined, destroyed [go to text]

n5424   privy The usage here is punning on two meanings: (1) private or separate (from the men); (2) latrine. The latter meaning is emphasized in the reference to their lodging as a pigsty. [go to text]

n5425   pigs’ palace of pleasure That is: a pigsty. THe usage here is an ironic allusion to William Painter's The Palace of Pleasure (1566), a collection of stories and moral arguments for the readers' profit and delight. [go to text]

n5426   to dress each other’s heads That is: to create head-dresses or head-coverings for each other. [go to text]

gg1034   coil fuss, noisy row [go to text]

gs697   practice rehearsal (of skills needed to work in one's chosen profession) [go to text]

gg3769   maund beg (thieves' cant) (OED v1, citing 1567 T. HARMAN Caueat for Commen Cursetors (new ed.) Peddelars Frenche sig. Giiiv, To maunde, to aske or requier) [go to text]

gg3629   passengers passers-by [go to text]

gg4393   doleful gloomy, dreary, dismal [go to text]

n5569   genius That is: inclination, natural aptitude, humour or bent. Here Hilliard is impatient with learning 'rules' -- he wants the freedom to act by inspiration -- whereas Vincent, typical of his behaviour, wants to know and implement a formal plan with professional tools. [go to text]

n5427   you ] ye. [go to text]

gg3630   a pick–pack piggyback; riding on the back and shoulders of another person [go to text]

gg3631   surbated (of animals or persons) foot-sore; weary with excessive travelling on foot (OED 1b) [go to text]

gg3632   hoofing going on foot [go to text]

gg3633   crupper–cramped seized with cramps in the posterior from too confined or narrow a space [go to text]

gg3634   bumfiddled prickled in the buttocks [go to text]

n6591   Madam Fewclothes and my Lady Bonnyrag As these mocking names imply, Rachel and Meriel are dressed in a few rags, nothing like the more elegant lady-like dress they wear at home as the daughters of a landed gentleman. [go to text]

n6592   Ha, ha, ha! This laughter echoes the sisters' merriment in Act 2, perhaps as a role they are trying to sustain in face of the poverty they are now living with. The laughter may be a response to the men's dress, or to the men's surprise at the sisters' slatternly 'half-nakedness' [JC 3.1.speech387] in their new costumes as beggar-maids. [go to text]

n5576   you ] ye Qi. [go to text]

n5428   Phœbus Apollo, god of the sun, inspiring poetry and music. [go to text]

n5429   fair Flora’s self Flora was the classical goddess of flowers. [go to text]

n5430   Diana’s darlings That is: virgin nymphs, followers of the virgin-goddess of the moon, Diana, sister of Phoebus Apollo. [go to text]

n5431   Acteon–like Acteon was turned into a stag, chased, and killed by his own dogs, after he inadvertently, while out hunting, viewed and became transfixed by the beauty of Diana bathing naked in her pool. She felt her virgin integrity was impugned and therefore destroyed him. [go to text]

n6593   half–nakedness The response of Vincent and Hilliard to the sisters' state of undress is a forewarning of Oliver's lascivious reaction to them later. [go to text]

n5570   This night will we lie together as well as the proudest couple in the barn. Tonight we will have sex as carefreely as any beggar-couple in the barn. As in the earlier scene with all four young people, it is still not clear how to identify each 'couple'. But clearly this is one beggar-custom that the sisters plan to forego, despite their lovers' pleadings. In terms of stage-practice aligning with the implications of text, the actors will have to maintain this mystery of which sister favours which young man, as it seems essential to the comedy. [go to text]

gg1483   provender fodder; food, provisions, esp. dry food, as corn or hay, for horses [go to text]

gs666   quit remit or cancel (OED 9) [go to text]

gg3635   trencher–fees scraps of food given in alms (OED trencher 7) [go to text]

gg3636   chippings parings of the crust of a loaf (OED 2a) [go to text]

n5571   a brown crust amongst it that has made my neck so white Meriel is joking. Brown bread was made of rye and/or whole-meal wheat flour, and was considered a homely or unrefined food. But oatmeal, then as now, and bread-dough were used as cleansers, beauty masks, or skin purifiers. [go to text]

n6594   [MERIEL and RACHEL exit in one direction, HILLIARD in another.] ] Q gives no stage direction here, but these three characters must exit, as they have entrances separately later in the scene. Springlove has just directed the disguised beggars to 'quickly disperse yourselves', another indication that an exit is required. [go to text]

gg3638   lost our journey achieved no return or result for our efforts; or perhaps simply lost our way [go to text]

gg4395   scouts (militarily) men sent out ahead of the main force in order to reconnoitre the position and movements of the enemy; but here the word is used in the wider sense of seekers sent out to obtain information (OED n4, 2a) [go to text]

n10495   If I were to be hanged now, I could not beg for my life. Video The challenge of this episode was twofold: firstly to explore how the actors are disposed in the playing space and how their use of that space may support both the comedy and the threats that are present in the scene; secondly to find an appropriate tone for the action. In his introduction of the sequence for the actors, Richard Cave talked about his conviction that a mid-seventeenth century audience would have been very alert to the dangers that were inherent in begging, not least in terms of the punishments that beggars risked. He wondered how it might be possible in the twenty-first century to create a sense of the darker undertones that are present throughout the sequence.

On paper, the action seems straightforward: Springlove has dressed Vincent and Hilliard, Rachel and Meriel in ragged clothes and given them some instruction in the art of begging. Hitherto he has found food and drink for them all, or the means to acquire them. Now he decides it is time for the lovers to beg for themselves. They decide to separate in couples: the two men will work together and the two women go off apart to try their luck. Vincent (played by Joseph Thompson) tries to hang in with Springlove (played by Alan Morrissey) and beg off two gentlemen travellers (Gentleman 1, Hannah Watkins and Gentleman 2, Jenny McEvoy). Oliver, who appears late in the extract, is played by an editor, Julie Sanders.

In our early read-throughs of the sequence we started by positioning Springlove and Vincent at opposite ends of a diagonal from upstage right to downstage left. In the following video clip, the ‘beggars’ advance on the gentlemen, effectively intruding on their space. This sets up one aspect of the threat that needs to be present in the sequence: the presence of the beggars is certainly disturbing and threatening to the gentlemen. The problem with moving the scene in this way, however, is that even if Vincent is wilfully oblivious to the dangers of begging, the actor playing Springlove has to communicate to a twentieth-first century audience from the outset that this pretence of being beggars is extremely risky, that it is a game that could go very wrong and that both he and Vincent stand to be beaten within an inch of their lives and to lose their liberty. As we reflected on this read-through, Liz Schafer pointed out that all parties would feel that the situation was extremely dangerous. As for the Gentleman: if the beggars turn violent, they are far from the nearest town, a long way from assistance of any kind. As for the ‘beggars’: Springlove would know that the law is on the side of the Gentlemen, who could quite legally beat beggars black and blue. Although this extract is from a first read-through and there was much work to be done on representing the appropriate levels of threat and danger, the movement and the delivery of certain lines offered us useful starting points. Even at this early stage in the process, Joseph Thompson’s repetition of “duly and truly pray for ye” has the flavour of a comic catch phrase that could turn very sour; his body language expressing superficiality and bluster even as he drops to one knee to plead with the gentlemen.

The comedy in this sequence is fairly broad and is driven by Vincent’s reluctant participation in what he sees as little more than a game of begging. Joseph initially adopted a character that drew on the familiar comic type of a young upper class man, ‘nice but dim’, crassly insensitive to any situation which takes him beyond his normal social circumstances. Although a caricature, this seemed an appropriate starting point from which we could work. In the next video clip, the comedy remains broad, but Springlove and Vincent are now more distinctive in their body language. Springlove’s approach to the gentleman is more wary, revealing his understanding of the dangers inherent in begging from strangers. This extract is from a very early stage in the workshop, and the actors are still struggling with the text, but it does include several moments which could be used in building up that sense of threat that we were keen should pervade the sequence. Look, for example, at the moment immediately after Gentleman 2 warns the ‘beggars’, “Be gone, I say, you impudent lusty young rascals!” Springlove taps Vincent on the arm as he retreats. This is a small gesture but significant because it indicates Springlove’s awareness of what is likely to follow and Vincent’s naïveté. It also suggests how the danger of the situation might be realised through the cumulative effect of such apparently minor details. At this stage in the process, however, the organisation of the stage space and the actors’ moves within it seemed to be making it difficult to create a sense of danger. Although it had initially made sense that the Gentlemen and the ‘beggars’ came onto the stage from opposite sides, and that each group stayed together, this diffused the threat each felt from the other. In this walk-through, for example, the Gentlemen cross the stage and Vincent has to follow them, calling after them, but posing little physical threat. Brian Woolland, the director, discussed this with the actors, suggesting that Vincent should physically get in their way to prevent them leaving. This, however, had numerous ramifications in terms of how the actors were positioned earlier in the scene. As a result, we spent much time discussing and experimenting with the stage directions tentatively suggested by Helen Ostovich, the editor who had prepared the text for this workshop, and those actions implied by the dialogue. Towards the end of the above video extract, for example, Jenny (as the Second Gentleman) delivers the line, “Come back, sirrah. His patience and humility has wrought upon me”, to Gentleman 1. There are, however, other possibilities: that the first part of the line (“Come back, sirrah’) is to Springlove; and the second (“His patience and humility has wrought upon me”) an explanation for his own changing tone, which could be delivered either to Gentleman 1 or to the audience. In either case, “Come back sirrah” implies that both ‘beggars’ have moved off; and it is fair to infer that they have to be sufficiently far away for Vincent to mistakenly assume that “Come back sirrah” is directed to him.

Even before trying to put the extract ‘on its feet’, we realised that teasing out the implied stage directions would be demanding, but we were all surprised by the extent to which Brome’s dialogue informs the stage action. In our early read-throughs, for example, Hannah realised that she had to ‘switch’ the ‘beggars’, but (inevitably at such an early stage of the process) her actions were a gestural approximation of what might be required. Brian thought that trying to get the timing and the positioning of the ‘switching’ as accurate as possible would substantially increase the undercurrent of violence and associated sense of danger in the sequence. He suggested to Hannah that she use a leather belt to stand in for the ‘switch’ and, after several ‘cold’ readings, discussions and experiments, we realised that it is possible to read the ‘Ah’ in Springlove’s line (“Ah, the goodness of compassion to soften your hearts to the poor”) as a cry of pain. Taken like this, his next speech contains three such cries: “Ah, the sweetness of that mercy that gives to all to move your compassion to the hungry, when it shall seem good unto you, and night and day to bless all that you have. Ah, ah! —”. The effect of working in such close detail can be seen in the following short video extract. Clearly, Hannah cannot actually beat Alan, but the use of the belt and the sound of it on the floor gives him, and the audience, something concrete to react to.

A by-product of our detailed discussions and experiments with specific moments in the text was to alter our thinking about the configuration of the four characters on the stage. The following video clip is from one of these discussions, and focuses on Brian suggesting moves and stage positioning to the actors. The clip is included for two reasons: firstly because the change in body positioning becomes crucial in the development of the levels of threat in the sequence; and, secondly, because it is indicative of the way that important decisions in a workshop, and indeed a rehearsal process, are sometimes arrived at in unexpected ways. Here, Brian takes his cue not from something that the actors had offered in role during a run-through, but from the way that Alan Morrissey (as himself) has chosen to sit on the stage. Joseph immediately picks up the kind of movement that is required and tries it out – much to the amusement of his fellow actors and the editors. The effect of this movement can be seen in the following clip. By sitting down, Springlove alerts the audience to his need to lower his status. He knows that is the most effective way of begging, and that begging is likely to trigger a lashing. But he stays in a victim position, also aware that succumbing to the ‘switching’ is his best way of avoiding worse punishment. Vincent’s body language, however, hints at arrogance and resistance. He sits down, but he is reluctant to abase himself in this way. He’s prepared to say that he’s joining the beggars, but not to behave as one, not to adopt the lower social status.

From here, we considered the relative positions of the characters on stage. We felt that keeping the ‘beggars’ and the gentlemen in separate pair groups was too safe. We therefore tried a version of the sequence in which the ‘beggars’ enter on either side of the two gentlemen, with Springlove running round the back in order to separate himself from Vincent and appear less confrontational. This organisation of the stage space opened up the sequence and created a far more interesting dynamic between the characters, not least because, whatever Springlove’s intention, the two gentlemen are now effectively surrounded and trapped by the ‘beggars’. The following video clip is from our first run-through using this configuration: Interestingly, this version also includes Joseph delivering Vincent’s line “Did I not say so before?” as direct address to the audience. The line is in response to Gentleman 1’s “You would be well whipped and set to work, if you were duly and truly served.” When we first started working on the scene it had seemed that it made sense to deliver the line as an aside to Springlove. Brian, however, asked Joseph to develop Vincent’s relationship with the audience. By playing it this way, Vincent is behaving as if expecting that we, the audience, sympathise with his situation. As so often in Brome, the disparity between the character’s perception of self and the audience’s perception of the character creates potential for humour. This also sets up a pattern which becomes useful later in the episode, after Springlove has left and Vincent has to beg for himself, where he has a number of lines which comment in a playfully self-deprecating way about his lack of skill as a beggar, for example, “I have spoiled all, and know not how to beg otherwise.” [JC 3.1.speech445] The effect of this can be seen in the final run-through.

In this final version, the positioning on stage works well; and the threat to the ‘beggars’ is beginning to feel more concrete, but the threat that the gentleman feel from the beggars is perhaps still not as strong as the social and political context suggests it should be. In reflecting on the workshop, Liz Schafer commented that she felt that the most explosive line in the whole sequence is “The court goes a-begging” [JC 3.1.speech455], going so far as to suggest that it is the most dangerous line in the whole play. A twenty-first century audience, however, is unlikely to appreciate just how subversive it is; and it would be important in a theatrical production of the play to mark the significance of this and Gentleman 1’s subsequent line, “more Lucifers travelling to hell”. Brian felt that one way of drawing attention to them was to have them delivered as direct address to the audience. This gives the lines something of the weight they deserve, but does not really hint at the deep sense of foreboding which must have been felt by mid-seventeenth century audiences when hearing them for the first time.

As if to remove the possibility that the court ‘going a begging’ might be read as one character’s idiomatic hyperbole, Brome repeats the satirical and highly subversive observation later in the same scene, as we shall see in the next workshop. This time he gives the line to Oliver, who pointedly reminds us, “I think, as my friend said, the court goes a– begging indeed” [JC 3.1.speech479]. [go to text]

n5572   my goad i’your breech A goad is a rod or stick, pointed at one end or fitted with a sharp spike and employed for driving cattle, especially oxen used in ploughing; figuratively, an incitement or spur to action (OED n1, 1, 2b). Springlove's threat seems to mean something in between both definitions. As a lame beggar, he would have a crutch or stick to lean on, and may threaten to whack Vincent with that. Or, since he actually has the use of both limbs, he may threaten a kick in the buttocks. [go to text]

gg3646   critter creature (dialect) [go to text]

gg3637   welly well-nigh, almost, nearly [go to text]

gg3639   prea pray (dialect) [go to text]

gg3082   counterfeit pretended, spurious, feigned, acted (OED a, 2) [go to text]

n10498   [Aside] In the workshop on this scene we tried this as both an aside to Springlove and as an aside to the audience. For reasons discussed in the commentary we chose Vincent’s delivering it as an aside to the audience as the preferred reading. Helen Ostovich, the editor who had prepared the text for this workshop, had tentatively suggested exactly this as a stage direction for exploration. [go to text]

n6595   limbs ― ] limbs. Q. [go to text]

gs667   Switch (v) beat with a switch, or flexible branch cut from a tree. [go to text]

gg3647   ’Sdeath! mild oath, meaning by God's death [go to text]

n6596   Ah, ah! ―― Springlove's cries of pain may be exaggerated to suit his role as beggar. Certainly he does not want to be whipped, and as a beggar he cannot retaliate on a gentleman who already feels accosted by importunate 'rascals'. Vincent's earlier cry of ''Sdeath!' suggests both pain and anger, and so it is doubly important for Springlove to get both of them away from these gentlemen before Vincent asserts own 'gentlemanly' instincts of violence in 'angry' self-defence. [go to text]

n6597   You That is, Vincent, who looks too healthy. Springlove seems more convincingly like a desperate malnourished beggar. [go to text]

n5573   sturdy rogue See 'statue beggars' [NOTE n5397]. [go to text]

gg3640   trade occupation, business [go to text]

gs943   fraternity body of men of the same class, occupation, pursuits, etc. (OED 6) [go to text]

gg3641   pillage plundering, theft [go to text]

n6598   Beg for yourself. Your credit’s gone else. ] parenthetical in Q. [go to text]

gg3642   hea’en heaven (dialect) [go to text]

n6599   ’Slife, what shall I say? ] parenthetical in Q. [go to text]

n10499   [Aside] Clearly this observation is an aside, but to whom should it be delivered? It could be directed to Gentleman 1; but it makes just as good sense if delivered as an aside to the audience. Both ways were explored during the workshop but the second is the way the cast chose to treat it in the final run-through [go to text]

gg4396   parcel part or portion, usually a piece or two at a time, a little bit [go to text]

gg80   pieces of gold or silver, i.e. money (OED n, 1b) [go to text]

gg3643   highway thief highwayman, the upper class of thieves; especially one who does his robbery on horseback with pistol or sword, as distinguished from a foot-pad [go to text]

gg3644   rakeshame disreputable or dissolute person; a rogue (OED) [go to text]

gg3645   cudgel club, or short thick stick used as a weapon [go to text]

n5432   to require satisfaction of me That is: to challenge me to a duel. The gentleman so sent would be his second. That is, Hilliard has forgotten that he is a beggar, and has responded to a threat as a person of his class would do. His second is Vincent, who, when he enters with the challenge, also speaks like a gentleman, not a beggar. [go to text]

n6600   such another That is, Vincent. Oliver refers to Hilliard. [go to text]

n6601   The court goes a–begging, I think. The gentlemanly beggars, Vincent and Hilliard, have suggested this wry comment. Of course, at the time, Queen Henrietta Maria and many other members of court were going a-begging at home and in Europe for money to fund the cavalier army, in anticipation of the approaching civil war. [go to text]

n6603   Lucifers travelling to hell The metaphor here refers to fallen gentlemen on the way to total disgrace, reduced to beggary by their own defiance of social or economic principles of good behaviour. Lucifer was God's light-bearer at his right hand in heaven, but fell with other evil angels into hell when he rebelled against God's orders. The discord in heaven led to the division of the divine cosmos into heaven and hell, a comment perhaps on the decadence or rebellion of Caroline society on the cusp of civil war. [go to text]

n6602   What’s the matter with her? Oliver is not part of the search for Mistress Amy, and knows nothing of her refusal to marry. He has entered the stage from the direction (or doorway to the stage from the tiring house) opposite to that taken by the two Gentlemen. [go to text]

gg3648   o’the hip on or upon the hip, a phrase taken from wrestling: at a disadvantage, or likely to be overthrown or overcome (OED hip n1, 2b) [go to text]

gg3649   miserablest most miserly, hoarding his money [go to text]

gg3650   qualify appease; to pacify, make mild (OED 10) [go to text]

gg3651   mumchance dice game; also a game of who can stay silent the longest [go to text]

n10496   My pleasure, and all the search that I intend, Video This sequence follows directly on from the first, where Oliver made a brief appearance towards the end. Here, the character of Oliver (played by Alan Morrissey) is established for the audience through an extended soliloquy before we experience a scene in which he meets Oldrents’ two daughters, dressed as beggars: Rachel (played by Hannah Watkins) and Meriel (played by Olivia Darnley). Towards the end of the sequence, Springlove (played by Michael Leslie, one of the editors) appears in the nick of time to prevent what seems likely to be a certain rape. He is accompanied by Hilliard (played by Eleanor Lowe, an editor) and Vincent (played, as in the earlier sequence, by Joseph Thompson). It is worth noting that for all the Jovial Crew workshops we created minimal ‘costumes’ for those characters who played beggars. These comprised nothing more elaborate than a few pieces of cloth, worn to signify the distinction between ‘beggars’ and others.

In some ways, the questions we wanted to address as we explored this sequence through the workshop were the same as for the first sequence. Issues of tone are again central. But whereas elements of comedy run throughout the first sequence, notably in Vincent’s inability to adopt the role of a beggar with any conviction, here there are fascinating shifts of tone: from a farcical seduction, to an unexpected and very real threat of rape, into a potentially violent confrontation, which is ultimately defused by Springlove’s intervention and his desire to teach the lovers and the audience a pointed social lesson about the divergence between justice and the practice of law. In the first sequence that we workshopped, the danger and the humour run together, layered and interwoven; in the second part of the scene, the shifts of tone can be thought of as contrapuntal.

For the purposes of the workshop, we divided the sequence into three sections: Oliver’s soliloquy, his initial approach to the women and finally the conclusion of the sequence, where the sisters realise the danger they are in. From the beginning of Oliver’s speech, the threat to Rachel and Meriel is clear. In working on the speech we wanted to explore what kind of relationship the actor might build with the audience. In his introduction of the scene for the actors, Richard Cave wondered whether Oliver’s speech should be played as direct address, or as more of an internal monologue, and, if so, how that might affect an audience’s engagement with it and with the humour in it.

After a preliminary read-through of the whole sequence, we focused on Oliver’s speech. Alan asked, “Why does the character refer to himself as Oliver?”, suggesting that the speech sounded less like direct address than many other speeches of that kind we had worked on in other Brome plays. Brian Woolland, the director, asked Alan to try direct address and to charm the audience as much as possible, to make sense of the question and answer form by creating a kind of shared internal dialogue, with Oliver voicing questions, such as “What the devil must I? A beggar?”, as if they had been posed by a member of the audience. The overall drive for the actor here is that the character is trying to convince himself that the social constraints against having sex with beggar women are absurd. The dialogue with the audience creates a strong sense that he is trying to justify what he is thinking of doing, to us and to himself. Mid way through the speech he wags a finger at a member of the audience as he refers to the “present cost” of women in London, then winks broadly. A moment later, he breaks the line “But Oliver, dost thou speak like a gentleman?” by tapping himself on the head as he says, “But Oliver…”, as if to remind himself that he is a gentleman. Thus he presents us with a genial and good natured young man. By implication, however, this suggests that in the moral framework he has set out for us, there is nothing wrong with the sexual exploitation of the poor. Opening up his own internal dialogue draws us into his world and the horror of what he is planning, not only taking us unawares, but creating in us a degree of complicity.

Towards the end of the speech, Oliver refers directly to Meriel and Rachel (“’Slid, yonder they are at peep”). In the workshop situation, Brian had asked Hannah and Olivia to use the curtains as if they were hiding behind bushes (that in a theatrical realisation of the play would probably be signified by scenery); and to play a game of watching Oliver, and hiding behind the curtains if they feared he might catch a glimpse of them. Fortuitously, this creates an image of childlike innocence, a rich visual contrast to Oliver’s guileful arguments. In our early discussions of the speech, we had wondered whether it should be performed to create complicity or distance, as if these were mutually exclusive. What Alan achieves here is to demonstrate that Brome’s structuring of the scene does both. We are drawn into complicity with Oliver as he amuses and engages us, even as we are encouraged to consider the implications of his planned actions. Brome’s dramaturgy further enhances this by the unexpected arrival of Vincent. This ‘delay’ (as Oliver refers to it) not only creates narrative tension, but also gives us time to reflect on what we have just witnessed.

In our early work on the exchange between Oliver and Vincent, Vincent arrives stooping, in the manner he has been taught by Springlove. The disparity between his physical appearance and his courtly voice and language providing the trigger for Oliver’s line “Thy language makes me wonder at thy person.” Briefly, we discussed whether it would be appropriate for Vincent to attempt to adopt an accent appropriate for a beggar, which might then slip. Lucy Munro, one of the editors, made the valuable point that Vincent enters the scene to deliver a challenge, not to beg; and that the humour in the scene on this occasion is driven not by Vincent’s inept performance as a beggar, but by Oliver’s mistaken assumption that because he is dressed as a beggar, he has come here to beg. The following clip shows a delightful moment from this discussion as Alan and Joseph spontaneously explore how this might work. This is later incorporated into the action of a run-through. Here, Vincent is still in his beggar’s apparel, but he makes no attempt to play the role. There is now less comedy in the exchange, although, if fully costumed, there is certainly humorous potential in the incongruity of a head-to-head confrontation between Vincent, dressed as a ragged beggar, and Oliver, the son of a Justice.

We then turned our attention to the interaction between Oliver and the young women. Our discussions focused on how close to the surface we should allow the threat of violence. Brome has written a scene which is very funny in places, but this humour primarily arises from the naïveté and innocence of the young women. We agreed that we wanted to try to push both elements as far as possible. As we talked about the social context of young women begging, Joseph observed, “The stakes are much higher than a modern audience would think.” This triggered a fascinating discussion about the parallels between the world of the play and the modern world, with Michael Leslie pointing out that there are genuine and disconcerting similarities, in that female beggars today are seen by predatory men as sexually available. Indeed, Oliver’s line when he observes that Rachel and Meriel are “sitten down as waiting for my purpose” [JC 3.1.speech467] has frightening echoes of those justifications for rape which focus on a woman’s appearance.

With the entrance of the girls, Brome repeats the comic device that we have seen with Vincent of the discrepancy between the use of language and appearance. Hannah and Olivia decided to adopt what Rachel and Meriel might think of as beggars’ voices, so the incongruity is not only between physical appearance and speech, but also between the sounds of their voices and the exaggerated formality of the language they use. In this version, as the sisters strive to maintain their roles as beggars, they begin to become competitive between themselves. This is certainly not the only way of playing their relationship, but it makes sense of the repetition of “And that…” and “Nay, that…” which prefaces several of their lines. This competitiveness also has the effect of giving a sense of spontaneity, that they are feeding off each other, but making it up as they go along. Towards the end of this video clip, both girls bend forward in a deep bow. If they were in full costuming as beggars, this movement would display their breasts to Oliver in a way that he would undoubtedly find most provocative. As Liz Schafer observed in the discussion which followed this run-through, if a ‘deep curtsy’ is socially acceptable in the drawing room, it is very dangerous on the highway. And, as Michael Leslie added, the problem for the women is the way they read their situation. They take to the exchange a sense of inviolability, assuming “the safety and the authority of gentlewomen, but that is not the situation they are in.”

One of the more unexpected revelations of this workshop had begun to emerge: the extent to which the two women are characterised not just as sisters, but as individuals, each of them dangerously naïve, but each with different sensitivities and different responses to the risks of the situation they have deliberately sought out. Brian now suggested that they experiment and see if they could pursue this differentiation further, and he asked Alan to play Oliver as more overtly voracious from his line “What a tempting lip that little rogue moves there!” [JC 3.1.speech500]. For this version, Olivia had suggested playing Meriel as if she were attracted to Oliver, coquettish and enjoying what she perceives as a game. This enables Rachel to hold back and to try to alert Meriel about what is happening with surreptitious warning glances, which her sister wilfully ignores. Rachel’s line “Sir, are you moved in charity towards us yet?” thus becomes an intervention intended to stop Oliver in his tracks and also to remind Meriel that what they should be doing is begging, not flirting. One of the textual cruxes that we wanted to experiment with in this workshop occurs near the end of this extract, when Oliver says “Look here — All this.” [JC 3.1.speech518]. The text includes an intriguing dash. In this version of the episode, Oliver exposes himself to them, or at least gestures towards his genitalia. Were he making his intentions as explicit as the crude gesture suggests, however, there would be nothing to stop the women running away. And in a subsequent discussion we agreed that the context makes it more likely that he is offering them the contents of his purse (as can be seen in the next video clip, taken from the final run-through of the episode).

For the final run-through of the sequence, we felt that it was important to try to raise the stakes, to make the violent abuse against the women more imminent. To this end, Brian asked Alan to threaten them with a knife. Regrettably, we did not have the time to explore the final moments in the sequence (when Springlove, Vincent and Hilliard arrive to save the sisters in the nick of time) in the depth which we would have liked. The little work we did manage to do centred on the organisation of the stage space: for example, how Springlove should position himself so that when Oliver is interrupted he does not at first see Vincent and Hilliard. What did become clear, however, is that Springlove’s status is crucial here. If any of them as beggars harm Oliver, they will be hanged. Springlove knows that he has to play low status with Oliver ( “Oh do not hurt ’em, master”) if they are to save the women; but at the same time he has very high status in relation to Vincent and Hilliard, whom he instructs most forcefully. [go to text]

gg3652   beggar–braches crude term for beggar-girls: beggar-bitches [go to text]

gg3653   French fleas syphilis, then called the French pox (the lesions of the sexually-transmitted disease look like flea-bites) [go to text]

gg568   painting facial make-up [go to text]

gg3654   ceruse white lead, used in make-up [go to text]

n5574   I durst not take a touch at London I do not dare to have sex with a London woman. The fear of disease and of bastard-bearing aside, Oliver's casual talk of sex suggests his (in)experience, but also reminds the original audience that the cool man-of-the-world attitude may sit oddly on a Beeston Boy, a member of the children's company putting on the play. Most of the actors would have ranged in age from 14 to 21 -- certainly not too young for sex, but perhaps not as worldly as Oliver implies. On the other hand, sexual games with boys who can sing and play a part appeared in Jonson's Epicoene (see 1.1, in which Clerimont's page describes how the Ladies Collegiate tease him when he visits). Antitheatrical tracts emphasized this abuse especially by men in relation to boys performing the parts of women on-stage and off stage as well. [go to text]

gg3655   after–reckoning subsequent or final account; the final bill [go to text]

gg3656   commuting buying off or ransoming one obligation with another; redeeming or get off an obligation by a money payment [go to text]

gg3658   ’Slid mild oath: by God's eyelid [go to text]

gg3657   at peep quick look or glance, especially through a narrow opening or out of a place of concealment [go to text]

gg3659   Heart mild oath: by God's heart [go to text]

n6604   such a one as thou art That is, Hilliard, whom Oliver met on the road just before his first entrance [JC 3.1.speech471]. [go to text]

n6605   with the length of his sword or to take the length of yours That is, offering a challenge to a duel with rapiers, Hilliard proposing to match his duelling prowess ('the length of his sword') against Oliver's ('the length of yours'). [go to text]

gg4397   appointments arrangements for the time and place of meeting (OED 4) [go to text]

gg4398   beadle messenger of justice, a warrant officer; an under-bailiff; generally, a constable [go to text]

gg3660   ham hollow at the back of the knee, or the back of the thigh [go to text]

n6606   Very fine, this! Oliver's remark may be aside, or he may be complimenting (with surprise or sarcasm) Rachel's lady-like address, or continuing to stare at the women's legs or other exposed parts. [go to text]

gg128   habit clothing [go to text]

gg2873   piece coin, usually gold, and at this date the equal of twenty-two shillings (the spending worth in today's currency would be £94.38p.) [go to text]

gg3661   habiliments clothes [go to text]

gg272   high lofty; of an exalted rank; proud, arrogant [go to text]

n5439   Is it not a straw–coloured one, sir? Sarcasm: Isn't it just a piece of straw, sir? [go to text]

n6608   Oh, what a provoking skin is there! That very touch enflames me. Oliver's mark may be aside, but may equally be spoken provocatively to Meriel and Rachel, whose subsequent comment 'Sir, are you moved ...' suggests her awareness of his sexual arousal as well as the girls' desire for his 'charity' in the shape of money, not sex. [go to text]

n5435   Benevolence The usage here is punning on charitable gesture, and sexual desire expressing favourable feelings towards pretty (or available) girls. [go to text]

n6609   to draw a cut with me That is: to draw straws in making a choice; but also punning on cut/cunt in making the reductive sexual selection between one woman and another. [go to text]

gg3662   coyness shy reserve or unwillingness [go to text]

gg43   quotha 'said he', i.e. indeed! (OED); sarcastic exclamation [go to text]

gg3663   tell a thousand count out a thousand in payment (Haaker) [go to text]

n5434   lay one of ’em aboard That is: place one's own ship alongside of another vessel for the purpose of grappling and entering. The ship analogy is a metaphor for sexual encounter. [go to text]

n5433   tackling Thez reference is to rigging; gear, accoutrements; continuing the ship-metaphor begun with 'lay ... aboard'. Oliver means his ability to maintain an erection. [go to text]

gs944   doubt a matter or point involved in uncertainty; a doubtful question; a difficulty (OED 2) [go to text]

n6610   expect for price above the rate of good men’s wives That is: look for a price over and above the usual rate paid to citizens' wives -- in city comedy, at least. In Dekker and Webster's Westward Ho Mistress Justiniano is accused of selling herself at a very high price; other city wives in that play also pretend to assignations, based on the assumption that such women are always available for sex. Similarly, city wives are available in Middleton's The Roaring Girl and by implication in A Chaste Maid in Cheapside. Merchants often deliberately put their wives or daughters on display in their shops as an incitement to customers: see Heywood's The Wise-Woman of Hoxton or Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday for a demonstration of the discomfort that practice led to. [go to text]

n6611   Look here — All this. Oliver may be showing more coins at this point, as he has just promised to 'jest away the rest with ye'. But he may make a gesture towards his groin instead. Certainly the situation is getting nasty, and possibly Rachel and Meriel are unaware of just how nasty it might become. When they start to scream for help, they must be reacting to something, perhaps something more shocking than being yanked by the arm or hip, as Oliver loses patience. [go to text]

gg3664   drawn forced [go to text]

n6612   Enter SPRINGLOVE, VINCENT, [and] HILLIARD. The women and Oliver do not notice this entrance; Rachel and Meriel may be fighting back as well as rebuking Oliver, who is so intent on his rape that he does not focus on anything else. The audience, however, registers the multiple threats of violence here fully, the better to appreciate the lesson that Springlove teaches: that cunning is the better policy [JC 3.1.speech524]. [go to text]

gg3670   Let me alone. Let me deal with this by myself. [go to text]

n5436   beadle’s office That is, the parish constable's job. The beadle, an inferior parish officer, was appointed to keep order in church, punish petty offenders, and act as the officer or messenger of the parish generally. One of his tasks was to whip whores and beggars, as Springlove suggests [JC 3.1.speech544]. [go to text]

gg3665   shake–rag ragged disreputable person; beggar [go to text]

gg4399   beggar–mauled bruised or disfigured by beggars [go to text]

gg966   tester sixpence [go to text]

n6613   Nor were we to take notice of his purpose more than to prevent it. Springlove's point is that beggars have no standing before the law. All they can do, as beggars disrupting a rape, is to prevent the act. [go to text]

gg514   politic expedient, sagacious [go to text]

gg3667   put it up put up with it, suffer it [go to text]

gg3666   liberty district [go to text]

gg4400   rendezvous an appointed place of meeting or gathering (OED 2a) [go to text]

n5437   hey toss and laugh This is possibly a variant of 'laugh and lie down' [NOTE n5385], an obsolete card game the name of which also has sexual connotations. 'Hey' or 'hay' was frequently added as an intensifier to casual comments and exclamations; see OED hey, int., 2a, citing this line. [go to text]

n6614   As we did last night. Meriel's tone here is probably sarcastic, given we have already heard the girls' views of sleeping in straw. Both girls may have other business here, such as suppressing giggles. [go to text]

n6615   trade That is, being beggars. Vincent is clearly tired of the work and prefers to return to the life of a country gentleman. [go to text]

gg3668   in full cry expression used of the yelping of a pack of hounds in the chase [go to text]

gs668   charm (v) (1) work charms, use enchantments or spells, practise magic; (2) persuade, induce [go to text]

gs670   Stay stand aside [go to text]

gs669   list listen [go to text]

gg3669   pine become exhausted or wasted from physical or emotional suffering, especially from hunger; lose vitality or languish; frequently used with 'to death' (OED 4a) [go to text]

gg4401   clownish rough, coarse, rustic [go to text]

gg3674   laid for set on the look-out, lying in wait for [go to text]

gg3671   lousy infested by lice [go to text]

gg4407   hose stockings [go to text]

gs524   forbear stop (this behaviour), desist [go to text]

n6644   no worship upon our backs That is: no badges or symbols of office on our clothing, as for example a judge's robe. 'Good worshipful', the salutation Martin is rejecting here, would be the proper address to a mayor or a ranking member of a livery company. [go to text]

gg3672   savourly with keen enjoyment; with relish [go to text]

n5438   to poison yourself That is: to become sick either from eating food offered by a beggar; or from eating too much of the food too quickly. [go to text]

gs946   grudging grumbling about (someone or something); begrudge [go to text]

gs947   beguile deprive [go to text]

gg3673   bargain payment in a business transaction (OED n1, 2a) [go to text]

gs546   dear serious, damaging [go to text]

gg3674   laid for set on the look-out, lying in wait for [go to text]

n6645   a curate that lacks no licence, nor has any living to lose The Patrico answers to this description. He is the beggars' 'hedge-priest' and lacks no licence in that he does not care about having a permit, degree, or licence, and has no assigned ministry or parish (any living); therefore, he has nothing to lose by 'marrying' people. [go to text]

gs948   scrupulous over-nice or meticulous in matters of right and wrong (OED 1a) [go to text]

gg2870   precise puritanical (from being scrupulous in religious observance) [go to text]

gs671   cleft clung or held fast to each other, remained faithful and attached to each other (OED cleave v2, 4) [go to text]

n6646   You may say you have. Martin's comment here, giving permission to Amy to lie about her relations with him, suggests the assumptions that make Amy reject him. He assumes he has the right to tell her what to do, and assumes that she will lie for convenience' sake -- for his convenience in marrying her money, that is. [go to text]

n6647   I would not have it so, nor make that lie against myself for all the world. Amy's reply shows her character clearly. She may have been impulsive in running away with Martin, but avoiding a bad marriage was her goal. She is not about to lie in order to get married, and resents Martin's 'permission' for her to lie. Her self-esteem forbids her to be dishonourable, whether in marrying a man she does not love, or in misrepresenting herself as a woman who engages in premarital sex. [go to text]

n6648   I’ll do for thee that ― thou shalt never beg more. Martin's interrupted reply seems to combine a truculent attempt to gain an advantage over Springlove's promise to do his 'best' for Amy, and (perhaps squelched by Amy's contempt, indignation, or ironic dismissal of Martin's boast) at least a promise that she won't have to beg, as might be her fate if she relied on Springlove. [go to text]

n6649   wards Heirs still in their minority were placed in the Court of Wards, nominally as wards of the crown, but they could be 'purchased' by anyone who could pay for the right to dispose of them, giving the Crown instant funds, and allowing the trustees to profit from their wards' fortune. A trustee might decide to marry his ward to a relative in order to keep the heir's money in the family; if the ward refused to comply, then the ward would lose a significant part of the inheritance. This predicament afflicts Grace in Bartholomew Fair and Bertram in All's Well that ends Well. [go to text]

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