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n5551   2.1 This scene offers a new level of debate on the Nature/Nurture question. Oldrents' daughters discuss the value of freedom of movement and choice (exploring natural inclination) against the conservative values of restraint and decorum (learned social behaviour). Rachel and Meriel want the personal liberty to do whatever they wish, whereas their father tries to restrict them to a regime of duties and staid housebound service to others. The girls' particular demand is not simply freedom from constraint, but more importantly escape from their father's depression. Like Springlove, they want to spread their wings and enjoy their youth, unfettered even by their boyfriends. They are lively and bawdy young women who love to play pranks and tease, and prize their independence far more than the prospect of marriage even to young men they love -- although it is not clear which sister loves which young man.

Neither are the men themselves any clearer on which sister each loves. Vincent and Hilliard seem to be more followers than leaders, and not as restless or spontaneous as the Oldrents sisters. Vincent is willing to travel, but he wants to design a trip for the women, not allow them the freedom of travelling without maps. Both men favour urban centres -- London, or at least Bath -- or the organized games in the Cotswolds, or a visit to a shrine in Wales. Their ideas, in other words, are tame compared to the sisters' outrageous notion -- developed aside in whispers and bursts of laughter, a sequence that shows the sisters at their most charming -- of travelling with beggars. But both young men ultimately approve this plan (more out of fear of losing the sisters' love, than of any desire to beg), and Springlove agrees to act as their guide.

Through his surprising decision to take the foursome with him, Springlove intends to disprove the prophecy that caused Oldrents' depression: he sees the plan as a redemptive journey that will relieve Oldrents of his fear that his daughters will be beggars for life, because the begging will merely be a holiday excursion. The girls and their suitors might learn something too about value systems, and come to no harm in the process. [go to text]

gs656   felicity delight or pleasure [go to text]

gs646   revels merry-making or festivity, usually with lively entertainment [go to text]

n10493   Happier than we, I’m sure, Video When we first started working on the extracts from this scene in the workshop, Helen Ostovich, the editor who had prepared the written text, wanted to explore the nature of the young women’s anger and laughter and to consider the transition between the two. She was interested in what kind of laughter it might be. As we worked on the extracts, however, what became increasingly intriguing was the issue of performance within the fictional world of the play, and how the laughter related to this; how the act of laughing became a kind of performance. This then begged the questions: who is performing for whom and why, and what are the possible functions of these ‘performances’ within the broader context of the play?

This line of experimentation began with discussions of Rachel’s line, “Does he think us whores, trow, because sometimes we talk so lightly as great ladies?” [JC 2.1.speech128]. After the actors had undertaken an initial read-through and discussed various textual issues, Brian Woolland, the director, encouraged Olivia Darnley (Rachel) to use the line playfully, as a trigger for the women to self-consciously perform the next few lines as they might imagine ‘great ladies’ to talk. This had the unforeseen effect of drawing attention to the silence of the men. Whilst the women do not verbally acknowledge the presence of the men in this section of the scene [JC 2.1.speeches125-131], it is important that the men remain theatrically active. As Michael Leslie (the editor who took on the role of Vincent in this enactment) commented, if the young women are impatient with their father’s constraint, what do they feel about Vincent and Hilliard (played by Alan Morrissey)? And what do the men feel about the women? The following extract shows this sense of lively game-playing between the women. In this version, the women draw apart from the men, moving downstage on Meriel’s line – “What’s that to absolute freedom…” (Speech 125). A few moments later Hannah Watkins delivers Meriel’s line, “What tales have been told him of us, or what he suspects, I know not… ” in hushed confidentiality. This creates a strong sense of the sisters egging each other on, performing for each other, excluding the men from the secrecy of their private world and separating themselves from others of their own social class. Brian Woolland thought that this stage positioning created poor sight lines for the audience, many of whom could not see the men’s reactions to the women, and (more importantly in the workshop context) limited the possibilities for unspoken interaction between the women and the men. He asked Hannah and Olivia to think about Meriel’s and Rachel’s intentions and the target for their play acting, so that they might not only perform to amuse each other but also as a more deliberate provocation to the men. The following video extract (which includes intervention from Brian) demonstrates how a slightly different organisation of the stage space enabled a richer, more nuanced and more precisely targeted performance, and created greater opportunities for the actors to experiment with language. In this enactment, for example, Rachel’s “Does he think us whores…?” is both a provocation to Hilliard and an invitation to Meriel to join with her in the game play.

All the actors found this staging more productive and during subsequent discussions, Olivia made an insightful observation, ‘a plot’s hatching which involves them (the men) and not just us’. A plot hatching is an interesting phrase in this context. The work we had done on performance and secrecy in this early extract from the scene served us well in preparation for the second. [go to text]

gg3535   pent-up enclosed within narrow limits; closely confined; held in check or held back under pressure (OED 2) [go to text]

n5377   tied by the nose Metaphorically, this means confined like an animal in a stable; but in this particular case, not simply to a manger, but painfully to the constant filial duty of receiving and entertaining their father's guests. [go to text]

n5378   steam of hot hospitality This image suggests the painful burning discomfort of the two daughters, who feel contrained to obey their father in what seems to them to be meaningless activity of entertaining guests they would rather not know. Conversation with such guests is merely hot air, uncomfortable and unengaging to their youthful spirits. [go to text]

gg3536   stifles suffocates [go to text]

gs647   allowance permission [go to text]

gg3537   pensive gloomy, sad, melancholy [go to text]

n5379   that were wont to see That is: who formerly would see. [go to text]

n5381   my gossips cock This is the first of a series of games or dances that the girls used to perform for their father to make him laugh, in the days before he became melancholy. The literal reference here seems to be a display of locals (possibly godparents, but more likely familiar acquaintances, as in OED 2a) playing the ‘cock’, or behaving boastfully or defiantly; swaggering, strutting; bragging, tattling, or crowing over each other; or might refer to how local owners train or fight cocks (OED v1, 2, 7). In either definition, the girls imitate the behaviour as a game. The old-spelling text shows no apostrophe, but modern editors have indicated 'my gossip's cock', as though it were a reference to a neighbour's rooster. Such a reference seems out of line with the games and dances that follow in this list. It seems to be stretching the context on a point of grammar that simply is not clear. [go to text]

n11646   mould cockle-bread John Aubrey, Remains (1688): 'Young wenches have a wanton sport which they call moulding of Cocklebread: viz. they get upon a table-board, and then gather up their knees and their Coates with their hands as high as they can, and then they wabble to and fro with their Buttocks as if they were kneading of Dowgh with their Arses, and say these words, viz. - "My Dame is sick and gone to bed And I'le go mould my Cockle-bread."' Brome, Jovial Crew, 2.1 has Rachel say she and her sister used to make their father laugh by dancing and performing bawdy jokes. An earlier reference to this lewd game appears in George Peele's The Old Wives Tale, when Zantippa goes to the well to draw a husband, and hears the head rising from the well recite: 'Fair maiden, white and red,/ Stroke me smooth, and comb my head, / And thou shalt have some cockell-bread' (666-68). Insulted, she breaks her pitcher over the head instead, but nevertheless gains a suitable husband. The idea of kneading dough with the buttocks was deemed a magic practice to secure a husband, and in Venice could bring the kneader before the Inquisition. [go to text]

gg3538   clutterdepouch an old dance. It was possibly accompanied by continuous or repeated noise or clatter, but no description of the dance remains. [go to text]

n6589   hannikin booby This was an old country dance. A version called 'Half Hannikin' appears in John Playford, The English Dancing Master (1651), p. 43, and regularly reprinted. For a full description of this dance and the tunes associated with it, see The Dancing Master, 1651-1728: An Illustrated Compendium edited by Robert M. Keller (2000), available online at http://www.izaak.unh.edu/nhltmd/indexes/dancingmaster/ Accessed 23 February 2009.

A ‘longways’ dance like 'Half Hannikin' consists of a line of couples with the men on the left and the women on the right, initially facing forward. To ‘lead up all a D. forwards and back’, as in the Playford description, would mean that each couple, holding hands, dances a double forwards and a double backwards in a processional format. The double forwards would start on the left foot (L, R, L, together), and the double backwards would start on the right foot (R, L, R, together). Then that section is repeated, presumably to the same music. This action is a kind of refrain performed between the variations described next.

‘Sides all’, or ‘siding’, indicates that the couples turn towards each other and perform a double forward starting on the left towards one's partner in such a way that on the 'together' they are side by side, and then a double backwards starting on the right. There would be sides left first (with right shoulders closest to each other), then sides right (with left shoulders closest), in all amounting to four doubles.

‘Turn your own, or turn your we.’ means take both hands of your partner and make a 360 degree turn, usually clockwise. The next movement requires the man from the front couple and the woman from the back couple to step out of the dance briefly. The next man in the line, the second man, takes the first woman as his partner, and so on down the line. (This is a common way to enable people to dance with different partners.) The partners keep switching, and the man and woman who have been 'out' move back into the dance to allow others to stand out and change partners.

I am grateful to Emily Winerock, dance historian, for explaining the Playford steps to me. [go to text]

gs648   before in front of [go to text]

gg3541   simper smile self-consciously or self-righteously [go to text]

gg3540   sanctifiedly patiently, like saints [go to text]

n6575   Does he think us whores, trow, because sometimes we talk as lightly as great ladies? Rachel's question simply shows the fashion for vulgar language among the upper classes, whereas many of the middle and lower classes were applying a Puritan ethic to refined speech as a sign of godliness. [go to text]

n5383   thought’s free This is proverbial. [go to text]

n5384   charity begins at home The phrase is proverbial. Rachel teases that she herself is a virgin, but she isn't so sure about Meriel. She will, however, accept it on faith 'charitably' that Meriel is still intact. [go to text]

gs649   mirth Gaiety or lightness of mood or mind, especially as manifested in laughter; merriment, hilarity. In early use also: a jest (obsolete). In some early uses, mirth has a connotation of ridicule or mockery (OED 4a), as in the saucy singing and dancing games of Rachel and Meriel [JC 2.1.speech126], deliberately performed for the pleasure of hearing their father laugh. A good personification of such mirth,including song, is Merrythought, in Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1607), a play which had enjoyed a revival in the 1630s by Beeston's Boys, the same company for whom Brome wrote. [go to text]

n5382   meat solid food (OED 1a), for the nourishment of the body, as opposed to mirth, for nourishment of the spirit. [go to text]

gs650   motion plan of action [go to text]

n4274   Pshaw ] This edition; Psew Q1. Although OED indicates that Pshaw was not in use until the late eighteenth century, clearly this spelling is a variant and means the same thing. [go to text]

n5385   to lie down Does this mean to have sex? The comment seems to be in line with the girls' teasing each other over which of them is still a virgin. But the expression is also paired with 'laugh', suggesting a double reference both to the old card game, 'Laugh and lie down', and to marriage (Tilley, L92, cited in Haaker). [go to text]

gg2574   like (adv) likely [go to text]

n5386   that course That is, marriage. [go to text]

gs651   hazard gamble, bet; risk [go to text]

gg3542   one of the devil’s ape-leaders proverbially, a spinster or old maid (The leading of apes in hell is the opposite of the married woman's leading children in heaven (Tilley M 37). In The Taming of the Shrew, Katherina complains of her father's preference for Bianca: 'She is your treasure, she must have a husband,/ I must dance bare-foot on her wedding-day,/ And for your love to her lead apes in hell' (2.1.32-34).) [go to text]

n5387   to cheer him up with eating of his cheer This sarcastic repetition of 'cheer' underscores the girls' resentment of unwelcome guests to their father's house; such parasitic guests fail to raise their host's spirits or draw him out of his melancholy, but they do enjoy his food and drink. [go to text]

gg475   sweetmeats sweet food such as sugared cakes or pastries, candied fruit or marzipan, or any other confectionary [go to text]

n5388   old Breton’s works The prose and poetry of Nicholas Breton (1545-1626), whose works include The Arbor of Amorous Devices (1597) and An old man's lesson and a young man's love (1605). [go to text]

n5389   The Academy of Compliments First published in 1638, the full title indicates the range of matter for would-be lovers: The Academy of Compliments, being the rarest and most exact way of wooing a maid or widow, ... With passionate love-letters, courtly sentences to express the elegance of love; ... Together with a choice collection of songs.' [go to text]

gg3543   slavered drooled over, or slobbered [go to text]

gg3544   project plan or design a scheme for (OED v1, 1a) (often used by Brome to suggest a scam or cheat of some kind) [go to text]

gs652   progress an expedition or travel, usually following a specific route and ending in a specific place (OED 6b). [go to text]

gg3545   make a fling dash off impulsively, rush away impetuously (OED 3) [go to text]

n5390   Spring Garden This was a fashionable resort at the southwest corner of what is now Trafalgar Square, originally designed as a garden house retreat for royalty, and then opened to the public (Haaker). In the pleasure garden was a 'spring' or fountain built in the Elizabethan period as a mechanical curiosity, triggered by pedestrians. Charles I turned the garden into a bowling-green in 1630 with an expensive tavern, which was closed four years later because of unlawfully high prices, 'continual bibbing and drinking wine all day under the trees; [and] two or three quarrels [duels] every week. It was grown scandalous and insufferable' (letter from Mr. Gerrard to Lord Strafford). Aside from bowling and drinking, the garden also kept a small collection of animals: the State Papers contain an 'order dated January 31, 1626, for £75 5s. 10d. a year to be paid for life to Philip, Earl of Montgomery, "for keeping the Spring Gardens, and the beasts and fowls there."' After a rival New Spring Garden opened nearby, the original Spring Garden tavern eventually re-opened and remained open during the interregnum and the reign of Charles II. 'The Mall and Spring Gardens', Old and New London: Volume 4 (1878), pp. 74-85. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45184 Date accessed: 22 December 2008 [go to text]

n11648   Hyde Park Hyde Park was a new, fashionable leisure resort consisting of pleasure gardens, open in the spring and summer seasons and used for walking, horse-racing, and coach races. See James Shirley's play from 1632, Hyde Park. [go to text]

gs653   crack talk big, boast, brag (OED v, 6a) [go to text]

n5391   Adamites run naked Adamites were a dissenting sect of nonconformists who flourished briefly under Cromwell. They believed in nudity as a manifestation of Adam and Eve's state of innocence before the fall; they also rejected marriage as hypocritical, and allegedly stripped in order to pray. But verifiable records of this sect are not available, and most information relies on gossip of 1641, when Adamites became a titillating hot topic largely as an allegedly female-dominated group, and evidence of their existence disappears after 1650. They are not the only dissenters to use nudity as a public statement: Ranters and Quakers also did so, and were presumed to follow the Adamite practice. That is, zealous nakedness was stereotyped. See David Cressy, Travesties and Transgressions in Tudor and Stuart England: Tales of Discord and Dissension (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). [go to text]

n5392   Bath This city in north-east Somerset got its name from the naturally occurring hot springs revered by the ancient Celts and Romans (who built a temple to Minerva there), and the destination of choice for the sick, since the springs were considered to be curative. The city fell into disrepair frequently during its long history, but revived interest during the Elizabethan and Stuart eras led to its popularity in the eighteenth century. [go to text]

n5393   Dover’s Olympics or the Cotswold games Annalia Dubrensia. Upon the yeerely celebration of Mr. Robert Dovers Olimpick Games upon Cotswold-Hills (1636), compiled and published by Matthew Walbancke, contains poems by Drayton, Jonson, and Heywood, among many others, all lauding Robert Dover, an attorney from Barton-on-the-heath in Warwickshire, for resurrecting the Cotswold Games of the Elizabethan period. The contests included a variety of athletic exercises (leaping, throwing the bar) and field sports (greyhound coursing). A copy of the text is available on the EEBO database. [go to text]

gg3546   recreation (place for) pastime or amusement [go to text]

gg3547   within among (prep.) [go to text]

n10494   Think of some course yourselves then. Video Helen Ostovich had suggested in advance that her interest in this workshop was primarily in the acting challenge, asking how the women make their plans ‘aside’, with only their laughter audible to the men, who try to figure out what they are laughing at. The scene involves Rachel and Meriel bursting out in laughter as they prepare their plan in whispers; then laughing uncontrollably as they try to explain their plan to the men. In this workshop, the casting remains the same as before: Alan Morrissey as Hilliard, Michael Leslie (an editor) as Vincent, Hannah Watkins as Meriel, Olivia Darnley as Rachel.

The immediate problem to address was the divided focus of the scene (a recurrent feature of Brome’s dramaturgy). In the earlier part of the scene Vincent and Hilliard are silent, although, as we discovered, it is important that the audience are conscious of the extent to which they are being deliberately excluded by the women. In this section, they may be far more active, but the young women’s exuberance is likely to become the focus of an audience’s attention. It is, however, essential that the audience is as aware of the men’s growing discomfort as it is of the women’s effervescent scheming; essential for the dynamic of the comedy and essential for the dialectic of the play. The following video extract is from an early read through. In separating themselves from the men, the women move downstage left, which takes them closer to the video camera. This gives a slightly false sense of foregrounding the women, but the dynamic of the episode is already becoming clear. The men remain relatively static, stolid even, but we are always conscious of their presence. This is partly because of the way that Meriel and Rachel regularly refer across to the men. It is worth noting, in particular, the moments when Rachel has her back to the men. She looks over her shoulder, Meriel follows her lead and points at the men. In terms of character motivation for these gestures, the women are imagining the way that their plans might involve the men; but this is also fine stage craft on the part of Hannah and Olivia: the frequent glances and gestures to the men direct the audience to their reactions and ensure that their own giggling does not pull the focus entirely away from Vincent and Hilliard.

As we reflected on this read-through, Richard Cave initiated a discussion about the sexual innuendo in the scene, wondering about the extent to which the women were aware what they were saying, whether it was a conscious attempt to intimidate and embarrass the men or a sign of their own naïveté. Olivia felt that they were not ‘purposeful puns’, that the sexual innuendo emerged without the women really knowing what they were saying, arguing that if the innuendo were conscious they would need to be less caught up in the excitement of formulating the plan, and that the laughter was itself an indication of their ingenuousness. Alan made the point that the problem for an actor was that you frequently needed to imply sexual innuendo for the audience without compromising the integrity of the characterisation. One way of dealing with this can be seen in the following extract from the next read-through. What is worth noting here is the way that the body language and childlike gestures of the women create a sense that even if they are not really aware of the implications of what they are saying and planning, they recognise it as ‘naughty’ and deliberately encourage each other in this naughtiness.

The discussion then turned to the women’s announcement of their plan, and it was suggested that the element of performance in this might be developed. As Helen Ostovich noted, the business of two people trying to tell a story (“You tell. No you tell. No you tell...”) is an old comic routine that appears in numerous plays of the period (and subsequently). In this instance, it contributes to the sense of the women taunting the men, playing a game to make them (and us) wait for the announcement. It also had the unexpected effect of differentiating between the two male characters. When we first started this workshop both men seemed similarly dull, their main function in the scene being as foils to the volatile impulsiveness of the women. By developing the comic routine of the announcement, however, we began to notice that the characters of Vincent and Hilliard were revealed through subtle differences in their reactions to the Meriel and Rachel. Look, for example, at the way the two men respond in this short extract. Vincent’s line “Oh, is that all?” betrays his diffidence and exasperation with the situation, whereas Hilliard seems amused and intrigued, if a little anxious. Vincent may repeat Hilliard’s line “When?” in this version, but his tone is very different. After this read through Alan Morrissey observed that he was now getting a much stronger sense that while Meriel and Rachel were furtively hatching their plot about joining the beggars, both men were assuming that they were going to talk about sex; and that their different reactions to this is what is beginning to distinguish the two men. If Vincent fears that every time one of the women comes forward, they are going to broach the subject of sex, Hilliard is excited, if a little wary.

Richard Cave observed that although the characters were becoming much more distinctive, the grouping of the quartet on the stage (with all four bunched together) did not really reflect the complexity of the interaction. The following extract (which includes a brief break in the action as the actors and director work out more specific moves on the stage) is from the final read-through of the episode.. In this version, Hilliard asks, “When” in excited anticipation; Vincent’s echo is now an expression of anxiety; and there is something very defensive about his line, “Oh, is that all?” Hilliard’s tentative enthusiasm also has an effect on the women. In earlier versions, when the women tried to make their announcement, the dominant sense was of girls playing a game for each other. In this version, there is something much more coquettish about them: as each steps forward only to retreat immediately, it is at least partly in response to Hilliard. The movement, as Rachel pairs up with Hilliard and Rachel runs round to make sure that Vincent does not escape, creates a sense that the men have been physically as well as metaphorically ambushed. As Alan said earlier in the workshop, “It feels like the women are driving the men into adulthood, however unconsciously”

Although our intention when we embarked on this workshop had been primarily to explore the mechanics and the theatrical dynamics of young women’s laughter and its effect on the men, we found that what had appeared on paper to be a relatively simple use of comic effects to introduce exposition was richer and more complex than any of us had imagined. Taken together, these two workshops on the opening scene of Act 2 echoed many of the deeper themes of the play, which is centrally concerned with role-play, performance and identity. [go to text]

gg3548   put you to’t test you, see if you mean what you say [go to text]

gs654   jeer (n) scoff, or taunt (OED n2, 1) [go to text]

n5394   St. Winifred’s Well This seventh-century shrine in Holywell, Flintshire, North Wales, commemorates the death and resurrection of Winifred, who was beheaded when she refused to marry a local chieftan. The spring that arose from the spot where her head fell was said to have healing waters; it is the oldest continuously operated and visited pilgrimage destination in the United Kingdom. The site is mentioned in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and may be familiar to modern readers of Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael mysteries. [go to text]

n5395   Nantwich This market town in Cheshire is situated 17 miles southeast of Chester. It is not famous for a wise woman; Brome is probably punning on the 'wich'-sound. [go to text]

gg3549   scrupulous prone to hesitate or doubt; distrustful (OED 1b) [go to text]

gg1526   conceit conception, fancy, whim, clever trick [go to text]

gs655   sirrah comical address to saucy young person, male or female; in this instance, to a saucy younger sister [go to text]

gg3550   imped grafted, implanted [go to text]

gg3551   cozen deceive, dupe, beguile, impose upon (OED 2) [go to text]

gg999   servant professed lover, one attentive to the desires of a beloved [go to text]

gg3554   counsels secrets (OED n, 5, especially 5d) [go to text]

gg3552   tongue–tie oath of silence, of the 'cross my heart and hope to die' variety that children swear by [go to text]

gg3553   stand your ground maintain your position, take a firm stand; (colloquially) 'hold onto your hats' [go to text]

n5396   felicity Rachel is deliberately baiting Vincent by quoting his word back at him. See [JC 2.1.speech119]. [go to text]

gg3754   injunction the action of enjoining or authoritatively directing; an authoritative or emphatic admonition or order (OED 1) [go to text]

gg3555   rogues mischievous rascals (common as a playful term of reproof or reproach, though perhaps not so playful here); (literally) vagrants, and hence appropriate usage (OED 5 and 1) [go to text]

gg3556   in request that is, the fashionable thing to do [go to text]

gg4383   flapjacks pancakes, sometimes made with sliced apples on top or folded in (apple-jacks) [go to text]

gg3562   pan-puddings heavy savoury puddings baked in a pan [go to text]

gg3557   errant punning on (1) wandering and (2) wicked (Haaker) [go to text]

n5397   statute beggars As defined by Statute 39 Eliz., c. 3 (1597/98), and re-issued 17 September 1640, known as the Poor Law Act: Every parish was to appoint overseers of the poor to find work for the unemployed and set up parish-houses for poor people who could not support themselves. 39 Eliz., c. 4, determined that fraudulent vagrancy should be suppressed by imprisonment or correction, including stocks, enforced employment of inmates in a workhouse (for 'sturdy rogues'), whipping, and even banishment for 'incorrigible rogues'. The list of beggars included gipsies, fortune-tellers, minstrels, actors (unless members of a sponsored company like the King's Men), pedlars, bearwards, jugglers, tinkers, and petty chapmen of all kinds. [go to text]

n5398   Couchant and passant, guardant, rampant All heraldic terms, chosen to march with 'errant', a term romantically attached to Arthurian knights of the Round Table. Couchant means a heraldic animal lying with the body resting on the legs and (according to most authors) the head lifted up, or at least not sunk in sleep (dormant); passant refers to a heraldic four-legged animal walking (usually towards the dexter or right) and looking ahead, with three paws on the ground and the dexter forepaw raised. If passant guardant, then it is passant with head turned so as to show the full face; rampant refers to a four-legged animal standing on the sinister [left] hind foot with the forepaws in the air, the sinister above the dexter. A rampant animal is usually represented facing the dexter side, with the head in profile. See OED for the possible secondary non-heraldic punning meanings of each term: lurking, fugitive, and fiercely aggressive. [go to text]

n5399   Current and vagrant More quasi-heraldic joking. Current in heraldry, spelled courant, means running, but in the given spelling here means prevalent, in the present time, or genuine; vagrant is not a heraldic term, but merely sounds like one, and means idle, straying or roaming from place to place. [go to text]

n5400   Stockant, whippant More heraldic-sounding nonce-words: frequently set in the stocks and whipped. [go to text]

n6576   Free above scot–free Free far beyond the usual sense of freedom from payment of the ‘scot’, or tavern score, or from paying a fine, etc.; exempt from injury, punishment; scatheless (OED). Meriel's speech continues a clear definition of her expression here: freedom from any law, patriarch, religion, without being rebels against the current government (a political exception pertinent to 1641, just before the civil war). [go to text]

gg3558   constitute compose, determine [go to text]

gg3559   be sudden decide quickly [go to text]

n5401   We have projected it. That is, we have come up with the idea. The implication is that the two men have to come up with the practical course of action (the 'means' they mention next) to achieve it. [go to text]

gg3560   pump make a persistent effort or exert themselves with hard thinking [go to text]

gg3561   camp-royal great number, originally a military term describing a great body of troops (OED camp n2, 2c) [go to text]

gg1920   prefer advance, promote, favour [go to text]

gg3563   maunders beggars [go to text]

gg3564   canters rogues and vagabonds who speak the ‘cant’ or special language of thieves; one of the ‘canting crew’ [go to text]

gg3565   tributary paying tribute [go to text]

gs659   quaint ingenious [go to text]

gg3566   stint cause to cease, bring to an end, check, stop (OED 7) [go to text]

gg3567   slave reduce to the condition of a slave; enslave [go to text]

n4275   and, though you ] This edition; And, tho' you Q1. These words start the next verse-line in Q1, but clearly the current verse-line is incomplete. Haaker treats the whole speech as prose. [go to text]

n5402   Your throat’s in question. Rachel refers to Vincent's earlier threat [JC 2.1.speech.224] to kill Springlove if he betrays them to Oldrents. This line is a good opportunity for comic double-takes: Rachel could look meaningfully at Vincent, whom she challenges to make good on his earlier idle threat, while Meriel and Hilliard watch attentively to gauge Vincent's response -- and Springlove's. [go to text]

n6577   for need, hungry or cold necessity ] Q. I have retained Q's wording, although it might seem that 'need, hunger, or cold necessity' might have been Brome's intention. On the other hand, in Q he is expanding on 'need' as 'necessity', further described as either 'hungry or cold'; I see no need to emend for three nouns, when the phrase makes sense as it stands. [go to text]

n5403   dimensions This is a term used in surveying and mapping: 'Lineall dimensions are diuersified according to the custome of the Country', explains W. Folkingham, Feudigraphia. The Synopsis or Epitome of Surveying Methodized (1610) (in LEME), in setting out a system of measurements by which one can understand distances. [go to text]

gg3568   minority period of life prior to attaining full age [go to text]

n5404   halts. That is, he limps, re-playing the part of a lame beggar, as he illustrates for his current audience. [go to text]

gg3569   clouted covered with, or wrapped in, a cloth (OED ppl, a1, 4) [go to text]

n5405   his upon the gibbet That is: like a hanged man. What did a man wear to be hanged? His good clothing (doublet, sleeves, points, hose, hat, cloak, for example, possibly including boots or shoes) was the perquisite of the hangman, and so he would probably be dressed only in a shirt; and thus considered 'naked', not properly or fully dressed. [go to text]

gg3570   forespent spent previously [go to text]

gs658   clogged obstructed, or hindered escape (based on the clogs or blocks of heavy wood, or the like, attached to the leg or neck of a man or beast, to impede motion or prevent release from captivity) [go to text]

n5406   The sword hangs over him. The reference is to the sword of Damocles, and refers to an imminent danger, which may at any moment descend upon one. In the legend, Damocles, a flatterer, having extolled the happiness of Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse, was placed by him at a banquet with a sword suspended over his head by a hair, to impress upon him the perilous nature of that happiness (OED). [go to text]

n5549   With your lives hazard in a pilgrimage That is, with your lives as the hazard or gamble in taking a journey that is an act of religious devotion. The piety here is familial piety, showing such deference to the father as the bible enjoins in commanding us to honour our fathers and mothers. [go to text]

gg2992   progress a journey undertaken by the monarch and his/her court (usually during the summer months, as a kind of holiday; but often to avoid residing in London during a time of year when plague was prevalent) [go to text]

n4276   out-beg That is: to over-do in begging. OED cites the first use of this word in 1651 (Davenant, Gondibert 3.5.13, but clearly Brome used it first. The context is ironic, and implicit criticism of the court's progress, usually a very expensive undertaking for hosts and royal guests, but at the same time gives the young people an authoritative precedent for frivolous behaviour. [go to text]

n5561   2.2 Randall has the first and last words in this scene, and on the same topic: the distress and the joy that money can bring. In his opening statement, he reveals his guilt over being tempted to keep for himself the money Springlove has left with him to feed and shelter the poor. By the end of the scene, he is delighted that Oldrents has told him to keep the money as a tip, and that Oldrents himself will bear all charges for dealing with the poor, and repay Springlove as well. The question of what Randall should do with the money entrusted to him has another structural use: he tells Oldrents that he is afraid to keep money for Springlove, because of the temptation to spend it on himself, and Oldrents at first advises him to give the money to his daughters for safe-keeping. But Randall returns to say that the daughters and their lovers have disappeared.

Like Randall in his confusion of feelings over money, Oldrents experiences a confusion of feelings over the missing daughters: sorrow at their loss, but relief that their fates are now out of his hands. He tries hard to follow Hearty's instructions about being merry, but has problems keeping it up. He is shadowed by Randall at first, whose sorrow over the entrusted money loosely echoes Oldrents' depression, although Randall recovers after being given the money outright. But another blow makes us focus again on Oldrents: when he learns that his daughters have gone, he refuses to read the letter they left behind for him. Once more, his fear of even worse news makes him rush into enforced joy, as he hands over money not only to Randall, but to everyone on the estate, including the beggars. Hearty does not see this displaced 'joy' as a good sign.

But the beggars are experiencing real joy at the new life in their community: one of the women has been crying out in birthing pains (perhaps a metaphor for the re-birth of Oldrents) and now is delivered of a healthy child. (The safe delivery of Oldrents from depression and guilt will take much longer.) The whole crew celebrates by eating, drinking, singing, and dancing until they all go back into the barn to sleep. Oldrents enjoys observing this happy ending of the beggars' christening feast, but his meeting with the Patrico that follows burdens him once more with ill feeling, which he describes as an overchilling of his stomach [JC 2.2.speech335]. So, although Randall is happy and the beggars are happy, Oldrents still suffers from depression, oddly post-partum, because he cannot yet identify the new life in store for him. [go to text]

n5407   Well, go thy ways. The whole of [JC 2.2.speech 252] seems to be based on the similar servant-debate with an invisible devil in The Merchant of Venice (2.2) when Launcelot Gobbo resolves to quit his current master Shylock, and acquire a job with Bassanio, who has just borrowed a large sum in order to woo Portia in Belmont. [go to text]

n5408   at the last quarter day This refers (figuratively) to the last judgement, when God decides who goes to heaven and who to hell. The English calendar marked four quarter days a year for meeting payments for rent and other costs: traditionally Lady Day (March 25), Midsummer Day (June 24), Michaelmas (Sept. 29), and Christmas (Dec. 25). Since the play takes place in spring, the next quarter day or 'end of this quarter' would be June 24. [go to text]

gg4384   churchwarden a lay honorary officer of a parish or district church, elected to assist the incumbent in the discharge of his administrative duties, to manage such various parochial offices as by custom or legislation devolve upon him, and generally to act as the lay representative of the parish in matters of church-organization (OED) [go to text]

gg3571   presage predict, foretell (OED 2a) [go to text]

gs660   puling ailing, sickly; weak [go to text]

gg3572   hind rustic [go to text]

n5553   his bastard This comment, seemingly offhand, is one of many small hints at the play's resolution. [go to text]

n5554   his measuring of land This phrase puns on Springlove's surveying of property, and his footsteps taken on a journey wandering the countryside. One implies business, the other merely caprice and selfish pleasure, from Oldrents' point of view. [go to text]

n5555   not hearty merry That is: not jocular or cheerful in a way that exhibits warmth of affection or friendly feeling. In other words, he is not happy in the same way that Hearty is. Hearty comments here on Oldrents' bitterness at Springlove's failure to obey his employer's wishes. [go to text]

gg3573   whim pun [go to text]

gs661   demure sober, grave, serious; reserved or composed in demeanour (OED 2) [go to text]

gg3574   downlooked having downcast looks [go to text]

n5409   this is from the covenant That is: this disagreement about Springlove takes us away from the main point of the promise to be merry. [go to text]

n5410   Waltham Cross In the heart of the town (about 15 miles south-east of London in Hertfordshire) is one of the three surviving medieval Eleanor Crosses, a striking memorial commemorating the over-night resting place of Queen Eleanor’s coffin on its processional journey to Westminster Abbey in 1290. [go to text]

n5411   Hem An interjection like a slight half cough, used to attract attention (OED 1); in this case calling the tapster's boy for more wine. [go to text]

gg3576   muttering rumour [go to text]

gg3577   to set my rest upon to stake, hazard, or venture all I have on; to set my final hope or trust upon; to place my whole aim or end in (OED rest n2, 7a, d); the phrase, alternatively, may be an allusion to the card game primero: to make a final gamble with the stakes kept in reserve, which were agreed upon at the beginning of the game, and upon the loss of which the game terminated (6a). [go to text]

gg1399   spleen abdominal organ, held by many ages to be the seat of melancholy but in the early seventeenth century more traditionally held to be the seat of laughter or mirth (OED 1c) [go to text]

gg4385   undertaker assistant or helper; one who undertakes a task [go to text]

n6578   But this is overdone. I do not like it. Hearty may simply speak this line directly to Oldrents, who may or may not appear to have heard him. It might be spoken aside, as though Hearty were keeping his opinion to himself, but that is not how the character has been establsihed. Alternatively, he may be addressing the audience directly, pointing out Oldrents' over-reaction to his daughters' letter. [go to text]

n6579   I’ll be as merry as the charge that’s under me. That is, Randall will enjoy himself as much as the beggars who are under his 'charge' or supervision in Springlove's absence. Their laughter and singing can be heard from off-stage. [go to text]

gg2835   doxy the mistress of a beggar or rogue [go to text]

gg3578   in The straw in childbed, or lying-in (OED straw n1, 2b, which gives the first citation as 1661, but clearly the phrase was in common use earlier); the reference is to the period immediately after giving birth [go to text]

n5557   straw Hearty's understanding of what he sees as Randall's pun is not readily communicable now. He may be thinking of straw as something of trifling value or importance; or of such expressions as 'lay a straw' = stop, desist; or 'there a straw!' = here I will stop; or perhaps to straw as an exclamation at a worthless act or event (OED n1, 7a, 9b, 7c). The meaning is not clear, and the other characters do not take Hearty up on it. [go to text]

gg3230   upsitting occasion of a woman's first sitting up to receive company after having given birth [go to text]

gg3231   gossiping christening party, at which godparents and friends celebrate the birth of a child and survival of the mother [go to text]

gg3579   devices entertainments; especially devised or fancifully invented for dramatic representation; ‘a mask played by private persons’ or the like (OED 11) [go to text]

n6580   I fear this over-doing. Again, Hearty could be speaking aside as to himself, or directly addressing the audience, but Hearty's character seems to be established as forthright, and one who would directly address his friend. [go to text]

n6581   crime A bit of light foreshadowing: we do not discover Oldrents' 'crime' until the end of the play. [go to text]

gg3232   festival month celebratory lying-in period, usually four weeks, following birth, in which the mother recuperates and receives visitors [go to text]

gg4386   bratling little brat, infant [go to text]

gg3580   strummel straw (thieves' cant) [go to text]

gg3581   autem mort married woman (thieves' cant) [go to text]

gg3582   hasty pudding pudding made of flour stirred in boiling milk or water to the consistency of a thick batter; if the grain used is oatmeal, then it is usually called ‘porridge’ [go to text]

gg3583   pap pabulum, a watered down version of the porridge fed to the new mother; usually the word refers to the nipple of the nursing mother's breast [go to text]

n11650   travail In addition to the ongoing use of this word as punning with and pronounced in the same way as travel, the word here carries intimations of labour pains (the context develops this vein of imagery). [go to text]

gg3758   bantling brat (often used depreciatively, and formerly as a synonym of bastard) (OED) [go to text]

gg3759   afoot–back a combinative term based on a-horse-back (OED afoot adv. 4, citing Greene's Groats worth of Wit of 1592, Diijb,: 'When I was fayne to carry my playing fardle afoot-backe') [go to text]

n5416   opens the scene This stage direction suggests that Randall opens a curtain or tapestry in front of the much-debated 'discovery space' or small inner stage area to display the beggars' banquet. [go to text]

gg3584   skipper barn, outhouse, or shed, used as a sleeping-place by vagrants (cant) [go to text]

gg3585   cly take, or get (cant) [go to text]

gg3586   peck And booze meat and drink (cant) [go to text]

gg3587   harman–beck constable; the parish-constable or beadle (cant) [go to text]

gg3588   pannum bread, or food generally (cant) [go to text]

gg3589   lap drink, such as buttermilk or whey; liquor in general, anything that can be lapped up (thieves' cant) [go to text]

gg3590   poplars of yarrum milk pottage (Haaker) [go to text]

gg3591   crib wickerwork basket in which food was stored (OED 7a, 6b) [go to text]

n5412   quarron body (thieves' cant). Q1 has 'quarron', but the correct spelling 'quarrons' is not plural, as Brome assumed (OED), perhaps only for the sake of the rhyme. [go to text]

gg3593   go–well prosperous journey outward (OED go v, VIII) [go to text]

gg3594   come–well come into this world, birth (Haaker); or perhaps simply constructed with go-well as an analogy to 'come and go', a good wish for successful travelling, or the freedom to travel freely [go to text]

n5413   Cisley Bumtrinket This was a common name or disparaging name for a lower-class female. Haaker cites Dekker's The Shoemakers' Holiday and Jonson's The Gypsies Metamorphosed. Hoy (vol. 1, p. 29) points out that Dekker used the name in Satiromastix as an insult among many uttered by Tucca, to whom Mistress Miniver responds: 'Why dost call me such horrible ungodly names then?' (3.1.186-87). Jonson was mocked for using the name Sisley for the waiting-woman in The New Inn whereupon he changed her name to 'Prudence'. [go to text]

gg3580   strummel straw (thieves' cant) [go to text]

gg3595   ruff–peck and cassan bacon and cheese (thieves' cant) [go to text]

gg2189   dainties delicacies [go to text]

n5415   gentry cove’s This means: the gentleman's (cant); that is, Oldrents'. [go to text]

gg3597   grunter and bleater pork and lamb or mutton [go to text]

gg3598   Tib of the buttery goose (OED Tib, 3) [go to text]

gg3599   margery–prater hen (cant) [go to text]

gg3600   dressed without sluttery cooked or prepared for guests without drudgery (this is 'Land of Cockaigne' or 'Oleanna' thinking, in which the paradise of the working poor is dreamed of as a place where they lounge at ease, fed and housed without lifting a finger, since the streams run with wine or ale, and animals run around offering perfectly cooked slices of themselves for nourishment) [go to text]

gg4387   bene cribbing good food (thieves' cant); ("crib" or "cribbing" can also refer to shelter) [go to text]

n5414   gentry cove of the ken This means: the gentleman of the house (in other words: Oldrents). [go to text]

gg4388   dross impure matter, such as scum or extraneous matter thrown off from metals in the process of melting, as in alchemy, in which metals are heated and coolled several times until they are pure, free of all sediment or impurities [go to text]

n6582   sublimèd spirits This refers to transformed essences; it is another alchemical term. After the dross has been melted out of metal, then the refined or sublimed matter that remains can be reduced to its quintessence, the philosopher's stone, which turns anything it touches to pure gold, and cures all ills. The metaphor Oldrents uses here suggests that people with too many material things and concerns are corrupted with impure matter; but the beggars have no material things, and that fact frees their spirits into a state of pure joy. [go to text]

gg3602   Tour out look out or around (see Richard Head, The Canting Academy (1673) in LEME) [go to text]

gg3601   glaziers eyes (cant) (OED 5) [go to text]

gg3603   ruffin devil (cant) (see, for example: 'As the Ruffin nap the Cuffin-quier, and let the Harmanbeck trine with his Kinchins about his Colquarron'; That is, Let the Devil take the Justice, and let the Constable hang with his children about his neck (Head, 1673, in LEME) [go to text]

gg3604   queer cuffin a churlish or contemptible fellow; (also) a justice of the peace (thieves' cant) (OED queer a and n1, special uses). [go to text]

n6583   Now, bounteous sir, before you go, This entire speech shifts the verse from iambic pentameter to octosysllabic rhyming couplets, generally a choice in drama of the period for magical foretellings, riddles, or otherworldly utterances. See, for example, the fairy talk in A Midsummer Night's Dream 2.1. [go to text]

gg2245   store things with which a household, camp or other base of activities is stored (with food, clothing and other amenities) (OED n, 1a); sufficient or plentiful supply (of something needful) (OED n, 4a); plenty, abundance (OED n, 4b); things owned by someone, or the goods/money they have accumulated (OED n, 5a) [go to text]

gg3605   balk avoid or shun; refuse (OED v1, 2) [go to text]

n5417   For you in your succession That is, for your sake as you live on in the heirs to your estate. [go to text]

gg3508   merry grigs extravagantly lively people, full of frolic and jest (OED grig n1, 5) [go to text]

gg3606   gambols leaps or springs in dancing or sporting; capers; more generally, frolicsome merrymaking (OED 2a and 2c) [go to text]

gg3607   boozing ken drinking house, or tavern (cant) [go to text]

n5418   Dame Annis’ This was a spring-fed well, famous for its clear and healthful waters, also known as St Agnes Well or St Agnes Le Clare, formerly on Old Street, West Smithfield. Of the well Stow writes:

Somewhat north from Holy-Well is one other well, curbed square with stone and is called Dame Annis the Clear and not far from it, but somewhat west is also another clear water called Perilous Pond.

(A Survey of London, ch. 3; see also John Strype's version of the Survey online.) [go to text]

n5419   Chanticleer This is the name of a rooster that appears in the fables of Reynard the Fox, a version of which is told in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. [go to text]

n5420   presbytery The term refers to a body of presbyters, elders, or priests, with reference to the early church (OED 3). [go to text]

n6584   defy dignity That is, reject formal church marriage dignifying couples in favour of free selection of mates in a common-law or beggars-law bond. [go to text]

gg4389   verity truth [go to text]

gg3608   neyes eyes [go to text]

gg3609   prats buttocks [go to text]

gg4390   bene good (thieves' cant) [go to text]

gg4391   booze liquor, alcoholic drink of any kind [go to text]

gg3610   skew cup or wooden bowl (cant) (OED n4) [go to text]

gg3611   lage water (cant) (OED) [go to text]

gg3612   gage quart pot (OED n2, 1) [go to text]

gg3613   rum booze wine (OED rum, a1, 2) [go to text]

gg3614   gan mouth (cant) [go to text]

gg3615   niggling fornicating [go to text]

gg3616   dell young virgin (cant) [go to text]

gg3617   mell copulate, have sexual intercourse (OED v2, 3) [go to text]

gg3618   upright–man big, strong, or sturdy vagrant, one trained as a husbandsman but who chooses to beg or thieve rather than work [go to text]

n5558   You would be punished. ― Oh! This sudden reversal of 'punishment' intended for the patrico but rebounding onto Oldrents is another clue to the finale of the play. At this point, the Patrico's offer of a virgin for Oldrents to play with merely seems bizarre; by the end of the play we have a better sense of why the Patrico tested Oldrents with the question. [go to text]

n6585   qualm (1) A scruple of conscience; a pang of guilt; a doubt, esp. as to the rightness of one's actions (OED 1c); (2) A sudden feeling or fit of faintness or sickness. In later use: esp. a sudden feeling of nausea (OED 1d). This confusion of pangs striking Oldrents with the mention of sex and punishment suggests that Oldrents is trying to cover up his guilty reaction to sleeping with a virgin by seeming to feel sick to his stomach. The source of this misgiving is sorted out in Act 5. [go to text]

n5559   stomach This was thought in the period to be the inward seat of passion (like lechery as well as finer feelings), emotion, secret thoughts, affections, or feelings (OED 6a). The organ feeling the distress and the doubleness of its meaning (that is, the tension between lechery on the one hand and honourable emotions on the other) also offers a clue that Oldrents does not seem to recognize, and that the audience does not grasp until the play's final scenes. [go to text]

gg3619   clapperdudgeons born beggars (cant) [go to text]

gg3620   walking morts older doxies who claim to be widows by misfortune, left penniless with many children (the story told to facilitate begging) [go to text]

gg3584   skipper barn, outhouse, or shed, used as a sleeping-place by vagrants (cant) [go to text]

gg3621   couch a hogshead lie down to sleep (cant) (OED couch v1, 1e) [go to text]

gg3622   darkman night (cant) (Haaker) [go to text]

gg3623   bing awast go you hence (cant) (Haaker) [go to text]

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

n5560   he has more soul then a born beggar in him Another clue to Patrico's identity, not revealed until the end of the play. The implication here is that Oldrents half-recognizes something in the Patrico, and is trying to explain it to himself. [go to text]

gg3624   beggar–nigglers men who have sex with beggar-women [go to text]

gg3625   swag move unsteadily or heavily from side to side [go to text]

n5421   Light at my heart, though heavy in the bag That is, the money Springlove gave Randall to keep for the beggars is no longer making Randall feel guilty, since Oldrents has ordered him to keep it for a tip. Oldrents will repay the money to Springlove, and has already paid for the beggars. [go to text]

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