ACT FIVE
[Enter] FRANCES, MAGDALEN, JANE, [and] ALICE.n8576
Wine on a table
865MagdalenGoodgg5382 lack! And is it you, Mistress Alice? Is’t possible? Are you come to learn
carriagegs1494 too?
I will make bold withn8579 t’other glass of wine.n8580 At a word,gs1347 I like your French
carriagegs1495 the better, that it allows elder women to drink wine.
866AliceThey have no other drink, except water. And maids are allowed but that.
867JaneAnd young wives (they say) wine with their water.
868MagdalenMinglegg5609 your glass, then, daughter.
Thisn8581 for me. Your father has so sought you, Mistress Alice.
869JaneMy father has missed us too, by this time.
870MagdalenBut neither of ’em
can dream French enoughn8582 to direct ’em
hither,gg1268 I
warrantgg859 you. And does she learn the carriages very well,
Madam-silly?n8583
872MagdalenWhat do ye call ’t? I shall never hit it. How do you
findgs1496 your scholar?
874MagdalenBut how much carriage hath she learned? Hark you, Mistress Alice.
Have you not learned to carrygg5610 a man?n8588 Has not a good husband stol’n you hither? I can think
waggishly,gg5611 I tell you, and
an old ape has an old eye.n8258 Go to.gs1497
879MagdalenHow say by that? Is’t possible? Can she carry both her hands in one day?
882FrancesYou may learn
datn8595 of
de leetle shild.n8596 De leetle shild, you see, will handle
de ting,n8597 before it can set one foot to
den8598 ground. Come, let me see you make a
reverence.gs1501
884Frances’Tis dat you call a curtsy. Let me see you make curtsy.
887MagdalenHow like you this then?
[She curtsies.] There’s a reverence, I
warrantgg859 you.
890AliceTake heed she does not take too much.
893MagdalenThere they be. They have been a little too
familiargs1502 with
sea-coalgg5617 fires, and much other
coarsegg2366 housewifery,gg3906 which I shall utterly abhor and wash off when I have learnt to carry them
courtly.gs1503 But shall I ever do it, think you?
898FrancesYou shall know all de ways to win his love,
Or any man’s, to
multiplygs1506 your honour.
Besides the help of
paintinggs1507 that adorn
An eye, a lip, a finger shall not move,
And your whole graceful presence shall attract
(Beyond affection) admiration,
[Sing[s]] n8614‘Diana and her darlings, dear, dear, dear’, etc.n8613
But may I paint,gg5625 say you?
Head, face, neck, breast, with which I will inspire you
To cover or discover any part
Unto de best advantage.
To hide shame, or show all:n8620 that’s her meaning.
For (I tell you, Mistress) I have a white skin
And a round straight neck, smooth and plump shoulders,
Free from
French flea-bites,n8622 and never a wrinkle
Near ’em, though I say’t.
Women, to
justifygg5632 themselves that way,
Began that fashion. As
onn8624 t’other side,
The fashion of men’s brow-locksn8625 was perhaps
Devised out of necessity to hide
All
ill-gracedgg5633 forehead, or besprinkled with
As, formerly, the
saffron-steeped linen,n8627
By some great man
found useful against vermin,n8628
Some lord that
was no niggard ofn8629 his beauty
Another, to obscure his, or perhaps
To hide defects thereof, might bring up broad
ones,n8631
As,
questionless,gg5636 the straight,
neat-timberedgg5637 leg
First wore
the tronksn8632 and long silk-hose.n8633 As likely
The
baker-knees,gg5638 or some strange
shamble-shanks,gg5639
910FrancesThese, among men, are followed for the fashions,
That were invented for the better grace
(As our
attires)gg5643 to set off limb or face.
Enter DRYGROUND [and] WAT.n8638
913WatNot for a minute, sir. I’ll not be kicked
And made a
sportgs446 for
watermengg454 i’th’ Thames.
917WatI’ll hear my father sooner. Give me hence
My sister. Were he a
ravenousgg5645 beast, a wolf,
I would obey him rather than
trudgegg4154 a foot
918Dryground [Aside] Now, would his body’s pains convert his soul,
’Twere a good work.
O’th’
mourning of the chine,gg5647 too, with the kicks
Without
resistance!gg5650 Give me hence my sister.
924WatNay, it shall out. Your base inhuman project
To sell your daughter’s maidenhead (I care not
Who hears me, I), and cunningly to make me
926JaneWhat did my husband mean to wish us hither?
927WatBaseness! I cannot call it bad enough.
And wooed me you might have her
withn8640 all faults.
929WatMine eyes are opened now.
They were almost beaten out first.
Ere I will marry so, I’ll take a beggar
And join in trade with her, though I get nothing.
But my name is Vermin already; I
Thank a good father for’t.
Your name most numerously.
I think I saw her today must be the woman.
[To FRANCES] Good
Madam Polecat,n8641 the
trimgs1519 schoolmistress!
I’ll carry her and her virginity
Unto
some fitter place of execution.n8645
934AliceYou brought me hither, sir, and here I’ll stay.
936MagdalenOh dear! And is it so? What are we, then? Is this your
bonn8646 fashion? Is this the carriage of the body that you would teach us? What, to be whores? We could learn that at home,
andn8647 there were need, without your teaching.
938AliceMistress Bumpsey, pray fear no harm.
939MagdalenOh
good lack!gg5382 What will become of us? Where are we now, Jane? Betrayed! Betrayed! Our honours are betrayed. O my poor Bump; how will thou take this
at my hands,n8648 though I
carrygs1499 them never so courtly?
947WatSir, she shall with me. I’ll leave her where I found her.
I am
providedgg5657 for you. Friends, come in,
Enter two SERGEANTS.
And do your office.
952WatHa, ha, ha! Why, this is well, and very hospitably done. Would any man but an old
bawdgg356 ha’ done this?
Since you revolt, I must recall my money,
Or
laygs1118 you where I found you,
asn8655 you threatened your
Sister here.
954WatBaser and baser still! Are you a knight?
That rides afore horse,
o’er the earsn8656 in dirt,
Do you arrest folks in a
bawdy-house?gg62
The place may be as honest as our office.
Will you walk, sir?
If now my father (as some in like cases
Have done) would take a fine submission.
I could afford to kneel and
whine,gg5663 methinks,
Rather than back to my old
wardgs1521 again.
’Twill ne’er be
handsome,gs1522 though.
Enter VALENTINE.
Sir, you relieved me lately. Could you now
But add another favour, it might teach
One that ne’er learnt to pray, to pray for you.
Do you not know me, sir? ’Twas I you saved
Out of the Temple suds.n8657
960WatNo, sir, I was disguised.
[To DRYGROUND] Pray, sir, a word.
965WatI would you were as wet all over as I was like to have been! Or, as you are
catchpoles,gg5666 I would you had been but in those hands I escaped from.
Out of the house.
Here’sn8661 for half an hour’s attendance.
[Gives them money.]
Go into that room with your prisoner.
Be
of good cheer,n8662 friend, if thou canst be honest
I can relieve thee. Fear not.
968WatSir, get my father but to say as much
And you shall be
coheirgg5667 with me. I vow,
You shall have half.
[To DRYGROUND] The youth appears converted.
But that I used, to
urgen8666 him
past his nature.n8665
Giving the spurs ran him beyond his speed,
Quite off his legs, and glad to be led home.n8667
All your instructions concerning him
And my fantastic
father-’law,gg4293 both whom
Are hard at hand, with the
wisen8669 westerngg4113 knight;
He too’s content to go to the best
ordinarygs1572
While ’tis
best cheapn8670 he says. Where are the women?
As much French carriage as might serve to furnish
To overthrow it all again.
But is the house clear, sir, of all your
riflers?gs1529
My
projectgs934 aim’d at, which, by an oration
Well
chargedgg5670 with virtuous sentences, I forced
Their money for that charitable use,
To which I
pre-intendedgg5674 it. The rest
Pursed theirs again.n8673 But yet I have collected
That was laid down
at staken8675 for a virginity,
I may fetch in my guests. In the meantime
You may be pleased, sir, to peruse this
paper.n8678[VALENTINE gives DRYGROUND the letter and] exit[s].n8679n8677
It is the scorn I sent my
injuredgg5603 love,
Her from me. Oh,
thatn8680 at the price of
itn8681
Enter OLIVER [and] AMBROSE.n8682
Now, gentlemen—
She does not taste of sin!n8688 Fair chastity
Sits crowned upon her brow,n8689 with an aspect
May beat down lust to hell, from whence it rose.
983OliverI vow, and do not lie to you, if I find
Your father so inhuman, you against
it,n8690
We’ll be your rescue, if forty able
swordmen,gg5677
Which we have,
at the signal of a finger,n8691
Planted in readiness, can
fetch you off.n8692
Do you approve?
In that high phrase, or tone, as you did then.n8694
Enter VALENTINE [with] BUMPSEY, VERMIN, AMPHILUS, BROOKALL, ELEANOR [and] PHYLLIS.n8696n8695
(Heaven, Heaven I ask thee pardon) once did wrong
To an unfortunate family, by rejecting
A gentlewoman—
990OliverYou got with child, and then denied her marriage.
994Phyllis [Aside] If this should prove my father now!
Now
fourteen winters since,n8698 though
sadly burdened,n8699
Fled, and no more is heard of. At the first
My wildness
took no sensen8700 of this
dear loss,n8701
But drew me through the ways of
carelessgs1542 pleasure,
By
riotousgg5682 expense, that mine estate
Until my
trespassgg319 cried against my conscience
By law—
Had nothing left him, but a son—
Now do you
findgg1278 my project, gentlemen?
It has,
at chargen8711 of three day’s housekeeping,
Put half a thousand pounds
in’sgg2502 purse, besides
A fair pull forn8712 his father’s land again,
The daughter of his father’s adversary.
Enter ALICE.
She is my wife.
You know me now, sir, and my project, do you not?
Discovers himself.n8714
While I
appeasegs1552 the rest.
[To AMPHILUS]n8716 A word with you, sir.
1019BumpseySo, cheer her up Sir Humphrey!
To her again,n8717 Sir Humphrey!
Your son, and mine in law,n8718 has told me all your story, and reconciled your brother Brookall to you before your interview. I know all,
the full pointgs803 and the whole substance,gg4027 n8719 the
flatgg5689 and
plaingg5690 of the
business,gs1553 and now I love these things again. How now, Sir Amphilus? Drowned in
melancholy?gs1554
1021Alice [To VERMIN] Your pardon, and your blessing, I beseech you.
Was love your
chief instructorgg5691 ton8725 this marriage?
1028Bumpsey [To VERMIN] Shall I tell you, neighbour? Law has no relief for you, and conscience and you have a long time been strangers. Could you be friends and embrace conscience now, all would be well. And there’s the
substance.gs1556 Is it plain?
Enter VAL[ENTINE], WAT, MAGDALEN [and] JANE.n8727
1031WatSir, if you can forgive, and can obey you—
I now can better kneel than speak—n8729He weeps.
1032ValentineDo you note those tears, sir? Had you lost your daughter,
My father had in this made you amends
In finding you a son. His art converted him.
1034BumpseyHa! Think you so? ’Tis your own flesh and blood. And
by your leave and liking,n8731 may prove as honest a man as his father.n8732 Is not this
plaings775 now? Forgive and bless ’em all over, and so kiss ’em too. They are your children.
1035MagdalenO my dear Bump!n8733 Art thou there? Thou may’st kiss and forgive me all over too, for any
harmgg5692 or
dishonesty,gg5693 though the place be as they say—n8734 At a word,gs1347 Bump, thou may’st believe me, I came but to learn
carriage of the body,n8736 nor to carry nobody’s body, but my own body, Bump. No truly, truly, Bump. Oh! Oh!
That ever I did that!n8737
Has
done the office.n8739 Blessing on
my girl!n8740
Val, thou hast made me young again, the best
Occurrentsgg5695 in this project have been thine;
Thy
accidentsgg5696 exceeded my design.
Betwixt these long-continued adversaries
Perfectlygg4211 reconciled, and both have given
The young and
hopefulgg3892 married pair their blessings.
For it was
nolens volensgg5697 as they say.
Restores unto the son the father’s land
For dowry with his daughter: And is
takengs1560
He’ll cancel it, and send it
gratisgg2068 to you.
1044WatThat’s sure enough. But, sir, the other
business.gs806
He loves my sister here, and
has done long,n8742
But now that he perceives her worth (being yours)
And
since you promised him your daughter too,n8743
And Wat, stand you but firm, and live reformed,
Winning my daughter’s love, you shall have mine.
To father,
friends,gg3527 and husband in one day.
Create
the heart of friendship, not the face.n8747
’Twill prove good
faregs1566 (I hope) though no rich feast;
And acceptable to each welcome guest.
Epilogue
The writer of these scenes desires to know,
Whether he
pulled fair for a leaf,n8749 or
no.n8750
If yes, then
let your hands assistant ben8751
T’ encouragen8752 him to climb
Apollo’s tree.n8753
Edited by Lucy Munro
n8573
5.1
Like Act 2, Act 5 consists of one long scene in a single location, in this case the ordinary itself. The scene opens with an extended comic sequence in which Magdalen and Jane fulfil their ambition to come to the ordinary and learn about French behaviour and fashions. By this point in the play Magdalen, who has been accustomed to relatively thrifty living, is rather enjoying the introduction to the beau-monde that events have given her. While Alice is in on the plot and knows Frances’ true nationality and gender, Jane probably knows only what Alice has told her – that Frances teaches deportment and fashionable behaviour. The sequence is broken by the appearance of Wat, who after the indignities to which he was subjected in Act 4 is having second thoughts about Dryground’s scheme. The exchange with Magdalen and the other women culminates as Magdalen swoons and its taken off stage, accompanied by the bottle of wine from which she has been drinking throughout the scene. The scene is then set for the final revelations – of identity, allegiance and redemption – which are carefully stage-managed by Dryground and, especially, Valentine. Eventually, all of the play’s four fathers will be on stage simultaneously, and all of the younger generation. The only character not to appear in this scene is Trebasco, and it is possible that his role was doubled with another, perhaps that of Wat. (For further discussion of casting, see the Introduction.)
Dramaturgically, this is another of Brome’s large-scale scenes, but whereas the long scene in Act 2 created an ebb and flow among its characters as they exited and entered, here the energy builds towards the final conglomeration of characters on the stage.
[go to text]
n8575
5.1
] ACT. V. Scene I.
[go to text]
n8576
[Enter] FRANCES, MAGDALEN, JANE, [and] ALICE.
Frances, Magdalen, Jane, Alice.
[go to text]
n8578
Très bien venue, Mesdames. You are very welcome.
Video
(You are) very welcome, ladies (French); Frances translates her own words in the second half of the line. In this extract from the workshop on this scene, Joseph Thompson (reading Frances) experiments with a wavering French accent, saying the first half of the line with a French accent and the second half with an English accent.
[go to text]
n8577
Très bien venue, Mesdames.
Video
This is Frances’ most sustained performance as a ‘demoiselle’, and it has the same pattern of phonetic spellings to indicate the accent and snippets of French dialogue as the sequence in Act 3 in which she encounters Oliver. In terms of the play’s narrative, Frances is a young man impersonating a woman, and in the workshop on this scene we experimented with some different casting patterns available to us with our cast of two men and two women. In this reading of the sequence up to the entrance of Wat and Dryground after speech 911 [DM 5.1.speech911], Frances’s part is read by Hannah Watkins, in this version it is read by Joseph Thompson, and in this extract it is read by Alan Morrissey. These clips are in chronological order, and it is possible to see one actor picking up and developing details of performance from another’s reading. The original all-male casting would lend a greater plausibility to the cross-dressed character, as an audience would be conditioned to accept a character played by a male actor as female. This precise effect was not available on the day of the workshop, and instead we have a kind of gender-blind casting: in the first extract, Frances is played by a woman, and Alice and Jane are played by men; in the others Frances and Jane are played by men. It is nonetheless possible to see different effects that casting a man or a woman as Frances might create, and the different effects that actors of the same sex might achieve. See notes on the lines below for further comment on specific details of the scene.
In some ways, the sequence’s closest analogue is the ‘Spanish Lady’ scene in Act 4 of Jonson’s The Devil is an Ass (King’s Men, 1616), in which a young man, Wittipol, impersonates a woman who claims to be able to instruct the women of London in the use of cosmetics. It is therefore possible that an audience member who knew Jonson’s play may have begun to wonder about Frances’s true gender at this point. For further discussion, see the Introduction.
[go to text]
n8585
Très bien venue, Mesdames.
] TRes bien venue Madames.
[go to text]
gg5382
Good
an exclamation along the same lines as ‘good heavens!’ or ‘good grief!’
[go to text]
gs1494
carriage
bodily deportment, the correct ways of moving/behaving
[go to text]
n8580
I will make bold with t’other glass of wine.
Video
Magdalen drinks regularly throughout the sequence, and various bits of physical business might be added to heighten the comedy. In this extract from the workshop on this scene, Alice (Hannah Watkins) and Jane (Alan Morrissey) attempt to water down the wine, and later take the glass away from Magdalen; see also this extract for another example, this time with Joseph Thompson playing Jane, in which the two younger women hover anxiously, waiting for their chance to take the glass.
[go to text]
n8579
make bold with
Make free with, take the liberty (to drink).
[go to text]
gs1347
At a word,
to speak plainly, to be honest (can also mean ‘in short’ or ‘briefly’)
[go to text]
gs1495
carriage
behaviour (OED n, 14a)
[go to text]
gg5609
Mingle
mix, blend
[go to text]
n8581
This
i.e. the glass of undiluted wine.
[go to text]
n8582
can dream French enough
Either (1) can speak enough French, or (2) have enough interest in French things.
[go to text]
gg1268
hither,
here (to this place)
[go to text]
gg859
warrant
assure, promise
[go to text]
n8583
Madam-silly?
A mispronunciation of Mademoiselle, which Frances corrects in the next line.
[go to text]
n8584
Mademoiselle, s’il vous plaît.
] Madamoyselle, si vous plaist
[go to text]
n8586
Mademoiselle, s’il vous plaît.
Video
Mademoiselle, if you please (French). See this extract from the workshop for an example of the way in which Frances might correct Magdalen.
[go to text]
gs1496
find
regard (OED v, 6a)
[go to text]
n8587
She learn very well.
The non-standard grammar here suggests that Frances continues to speak with a strong French accent.
[go to text]
n8588
Have you not learned to carry a man?
Video
There is a heavy sexual innuendo in Magdalen’s speech here, which is picked up and intensified by Frances. See this extract from the workshop, in which Jenny McEvoy reads Magdalen.
[go to text]
gg5610
carry
succeed in obtaining (OED v, 15a); manage (OED 22a); bear up (as in sexual intercourse) (Williams, 1: 207-8)
[go to text]
gg5611
waggishly,
in a waggish (mischievous or wanton) manner
[go to text]
n8258
an old ape has an old eye.
This is a proverbial expression (Tilley A272); it also appears in William Rowley’s A Match at Midnight (Revels Company, c. 1622) and Robert Chamberlain’s The Swaggering Damsel (Beeston’s Boys, c. 1639).
[go to text]
gs1497
Go to.
an exhortation, equivalent to ‘come, come’ (OED go v, 93b)
[go to text]
gs1498
matter,
thing, affair
[go to text]
n8589
I ask you how much carriage she has learned?
Video
In this extract from the workshop on this scene, Magdalen (read by Jenny McEvoy) assumes that Frances’s ‘What is that you say?’ means that she does not speak very much English, and she therefore says this line very slowly and clearly.
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n8590
dis
This (said with a strong French accent).
[go to text]
n8591
she carry both the hands already.
Video
That is: she can already position her hands correctly. See this extract from the workshop on this scene, in which Joseph Thompson reads Frances’s lines with a great deal of attention to the sexual innuendo in this and the following lines: it is accompanied by physical business, as Frances positions the arms and feet of Hannah Watkins’s Alice, and a sense of intimacy between the characters is created. An audience may be unsure as to the meaning of the innuendo: they may read it as female bawdy, as homosocial or lesbian intimacy between two women, or they may suspect Frances’s true gender. As Jenny McEvoy commented during the workshop, we have here two competing kinds of bawdy, one from Magdalen and one from Frances.
[go to text]
gs1499
carry
hold, position
[go to text]
n8592
she shall carry the foot as well.
That is: she shall position her foot correctly too. This carries a strong sexual innuendo, as the English word ‘foot’ sounds very like the French word foutre, which has the slang meaning of ‘to fuck’; compare the language lesson scene in Shakespeare’s Henry V (Chamberlain’s Men, 1599), in which Princess Katherine is informed by Alice, her waiting woman, that the English for pieds (feet) and robe (gown) are ‘De foot ... et de cown’ (Alice mispronounces ‘gown’ in a way that makes it sound like con, the French word for ‘cunt’). Katherine replies, ‘De foot et de cown? O Seigneur Dieu! Ils sont les mots de son mauvais, corruptible, gros, et impudique, et non pour les dames d’honneur d’user. Je ne voudrais prononcer ces mots devant les seigneurs de France pour tout le monde’ (3.4.47-52) (‘De foot and de cown? O Lord God, they are words with the most wicked, corrupting, gross and impudent sound, and not for ladies of honour to use. I would not say these words before the lords of France for all the world’). See [NOTE n8591] for commentary on the potential of this innuendo in performance.
[go to text]
n8593
handling before footing
Magdalen hammers home the sexual innuendo in Frances’s words.
[go to text]
gg5614
handling
touching, feeling (OED n, 1a); see also Williams, 2: 642-3, who quotes Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (King’s Men, c. 1604), in which Escalus proposes to question Isabella, ‘You shall see how I’ll handle her’, to which Lucio responds, ‘Not better than he, by her own report’ (5.1.270-1)
[go to text]
gs1500
footing
dancing (OED n, 2) and by extension other physical interaction; the stable positioning of the feet (OED n, 4a); Williams (3: 1236) notes that in The Family of Love (King’s Revels, c. 1607; published London, 1608), Master Purge, fearing his wife’s adultery, says, ‘I scent your footing, wife’ (sig. F1r); see also Williams 1: 525-6 on the associations between the word ‘foot’ and sexual intercourse
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n8595
dat
That (said with a strong French accent).
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n8596
de leetle shild.
The little child (said with a strong French accent).
[go to text]
n8597
de ting,
The thing (said with a strong French accent, and heavy sexual innuendo).
[go to text]
n8598
de
The (said with a strong French accent).
[go to text]
gs1501
reverence.
a gesture indicative of respect: here a curtsy (OED n, 2)
[go to text]
n8599
dat is de gross English douck,
That is the gross English duck (said with a strong French accent).
[go to text]
gs1448
gross
‘brutally lacking in refinement or decency’ (OED a, 15)
[go to text]
n8601
douck,
Video
Duck: ‘An instantaneous lowering of head or body; a rapid jerky bow or obeisance’ (OED n2, 2); Magdalen may look rather like a duck as she curtsies: see this extract from the workshop on this scene for an example of how it might be performed. See also William Cavendish and James Shirley, The Variety (King’s Men, 1641; published in The Country Captain and the Variety, Two Comedies Written by a Person of Honour, London, 1649), in which the French dancing master, Galliard, denounces Lucy’s reverence. When she protests, ‘’Tis the French fashion as you taught me, Monsieur’, he replies, ‘Oui, ’tis de French fashion, but de French fashion is always to change, and dis reverence displease a me very mush, because you go back, back vid your buttock, as if some vod take you by dat, to vat me vil give a no name’ (sig. C6r)
[go to text]
gg5615
swag-buttocked-wife
‘having large swaying buttocks’ (OED, swag-belly)
[go to text]
gg859
warrant
assure, promise
[go to text]
n8602
See how you carry de hands like de comedien dat act de shangling.
Video
That is: you carry the hands like the comedian [actor] that acts the changeling (said with a strong French accent). This may be a reference to the performance of one of two plays: Thomas Middleton and William Rowley’s The Changeling, first performed by Lady Elizabeth’s Men in 1622 but revived in 1635 (see John R. Elliott, Jr., ‘Four Caroline Playgoers’, Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England 6 [1993], 179-93 [192]), in which Antonio poses as a changeling, or Brome’s own play The English Moor, performed by Queen Henrietta Maria’s Men 1637, in which Buzzard poses as the changeling Timsy (the ‘comedian’ in this case was Timothy Reade, who probably appeared in The Demoiselle). The ‘changeling’ in both of these plays is a character who is posing as someone who is cognitively/intellectually disabled. On the title page of The Wits (1662), a figure labelled ‘Changeling’ appears among other dramatis characters (Falstaff, Bubble from Greene’s Tu Quoque, etc.) [IMAGEEM_4_1]. He may be Buzzard or Antonio, and both of his hands are limp at the wrist: this may be how Brome envisaged Magdalen holding her hands as she curtsies. See these extracts from the workshop, in which Magdalen holds her hands in this manner, curtsying with enormous concentration, and Joseph Thompson and Alan Morrissey, reading Frances, imitate in varying ways the ‘comedian that acts the changeling’
[go to text]
gs1499
carry
hold, position
[go to text]
n8603
comedien
actor (French)
[go to text]
achieve it
hit on’t,
[go to text]
gs833
trow?
do you think
[go to text]
n8605
I must take t’other glass.
Video
Magdalen has apparently emptied her glass at this point, and reaches for another one. See these readings of the full sequence up to the entrance of Dryground and Wat after speech 911 [DM 5.1.speech911] for the effect in performance of the constant replenishment.
[go to text]
gg1418
crossing
thwarting, opposing, or contravening (OED vbl n, 8)
[go to text]
gs1502
familiar
friendly, over-intimate
[go to text]
gg5617
sea-coal
mineral coal (coal in the usual sense), as distinguished from charcoal (OED sea-coal n, 2a)
[go to text]
gg2366
coarse
rough, unrefined
[go to text]
gg3906
housewifery,
management of household affairs, housekeeping (OED 1); thrift, economy (OED 1b)
[go to text]
gs1503
courtly.
in a polished or refined manner (as befitting the court)
[go to text]
n8606
and all your other parts and members.
Video
In this extract from the workshop on this scene, Alan Morrissey (reading Frances) makes the innuendo clear.
[go to text]
gs1504
parts
characteristics, attributes (OED n, 12); genitals
[go to text]
gg5618
members.
parts of the body; sexual organs
[go to text]
gg2242
win
persuade, prevail upon (OED win v1, 9a)
[go to text]
n8607
to love me courtly then.
i.e. to make love to me (to woo me or to have sex with me) in a courtly fashion.
[go to text]
n8608
To love and lie with you courtly.
Video
Frances again makes the innuendo in Magdalen’s speech explicit; in this extract from the workshop on this scene Joseph Thompson (reading Frances) creates intimacy with Magdalen in this line, which suggests the potential pathos of her reply.
[go to text]
gs152
lie
sleep with, have sex with
[go to text]
n8610
That’s but seldom,
This suggests that courtiers probably don’t make love to their wives very often; this may also be Magdalen’s wistful comment on the state of her own sex life.
[go to text]
gs1505
doubt.
fear
[go to text]
gs1506
multiply
increase, augment
[go to text]
n8609
I will so multiply, then.
Magdalen repeats Frances’s ‘multiply’, but it picks up an additional meaning, ‘breed’ or ‘cause (a family, population, etc.) to increase in numbers by reproduction or procreation’ (OED v, 3a).
[go to text]
n8611
Not only in your looks, your smiles and sweet caresses,
Video
At this point Frances takes control of the sequence, as she talks Magdalen through various skills and techniques. See these extracts from the workshop on this scene, in which Frances (read by Joseph Thompson and Alan Morrissey) physically moves Magdalen around the stage.
[go to text]
gg5619
caresses,
‘an action of endearment, a fondling touch or action, a blandishment’ (OED)
[go to text]
gs1507
painting
cosmetics
[go to text]
gs1508
motion
movement (with sexual innuendo); step, gesture
[go to text]
gg5620
lineament
contour, outline (OED 2)
[go to text]
gs1509
frame
structure
[go to text]
gg5621
well-ordered
‘exhibiting good order; rightly regulated; carefully arranged; following good lines of conduct or procedure’ (OED a, 1)
[go to text]
gg5622
unregarded,
unseen, without being looked at
[go to text]
n8612
geat
Gait: way of moving (said with a strong French accent: this is the octavo’s spelling).
[go to text]
gg5623
artifice
‘make or shape by artifice; to apply artifice to; to construct, contrive’ (OED)
[go to text]
gg5624
nymph.
semi-divine spirit in classical mythology, often the spirit of a river, tree, etc. (OED n1, 1); a slang term for a prostitute (OED n1, 2a); damsel, maiden (OED n1, 2b)
[go to text]
n8614
[Sing[s]]
] [sing.]; in the octavo the stage direction is placed in the right hand margin
[go to text]
n8613
‘Diana and her darlings, dear, dear, dear’, etc.
Video
The first line of a ballad titled ‘A New Sonnet, Showing How the Goddess Diana Transformed Acteon into the Shape of a Hart’. The earliest extant copy (London, 1650), specifies the tune ‘Rogero’, which has not been traced. The opening lines read: ‘Diana and her darlings dear / went walking on a day / Throughout the woods and waters clear, / for their disport and play’. See Wood, ‘Music in Caroline Plays’, vol. 2, Appendix 1, 450. An alternative version of the lyric, titled ‘The History of Diana and Acteon’ can be found in Clement Robinson’s A Handful of Pleasant Delights (London, 1584), sig. B4r-6r. For the effect of these sung lines see these extracts from the workshop on this scene, in which Jenny McEvoy (reading Magdalen) improvises a tune for the lyric for the first two lines of the ballad.
[go to text]
gg5625
paint,
use cosmetics
[go to text]
gg5626
allowably;
excusably, legitimately
[go to text]
n8615
Oh, most allowably; Nay, commendably.
] this appears as one line in the octavo
[go to text]
gg5627
commendably.
laudably
[go to text]
n8616
T’other glass for that.
i.e. I’ll drink to that. Magdalen apparently drinks again at this point. See [NOTE n8580] for further comment on these moments.
[go to text]
gs1510
dressing,
getting dressed, or elaborately arranging the hair
[go to text]
gg5629
setting forth
arranging in a certain manner, laying out (set v1, 144a (c)); adorning, decorating (set v1, 144g); exhibiting, displaying (set v1, 144j)
[go to text]
n8620
To hide shame, or show all:
i.e. either hide embarrassing features, or display everything
[go to text]
gg5630
perceived,
seen, detected
[go to text]
gs1511
grace
‘attractive or pleasing quality or feature’ (OED n, 2a)
[go to text]
n8621
I am for the naked neck and shoulders, then.
That is: I am in favour of wearing a garment with a low neck so as to display the neck and shoulders. A low neck-line was fashionable in the 1630s: see, for example, Gilbert Jackson, A Lady of the Grenville Family and her Son (1640), Tate Britain.
[go to text]
n8622
French flea-bites,
Video
Although Magdalen is talking about flea-bites, the addition of the word ‘French’ may suggest that she is also talking about the symptoms of venereal disease; compare Brome’s own The Jovial Crew, in which Oliver compares city women with female beggars: ‘Why, beggars are flesh and blood, and rags are no diseases. Their lice are no French fleas. And there is much wholesomer flesh under country dirt than city painting, and less danger in dirt and rags than in ceruse and satin’ [JC 3.1.speech467]. The line might be delivered to Frances, as it is in this extract from the workshop on the scene, or as an aside: see this extract, in which it is addressed to Alice and Jane. The latter reading encourages an audience to assume that Magdalen is thinking about the pox.
[go to text]
n8623
’T has been suggested by invective men,
Video
This speech is rather different in its effect from the previous exchange with Magdalen, as Frances broadens her argument about fashion to examine the origins of masculine stylistic affectations. As Joseph Thompson pointed out in the workshop on this sequence, it is structured rather like the routine of a stand-up comic, as different styles of dress are described and then insulted, with Frances perhaps picking out members of the audience as she speaks. Some of the fashions described are Jacobean rather than Caroline, conjuring the vision of a man of fifty still wearing the ‘long silk hose’ and short breeches of his youth. In this extract from the workshop, Alan Morrissey, reading Frances, makes use of the preceding discussion, picking out for Magdalen’s benefit men in the audience who might be wearing a fringe (‘brow-locks’) for various underhand reasons. Brome utilises this quasi-stand-up technique elsewhere, notably in The New Academy, in which Galliard’s long speech [NA 4.2.speech990] similarly focuses on issues of fashion: see [NOTE n6941] for discussion and extracts from the workshop on that sequence. The speech also parodies the tendency that Farah Karim-Cooper notes in anti-cosmetic tracts to reduce women ‘in long lists, to the parts of their bodies or the accoutrements that they might attach to their frames’ (Cosmetics in Shakespearean and Renaissance Drama [Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006], 113); for further discussion see the Introduction.
[go to text]
gg5631
invective
abusive, vituperative (OED a, 1)
[go to text]
gg5632
justify
vindicate
[go to text]
n8624
on
] one
[go to text]
n8625
The fashion of men’s brow-locks
i.e. wearing a fringe or bangs.
[go to text]
gg5633
ill-graced
unattractive
[go to text]
n8626
The outward symptoms of some inward grief,
This refers to lesions in the skin (chancres), which are a symptom of syphilis.
[go to text]
gs1512
inward
inner; intimate
[go to text]
n8627
saffron-steeped linen,
Linen collars dyed with yellow starch were fashionable in the 1610s and 1620s; interestingly, as Ann Rosalind Jones and Peter Stallybrass note, references to yellow starch recur in texts of the 1650s (the period when many of Brome’s plays, including The Demoiselle, were first printed) attacking James I, which draw on its association with the scandalous murder of Sir Thomas Overbury and with Ann Turner, who was hanged in November 1615 for her complicity in the murder. Turner wore a yellow collar and cuffs to her execution, and was widely (and erroneously) credited with having introduced the technique into England. See Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 59-85.
[go to text]
n8628
found useful against vermin,
Saffron was supposed to keep parasites away from clothes; Jones and Stallybrass quote Fynes Moryson on the poor folk of Ireland who, he writes, wore shirts ‘coloured with saffron to avoid lowsiness, incident to the wearing of foul linen’ (Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory, 67).
[go to text]
gg2156
ta’en
taken
[go to text]
gs1513
wearing.
style of clothing
[go to text]
n8629
was no niggard of
not stingy with
[go to text]
gg5634
bring up
bring into fashion (OED bring v, 27c)
[go to text]
n8630
narrow brims
i.e. on a hat
[go to text]
gg5635
publish
announce, proclaim
[go to text]
n8631
ones,
i.e. brims
[go to text]
gg5636
questionless,
unquestionably
[go to text]
gg5637
neat-timbered
well-built
[go to text]
n8633
the tronks and long silk-hose.
These are short trunks worn with long silk stockings, revealing the leg. See William Larkin’s George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (c. 1616), National Portrait Gallery, London.
[go to text]
n8632
tronks
Trunks (said with a strong French accent).
[go to text]
gg5638
baker-knees,
deformities of the legs (e.g. knock knees) that bakers were supposedly prone to (OED baker 5); in Pus-Mantia, the Mag-Astro-Mancer, or, The Magical-Astrological-Diviner Posed and Puzzled (London, 1652), John Gaule writes that ‘loose-kneed, signifies lascivious, and baker-kneed, effeminate’ (p. 186)
[go to text]
gg5639
shamble-shanks,
someone with deformed or ill-shaped legs
[go to text]
n8634
The baker-knees, or some strange shamble-shanks, Begat the ankle-breeches.
Compare James Shirley, The Gentleman of Venice (Queen Henrietta Maria’s Men, 1639 [possibly premiered in Dublin c. 1637]; published London, 1655), in which Malipiero castigates ‘men / Of state, who hide their warp’t legs in long gowns, / And keep their wisdom warm in furs like agues’ (sig. C7r).
[go to text]
gg5640
ankle-breeches.
breeches covering the whole of the legs
[go to text]
gs1063
conceit
conception, notion, idea
[go to text]
gg5641
shows
displays; displays ‘deliberately or ostentatiously in order to attract notice or win admiration’ (OED v, 8a)
[go to text]
n8635
What woman shows A leg that’s not a good one?
The erotic potential of female legs in the Caroline period is suggested in texts such as Robert Herrick’s ‘The Vision’: ‘Her legs were such Diana shows, / When tucked up she a-hunting goes; / With buskins shortened to descry / The happy dawning of her thigh’ (The Poems of Robert Herrick, ed. Leonard Cyril Martin [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965], 51).
[go to text]
n8636
She shows a swaddled leg.
Compare the stage business in George Chapman’s The Gentleman Usher (Children of the Chapel, c. 1602), in which the elderly (and increasingly tipsy) Corteza declares, ‘thank God, / I never was more sound of wind and limb’ and displays ‘a great bombasted [padded] leg’, saying, ‘Look you, I warrant you I have a leg, / Holds out as handsomely -’ (The Gentleman Usher, ed. John Hazel Smith [London: Edward Arnold, 1970], 2.1.26-9). Like Chapman’s play, The Demoiselle requires a boy actor to perform a caricature of aging female sexuality.
[go to text]
n8637
She shows a swaddled leg.
] in the octavo this direction appears in the margins of this line and the following one
[go to text]
gg5642
swaddled
wrapped in bandages
[go to text]
gg5643
attires)
clothing
[go to text]
gg5382
Good lack!
an exclamation along the same lines as ‘good heavens!’ or ‘good grief!’
[go to text]
gs1514
parts?
lands; characteristics, attributes (OED n, 12); genitals
[go to text]
n8638
Enter DRYGROUND [and] WAT.
] Enter Dryground, VVat.
[go to text]
n8639
I prithee,
I pray thee: please
[go to text]
gg295
base
contemptible, degraded, unworthy
[go to text]
gs1385
pander
go-between, bawd
[go to text]
gg5644
baseness—
iniquity, contemptible behaviour
[go to text]
gs1515
look you,
pay attention; listen to me
[go to text]
gs1516
pumped
dunked under a water pump
[go to text]
gs446
sport
entertainment, amusement, recreation, diversion (OED n1, 1a)
[go to text]
gg454
watermen
licensed wherry men who plied for hire on the river (in London on the Thames) (OED 2)
[go to text]
gg5645
ravenous
ferocious, predatory (OED a, 1a)
[go to text]
gg4154
trudge
walk laboriously or wearily (OED v1, 1)
[go to text]
gg3659
Heart,
mild oath: by God's heart
[go to text]
gg5646
hip-shot!
have a dislocated hip-joint (OED a, 1)
[go to text]
gg5647
mourning of the chine,
‘a disease of horses’ (OED chine, n2, 5) (chine: spine, back)
[go to text]
gg5648
hunches
pushes, shoves (OED n, 1a)
[go to text]
gg5649
o’erlaid
overlaid: overwhelmed, oppressed (OED v, 4)
[go to text]
gg5650
resistance!
the power to resist
[go to text]
gg5651
Was’t
was it
[go to text]
gg859
warrant
assure, promise
[go to text]
gg5652
hackney-jade
an inferior kind of hired horse: a ‘hackney’ is a horse kept for hire (OED n, 2), and ‘jade’ is a contemptuous word for a horse
[go to text]
gg5653
chapmen
merchants, dealers
[go to text]
gs1517
forward
eager; bold, immodest
[go to text]
n8640
with
] without
[go to text]
gg5654
propagate
multiply through procreation, spread
[go to text]
gs1518
sale-ware,
literally means inferior quality goods (ready-made rather than home-made; OED sale n2, 4a), but it is used in early modern texts to refer to women with low moral standards or prostitutes; compare the name of Alicia Saleware in Brome’s A Mad Couple Well Matched, and the statement of Grimundo in James Shirley’s The Grateful Servant (Queen Henrietta Maria’s Men, 1629; published London,1630), who disdains ‘sale-ware, mercenary stuff that ye may have i’th’ suburbs, and now maintenance traffic with ambassadors’ servants’ (sig. G4r)
[go to text]
gg5655
lasting;
enduring, permanent (OED a, 1): used here either to refer to strength of affection or heath
[go to text]
n8641
Madam Polecat,
'Polecat' is a term often used for a whore or a bawd; Williams (2: 1070) cites the insults aimed by the title-character, Franceschina, in Marston’s The Dutch Courtesan (Queen’s Revels, c. 1604) at her bawd: 'Foutra 'pon you, vitch, bawd, polecat' (David Crane, ed., The Dutch Courtesan [London: A&C Black, 1997], 2.2.35).
[go to text]
gs1519
trim
well-equipped; competent; excellent, fine (OED a, 1); elegantly dressed (OED a, 2); good looking (OED a, 2c); fine (said ironically) (OED 3)
[go to text]
n8642
make bold with
Presume; behave in a bold manner; take liberties with.
[go to text]
n8643
your scholar.
i.e. Alice
[go to text]
n8644
What! You have more?
Wat apparently spies Magdalan and Jane at this point.
[go to text]
n8645
some fitter place of execution.
Execution is often used in early modern texts to mean ‘copulation’. Williams (1: 451) compares Rowley, All’s Lost by Lust (?Prince Charles’s Men, c. 1619 [later Lady Elizabeth’s Men]; published London, 1633): ‘alas poor maidenhead, th’art cast, i’faith, / And must to execution’ (sig. B1v), and Sharpham’s Cupid’s Whirligig (King’s Revels, 1607; published London, 1607), ‘why do your old judges’ widows always marry young gentlemen, but to show that they love execution better than judgement’ (sigs. F4r-v). Williams writes, ‘the primary sense, giving practical effect to sexual passion, too readily blurs with that of inflicting capital punishment, saying much of the inherent violence of sexuality’.
[go to text]
n8646
bon
Good (French): spelled ‘boun’ in the octavo.
[go to text]
n8647
and
if
[go to text]
gg5382
good lack!
an exclamation along the same lines as ‘good heavens!’ or ‘good grief!’
[go to text]
n8648
at my hands,
from me
[go to text]
gs1499
carry
hold, position
[go to text]
gg5656
maudlin
the stage of drunkenness in which the drinker is tearfully sentimental (OED a, 2)
[go to text]
gs1520
fit!
mood (OED dates this usage from 1680, but it seems to be the meaning here)
[go to text]
n8649
Oh, oh, oh—
This appears to indicate that Magdalen is sobbing, though she could also say ‘oh!’
[go to text]
n8650
[She falls.]
i.e. she swoons and therefore falls to the ground
[go to text]
n8651
Aye, aye, aye.
] I, I, I
[go to text]
n8652
FRA[NCES and] JANE [lead] out MAGDALEN.
] Exeunt Fra. Jane leading out Magdalen. (in the octavo the direction appears in the margins of [DM 5.1.lines2635-2637]).
[go to text]
gg578
’Sfoot,
an oath, short for ‘God’s foot’
[go to text]
n8653
out o’ doors?
i.e. out of the door.
[go to text]
gg5657
provided
prepared
[go to text]
gg5658
rule
control, govern
[go to text]
gg356
bawd
procurer, go-between
[go to text]
n8654
mistrusted your apostasy.
i.e. suspected that you would abandon your allegiance to me
[go to text]
gg5659
apostasy.
abandonment or renunciation of religious or moral allegiance (OED 1); abandonment of principles more generally (OED 2)
[go to text]
gs1118
lay
put
[go to text]
n8655
as
just as
[go to text]
gg5660
post-knight!
knight of the post: a perjurer or someone who earns a living by making false oaths (OED knight of the post)
[go to text]
gg5661
postilion
‘a person who rides the (leading) nearside (left-hand side) horse drawing a coach or carriage, esp. when one pair only is used and there is no coachman; also in extended use: an outrider for a carriage.’ (OED n, 3; the earliest example cited is from Massinger’s The City Madam [King’s Men, 1633; published London, 1658], and this usage appears in a number of Caroline texts)
[go to text]
n8656
o’er the ears
i.e. covered
[go to text]
gg5662
fingers
measurements equal to the breadth of a finger, or three quarters of an inch (OED n, 5)
[go to text]
gg295
base.
contemptible, degraded, unworthy
[go to text]
gg2962
varlets,
knaves, rogues, menials
[go to text]
gg62
bawdy-house?
brothel
[go to text]
gs192
find
perceive (OED v, 5a)
[go to text]
gg5663
whine,
cry as if in pain or distress (OED v, 1)
[go to text]
gs1521
ward
imprisonment (OED v, 3); prison (OED v, 17a), department or section within a prison (OED v, 17b)
[go to text]
gs1522
handsome,
proper, seemly (OED a, 3)
[go to text]
gs1523
lucky
well-omened (OED a, 3); acquired through good fortune; occurring by chance and producing happy results (OED a, 2)
[go to text]
n8657
Out of the Temple suds.
That is: from being washed under the pump in the Temple Gardens. ‘In the suds’ also means to be in difficulties or to be in disgrace (see OED suds n, 5).
[go to text]
n8658
Hast thou been shaved since?
Wat is apparently no longer wearing his false beard.
[go to text]
gs1524
recant.
renounce, abjure (OED v1, 1b); publicly confess as an error (OED v1, 3)
[go to text]
n8659
We do not use to wait dry-fisted,
i.e. we are not used to waiting
[go to text]
gg5664
dry-fisted,
i.e. without being paid (see OED dry-fist: a stingy person; OED defines dry-fisted as stingy, but the meaning in this context seems clear)
[go to text]
gg5665
dry-throated.
without being offered drink
[go to text]
gg5666
catchpoles,
sergeants, especially officers who arrest debtors (OED 2)
[go to text]
n8661
Here’s
i.e. here’s money.
[go to text]
n8660
Sergeants, you shall not Out of the house. Here’s for half an hour’s attendance. Go into that room with your prisoner. You shall have wine and smoke too.
] this part of the speech is lined as prose in the octavo
[go to text]
gs1525
smoke
tobacco
[go to text]
n8662
of good cheer,
cheerful, courageous
[go to text]
gg5667
coheir
joint heir
[go to text]
n8663
WAT [and] SERGEANTS [exit].
[Exeunt Wat, Sergeants] In the octavo this direction appears on the previous line, but I have moved it because the first half of Valentine’s line is clearly addressed to Wat.
[go to text]
gs1526
means
way, method
[go to text]
n8664
work it by,
bring it about
[go to text]
n8666
urge
] urg’d
[go to text]
n8665
past his nature.
i.e. to transgress his natural scruples.
[go to text]
gs798
free
unrestricted, unrestrained
[go to text]
gg2502
in’s
in his
[go to text]
n8667
Giving the spurs ran him beyond his speed, Quite off his legs, and glad to be led home.
The image is of Dryground as rider and Wat as horse: Dryground has spurred Wat to run faster and longer than he was capable of, and the latter is now docile and eager to return to his former life.
[go to text]
n8668
comes on fairly.
i.e. is making good progress.
[go to text]
gg4293
father-’law,
a contraction of father-in-law
[go to text]
n8669
wise
said ironically
[go to text]
gg4113
western
from the west of England
[go to text]
gs1572
ordinary
an establishment where meals were provided at a set price; OED notes that in the seventeenth century ‘the more expensive ordinaries were frequented by men of fashion, and the dinner was usually followed by gambling; hence the term was often used as synonymous with “gambling-house”’ (OED n, 11c)
[go to text]
n8670
best cheap
Most inexpensive (OED cheap a, 1a); most easily obtained (OED cheap a, 3).
[go to text]
gg5668
mother-’law,
a contraction of mother-in-law
[go to text]
gs1527
petty
little, subordinate (i.e. to the royal court); there is probably a deliberate choice of ‘petty’ because it sounds like the French petit (little)
[go to text]
gs1528
fit
humour, impulse (OED dates this usage from 1680, but it seems to be the meaning here)
[go to text]
gs1529
riflers?
gamesters, participants in the raffle; those who want to ‘rifle’ Frances
[go to text]
n8671
well satisfied,
extremely contented
[go to text]
gs1530
honest
respectable, honourable, upright
[go to text]
gg2357
end
purpose, aim
[go to text]
gs934
project
scheme
[go to text]
gg5670
charged
loaded, laden (OED ppl, 1)
[go to text]
gg5673
breasts,
hearts (the breast is figuratively thought of as the seat of the affections and emotions) (OED n, 5)
[go to text]
gg5671
recanted
renounced
[go to text]
gg5672
barbarous
uncivilised, rough, savage
[go to text]
gg4014
freely
willingly, unreservedly (OED adv, 1a)
[go to text]
gg5674
pre-intended
intended previously, ordained (OED: the earliest citation dates from 1636)
[go to text]
n8673
Pursed theirs again.
i.e. returned their stakes to their purses
[go to text]
gg5675
uncouth
uncertain; strange; distasteful (OED a, 1, 2 and 3)
[go to text]
n8674
five hundred pounds
In today’s money, £500 would be worth around £42,900.
[go to text]
n8675
at stake
as stakes
[go to text]
gs1531
stock
fund of money (OED n1, 47)
[go to text]
n8676
Frank.
Dryground again refers to Frances as ‘Frank’; see [NOTE n5802] and [NOTE n7879] for further comment.
[go to text]
n8678
paper.
] Baper
[go to text]
n8677
[VALENTINE gives DRYGROUND the letter and] exit[s].
Video
Valentine’s exit to fetch the characters that he has picked up during the course of Act 4 sets off the play’s final sequence, in which fifteen characters will eventually gather on the stage. Like many of Brome’s comedies, The Demoiselle finishes with a crowded sequence in which plots are resolved and reconciliations ensured. The ending of The Demoiselle is not as problematic as that of The New Academy, which it in some ways resembles, or as parodic as that of The Sparagus Garden, but it has a very uneven tone, and shifts between verse and prose. The revelations come thick and fast, but it does not necessarily seem exaggerated or farcical, and the comedy is leavened with pathos and wonder, especially surrounding the conversion of Vermin, Bumpsey’s very humane interventions, and the comic treatment of Magdalen’s repentance. See this extract from the workshop for a run-through from this line to the end of Dryground’s final speech [DM 5.1.speech1051]), which gives an impression of how it might work in performance. As in many of Brome’s large-cast scenes, management of the stage is crucial: see [DM 5.1.speech987] for detailed comment on the problematic stage direction.
[go to text]
n8679
[VALENTINE gives DRYGROUND the letter and] exit[s].
] Exit.
[go to text]
gs1532
How now!
exclamation indicating surprise
[go to text]
gg5603
injured
wronged (OED’s first example is from 1634)
[go to text]
gs1533
abused
wronged, violated (OED a, 2); deceived
[go to text]
gs1534
hand
handwriting (the word ‘hand’ influences the rest of the line, in which the handwriting is imagined as a physical hand that thrusts Eleanor away)
[go to text]
n8680
that
if only
[go to text]
n8681
it
i.e. the hand that wrote the letter
[go to text]
gs1535
receive
catch in my arms (OED v, 3b); give accommodation or shelter to (OED v, 11a); ‘to admit (a person) into some relation with oneself, esp. to familiar or social intercourse; to treat in a familiar or friendly manner’ (OED v, 8a); greet or acknowledge (OED v, 9a); take or accept (often used in the context of marriage) (OED 13a)
[go to text]
n8682
Enter OLIVER [and] AMBROSE.
] Enter Oliver. Ambrose.
[go to text]
n8683
by your leave,
That is: with your permission; according to your instructions.
[go to text]
gg5318
sup
eat supper
[go to text]
gg5536
w’
with
[go to text]
n8684
Does your rifling hold?
That is: is your raffle going ahead?
[go to text]
n8685
off o’ the hooks,
In a bad way (OED hook n1, 15a); put out (OED hook n1, 15c: OED’s earliest citation is from 1662, but the sense may have been current at an earlier date); it is tempting to take the current meaning of ‘off the hook’ (OED hook n1, 15f), but OED dates the earliest usage to 1864). In any case, Ambrose seems to look around and see that there are no hoards of gallants waiting for the raffle. Brome also uses the expression in The Sparagus Garden, Act 5, Scene 1, in which Gilbert says, ‘are we no less sure that Sir Hugh Moneylacks will set his strength to lift Sir Cautious off o’the hooks, in hope of a matter of five pound, though he forfeit the obligation of his throat by’t?’ [SG 5.1.speech1048].
[go to text]
gs1536
tell
disclose, reveal (OED v, 5a)
[go to text]
gg5676
briefly.
soon (OED 2); in few words (OED 1)
[go to text]
n8686
Enter FRANC[ES].
] Enter Franck. Frances elsewhere appears in the octavo’s stage directions as ‘Frances’, ‘Francis’, ‘Fran.’ and ‘Fra.’; this is the only time at which ‘Frank’ is used (apart from in Dryground’s dialogue). The move to ‘Frank’ would be more disorientating for a modern reader, as ‘Frank’ is often used as a woman’s name in early modern texts. See [NOTE n5802] for further discussion.
[go to text]
gs1537
salute
Video
greet, hail, pay one's respects, honour (often with elaborate compliment, gesture or bow). The following dialogue suggests that Oliver greets Frances by kissing her: this may be on the mouth or on the hand. See [NOTE n94] on The Queen and Concubine’s stage directions for detailed discussion of the signification of such gestures, and A Mad Couple Well Matched [MC 4.1.speech730] for a similar example of saluting (see [NOTE n2104] and [NOTE n2105] for commentary and video clips). Brome also uses ‘Salute’ to indicate a kiss in The New Academy: see [NOTE n5147]. In this extract from the workshop on this scene, Oliver kisses Frances on the hand
[go to text]
n8687
whisper.
Video
Oliver’s use of the third person (‘She does not taste of sin!’ [DM 5.1.speech981] suggests that Ambrose may hear his exchange with Frances, but it is important that Dryground does not hear it. See this extract from the workshop, in which Oliver addresses Ambrose.
[go to text]
n8688
She does not taste of sin!
] the octavo has the speech prefix ‘Dry.’ here, but it is clearly an error
[go to text]
n8689
Fair chastity Sits crowned upon her brow,
A similar image of the visibility of chastity in a woman’s face can be found in ‘The Amorous Zodiac’ in George Chapman’s Ovid’s Banquet of Sense (London, 1595), which was reprinted in 1639:
All this fresh April, this sweet month of Venus,
I will admire this brow so bounteous:
This brow, brave court for love, and virtue builded,
This brow where chastity holds garrison,
This brow that (blushless) none can look upon,
This brow with every grace and honour gilded. (sig. F3v)
[go to text]
gs1538
profess
undertake this task (OED 2a); declare (OED 2c)
[go to text]
n8690
it,
i.e. the actions that Dryground will undertake.
[go to text]
gg5677
swordmen,
swordsmen, soldiers
[go to text]
n8691
at the signal of a finger,
That is, they will respond if Oliver makes a gesture with his hand.
[go to text]
n8692
fetch you off.
Rescue you, deliver you.
[go to text]
n8693
we are for you,
i.e. we are ready to hear you (see OED for prep, 12).
[go to text]
gs1539
late
recent, former
[go to text]
gg2173
impatience
irritability, restlessness
[go to text]
n8694
You speak not now In that high phrase, or tone, as you did then.
Ambrose realises that Dryground is not speaking in the affected ‘high’ style that he adopted in his persona of Osbright in Act 3.
[go to text]
n8695
Enter VALENTINE [with] BUMPSEY, VERMIN, AMPHILUS, BROOKALL, ELEANOR [and] PHYLLIS.
] Enter Valentine. Bumpsey, Vermine, Amphilus, Brookall, Elynor, Phillis. (in the octavo the stage direction appears in the margins of [DM 5.1.lines2759-2763])
[go to text]
n8696
Enter VALENTINE [with] BUMPSEY, VERMIN, AMPHILUS, BROOKALL, ELEANOR [and] PHYLLIS.
Video
It is difficult for seven characters to enter quietly, and although Dryground and, perhaps, Frances may be aware of their presence, Oliver and Ambrose apparently are not. The location of the ordinary may help here, as a certain amount of bustle and to-and-fro might be expected. In this extract from the workshop the characters are brought on from two different entrances (the downstage one would not, of course, have existed at Salisbury Court, where The Demoiselle was first performed); they carry glasses and stand in clusters, with their backs to the Dryground-Frances-Oliver-Ambrose group. As this extract demonstrates, the entering group do not make themselves known until [DM 5.1.speech1008], when Alice enters and Vermin and Sir Amphilus are shocked into speaking aloud. I have therefore added ‘aside’ to the speeches of Valentine, Eleanor, Phyllis, Brookall and Vermin that follow over the next ten speeches. Some of these speeches might be self-directed, or addressed to other characters in the group.
[go to text]
gg5678
attentively.
‘with careful consideration; observantly’ (OED)
[go to text]
gg5679
misdeed
offence, evil deed (OED 1)
[go to text]
gg4411
affiance,
solemn engagement; esp. the plighting of troth between two persons in marriage, a marriage contract (OED 3)
[go to text]
gs1540
abused,
misused, ill-treated, violated (Dryground strongly hints that he took advantage of the marriage agreement to have sex with Eleanor, and Oliver picks him up on this in his reply)
[go to text]
gg5681
Ay me!
alas
[go to text]
gs1541
passion,
expression of emotion; ‘A fit, outburst, or state marked by or of strong excitement, agitation, or other intense emotion’ (OED n, 6c)
[go to text]
n8697
on the discontent
That is: on meeting with this cause of discontent or grievance (see OED discontent n1, 2).
[go to text]
gg2288
hapless
unfortunate
[go to text]
n8698
fourteen winters since,
Fourteen years is often the length of a period of separation or exile in Jacobean and Caroline plays: see Shakespeare and Wilkins’s Pericles (King’s Men, c. 1607-8), Middleton’s No Wit, No Help Like a Woman’s (?Prince Henry’s Men, c. 1611), William Rowley’s The Thracian Wonder (auspices uncertain, c. 1618?), Fletcher and Massinger’s The Double Marriage (King’s Men, c. 1620-1), Fletcher and Rowley’s The Maid in the Mill (King’s Men, 1623) and Ford’s Perkin Warbeck (Queen Henrietta Maria’s Men, c. 1633). Perhaps not coincidentally for many of these plays (including The Demoiselle), fourteen is often also the age at which many early modern commentators assume that women reach sexual maturity. In Marston’s The Malcontent (Chapel/Queen’s Revels, c. 1603), for instance, the bawd Maquerelle claims that Mendoza has declared that ‘at four, women were fools; at fourteen, drabs [whores]; at forty, bawds; at fourscore, witches; and a hundred, cats’ (George K. Hunter, ed., The Malcontent [London: Methuen, 1975], 1.6.34-6).
[go to text]
n8699
sadly burdened,
That is, pregnant (with Phyllis).
[go to text]
n8700
took no sense
That is: had no feeling of (see OED sense n, 5); did not comprehend the general reaction to (see OED sense n, 18b, which includes ‘to take the sense of’ ‘to ascertain the general feeling or opinion of’: OED’s earliest example dates from 1653)
[go to text]
n8701
dear loss,
i.e. loss of something valuable; costly loss
[go to text]
gs1542
careless
unconcerned (OED 2); inattentive, negligent (OED 3) (for Brome, the word ‘careless’ carries a large degree of moral opprobrium: see the name of the anti-hero of A Mad Couple Well Matched, George Careless)
[go to text]
gg5682
riotous
dissolute, extravagant (OED riotous 3)
[go to text]
gs1543
credit
financial credit: ‘Trust or confidence in a buyer’s ability and intention to pay at some future time’ (OED n, 9); reputation
[go to text]
n8702
ran at waste,
That is: were brought to ruin. ‘Waste’ is used to describe barren land (OED waste a, 1a), while ‘to run at waste’ is used figuratively to refer to the useless expenditure of wealth (see OED waste n, 10a: the phrase originally refers to the flowing of liquor so as to be wasted); Brome puns on all senses here
[go to text]
gs1544
nigh
nearly
[go to text]
gg319
trespass
(n) offence (OED n, 1); minor violation of the law (OED n, 2); crime
[go to text]
gs310
render
deliver
[go to text]
gg276
satisfaction.
penance, compensation, atonement
[go to text]
n8703
in vain
fruitlessly, pointlessly
[go to text]
n8704
offer
i.e. offer compensation; make offerings.
[go to text]
gs1545
genius
guardian spirit (thought in classical belief to govern someone’s fortunes and determine his character (OED 1); ‘Natural ability or capacity; quality of mind; the special endowments which fit a man for his peculiar work.’ (OED 4: the earliest citation dates from 1649, but it may be applicable here)
[go to text]
gs1546
grateful
manifesting gratitude (OED 2); pleasing (OED 1)
[go to text]
gs1547
blood.
family, kindred
[go to text]
n8705
What can this come to?
That is, where is this going?, what does this mean?
[go to text]
n8706
How’s that?
What was that?
[go to text]
n8707
What’s all this to your daughter?
i.e. what does this have to do with your daughter?
[go to text]
n8708
Even all that may be. See: his son’s my daughter.
] Even all that may be; (see) His Sonne’s my Daughter. The octavo’s punctuation suggests that ‘see’ is delivered in a particular way, and that it is perhaps accompanied by the action of ‘Discover[ing]’ Frances’s true identity. For further comment on the stage direction and on ways of handing it in performance see [NOTE n8709] below.
[go to text]
n8709
Discover FRANC[ES].
Video
The revelation of Frances’s identity and true sex is similar to the coup de théâtre at the end of Ben Jonson’s Epicoene, originally performed by the Children of the Queen’s Revels in 1609-10, but revived in the 1630s, in which the ‘silent woman’ of the play’s subtitle is revealed to be a man. The stage direction directs Dryground to ‘discover’ Frances’s identity, and the most straightforward way of doing this would be to have him remove Frances’s wig. This would parallel the stage business in Jonson’s play, which includes the stage direction ’He takes off Epicoene’s peruke’ [wig]’ (L.A. Beaurline, ed., Epicoene [London: Edward Arnold, 1966], 5.4.182) at the point at which Dauphine reveals Epicoene’s true identity. A comparison also might be drawn with the stage business in Nathan Field’s Amends for Ladies (Queen’s Revels, c. 1611; published London, 1618), itself indebted to Epicoene, in which Frank, Ingen’s brother, is required to dress as a woman. Stage directions indicate that he enter ‘like a woman masked’ (sig. D2v) and ‘like a woman’ (sig. D4v), and his identity is finally revealed by Ingen:
No, behold, it is my younger brother dressed: Plucks
A man, no woman, that hath gulled the world, off his
Intended for a happier event headtire
Than this that followed. (sig. E1r)
Interestingly, the brother is not referred to as ‘Frank’ until later in the play, when he appears in man’s clothing. In this extract from the workshop, Dryground (Mike Burrell) removes Frances’s wig with something of a flourish, and the other characters on stage gasp: the importance of this moment for the plot suggests that it should have as much impact on an audience as possible. It would be possible to register it still more through the reactions of the other characters, which are relatively muted here. The removal of a wig could also be paralleled in Dryground’s second revelation at [DM 5.1.speech1012] where the stage direction reads ‘Discovers himself.’
There may be other ways of revealing Frances’s true sex. In The City Wit, Brome has a boy disguised as a woman reveal his identity by revealing breeches under his petticoats [CW 5.1.speech955], but this is unlike the moment in The Demoiselle in that it is a carefully staged and symbolic revelation which comes out of an inset masque sequence. Modern productions might use hats, or items of female clothing which could be removed (the latter would have been hard to achieve in the Caroline theatre, as women’s clothing was complicated and often tightly laced).
[go to text]
gg1278
find
discover, understand
[go to text]
n8711
at charge
at the expense
[go to text]
gg2502
in’s
in his
[go to text]
n8712
A fair pull for
That is: a good shot at. The term is used in relation to card games (see Henry Burton, A Plea to an Appeal [London, 1626]: ‘Yea, all the cards in his hand are black, and he hath a fair pull to rub [...] but the mischief is, after much hard drawing, his ace proves a spade’ [sig. B3r]) and with sexual innuendo (see Williams 2: 1109, who cites Thomas Dekker’s II The Honest Whore [Prince Henry’s Men, c. 1605; published London, 1630]: ‘and when she’s ripe, every slave has a pull at her’ [sig. B3r]).
[go to text]
gs1548
lawful
legally qualified or entitled (OED 2a)
[go to text]
gg5683
churchman,
clergyman
[go to text]
gg5684
wonders!
miracles, astonishing or astonishing deeds
[go to text]
gg141
Bravely,
worthily; fearlessly; splendidly, handsomely (OED)
[go to text]
gs1549
act.
deed, action (with sexual innuendo)
[go to text]
gg2643
ha!
a versatile exclamation which can express surprise, wonder, joy, suspicion, indignation, etc., depending on the speaker’s intonation (OED int, 1)
[go to text]
gg5685
ho!
‘an exclamation expressing, according to intonation, surprise, admiration, exultation (often ironical), triumph, taunting’ (OED int1, 1); ‘a call to stop or to cease what one is doing’ (OED int2, 1)
[go to text]
n8713
Your ‘ha’s and ‘ho’s
Video
That is: your exclamations of ‘ha!’ and ‘ho!’. See this extract from the workshop on this part of the scene.
[go to text]
gs1550
draw
drag, pull; lure
[go to text]
gg5686
witchcraft?
black magic (OED 1); ‘Power or influence like that of a magician; bewitching or fascinating attraction or charm’ (OED 2)
[go to text]
gg5687
charms
spells, enchantments; ‘any quality, attribute, trait, feature, etc., which exerts a fascinating or attractive influence, exciting love or admiration’ (OED n1, 3)
[go to text]
gs1551
art
cunning, skill
[go to text]
n8714
Discovers himself.
Video
As suggested in [NOTE n8709], this revelation of identity might parallel that of Frances at [DM 5.1.speech1004]. In this extract from the workshop, having removed Frances’s wig Dryground now removes his own, to the general amazement of the other characters.
[go to text]
gs187
wonder.
amazement
[go to text]
gg5688
swoons.
faints
[go to text]
n8715
cheer you up this lady,
That is: raise this lady’s spirits with cheering words (see OED cheer v, 10).
[go to text]
gs1552
appease
pacify, calm (OED v, 1)
[go to text]
n8716
[To AMPHILUS]
Video
This stage direction does not appear in the octavo: it is not altogether clear who Valentine addresses, but it could plausibly be Sir Amphilus, whose next line responds to Valentine’s ‘While I appease the rest’. See this extract from the workshop.
[go to text]
gg4862
appeased.
pacified, quieted, satisfied
[go to text]
n8717
To her again,
‘To’ in this context means ‘towards’: ‘to her’ or ‘to him’ was used as an encouraging cry in hunting or fighting (OED prep, 25b); it is possible that Dryground has embraced Eleanor on [DM 5.1.speech1018], and that Bumpsey encourages him to embrace her again.
[go to text]
n8718
Your son, and mine in law,
i.e. your son, and my son-in-law
[go to text]
n8719
the full point and the whole substance,
Bumpsey again, somewhat joyously, reworks one of his favourite phrases.
[go to text]
gs803
point
proposition, idea (OED n1, 10a); main subject or focus of a discussion (OED n1, 10b); objective, aim (OED n1, 10c); conclusion (OED n1, 11)
[go to text]
gg4027
substance,
what the speech amounts to (OED 11a); essence (OED 14); puns on possessions, estate, fortune (OED 16)
[go to text]
gg5689
flat
(n) plainness, absoluteness
[go to text]
gg5690
plain
(n) unambiguousness
[go to text]
gs1553
business,
affair (possibly with sexual innuendo: see Williams 1: 179-80)
[go to text]
gs1554
melancholy?
sadness; ‘melancholy’ can also refer to ‘sadness giving rise to or considered as a subject for poetry, sentimental reflection, etc.’ (OED n1, 3d), so Bumpsey may be teasing Sir Amphilus about his poetic vein of Act 3
[go to text]
n8720
but and I were at the ducking-pond— I know what I know.
] But and I were at the Duckingpond, I know what I know. It is difficult to make sense of the octavo’s punctuation, as ‘I know what I know’ does not seem to emerge logically from ‘and [if] I were at the ducking-pond’, and I have therefore re-punctuated the line to indicate that Sir Amphilus breaks off and then says ‘I know what I know’. It could be effective in performance to have Sir Amphilus be inarticulate with sorrow or rage at this point.
[go to text]
gg857
and
if
[go to text]
n8721
I know what I know.
Video
This may be a veiled threat (a similar usage can be found in Brome’s The Lovesick Court [LS 1.2.speech91]; in this extract from the workshop it has something of this quality.
[go to text]
n8722
I’ll give you leave to hang me.
A typically nonsensical misuse of a cliché: if Sir Amphilus had drowned himself there would be no point in hanging him.
[go to text]
n8723
VALENTINE [exits].
] Exit Valentine.
[go to text]
n8724
VALENTINE [exits].
Video
Valentine is directed to exit here in the octavo, and so it is not entirely clear whether Vermin’s ‘hence’ is directed at Alice or at Valentine. It seems more likely, however, that it is directed at Alice, especially as Vermin addresses the line ‘Away’ at her in [DM 5.1.speech1026] below. See this extract from the workshop on the scene.
[go to text]
gs1555
High
great; divine, heavenly
[go to text]
gg2236
Providence
God (‘applied to the Deity as exercising prescient and beneficent power and direction’: OED n, 4); divine care or guidance (OED n, 3)
[go to text]
n8725
chief instructor to
i.e. principal motivation in
[go to text]
gg5691
instructor
teacher
[go to text]
n8726
my daughter.
That is: my daughter-in-law (Brookall’s phrasing is also a calculated snub to Vermin).
[go to text]
gs1556
substance.
what the speech amounts to (OED 11a); essence (OED 14)
[go to text]
n8727
Enter VAL[ENTINE], WAT, MAGDALEN [and] JANE.
] Enter Val. Wat. Magdalen, Jane.
[go to text]
n8728
her
i.e. Conscience
[go to text]
n8729
Sir, if you can forgive, and can obey you— I now can better kneel than speak—
Wat is apparently weeping throughout this speech (as the stage direction indicates), which explains its incoherence; the dash after ‘obey you’ appears in the octavo.
[go to text]
n8730
Sure, all’s but apparition, or a dream.
This appears to be the point at which Vermin begins to soften in his attitudes towards his son and daughter.
[go to text]
gs1557
apparition,
illusion
[go to text]
n8731
by your leave and liking,
i.e. with your permission and approval.
[go to text]
n8732
may prove as honest a man as his father.
This may be said with some irony.
[go to text]
gs775
plain
evident, obvious (OED a1, 7); simple, clear, unambiguous (OED a1, 9); free from ambiguity, straightforward, direct, blunt (OED a1, 12)
[go to text]
n8733
O my dear Bump!
Video
Magdalen’s speech to Bumpsey introduces a comic note after the potential pathos in Wat’s reconciliation with Vermin. See this extract from the workshop on this scene.
[go to text]
gg5692
harm
damage, mischief
[go to text]
gg5693
dishonesty,
dishonour, disgrace (OED 1); lewdness, unchastity (OED 2)
[go to text]
n8734
though the place be as they say—
i.e. even though the ordinary is a brothel.
[go to text]
gs1347
At a word,
to speak plainly, to be honest (can also mean ‘in short’ or ‘briefly’)
[go to text]
n8736
carriage of the body,
Bodily deportment; sexual activity (Magdalen picks up her own innuendo in the rest of the speech).
[go to text]
n8737
That ever I did that!
As if I would ever do that!
[go to text]
gs1558
disease.
ailment, malady (OED n, 2); morbid condition of the mind (OED n, 3)
[go to text]
gg5388
fashion-sick,
made sick by fashion; compare Thomas Bancroft, ‘To London in Time of Pestilence’, in Two Books of Epigrams and Epitaphs (London, 1639):
the roaring boys I see
Put women down with man-less luxury,
Still to be fashion-sick, and drink, and swear,
And rage, as if they Stygian monsters were (sig. G1v)
[go to text]
gg4691
civil
educated; well-bred; refined, polished, ‘polite’ (OED a, 9)
[go to text]
gg5694
lethargy
torpor, apathy (OED n, 2)
[go to text]
gg3886
avarice.
greed, desire to acquire and hoard wealth (OED)
[go to text]
n8738
Blessed may our friendship be.
This is probably addressed to Dryground and Brookall, but it may be directed to Bumpsey, who has consistently cajoled Vermin to adopt better behaviour throughout the play.
[go to text]
n8739
done the office.
That is, performed the ceremony of marriage.
[go to text]
n8740
my girl!
i.e. Phyllis
[go to text]
gg5695
Occurrents
events, incidents (OED occurrent n, 1a)
[go to text]
gg5696
accidents
things that happened by chance
[go to text]
gg4211
Perfectly
fully, completely
[go to text]
gg3892
hopeful
promising, ‘giving promise of success or future good’ (OED a, 2a)
[go to text]
gg5697
nolens volens
whether willing or not (OED)
[go to text]
gs1559
beholden
obliged (probably said with some degree of irony)
[go to text]
gs1560
taken
delighted
[go to text]
gs1561
So
to such an extent
[go to text]
gs1562
wrought
worked
[go to text]
gs1563
convertite
convert
[go to text]
n8741
stand firm
Remain steadfast (i.e. not relapse into dissolute behaviour).
[go to text]
gg5698
determination
termination, bringing to an end (OED 1)
[go to text]
gg5018
mortgage,
loan secured against property (in this case, Dryground's estate)
[go to text]
gg2068
gratis
freely, without charge
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gs806
business.
affairs, concerns, tasks to attend to
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n8742
has done long,
This seems an exaggeration, given that the events of the play have taken place during one day, and Wat and Phyllis only met in Act 4.
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n8743
since you promised him your daughter too,
Dryground promised that Wat could marry his fake daughter Frances (which was, of course, impossible for a number of reasons); Valentine here substitutes his newly discovered real daughter.
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gs1564
fair
honourable
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gs992
suit.
petition, specifically in the courtship of a woman (OED n, 12)
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n8744
Fortune is not blind,
This contradicts the cliché which asserts that Fortune is blind.
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n8745
way
i.e. the way
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gg3527
friends,
close companions, or relatives
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n8746
a brother’s love
That is: the love of a brother-in-law (as Dryground will now marry Eleanor, Brookall’s sister).
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gs1565
salute
Video
greet; honour (this statement may be accompanied by a bow or another physical gesture, possibly an embrace, if Dryground’s line [DM 5.1.speech1051] is direct response to Bumpsey’s: see this extract from the workshop on this scene)
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gg5699
general
collective
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n8747
the heart of friendship, not the face.
That is: genuine friendship, not merely the appearance of friendship.
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gs1568
ordinary
puns on two meanings of ordinary: the eating/drinking establishment, and the meal served there
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gs579
stays,
awaits
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gs1566
fare
food (OED n1, 8)
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gg5700
vulgar
common, general; uncultured (OED a, 13: the earliest example cited for the latter is from 1643, but it may have been in use earlier)
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n8748
By your fair leave,
with your gracious permission
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gs1567
assume
claims, wears
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gg2728
bays,
a wreath of laurel or bay leaves: an emblem of victory or of distinction in poetry
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n8749
pulled fair for a leaf,
That is, made a good attempt to get at least a leaf from the wreath.
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n8750
no.
not
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n8751
let your hands assistant be
i.e. let your applause help.
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n8752
T’ encourage
to encourage
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n8753
Apollo’s tree.
This is the laurel tree on which the leaves that make up the poet’s wreath of ‘bays’ grow.
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