Epiloguen3892.

Another [Epilogue].

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n2236   ACT FIVE Act Five has three scenes. In the first, Crosswill begins with a soliloquy in which he takes stock of those around him and the situation that he has created with his own children. There is no speech like this in the rest of the play and the challenge for the actor is to display an entirely different Crosswill from any seen before. Hitherto he has shown remarkably little self-consciousness or reflection about his arbitrary and dictatorial behaviour; here he registers all too powerfully his responsibility for the apparent collapse of his family's relationships, conduct, and hopes for future happiness. As perhaps in Act Three, Scene Two, the servant Belt has a crucial role in the audience's perception and reception of this speech. Towards the end, Belt comes onstage and comments on Crosswill's condition in a brief but telling aside to the audience. In the remainder of the scene, Mihil attempts to manipulate his father into permitting him to marry Lucy Rooksbill. He does this by posing as a reformed, shorthaired puritan, now proposing to marry Madge, who is disguised as a rich and much-married widow. Crosswill recognizes to some degree that he is being played; he acquiesces temporarily to the marriage, to Mihil's alarm and dismay.
In scene two, Mihil has secured the services of a minister as instructed by his father and has used the minister to achieve the offstage marriage of his sister Katherine and Anthony Cockbrain. That done, Crosswill, Rooksbill, Lucy, and Madge arrive, Crosswill having decided not to permit the marriage of Mihil and the supposed widow. To prevent that, he seeks to compel Mihil to marry Lucy. After a show of reluctance on both sides, Lucy and Mihil go offstage with the minister and complete the marriage, just before Crosswill can change his mind again. That achieved, Mihil sends Anthony away to the Paris Tavern to look after Gabriel but equally importantly to complete the forced marriage of Nick and Dorcas.
The play's final scene takes place in the Paris Tavern. Nick has now recognized Dorcas and also recognized that Mihil can now compel him to marry her for fear of losing all financial support. Gradually most of the play's characters assemble in the Tavern, Nick and Dorcas marry, and Gabriel, in a drunken stupor, is brought back on stage on a bed, accompanied by the two prostitutes. They wake him with martial music, so that he re-adopts his pre-Puritan character as a roisterer and an enthusiast for militia performances. All is going well when Crosswill, Rooksbill, Lucy, and Mihil arrive, and a scene of general recognition and disclosure takes place. Nick, having reluctantly married Dorcas, is reconciled to his father but in the meantime Cockbrain, accompanied by the hypocritical citizen and the Watch, arrives to apprehend everyone involved in the bad behaviour. At this point Cockbrain has the wind taken out of his sails as he recognizes Rooksbill and Crosswill and they identify the young men as their sons and now, one son-in-law and one husband to a 'niece'. Mihil comforts his father by removing his shorthaired, puritanical wig; Anthony greets his father by removing his disguise, and Gabriel admits his Puritanism was a pretence to aggravate his father. The other members of the lowlife group - Captain Driblow, Clotpoll, Madge, Bettie, and Frank - are all dismissed from Covent Garden, the citizen having accepted a bribe to drop all charges. The play concludes with Crosswill speaking now in verse to confirm the cleansing of Covent Garden. [go to text]

n1052   [A room in ROOKSBILL’s house] Rooksbill’s house. Crosswill fears Mihil’s visiting him there might throw his son in the way of Lucy Rooksbill.
In terms of the play’s resolution, it is significant that Crosswill has taken up residence in Rooksbill’s house and appears alone here on the stage to set the scene for the conclusion. Crosswill has come to inhabit Rooksbill's space -- it is almost a metaphor for the uneasy transformations taking place in contemporary English society. Is the now-landless Crosswill becoming Rooksbill, a creature of the world of money alone? Can Crosswill's assumption of dominance and authority be sustained despite this change? Will others, including his own children, refuse to bow to the will of a man now outside the traditional authority structures of land and gentry? All of these questions are embodied in the as-yet unclassifiable phenomenon of Covent Garden itself, and Crosswill's queasy residence within it: a temporary tenant of a speculative leaseholder in a half-built development. [go to text]

n7350   CROSSWILL enters alone Video The final movement towards the play's conclusion begins with the only real soliloquy in the play. Crosswill's long and complex speech gathers up many of the family-conflict themes and indicates the way towards reconciliation through the play's leading character. Crosswill will also speak the final lines of the act and play, banishing the embodiments of riot from the cleansed Covent Garden; and his standing to act as this kind of moral spokesman seems to have a great deal to do with the journey he undertakes in this speech.
Working with Robert Lister and Brian Woolland, as well as other editors and actors, revealed the speech as both rich in meaning and emotional resonance, and also difficult in tone and pace. Lister's performance elicited an intense discussion of, in particular, the self-recognition and self-loathing Crosswill can, by this stage, express in private and the eruption of violence and anger when he is then surprised by the arrival of his servant Belt. [go to text]

gg3138   alone Latin, alone [go to text]

n1053   What has this coxscomb Cockbrain writ me here? Video Crosswill’s speech begins with two sentences of ten syllables, falling into something close to pentameter verse; after a short expostulation - 'What have I to do with him?' - the next sentence is 10 syllables also. The speech is clearly important for its revelation of a change in Crosswill’s views and for its concentration on issues of freedom, family, regulation, law and authority. It may be that Brome signals the speech by introducing it with a certain formality, through the echo of pentameter in the prose.
One of the questions exposed by the development of a workshop performance of this speech was when and to what extent Crosswill should address the audience. How internal should this soliloquy be? Robert Lister experimented with acknowledging the audience only two-thirds of the way into the speech (beginning with the sentence 'His son and my daughter should have married'); but he realised that this was unsustainable and that he had to address the audience from the outset. [go to text]

n3860   called into authority Cockbrain wishes to be made a magistrate as a result of a notable success in reforming Covent Garden. The phrase is vaguely ecclesiastical and Pauline, though it does not occur in exactly this form in Paul's Epistles. The self-aggrandizing diction no doubt contributes to Crosswill's irritation. [go to text]

n7355   imagination Video As Marion O'Connor pointed out, the word 'imagination' may be a key to what traps Crosswill into these flights of angry judgement and the gleeful humiliation of others. Crosswill has in the lines before this indulged himself with an extended portrait of Cockbrain as a madman; but in the course of this he has lost all sense of proportion and sight of Cockbrain's essentially benign character. [go to text]

n7352   But good Master Crosswill, by your favour now, what reason have you to slight or wrangle at this man? Video Exploration of the speech raised the question of the location of the various emotional turning-points and, in particular, what triggers Crosswill's turn to introspection and painful self-consciousness. Robert Lister and Brian Woolland found that Crosswill has to overreach himself and discover, to his chagrin, that he has done so yet again. Crosswill delights in his extreme judgemental outbursts, but he is surrendering in this speech to the recognition that these moments can be disproportionately destructive.
At this point in the speech Crosswill turns from speaking aloud to having a conversation with himself, addressing and questioning himself in the third person. Hitherto he has almost been showing off to the audience, but he realises that -- not for the first time -- this has led him into a self-indulgent destructiveness. [go to text]

n1054   ape-leader in Limbo This is a variant of the common proverb, 'They that die maids lead apes in hell', found in Shakespeare and Donne and many other early modern texts. It is first found in George Gascoigne's The Adventures of Master F.J. (1572) and is still going strong in London jests: or, A collection of the choicest joques and repartees in 1685: 'A merry Fellow told an Old Batchelor of a strange Dream he had of him, the night before, for says he, I thought you was Dead and I thought I saw you behind Hell door, leading of a great Ape, and that Lucifer, coming in, and seeing you, did ask what that Old Fellow did there? To whom the Devil that attended you, told, you were an old Batchelor, and had never lost your Maiden-head: to whom Beelzebub said, Turn him ont [sic] again, thou dost him wrong, dost not see his Son in his hand there, that is so like him, that any one may know who was the Father of him (pp. 141-2, Joke 118).
The phrase and the jokes appear to be symptoms of the growing hostility to the unmarried state (particularly for women) in newly-Protestant England. The implications seem to be that unmarried women are 'leading men on' and teasing them sexually; and that the unmarried may be unchaste, given the contemporary lewd associations of the figure of the ape. When Brome uses the proverb in Jovial Crew, however, it is less negative: Meriel says that she 'will rather hazard my being one of the Devil's / Ape-leaders, than to marry while he is melancholy' (2.1).
Here, Limbo is substituted for Hell (I have not found another instance outside this play). Protestant denominations were more ambivalent or hostile to the concept of Limbo (Jean Calvin denied it outright) than Catholics. Crosswill's substitution seems to indicate that he cannot bring himself to condemn his daughter to eternal punishment, even in imagination or proverb, however irritated he is by her behaviour. [go to text]

n7353   But what’s all this to the affliction I suffer in my sons, now? That one of them from a riotous boy, should grow into a puritanical woodcock; and the tother from a civil, well-qualified fellow, turned absolute ruffian. There, there, aye there’s the devil in’t. I could beat myself for getting such children. Video In a series of readings, Robert Lister performed Crosswill's final lines as revealing different degrees of self-knowledge, consciousness of his faults and responsibility, self-pity, vulnerability, and desolation. In these video extracts, the mood darkens.
In a full production, the darker versions would in all likelihood be rejected, as over-balancing the play. However, Robert Lister's performance of Crosswill's despair showed what has to lie behind an actor's more comedic presentation. [go to text]

n1881   woodcock A woodcock was an easily caught bird and hence the term became a common insult in the early modern period. [go to text]

n7351   Enter BELT Video Belt's entry and presence on the stage were crucial to the emotional tone of the end of the speech. Such moments -- the entry of a servant in particular -- are frequent in Brome's plays.
David Broughton-Davies first came in as Belt where the stage-direction indicates ; but in a second run-through of the end of the speech came on a few lines earlier . He explained that he did so to give the character time to observe his master in a moment of highly uncharacteristic introspection and vulnerability. Belt then turns to the audience and confirms what they have just seen: Crosswill in despair. [go to text]

n3284   [Belt] 1659 has no Speech Prefix here. [go to text]

n7356   It does not please me, nor thou pleasest me, nor anything pleases me. The world’s bent to cross me, and thou shalt feel it. Video This speech is crucial to the beginning of the play's conclusion and depicts its central character undergoing a remarkable journey. It is well worth seeing Robert Lister perform the speech in its entirety, with excerpts from different readings. [go to text]

n7354   [CROSSWILL beats BELT] Video As Helen Ostovich pointed out, by now Belt's arrival is understood by the audience to mean that he is about to be beaten. Crosswill can externalise once more, taking his frustration and anger out on the servant. [go to text]

gg1718   passed a nautical term: to go beyond a defined point [go to text]

gg1073   calenture a disease incident to sailors within the tropics, characterized by delirium in which the patient, it is said, fancies the sea to be green fields, and desires to leap into it: used figuratively (OED 2) [go to text]

gg3139   timorsome subject to or characterized by fear; timorous, timid (OED adj. 1) [go to text]

gg3140   round of a sum of money: large, considerable in amount (OED 8a) [go to text]

n3861   in his brother’s cut Mihil's wig gives him the appearance of having had his long hair cut in the style associated with Puritans. [go to text]

gg1977   cut fashion (OED n2. III 17a) [go to text]

n1058   a fellow that had narrowly scaped the pillory, and bragged in the publication of his ears? Not an hair left to hide them Crosswill teases Mihil about his short hair, in the fashion of the Puritans and his brother Gabriel. He also suggests that he looks like somone who has escaped worse possible punishments, including having his ears cut. The most famous case of this, close to contemporary with this play, is that of William Prynne (1600-1669), whose ears were lightly cut (the removal was more thorough when he was again punished in 1637) on 7 May 1634, while he stood in the pillory, for criticising women's participation in acting and by implication that of Queen Henrietta Maria. Crosswill says his son looks like someone who has had his hair cut short so that people can see his ears are intact.
The resemblances to Prynne's punishment could indicate a topical reference and so date the play to after May 1634. This seems late for first composition, but it is always possible that lines were added to take advantage of a much talked-about event. On the other hand, the modern fame of Prynne's case should not suggest that others were not subject to mutilation. Dr. Alexander Leighton (c.1570-1649) had one of his ears removed, as well as his nose slit, for sedition in 1630. His portrait print by Wenceslas Hollar (1641) proudly shows the profile with the removed ear. [go to text]

gg3141   pillory a device for punishment, usually consisting of a wooden framework mounted on a post, with holes or rings for trapping the head and hands, in which an offender was confined so as to be subjected to public ridicule, abuse, assault, etc.; punishment of this kind (OED 1) [go to text]

n1060   a younger brother Mihil has no hopes of inheriting an adequate estate while his elder brother, Gabriel, is alive. It is his responsibility to earn or, a better solution, marry money. By the end of the century, the choice to enter commercial life, particularly in overseas trading, would be more acceptable. Mihil has instead been admitted to one of the Inns of Court, technically embarking on a professional career in the law, though we have seen Crosswill recoil at the decline in status that would mean even for his younger son. But Mihil seems ahead of his father here in adapting to social change: he may not work in commerce, but he aims to marry commercial money. See Susan E. Whyman, 'Land and Trade Revisited: The Case of John Verney, London Merchant and Baronet, 1660-1720' London Journal 22 (1997)16-32. The possibility that Gabriel may die and Mihil inherit is lost on no-one, a situation commonly contemplated in the period (Whyman, p. 18). Though Whyman's study is principally concerned with the post-Restoration period, this play clearly shows the same issues to be present in the 1630s, with some of the same solutions, at least in embryo. See also Joan Thirsk, 'Younger Sons in the Seventeenth Century' History 54 (1969), 358-377, whose emphasis on sibling tension is qualified by Linda Pollock in 'Younger Sons in Tudor and Stuart England' History Today 39 (1989), 23-29. [go to text]

n1566   widow Mihil follows the cynical suggestion of John Earle in Micro-cosmographie. Or, A peece of the world discouered in essayes and characters (1628), in the character of the Younger Brother: 'The only thing that may better his fortunes, is an art he has to make a Gentlewoman, wherewith he baits now and then some rich widow, that is hungry after his blood' (C5r). [go to text]

n3155   [Crosswill] 1659 misassigns this speech to Madge. The annotator of Folger Shakespeare Library B4872 also makes this emendation. [go to text]

n1564   I have brought a churchman and a kinsman to give her. Neither this threatened marriage nor any of those that do take place among the play’s characters is celebrated onstage. Nor are any held in a church following the officially-approved pattern of banns. All are 'private' or 'clandestine'. Such marriages were more prevalent in London than the rest of England, relying on licences from the ecclesiastical authorities, and rapidly increased in number in the years before the outbreak of the Civil Wars. Jeremy Boulton summarises possible reasons for this, a number of which could apply to the marrying couples in this play: 'This increasing taste for private weddings suggests that significant sociological changes may have been taking place within metropolitan society. Resort to private or secret weddings has been linked to a wish to thwart parental or parish opposition to intended unions, to attempts to conceal bridal pregnancy, to a wish to save on the costs of wedding feasts and other ancillary 'charges' and to avoid a public ceremony not being 'willing to have their affairs declar'd to all the world in a public place, when for a guinea they may do it snug and without noise'. Marriages by licence enabled couples to marry quickly, to conceal large discrepancies in age, to marry in times prohibites by the Anglican church, such as Lent or Advent and it has even been argued that by avoiding a public wedding couples could avoid having embarrassing surnames read out in church' ('Itching after Private Marryings? Marriage Customs in Seventeenth-century London' London Journal 16 (1991), 15-34; p. 26). [go to text]

gg2009   give give away in marriage [go to text]

n1061   puts a readiness in his hand See OED put v1: Where a person (or thing) is put to some condition 25a a. To place in, bring into, or reduce (a person or thing) to some state or condition; as,...readiness [go to text]

n1062   Do you think seriously you love this widow? Mihil challenges his father by appearing unconcernedly to opt for marriage without affection, basing his choice solely on financial advantage. See the introduction for the transition in this period towards marital alliances being based on the desire of the partners and on affection. [go to text]

n3862   Nor ever like to have any, sir, that’s the comfort. We shall live at the less charge. Mihil provocatively matches his father's perversity, turning the common idea that children are the comfort of age into the assertion that his prospective wife's infertility will be a comfort, because children would be expensive.
Mihil's motive was known and reprehended in this period. The religious writer William Gouge explicitly condemns as 'a very evil disposition' those who choose not to have children: 'It is to be discontent at Gods blessing'. In Gouge's list of those who are so discontented, the second is 'Others for that end marry such as are past Child-bearing' (A learned and very useful commentary on the whole epistle to the Hebrews [Book 3], p. 43 [Ffff 2r]. [go to text]

gg113   charge trouble, expense, responsibility (OED n. 11) [go to text]

n1064   to go in at a great gate, than a narrow wicket Mihil’s metaphor has a crude, physical application. Again, he is challenging his father by the stark light this language throws on the choices being made. [go to text]

n3863   You have said enough, sir, and delight to cross me; but I’ll cross you for once, and lay a cross upon you, shall perhaps carry you to your grave. Crosswill plays on the first syllable of his own name and on the many meanings of cross (here principally to counter or thwart; to place something in opposition, to 'lay a cross'), recognising that Mihil is attempting to manipulate his father through his perverse nature and determining to respond in kind. [go to text]

n3864   to pull my hand from the book Mihil hopes that he will refuse to marry Madge at the last minute, removing his hand from the prayerbook and not uttering the binding vow. But he is not sure he has the courage that would require. [go to text]

n1065   If I but ’scape Bridewell, I care not. This may be an aside or direct address to the audience. [go to text]

n3865   Bridewell Bridewell, originally a royal palace, was given by Edward VI to the City of London as a 'hospital' or place of refuge. It became known especially as a prison for prostitutes (and, because they were concentrated there, a red light district). Prostitutes were sometimes called 'Bridewell birds' in this period. The term 'Bridewell' was increasingly used figuratively to mean prison in general, like Clink, originally the prison in Southwark; but here Madge probably means she hopes to avoid detention in the original Bridewell. [go to text]

n7358   Enter CROSSWILL, ROOKSBILL, LUCY, and MARGERY Video The editor was by no means sure how this fast scene could be performed successfully, with its rapid changes of pace and mood. In the barest of staged readings, however, it was revealed as splendidly funny and entirely comprehensible, with audience response carrying the scene through any difficulties. The broad comedy of Mihil and Lucy's pretended bashfulness was joined by the fathers' performing entirely typically: Crosswill responds with lusty vehemence, Rooksbill pathetically attempts to emulate Crosswill's dominance. Left alone on stage, the fathers show that they have learnt little. Rooksbill preens, brags about his wealth, and relishes his upward social mobility through his daughter's marriage, thus antagonising Crosswill thoughtlessly; Crosswill responds with irascible and irresponsible changefulness. Mihil and Lucy are saved by the bell, or at least a strategically-placed parson. [go to text]

n1066   this pretty, simpering, plump-lipped, ruddy-cheeked, white-necked, long-fingered virgin in hand Video Crosswill once more appears to be more excited by his son’s bride than is entirely comfortable. The character's delight in verbalising his appreciation of Lucy's body was splendidly caught in the workshop reading. [go to text]

gg2010   swinge (v) beat [go to text]

n1067   kiss her above and below Video Again, Crosswill is on the verge of obscenity, commanding Mihil to kiss Lucy 'above and below'. The phrase continues, 'in every room of the house', but the audience has already responded to a bawdier meaning: cunnilingus. This became readily apparent in the workshop reading of the scene
This may seem anachronistic. Oral sex is hard to document in periods before the present and the greater explicitness of the age of the internet. Oral sex is traditionally frowned upon in the West and condemned as sinful; and cunnilingus does not even appear in the most famous early modern works of pornography, such as Aretino's I modi. But Brome's master, Ben Jonson, shows considerable interest (evidenced in his marginalia) in the vocabulary of oral sex found in Martial's poems (see Lowenstein); and John Donne's 'Love's Progress' is close to explicit about kissing 'another forest', though editors rarely, if ever, explicate the passage. Donne notes that 'going down' from the beloved's head may lead to 'shipwreck': one may 'no further get'. So the lover is advised to start from the feet and progress upwards towards a woman's other 'mouth':
Rich nature hath in women wisely made
Two purses, and their mouths aversely laid.
On Donne and other poets' references to oral sex, see David Renaker. [go to text]

gg3170   Sir John a familiar or contemptuous appellation for a priest: from SIR as rendering the Latin word, dominus, at the Universities (OED John n, 3) [go to text]

n4267   book This is close to being a clandestine marriage and it may be that the Parson has come without a book or other items usual to the marriage ceremony in order to avoid detection. [go to text]

n7357   [Exit all but CROSSWILL and ROOKSBILL] There is no stage direction here, but a few lines later the 1659 text has 'Enter all again'. Immediately before this inserted stage direction, Rooksbill has said, 'Go all in, I pray you', indicating that all will take part in the marriage offstage as witnesses.
One of the most striking effects here, as Liz Shafer pointed out during the workshop, is the rapid emptying of the crowded stage space, leaving Crosswill and Rooksbill alone. Their isolation and confrontation are rendered all the more powerful by the contrast, as the young people depart taking the noise and energy with them. [go to text]

n1069   the honour I may have to call you brother Rooksbill's unfortunate comment, pointing out that he and Crosswill are now allied through their children’s marriage, continues the joking about different versions of fraternity. [go to text]

n2996   That very word brother out of his mouth has turned my stomach Crosswill again shows his kinship with the roistering young men. His vehement reaction to terms that express family relationship -- he calls his daughter a 'she-thing' in the first scene -- suggests a profound alienation. Like Clotpoll and Nick, there is something sociopathic here. [go to text]

n1070   You may easily conceive, sir, what a comfort it will be unto me that, I now growing old, and having, I give praise for ’t, wealth enough, and no child that I make account of but this one daughter, may, before I die, see grandchildren that I may have by her sufficiently provided for. Be they more or less in number, they may have enough. Rooksbill is usually so taciturn, so short of sentence. Here, emotion and enthusiasm tempt him to try a long speech; he becomes completely tied up in subordinate clauses. [go to text]

n1071   [All greet each other in celebration] 1659: (all salute). This is set as part of Crosswill and Rooksbill's shared speech, but is a Stage Direction. See OED Salute v. 2: To greet with some gesture or visible action conventionally expressive of respect or courteous recognition. [go to text]

gg245   gratify reward; give a gratuity, especially as a reward, payment or bribe; to pay for services (OED v. 2) [go to text]

n3393   a licence to sell ale, tobacco, and strong-water Kaufmann (p. 70) uses this line to date the writing of the play to before Oxtober 1633, 'for on that date a royal proclamation was issued "for preventing abuses growing by the unordered retailing of tobacco ..."'. [go to text]

n455   Codpiece Row Southwark was notorious from the fourteenth century on as the location for a thriving sex trade. It was outside the complete control of the London city authorities, on land controlled by the Bishops of Winchester. Codpiece Row, however, was in Whitechapel and was a notorious street for brothels. It appears in Thomas Middleton's Middle Temple Masque (1619), in Dr. Almanac's censure of Shrovetuesday (a day on which apprentices attacked brothels and other places of entertainment): 'Tis in your charge to pull downe Bawdyhouses, To set your Tribe aworke, cause spoyle in Shorditch, And make Dangerous Leake there, deface Turnbul, And tickle Codpiece Rowe, ruine the Cockpit, the Poore Players ne're thriud in't, a my Co[n]science some Queane pist vpon the first Bricke.' See Jerzy Limon, 'A silenc'st bricke-layer': an allusion to Ben Jonson in Thomas Middleton's 'Masque' Notes and Queries, Dec 1994 v41 n4 p512(3) [go to text]

n1073   brother Mihil and Anthony are now, in addition to being members of the fraternity of the Philoblathici, brothers-in-law through the marriage of Katherine and Anthony. [go to text]

n1074   , all’s a matter, All’s the same, it makes no difference [go to text]

n3156   He’s well attended, sir, and looked unto. Mihil's speech seems to change from clearly-audible iambic pentameter for the first two lines, to something more prosaic for the remainder. When he is sympathetically describing Gabriel's state, the rhythms have a sonorousness; when he returns to manipulation, the poetic quality disappears. In the 1659 text the compositors seem to wrestle with the latter part of the speech, not knowing whether to set as verse; McClure sets the entire speech as verse. [go to text]

gg484   aquavitae a term from alchemy to refer to unrefined alcohol [go to text]

n1076   Kiss. Here, this is set as an imperative, spoken by Mihil to his new wife. It could be a Stage Direction, meaning that Mihil is to kiss Lucy. Possibly, he could be intended to kiss his father Crosswill in reconciliation; but his attention is on Lucy and her question as they leave the stage about Madge's identity. In 1659, as here, it forms part of Mihil's speech; McClure sets it as a Stage Direction. [go to text]

n4273   5.3 In this scene, again, Brome makes use of changes between verse and prose, and different kinds of rhythms, to communicate changes in tone and to differentiate between characters. Gabriel (and his father Crosswill) use a quiet, meditative, iambic rhythm as they begin to reconcile; Captain Driblow and the remaining 'roaring boys' bolster their self-image as robust, daring men with rougher heroic rhythms, even as they surrender their weapons and retreat. [go to text]

n1077   turn Probably in effect a contraction of 'return' (see OED turn v 21). He does not think he can or will live with her. [go to text]

n1078   no starting No escaping. Mihil, now married to Lucy who has hitherto been supporting Nick, controls access to funds - the blackmail has been reversed. [go to text]

n3866   has a fist over me The meaning is clear, here, though no exactly corresponding uses of this phrase have been found: Mihil is blackmailing Nick into this marriage because he has the power to reduce him to penury. [go to text]

n1080   to the Common The common sexual property of prostitution. Nick is saying that, were it not for the financial hold Mihil has over him, he would let Dorcas go down the route of prostitution. Samuel Pepys on one occasion calls Covent Garden 'Common-garden' (Diary, 9 p. 151). [go to text]

n1081   warned me on a business The Captain has been told that he is needed at the tavern on an unspecified matter of business. [go to text]

n8827   Some treachery upon the Brotherhood, perhaps. Fool though he is, Clotpoll correctly senses the danger here; Nicholas's confidence, expressed in the next line, is misplaced. [go to text]

n3867   I would but see the carcass of authority prance in our quarter, and we not cut his legs off Otherwise subdued in the scene so far, the entrance of Captain Driblow and Clotpoll produces a final show of braggadocchio from Nick, who shows off with blood-curdling threats to those who seek to curb the riotous behaviour of the gang of young men. Anthony's entrance with the clergyman to perform Nick's marriage with Dorcas immediately deflates him. [go to text]

n1082   Enter ANTHONY, PARSON[, KATHERINE, and MARGERY] In Octavo of 1653 the stage direction appears after this speech, but it has here been moved up a line. [go to text]

n1083   reckoning Nick uses the tavern speech of settling of accounts, but with heavy irony. The irony goes further than they know, however, since Cockbrain is at the door hoping to bring all the mischief-makers to a reckoning with the law. [go to text]

gg3142   render restore (OED v. I 3) [go to text]

n1084   parts to play The play has constantly drawn audience attention to its own theatricality and the characters’ persistent 'playing' and disguise. Here, the prostitutes have their own roles, their parts; but their roles involve them 'playing upon' Gabriel. [go to text]

n3353   The Medea. In classical mythology, Medea gave Aeson a magic potion to rejuvenate him. [go to text]

n1085   Must that renew his youthful spirit in him? Close to iambic pentameter, and set as such in 1659. [go to text]

gg3143   screw to produce or attain with effort (OED v. 7) [go to text]

n3285   A bed [brought on] with GABRIEL on it, BETTY and FRANCISCA [accompanying] 1659: A Bed put forth, Gabriel on it, Bettie and Frank. [go to text]

n3157   Drum and trumpet [heard sounding] an alarm. The 1659 text sets 'Drum and Trumpet. An Alarm.' as part of Nick's speech, not recognizing that it is a Stage Direction. [go to text]

n1086   Surprised by th’ enemy, whilest we have played the sluggard in our tents! Gabriel’s return to martial pursuits may be a joke about Charles I’s enthusiasm for citizen militias. Cp. Jonson’s contemporary satire in The New Inn. [go to text]

gg1261   fitters tatters [go to text]

gg904   pate head [go to text]

n1088   Noble Commander, hold thy furious hand, The use of bombastic iambic pentameter again suits the pretense of military action. [go to text]

n1089   country Amazons, that pulled up the enclosures to lie all in Common As before, the joke plays on 'common' as a term for prostitution; but Clotpoll is also referring to the 'Rising in the West' (1628-31) against enclosures in the Forest of Dean. There, some of the leaders of the disturbances adopted the persona of 'Lady Skimmington', adding transgressive gender reversal to their other challenges to the authorities. (See Underdown, Revel, Riot, and Rebellion, pp. 110-111.)
If this association is correct, Clotpoll's 'my country Amazons' identifies him as coming from the West of England like Crosswill, forming another connection between them. [go to text]

n3158   Upon their march, Captain, and we your officers The 1659 text sets this speech as prose but capitalizes 'But' as though the start of a line of verse. The first line is 12 syllables ('Captain' making the extra foot of an Alexandrine), the second a regular iambic pentameter. McClure also sets this as verse. [go to text]

gg2798   ancient a corruption of ensign: a low-rank commissioned officer, one who carried the ensign [go to text]

n3868   letter-carriers An official who carries letters or messages. Gabriel is contrasting those who hold military rank but perform no combat duties with those whose titles denote actual fighting. [go to text]

gg2786   flanker either a fortification protecting the flank; a cannon placed to do so; or a soldier stationed on the flank [go to text]

gg2787   ravelin in fortifications, an outwork consisting of two faces which form a salient angle, constructed beyond the main ditch and in front of the curtain (OED) [go to text]

gg2788   petard a small bomb made of a metal or wooden box filled with powder, used to blow in a door, gate, etc., or to make a hole in a wall (OED 1a) [go to text]

gg2789   curtain the plain wall of a fortified place; the part of the wall which connects two bastions, towers, gates, or similar structures (OED 4a) [go to text]

gg3144   bulwark a fortification [go to text]

gg2790   bastile a tower or bastion of a castle; a fortified tower; a small fortress (OED 1) [go to text]

gg2791   counterscarp the outer wall or slope of the ditch, which supports the covered way; sometimes extended to include the covered way and glacis (OED 1) [go to text]

gg2792   casemate a vaulted chamber built in the thickness of the ramparts of a fortress, with embrasures for the defence of the place; 'a bomb-proof vault, generally under the ramparts of a fortress, used as a barrack, or a battery, or for both purposes' (Stocqueler 1853; OED 1) [go to text]

gg2793   gabion a wicker basket, of cylindrical form, usually open at both ends, intended to be filled with earth, for use in fortification and engineering (OED 1) [go to text]

n1091   least 1659: left. The compositor appears to have misread. [go to text]

n3869   fresh-water captains Again, Gabriel contrasts those holding the naval title of captain but who have never been to sea with those who have actually commanded a ship in salt water. Of course, his own martial quality is all in words and the make-believe of militia training. [go to text]

n1092   I knew men of abilities should at last be put in action. The common complaint of the men of action, that policy was not warlike enough [go to text]

gg3145   militaster a soldier without military skill or knowledge (OED cites only Brome's uses, here and in The Antipodes) [go to text]

gg3146   ordnance artillery for discharging missiles (OED n. 2) [go to text]

gg3147   battery-discoverer one who detects the placement of an opposing force's ordnance [go to text]

gg2793   gabions a wicker basket, of cylindrical form, usually open at both ends, intended to be filled with earth, for use in fortification and engineering (OED 1) [go to text]

gg2794   pallisado a variant of pallisade; originally, a fence made of wooden pales or stakes fixed in the ground, forming an enclosure or defence; subsequently also, a fence made of metal railings (OED: 1a) [go to text]

gg3148   saultable assaultable, capable of being attacked (OED saultable a, 1) [go to text]

gg3149   targeteers a footsoldier armed with a target or light, round shield [go to text]

gg3150   breach a gap in fortifications made by an opposing force's battery [go to text]

n3870   Captain My-Lord’s-Man, or Sergeant-Major My-Lady’s Kinsman Again, Gabriel disdainfully contrasts himself, a fantasy soldier, with those who have obtained their rank and command through nepotism or favouritism. [go to text]

gg3151   expedition? a sending or setting forth with martial intentions; a warlike enterprise (OED n. 2) [go to text]

gg3152   shot (collect. sing.) soldiers armed with muskets or other firearms (rarely with bows); small shot: troops furnished with small arms as distinguished from artillerymen (OED n. III 21a) [go to text]

gg2795   bessognes a variant of bisogne: 'bisongne, a filthie knaue, or clowne; a raskall, bisonian, base humoured scoundrell’ (Cotgrave; the OED cites this line) [go to text]

gg3153   carriages military transport vehicles, as in 'gun-carriage' [go to text]

n2225   Sound drum and trumpet. 1659: 'Drum and Trumpet. An Alarm' set as part of Nick's speech. [go to text]

gg3154   Qui va la French: a military challenge: who goes there? [go to text]

gg3155   ambuscado an ambush or a force waiting to ambush (OED's etymology: an affected refashioning of 'ambuscade' after the Spanish) [go to text]

gg2190   Fair healthy, free from corruption [go to text]

gg3156   coming off a coming off the field of action; a finish-up, a conclusion; an issue (OED 1) [go to text]

n1093   bravely performed In keeping with the theatricality, Gabriel compliments the performance of military manoeuvres. [go to text]

n3888   rifling Literally, Clotpoll is continuing the military terminology. But the audience probably also hears 'rifling' in the sense of stealing or plundering, alluding to the petty criminality of the gang. [go to text]

gg2807   rifling two possible meanings: to shoot with a rifle (OED rifle v3, 2a); or to affect strongly or injuriously; to break or strip off (OED Rifle v2, 5); the first sense, 'to shoot with a rifle' is not recorded before the nineteenth century [go to text]

gg3157   ail something am somewhat unwell [go to text]

gg2796   caitiff (expressing contempt, and often involving strong moral disapprobation) a base, mean, despicable 'wretch', a villain (OED 3), often also implying misery and wickedness [go to text]

n1094   I am but a dead man else Rooksbill sees them armed and fears the worst from his alienated son, Nick. [go to text]

n1095   Go and dispatch Effect the marriage of Nick and Dorcas. But the choice of word 'dispatch' is both in keeping with the military activities of the scene and ominous. [go to text]

n3871   I rather thought I should have found you, sir, Set as prose in the original, Crosswill adopts iambic pentameter rhythm here. The change perhaps reflects a paternal relief at his elder son's recovery. Gabriel will respond in iambic pentameter too, perhaps signalling the rapprochement. [go to text]

n3872   What Babel was a-building in my brains? As he recovers, Gabriel expresses astonishment at the torrent of words he realises he has just uttered, and at their foolishness. [go to text]

gg3158   Babel the Biblical Tower of Babel, as a result of the destruction of which the original, common Adamic language fractured into myriads of different tongues; and hence figuratively confused sounds [go to text]

n3873   a thousand vain imaginations, As in Crosswill's soliloquy opening this act, madness is represented by the accumulation of light rubbish blown into the hair or brain.
As Gabriel recovers, his diction becomes strikingly more Latinate and elevated. [go to text]

n3874   those women The prostitutes Betty and Frank (Francisca) who accompanied Gabriel on to the stage, encouraging and participating in his performance of martial bravado. [go to text]

n3875   properties The women are represented figuratively as 'props': OED n. 5. Theatre and Film. Any portable object (now usually other than an article of costume) used in a play, film, etc., as required by the action; a prop.
Mihil's diction again emphasises the theatricality of the events staged in the play, contributing to intensifying audience awareness of the play as drama. [go to text]

n3876   new motion to this mortified condition Mihil suggests that in his Puritan state, Gabriel was figuratively dead; he has been brought back to life through intoxication and the performance of militia activity. But 'motion' also means theatrical performance (particularly puppetry) in this period. [go to text]

gg3159   mortified insensible or impervious [go to text]

n3877   as if they stood indifferently affected to Bedlam and Bridewell unsure as to whether they are insane (Bedlam) or criminal (Bridewell) [go to text]

gg3160   Bedlam the popular term for the Bethlehem Hospital, where the insane were incarcerated; hence a term for chaos and lack of order [go to text]

n3865   Bridewell Bridewell, originally a royal palace, was given by Edward VI to the City of London as a 'hospital' or place of refuge. It became known especially as a prison for prostitutes (and, because they were concentrated there, a red light district). Prostitutes were sometimes called 'Bridewell birds' in this period. The term 'Bridewell' was increasingly used figuratively to mean prison in general, like Clink, originally the prison in Southwark; but here Madge probably means she hopes to avoid detention in the original Bridewell. [go to text]

n1096   Know we are men that dare forbear the place. Clotpoll’s paradoxical assertion that it takes real courage to run away is in keeping with the ironic and mock-heroic depiction of the Philoblathici. [go to text]

gg261   bill-men soldiers armed with bills, which are weapons varying from ‘a simple concave blade with a long wooden handle, to a kind of concave axe with a spike at the back and its shaft terminating in a spear-head’ (OED bill n1, 2) [go to text]

n1098   Blue Gown College Blue gowns were the recognised costume of a licensed beggar. However, in Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker’s The Honest Whore (1604) the whores are accompanied by a beadle in a blue gown. [go to text]

n4599   Wheels and whips! Frank imagines being subject to 'carting' as a punishment. [go to text]

n2174   There’s no escaping forth. And gentlemen, it will but breed more scandal on my house, and the whole plantation here, if now you make rebellious uproar. Yield your weapons, and welcome justice but like subjects new, and peace will follow. Once more, this speech echoes iambic pentameter rhythm. [go to text]

n3878   plantation The Vintner describes the Covent Garden development as a plantation because it is on hitherto scarcely populated land, outside both the City of London and the royal district of Westminster. Brome has him return to the diction used in the play's first scene. [go to text]

gg3161   plantation a settlement, a colony, often in an overseas territory [go to text]

n3286   Exit [Captain DRIBLOW and CLOTPOLL] 1659: Exeunt. Driblow and Clotpoll appear to leave the stage, yet Cockbrain appears to refer to Driblow as present when he comes on to the stage a few lines later. According to the Stage Direction, he enters accompanied by the Citizen, the Watch, and Madge; in this edition they are joined by Driblow and Clotpoll. [go to text]

n3159   Exit [VINTNER] 1659: Exeunt. But, as McClure notes, only the Vintner seems to exit here. [go to text]

n3879   troth A truncation of troth-plight, the swearing of a marriage oath. [go to text]

n1100   Scene Metatheatrical references have been scattered throughout the play, but are becoming more frequent and obvious towards the end. [go to text]

n3160   Down, brother Nicholas. 1659 sets this as a Stage Direction, but it is clearly part of Mihil's speech. [go to text]

n2228   Enter COCKBRAIN, CITIZEN[, members of the] Watch, MARGERY[, DRIBLOW, and CLOTPOLL]. 1659:'Enter Cockbrain, Cit. Watch. Madge' [go to text]

n4268   Watch The members of the Watch are not included in the cast list. They must be carrying their typical weapons, 'bills'. [go to text]

n1101   old ruffian The Captain. [go to text]

n1102   there’s one Clotpoll or Nick. [go to text]

gg3162   straggling wandering, straying, often used of vagrants or vagabonds [go to text]

gg3163   round customary circuit, walk, or course; the beat or course traversed by a watchman, constable (OED n1. 15) [go to text]

n3891   Howlet Madge's soubriquet, 'little owl', is used as her surname. [go to text]

gg3164   shift an expedient, an ingenious device for effecting some purpose (OED n. III 3a) [go to text]

n1103   Circe Cockbrain labels Madge as the bewitcher and perverter of youth, an undercurrent throughout much of the play, associating her with the enchantress Circe (best known from Homer's Odyssey), who turned her victims into swine. [go to text]

n3890   Circe ] Circes [go to text]

gg3165   cluster a number of persons, animals, or things gathered or situated close together; an assemblage, group, swarm, crowd (OED n. 3a) [go to text]

n1104   That’s my son now Rooksbill claims Mihil, his new son-in-law [go to text]

gg3116   ging (disdainful) 'a company of armed men, a troop, army, host', in keeping with the military performance (OED 1); [go to text]

gg3166   commitment being sent to prison [go to text]

n1106   indifferent men Crosswill is drawing on the theological category of adiaphora, things indifferent, not essential to faith. So here, Crosswill wants his sons to be moderate in hair-length, ecclesiastical allegiance, and conduct. [go to text]

n1107   [MIHIL removes his short–haired wig] Mihil must have been wearing a wig, to disguise his long hair, and he removes it here. Gabriel’s next speech, while he may not be wearing a real wig, suggests that putting on a costume and putting on a character are the same. [go to text]

n4600   former formal habit Gabriel may here reveal that his long hair has been concealed all along beneath a short-haired wig. [go to text]

n3880   these half footballs than in whole pudding-bags With his short-haired wig Mihil's head had looked like half a football. Also, the structure of such a wig would have resembled a half-ball. Crosswill's indulgent criticism is that he had contrived more deception as a half sphere than could have been contained in a whole one. Crosswill's plural ('footballs') may give credence to the idea that Gabriel has also removed a wig. [go to text]

gg3167   pudding-bags a bag or mould in which a pudding is boiled; figuratively (and in extended use), anything reminiscent of this in form or function (OED n. 1) [go to text]

gg3168   slake to slacken or diminish [go to text]

gg2010   swinge (v) beat [go to text]

gg3169   swaddle to bind together; but also to beat soundly (OED 3) [go to text]

n1108   Sir, the parties have given me satisfaction, and I am content they be released. A metatheatrical statement for the audience at the end of a satisfactory comedy. [go to text]

gg2405   precinct area of government, parish [go to text]

n3892   Epilogue There are two epilogues printed in the original, matching the two prologues. Both the second prologue and the second epilogue are likely to have been recited as part of a revival of the play in 1641. [go to text]

n3893   ’Tis not the poet’s art, nor all that we This poor piece of verse (ironically beginning with a reference to the poet's art) is hard to follow. The second line seems particularly impenetrable. The general meaning is clear, however: only the approval of the audience can confirm the quailty of a play. [go to text]

n3894   that poets can divine As confirmation that poets can be prophetic. The epilogue is playing with the long tradition of associating poetry and prophesy, the bard as having special access to divine knowledge. In this context, the banishment of rowdy elements from Covent Garden at the end of this play is seen as having been fulfilled in reality by the time of the play's revival. [go to text]

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