ACT THREE*
n2234
Like the previous two acts, Act Three has two scenes. This, the centre of the play, contains crucial manifestations of some of its primary concerns. In the first scene, the audience is again shown tavern life, here dominated by Captain Driblow, a seedy military figure, a braggadocio feeding on the young men forming the club of the Philoblathici. The scene shows Clotpoll's initiation, the young men performing a characteristic boorish ritual, and then the entrance of the disguised Cockbrain as a tavern singer. At this point the underlying sadism of the young men's play begins to emerge more clearly. Hitherto they have been obnoxious to women they assume to be prostitutes and to a fool like Clotpoll, of whom they mean to take advantage financially. Now, led by Nick, they physically attack and abuse Cockbrain, with the new member Clotpoll the most enthusiastic participant and Anthony (who does not yet recognize his disguised father) displaying more qualms and attempting to mitigate the beating. As a representation of tavern life and the roistering behaviour of the young men, the scene is amusing; but the underlying, casual violence of their lives begins to discomfort and dismay.
The second scene takes place in Rooksbill's house, where Crosswill and his family are to stay until their own rented accommodation is ready. Lucy and Katherine enter, perhaps with Belt, the servant, and in the first part of the scene engage in dialogue that is heavy in exposition but also full of tensions and subtle negotiations between the two women. This part of the scene is complex: if Belt is on stage, what is he doing there? Does he overhear secrets being disclosed by the two women (on several occasions in the play he makes use of overheard secrets, disclosing them to his master Crosswill)? Do the women care that a servant may overhear them? During the exposition of the complex story of Dorcas and her seduction by Nick, Lucy makes explicit reference to complex plotting in contemporary drama, and the need for audiences to pay close attention. This self-consciousness is funny but it raises the question of how the scene should be acted. Should the actors knowingly lecture the audience? Throughout the discussion between Lucy and Katherine, issues of class are both on the surface and, unknown to the interlocutors, beneath it. These are rendered all the more apparent when the women's fathers, 'the old men' Rooksbill and Crosswill, come on stage. Rooksbill again proposes a marriage between his daughter Lucy and one or other of Crosswill's sons, leading Crosswill to threaten to storm out of Rooksbill's house or, as Crosswill insultingly calls it, 'your inn here'.
n2234
The second scene takes place in Rooksbill's house, where Crosswill and his family are to stay until their own rented accommodation is ready. Lucy and Katherine enter, perhaps with Belt, the servant, and in the first part of the scene engage in dialogue that is heavy in exposition but also full of tensions and subtle negotiations between the two women. This part of the scene is complex: if Belt is on stage, what is he doing there? Does he overhear secrets being disclosed by the two women (on several occasions in the play he makes use of overheard secrets, disclosing them to his master Crosswill)? Do the women care that a servant may overhear them? During the exposition of the complex story of Dorcas and her seduction by Nick, Lucy makes explicit reference to complex plotting in contemporary drama, and the need for audiences to pay close attention. This self-consciousness is funny but it raises the question of how the scene should be acted. Should the actors knowingly lecture the audience? Throughout the discussion between Lucy and Katherine, issues of class are both on the surface and, unknown to the interlocutors, beneath it. These are rendered all the more apparent when the women's fathers, 'the old men' Rooksbill and Crosswill, come on stage. Rooksbill again proposes a marriage between his daughter Lucy and one or other of Crosswill's sons, leading Crosswill to threaten to storm out of Rooksbill's house or, as Crosswill insultingly calls it, 'your inn here'.
3.1
[Another room at the Goat Tavern]
Captain DRIBLOW, CLOTPOLL, NICHOLAS, ANTHONY,
and DRAWER enter [with] a Table, Pot and Glasses.
and DRAWER enter [with] a Table, Pot and Glasses.
420Driblow*n3351
In the 1659 text there is no speech prefix.
Go, sirrah, make your reckoning for our dinner. Leave us this wine, and come when we call you. We have business.
n3351
421DrawerI shall, sir, by and by.
422DriblowWell, sir, you will be of both you say, the Blade and the Battoon?
423ClotpollOf both, sir, by all means, both Philoblathicus and Philobatticus, I.*n664
1659: I: In this instance, both readings--'I' or 'Aye' are possible.
I’ll now have all that belongs to your order, or all my money again, that’s for a certain.
n664
424DriblowYour money again? Lo, you there:*n665
1659: loe you there.
you bring me a fit man, gentlemen, to be sworn, do you not? That talks of money again, when ’tis a main†gg1685
chief, principal (OED main n, 5a)
article in the Oath never to look for money again, once disfingered.
n665
gg1685
425Nicholas [To CLOTPOLL] You will not spoil all now ’tis come so far, will you?
426ClotpollWell, sir, when I have my Oath, and that I am sworn one of you, I’ll do as you do, and care as little for money as he that has least.
427DriblowWell, to the Oath then*n3818
Both the oath taken by Clotpoll and the subsequent exchanges between the brethren of the Blade and Batton resemble the playful and fantastic rituals by which one becomes a member of a drinking club in [Richard Brathwaite], A Solemne Ioviall Disputation, Theoreticke and Practicke; briefly Shadowing the Law of Drinking (1617):
The usuall or common manner of this adoption is after this sort. "SIR, if I who am but a young man should not seeme altogether unworthy / of so high an honour, I could wish to enter a leugue of amity and Brotherhood with you: whereunto the other makes answer; "Drinke a Gods name, this shall be very acceptable unto mee. Then he drinkes, and gives it to him that is to be adopted, where in the very instant act of reaching the Cup, these words are accustomably used: "N.N. is my name, by which name I vow to doe whatever shall be pleasing unto you, and forbeare to doe whatsoever shall be displeasing: Yea, in all points I will demeane my selfe as becommeth a faithfull brother. Whereunto the other replies; "And I will be the same in all things. Soone after, having used some eare-whisperings one to another, their mutuall request is, that this Brotherhood may be strengthened with mutuall visitations.
. For both the Blade and the Battoon, you say?
n3818
The usuall or common manner of this adoption is after this sort. "SIR, if I who am but a young man should not seeme altogether unworthy / of so high an honour, I could wish to enter a leugue of amity and Brotherhood with you: whereunto the other makes answer; "Drinke a Gods name, this shall be very acceptable unto mee. Then he drinkes, and gives it to him that is to be adopted, where in the very instant act of reaching the Cup, these words are accustomably used: "N.N. is my name, by which name I vow to doe whatever shall be pleasing unto you, and forbeare to doe whatsoever shall be displeasing: Yea, in all points I will demeane my selfe as becommeth a faithfull brother. Whereunto the other replies; "And I will be the same in all things. Soone after, having used some eare-whisperings one to another, their mutuall request is, that this Brotherhood may be strengthened with mutuall visitations.
428ClotpollAye, by all means, Captain, for both. ’Slid†gg576
a common seventeenth-century oath derived from an abbreviation of ‘God’s eyelid’ and the idea of the deity’s all-seeing eye
, the Battoon may stick to me, when the Blade may fly out o’ th’ hilts.
gg576
429AnthonyYes, to the brokers*n8821
Anthony sardonically comments that Clotpoll is likely to lose his sword, not as a result of a fight, but because he has had to pawn it.
.
n8821
430DriblowLay your hands on these hilts, sir. [DRIBLOW draws his sword*n4262
Driblow commands Clotpoll to place his hand on 'hilts'. The plural could be used for a single sword, but it may imply that the other members of the fraternity all produce their swords at this point.
and CLOTPOLL places his hand on the hilt] The Articles that you depose unto are these: to be true and faithful*n4585
Driblow's injunction is another variant on the topics of trust and faithfulness presented in Act 2.
unto the whole Fraternity of the Blade and the Battoon, and to every member thereof.
n4262
n4585
431ClotpollAs ever faithful member was.
432DriblowThat at no time, wittingly or ignorantly, drunk or sober, you reveal or make discovery of the Brother, or a member of the Brotherhood, of his lodging, haunts, or by-walks, to any creditor, officer, sutler†gg1686
one who follows an army or lives in a garrison town and sells provisions to the soldiers (OED)
, or suchlike dangerous or suspicious person.
gg1686
433ClotpollI defy them all.
434DriblowThat if any of the Brotherhood be in restraint or distress by imprisonment, sickness, or whatsoever engagement, you make his case your own, and your purse and your travail†gg1687
travel
his; and that if a Brother die or finish his days, by end timely or untimely, by surfeit, sword, or law, you wear the sable order of the Ribbon in remembrance of him.
gg1687
435ClotpollA convenient cheap way of mourning.
436DriblowThat your purse and weapon, to the utmost of your strength, be on all occasions drawn to the assistance or defence of a Brother or Brother’s friend*n669
A lover
, be it he, be it she.
n669
437ClotpollI understand you, and shall be as forward to fight for a she-friend as ever the best man in the Mirror of Knighthood*n670
Refers to the popular, and near interminable, volumes of Diego Ortunez de Calahorra, The Mirror of Princely Deeds and Knighthood translated by M[argaret] T[yler] (1578 onwards).
was for an honest woman.
n670
438DriblowThat you be ever at deadly defiance with all such people as protections are directed to in Parliament*n671
Captain Driblow does not appear to think that rule without Parliament is a permanent feature of English politics, adding to the sense that readings of The Weeding of Covent Garden that emphasize high-political reference may be off the mark.
, and that you watch all occasions to prevent or rescue gentlemen from the gripes of the law brissons*n766
No other use of this term has been found. It appears to mean officer. It is just conceivable that it is a reference to the famous French jurist and statesman, Barnabe Brisson (1531-1591), who was a notable reformer.
. That you may thereby endear yourself into noble society, and drink the juice of the varlets’ labours for your officious intrusions.
n671
n766
439ClotpollAnd that will go down bravely.
440DriblowYou must rank yourself so much the better man, by how much the more drink you are able to purchase at others’ costs.
441ClotpollExcellent.
442DriblowYou are to let no man take wall of you*n767
The inferior must give way, ceding the cleaner part of a street (nearest the wall) to a superior. See Samson in Romeo and Juliet, 'I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's' (1.1.11).
, but such as you suppose will either beat you or lend you money.
n767
443ClotpollBetter and better still.
444DriblowThe rest of your duties for brevity’s sake*n3130
1659: brevity sake
you shall find specified in that copy of your Order. Kiss the book*n4263
No book has been mentioned in this scene, and so this is probably a facetious reference to the sword hilt or, as in The Tempest 2.2.132, to a bottle or glass of alcohol. It is conceivable that there is a book of rules for the Philoblathici, however.
.
n3130
n4263
445ClotpollI’ll swear to them whatsoever they be. So, now I am a Blade, and of a better Row*n8822
Although Clotpoll's meaning is clear here, this use of 'row' is unusual to modern ears. It is probably the sense in OED row n1 2. a. An array or set of persons (or things) of a certain kind; a class or category. The OED has examples from the early seventeenth century.
than those of Tytere tu or Oatmeal hoe.*n8823
For the names of the roistering gangs, see Walton B. McDaniel, 'Some Greek, Roman and English Tityretus', American Journal of Philology 35 (1914), pp. 52-66. The line from Virgil’s Eclogues, 'Tytere tu patulæ recubans sub tegmine fagi', would be well-known not least from its quotation in George Puttenham’s Art of English Poesie (1602 edn.). McDaniel cites William Gifford’s note to John Ford’s The Sun’s Darling: 'I have already had more than one occasion to notice those lawless ruffians, who, to the disgrace of the city, under the various names of Mohawks, Roarers, Circling-boys, Twibills, Blades, Tityre-tu’s, Oatmeals, &c., infested the streets, almost with impunity, from the days of Elizabeth down to the beginning of the last century. Some of the Titrye-tu’s, not long after the appearance of this drama (1624), appear to have been brought before the Council, and thus committed on a suspicion of state delinquency: had they been sent to be flogged in Bridewell, it would have been at least as wise. The names of two of them incidentally appear, - A. Windsor and George Chambers: 'madcaps' they call themselves. The badge of their order was a blue ribbon: the Oatmeals are usually coupled with them. 'So! Now I am a Blade, and of a better row' (higher class?) 'than those of Titrye-tu or Oatmeal-ho!' Covent Garden Weeded [by Brome]. The Oatmeals are alluded to by Cartwright [in The Ordinary], under a pretended mistake, for Ottomans. "My son [a Roaring boy] shall have the Turkish monarchy! [...]Great Andrew Mahomet!" "Andrew Oatmeal-man! Oatmeal-man Andrew" &c. - The Titrye-tu’s were committed to prison on the charge (they say) of "my Lord of Canterbury;" and they do not forget to triumph over the misfortune which embittered his declining years:
"If he were but behind me now,
And should this ballad hear,
Sure he’d revenge with bended bow
And I die like a deer."
The Works of John Ford ed. Rev. Alexander Dyce 3 vols. (London, 1869), vol. 3, p. 113.
McClure prints 'Catmeal', misreading a feintly-printed passage in the Library of Congress 24031999 copy. The word is clear in other copies and just readable as 'Oatmeal' in the Library of Congress copy.
And so an health to our Fraternity, and in chief to our noble Captain Driblow*n672
This speech is set as prose and is kept so here. However, the internal rhymes (row, hoe, Driblow) suggest something of a 10 or 11 syllable metre, as Clotpoll celebrates his admission to the dismal heroics of the fraternity:
and of a better row / than those of Tytere tu, or Oatmeal hoe, / and so an health to our Fraternity, / and in chief to our Noble Captain Driblow
He remains an inadequate heroic versifier as yet, however.
.[CLOTPOLL] drinks
n8822
n8823
"If he were but behind me now,
And should this ballad hear,
Sure he’d revenge with bended bow
And I die like a deer."
The Works of John Ford ed. Rev. Alexander Dyce 3 vols. (London, 1869), vol. 3, p. 113.
McClure prints 'Catmeal', misreading a feintly-printed passage in the Library of Congress 24031999 copy. The word is clear in other copies and just readable as 'Oatmeal' in the Library of Congress copy.
n672
and of a better row / than those of Tytere tu, or Oatmeal hoe, / and so an health to our Fraternity, / and in chief to our Noble Captain Driblow
He remains an inadequate heroic versifier as yet, however.
446Nicholas and AnthonyAgreed, agreed.
447DriblowNow are you to practice or exercise your quality on the next you meet that is not of the Brotherhood.
Enter MIHIL
448ClotpollAre you one of the Brotherhood, sir, of the Philoblathici?
449MihilI had else lost much, sir, I have paid all dues belonging to it.
450ClotpollSo have I, as I hope to gain honour by’t, forty pounds thick at least; yet I have this left, please you command the half, sir.[CLOTPOLL offers MIHIL money]
451MihilAnother time, your reckoning is not yet paid perhaps.CLOTPOLL puts his money [back] in his pocket
452Clotpoll’Tis the first money of mine that was refused since my coming to town. I shall save infinitely, I see, now that I am sworn. How would I swear to get by it.
453DriblowTake heed of that. Come hither, son.
[Captain DRIBLOW and CLOTPOLL talk apart]
454Mihil [Aside to NICHOLAS and ANTHONY] How have you screwed this youth up into this humour, that was such a dry miserable clown but two days since?
455Nicholas [Aside to MIHIL] The old way, by watching of him*n768
Nick means 'by keeping him awake'. See OED watch v 1.
, and keeping him high-flown a matter of forty-eight hours together.
n768
456AnthonyMen are apt to believe strange fancies in their liquor, and to entertain new opinions.*n769
Anthony makes a series of sententious statements in this scene, all worthy but all dull. The dialogue seems to confirm that, for good and ill, he is not naturally one of the wild crew of riotous young men: too moral and insufficiently witty.
n769
457MihilI have fastened three or four cups upon my precise brother. I would ’twere as many pottles†gg1680
a measure of capacity for liquids (also for corn and other dry goods, rarely for butter), equal to two quarts (four pints or half a gallon): now abolished (OED 1)
, so it would convert him into the right way of good fellowship.
gg1680
458NicholasI would we could see him, to try what good we could do upon him.
459AnthonyPerhaps we might convert him.
460MihilHe’s above still with the old men. I stole from him, but to see if your Italic†gg1688
Italian or Italianate
mistress were come yet. Your Madame.
gg1688
461NicholasNo, she comes anon. But is my affliction above still?
462MihilThy father? Yes.
464MihilAnd so is thy sister. The little rogue*n773
Mihil’s word-choice is hardly complimentary or suggestive of affection for Lucy. In the company of his peers, the young male roisterers, Mihil repeatedly downplays this relationship.
looks so squeamishly on me, and I on her, as we had never seen before; but the foolish ape, out of a present affection she has taken to my sister, has discovered to her the whole discourse of our love, and my familiarity with thee, which were enough to spoil all, if it were discovered to the old folks, before my cards were played.
n773
465NicholasWell, remember, Master Mihil, you have promised me half, if the old, dogged fellow give her all, and you marry her.
466MihilThou canst not doubt me.
467NicholasYou know I can spoil all when I list, but to show my countenance in your cause.
468MihilSuch is your virtue*n774
A play on virtue=power or might and, ironically, virtue=goodness
, sir. Well, I’ll up to ’em again before I be missed; and when they part, I am for you again.MIHIL exits
n774
469Driblow [Aloud] I have given you all the rudiments, and my most fatherly advices withal.
470ClotpollAnd the last is that I should not swear. How make you that good? I thought now I was sworn into this Brotherhood, I might have sworn what and as much as I would.*n775
Clotpoll is puzzled that having joined a dissolute society, he is forbidden swearing, the reverse of what he expected. There is also a play on swearing as pledging and swearing as cursing or blaspheming.
n775
471DriblowThat’s most unnecessary, for look you, son, the best and even the lewdest of my sons do forbear it, not out of conscience but for very good ends; and instead of an oath furnish the mouth with some affected protestation*n776
Driblow swings directly into these affected protestations, but it’s not clear whether Clotpoll realises immediately that these are examples.
. “As I am honest, it is so”. “I am no honest man if it be not”. “’Ud*n777
A contraction of 'God'.
take me, if I lie to you”. “Ne’er go”, “ne’er stir”, “I vow”, and such like.
n776
n777
472ClotpollOr “Ever credit me”, or “Let me never be trusted”.
473DriblowO, take heed of that, that may be spoken in so ill an hour, that you may run out of reputation, and never be trusted indeed; the other will gain you credit, and bring you into good and civil estimation with your hostesses; and make ’em term you “a fair conditioned gentleman if he had it”; and, “truly I never heard worse word come out of his mouth”.
474Clotpoll“Ne’er go”, “Ne’er stir”, “I vow”. I’ll have, “I vow”, then.
475AnthonyI vow, but you shall not, that’s mine.
476ClotpollCan’t you lend it me now and then, Brother? I’ll have “I swear”, then, and come as nigh swearing as I can.
477NicholasI swear but you must not, that’s mine, you know.
478ClotpollI protest then, I’ll have “I protest”†gg1690
'protest' has many contemporary uses, but can be used in a commercial context: 'to make a formal written declaration of the non-acceptance or non-payment of (a bill of exchange) when duly presented' (OED v. 2a)
, that’s a City-word*n778
The City was also more militantly reformed in doctrine than much of the rest of England, so 'protest' may be a reference to 'Protestant' also, with the sense that heart-on-sleeve religiosity is a cover for ruthless commercial activity.
, and best to cozen with.
gg1690
n778
479Driblow*n3131
This speech is misassigned to Clotpoll in the 1659 printing. The Folger Shakespeare Library B4872 ms. annotator corrects this.
Come, boys, fall to some practice. Let me see a bout at the new French balls*n2945
Driblow is encouraging the younger men to engage in an energetic dance-like performance and he makes the analogy with the French balls famous across Europe. He may be thinking especially of the galliard, which literally means a sprightly, energetic man. The galliard as a dance prized vigour and athleticism, and it would suit the hyper-masculine competitiveness Driblow is encouraging.
There is no Stage Direction indicating a dance, but the passage ends with '[Up with their battoons'. This suggests that the verbal game has been accompanied by stylised play with their battons, rather like Morris Dance stick clashing.
, sprung out of the old English vapours*n779
Vapours (OED n3) are the fumes generated by a particular vehemence and excitability of the humours. However, as with humoral pathology, there seems to be no very precise use of the term here. Rather, the vapours are a metaphor for a kind of giddiness.
.
n3131
n2945
There is no Stage Direction indicating a dance, but the passage ends with '[Up with their battoons'. This suggests that the verbal game has been accompanied by stylised play with their battons, rather like Morris Dance stick clashing.
n779
480ClotpollI protest, come on. I’ll make a third man.*n780
The young men move quickly and easily into a game of verbal wit, taking up each other’s words, often in slightly fantastical ways, contradicting, disputing, teasing and taunting. This is similar to the games of vapours in Bartholomew Fair (4.4.2-97), though Brome’s players seem less governed by their humours (or alcohol) and more aware that they are engaging in something close to ritual, as the Captain’s congratulation - ''tis very well performed' - confirms. Brome seems to scorn them less. See Michelle O'Callaghan, The English Wits: Literature and Sociability in Early Modern England , pp. 54-56.
n780
481AnthonyWhose man are you?
482NicholasWhose man is not to be asked, nor scarce whose subject, now he is of our Brotherhood.
483ClotpollYes, by your favour he may ask.
484AnthonyI ask no favour, sir.
485NicholasThat may be granted.
486ClotpollYou can grant nothing in this kind.
487AnthonyI vow, he may grant anything of any kind.
488NicholasI swear, I neither can, nor will grant that.
489ClotpollThat, I protest, may bear exception indeed.
490AnthonyExceptions amongst us? Nay, then I vow –
491NicholasI swear –
492ClotpollAnd I protest![They raise] their battoons.*n3280
1659: [Up with their battoons
n3280
493DriblowPart fair*n781
OED fair adv. 2.b.: on good terms. It may be that the game has either reached its ritual conclusion - raising the battons as though to strike each other - or that the players are in fact becoming incensed and likely to fall to blows.
, my boys; ’tis very well performed. Now drink a round to qualify*n782
As with his injunction to 'part fair', the Captain’s proposal that they 'qualify this bout' with a round of alcohol is ambiguous. Qualify may mean regulate or bring to a proper condition (OED qualify v 10) or it may mean calm or pacify (OED qualify v 9).
this bout.
n781
n782
Enter COCKBRAIN [in a false beard and wig].
494Clotpoll, Anthony, and NicholasAgreed on all parts.
495Cockbrain [Aside] Look upon me, ye Commonwealth’s men, now
Like a state-surgeon*n783
Cockbrain pronounces himself the surgeon searching the commonwealth’s wounds or injuries, and then curing it.
, while I search and try
n783
The ulcerous core of foul enormity.
These are a parcel of those venomous weeds,
That rankly†gg3124
of a luxuriant, gross or coarse quality; gross, highly offensive or loathsome; (in later use especially) grossly coarse or indecent
pester this fair garden plot.
gg3124
Whose boisterous growth is such, that I must use
More policy than strength to reach their root,
And hoist them up at once.
This is my way to get within ’em.*n4270
Cockbrain's move into iambic pentameter verse communicates his self-image as the heroic magistrate.
The first two lines of this speech are set as prose in the 1659 printing, but they are clearly iambic pentameter, like the rest of the speech.
n4270
The first two lines of this speech are set as prose in the 1659 printing, but they are clearly iambic pentameter, like the rest of the speech.
496AnthonySo, ’tis gone round.
497NicholasI muse these mumpers*n855
OED cites usages in The Weeding of Covent Garden but says the precise sense is unclear. Clearly, Brome's characters think that, as well as beggar, the word connotes prostitute. Here almost surely a sexually active woman, a prostitute, 'a goer' in colloquial modern English
come not.
n855
498ClotpollBest send a boy.
499Nicholas [Calls offstage] Drawer, ha! Where be those rascals?
500[Drawer]*n3132
There is no Speech Prefix in the 1659 printing. Nick's speech is followed by '(Within) By and By.' Neither the Stage Direction nor the Drawer's response is italicized or otherwise differentiated from Nick's speech.
[Heard offstage]*n3350
1659: (Within)
By and by.
n3132
n3350
501NicholasAre you one of ’em, sir?*n784
Nick asks Cockbrain if he is an employee of or licenced worker at the tavern.
n784
502CockbrainI am one that has the favour*n785
Cockbrain asserts that he is permitted or has the privilege to entertain in the tavern (OED favour n 3 c).
of the house, sir.
n785
503NicholasTo intrude into gentlemen’s privacies? Ha!
504CockbrainTo seek a poor living, and ’t please you, by picking up the crumbs of your liberality, for the use of my rare qualities.
505NicholasAnd what’s your quality?†gg917
a word with multiple possible meanings including profession and professional standing or ability (when reference is to actors); also referring to class and social standing (OED 3a [pertaining to class]; OED 1b and 2b [pertaining to ability])
gg917
506CockbrainIt is to speak or sing ex tempore upon any theme*n787
Extempore versification was prized and practiced in the literary societies from which such clubs as the Philoblathici descended.
that your fancy or the present occasion shall administer.
n787
507NicholasCan you drink before you lay your lips to’t?
508CockbrainO, my weak eyesight!
509ClotpollOr can you eat a crust without chawing†gg1967
a variant of chew (OED)
, made of the flour*n790
Clotpoll beats Cockbrain with his battoon; stage direction added.
of Battoon?
gg1967
n790
510CockbrainO good gentlemen, forbear, I beseech you.
511Clotpoll [Aside] “The flour of Battoon”. I protest, a good jest, and ’twas mine own before I was aware, for he had the maidenhead or first-blow of my Battoon. Nay, it shall down.*n791
Clotpoll is complacently thrilled by his newly-discovered ability to make the cruel and facile jokes characteristic of his fraternity.
[Writes in his notebook]
n791
512Cockbrain [Aside] I will not yet desist, but suffer private affliction with a Roman resolution*n3889
Cockbrain attributes to himself a Stoic capacity for suffering without complaint for the sake of the public good.
for the public welfare, with full assurance that my fortitude shall at last get within ’em.
n3889
513NicholasYou are not satisfied, it seems, you rascal. Get you gone.[NICHOLAS] kicks [COCKBRAIN]*n2208
1659: [kicks him.
n2208
514AnthonyPhew! Beat not the poor fellow so.
515ClotpollLet me come to him again, and flesh myself upon him. I will not only flesh myself, but tire upon him.*n792
He will not only attack Cockbrain as a first exercise of the bullying violence of his club, but he will continue until exhausted. The analogy is drawn from hunting. See OED, flesh v 1.
n792
516CockbrainEnough, enough, good gentlemen, you have beaten me enough of conscience. [Aside] Was ever good patriot so rudely handled? But the end crowns all.
517DriblowForbear him, sons. What canst thou be, that canst not be satisfied with beating? Speak, art a man or a ghost?
518CockbrainI have been, sir, a man, and of my hands†gg1691
a man of valour, skill or practical ability (OED cites Sir Robert Naunton's account of the reign of Elizabeth, Fragmenta regalia (1641, posthumously published after his death in 1635), in his description of Lord Hudson: 'He loved sword and buckler men, and such as our Fathers were wont to call men of their hands')
, howe’er misfortune humbles me under your manhoods. But I have seen the face of war, and served in the Low Countries, though I say ’t, on both sides.*n794
A mercenary, Cockbrain seems to mean, or perhaps as having been on both winning and losing sides. However, the young men seem to wish to take everything as obscene, and so there may be a common double-entendre in the reference to 'Low Countries'. They may imply then that 'on both sides' suggests that Cockbrain engages in both hetero- and homosexual acts.
gg1691
n794
519ClotpollThen ’tis impossible this fellow can be beat out of countenance.*n795
Discomforted, but also a joke about Janus, picking up on 'face of war', but also the sexual connotations of Cockbrain’s speech.
n795
520NicholasWe’ll leave him in his quality for that constant virtue.
521DriblowSure, ’tis Fenner*n796
Probably refers to William Fennor, the pamphleteer and antagonist of John Taylor the Water Poet. See Anna E. C. Simoni, 'William Fennor, Alias Wilhelmus Vener, Enghelsman', Neophilologus 62 (1978) 151-60 and 'A postscript to the bilingual poet' Neophilologus 66 (1982) 638-639. On the titlepage of Fennors Defence (1625), he describes himself as 'his Maiesties Ryming Poet'. Cockbrain is claiming to have combined the roles of soldier and popular poet in the tradition of Fennor and poets of earlier generations such as Thomas Blenerhasset and George Gascoigne.
or his ghost. He was a rhyming soldier. Look, do his eyes stand right*n797
The Captain questions whether Cockbrain is still sober.
?
n796
n797
522CockbrainThey had a dish e’en now, sir.
523NicholasOf sack, ’tis true. Here, take another, and wash the inside of your throat. [Gives a glass of sack to COCKBRAIN] And let us hear your pipes in their right tune.
524CockbrainGive me a theme, gentlemen.
525NicholasThe praise of sack. Sing the praise of sack.
526AnthonyLet it be of the Blade.
527ClotpollAnd the Battoon, I beseech you.
[Enter DRAWER]
528DrawerDo you call, gentlemen?
529NicholasI vow, I will have sack.*n798
Nick is continuing to argue about the theme for Cockbrain’s song but the Drawer hears this as a request for more sack. Nick then responds to the drawer with a threat, but the Drawer has already gone about his business. The play suggests an ironic view of the Philoblathici: those with real work to do pay little attention to the young men’s antics.
n798
530DrawerT’other quart of Canary? You shall.
531NicholasAre your ears so quick? I vow, I’ll dull ’em.
532DrawerAnon, anon.[Exit DRAWER]
533NicholasI say, a song of sack.
534DriblowAye, let it be of sack.
535NicholasNow you pump*n799
Probably means 'to subject (a person or thing) to a process likened to pumping, with the object of extracting something; to obtain something from by persistent effort; also, to drain, exhaust', OED pump 7. a. trans. Nick is accusing Cockbrain of stalling for time or seeking hints from others.
, do you?
n799
536CockbrainNo, sir, but think of a tune.
537ClotpollIf he can pump us up a spring of sack, we’ll keep him, and break half the vintners in town.
538CockbrainAway with all grief and give us more sack.*n801
In the 1659 text there is a stage direction at this point: '(Song. Now B. and Clot. askes Gabriel, Are you a brother. They fall in the burthen.)' However, Gabriel is not onstage in this scene; nor is any character conceivably identified by the initial 'B'. This can only refer to Betty, who is also absent. The annotator of Folger Shakespeare Library B4872 tries to sort this out, crossing out 'B. and Clotpoll asks Gabriel, Are you a brother' and Nicholas and Anthony’s next two lines. But it is more likely that the compositor has mistakenly placed here a reference in the manuscript to a different song, that in Act 4, scene 2, when Gabriel is confused about being a 'brother' and leads the party into dancing and singing. The final part of the stage direction - 'They fall in the burthen' - should be placed later in this scene, when Cockbrain sings again, this time a song with a refrain. Mihil and Anthony do join in that refrain, before stealing away while Cockbrain and Clotpoll are staring fixedly at each other.
n801
’Tis that which we love, let love have no lack.
Nor sorrow, nor care can cross our delights,
Nor witches nor goblins, nor buttery sprights*n3842
These spirits inhabited inns and taverns and were particularly implicated in adulterating drinks, or in punishing those who did so.
,
n3842
Tho’ the candles burn dim while we can do thus,
We’ll scorn to fly them, but we’ll make them fly us.
Old sack, and old songs, and a merry old crew
Will fright away sprights, when the ground looks blue*n3843
The exact meaning of this phrase is unclear, but it seems to suggest the coming on of night, the twilight, when spirits begin to come abroad.
.
n3843
539NicholasI vow, well said.
540AnthonyI swear, ’twas well.
541ClotpollI protest, the best that I have heard in this kind. I wonder at his ability. I prithee, art not acquainted with my two poetical Drury Lane writers? The cobbler and the tapster?
542CockbrainNo, sir, not I, I work not their way. What I do is ex tempore after the theme given.
543Clotpoll*n3133
1n 1659, this speech is assigned to Cockbrain.
But they run quite before you. Their works are in print sometimes, and ready to be sung about streets, of men that are hanged before they come to the gallows.
n3133
544AnthonyBut did not Mihil say he would come again?
545NicholasI marvel at his stay.
546ClotpollAye, and the mumpers, when come they? I long to see the Sisters, now I am a Brother sworn and entered.
PIG enters
547NicholasO, here comes news. How now, Pig?
548[Pig]*n3844
In the original text the name Pig and Pig's subequent line are set as part of Nick's previous speech.
You must all presently†gg103
immediately (OED adv. 3); without delay
to the Paris Tavern*n802
Another real tavern in the Covent Garden neighbourhood.
.
n3844
gg103
n802
549NicholasMust? At whose suit?
550PigMaster Mihil bade me tell you so.
551AnthonyIs he gone from hence?
552PigHe is, and all his gone and dispersed.
553NicholasThen the old Jew my father’s gone.
554PigOnly there’s one delicate, demure gentleman with Master Mihil, travelled along with him towards Paris. I believe he means to make a mouth*n803
OED 4 b: orig. cant. A person who talks foolishly; a slow-witted or gullible person; a fool, a dupe. However, OED’s own citations reveal this to be an insufficient definition, failing to make explicit the connection with money. Charles Cotton in The Compleat Gamester (1674) advises a naïve player that, if he submits meekly to being cheated of payment by a 'dry fist', one who has no intention to pay if he loses, 'the whole Gang will be watching ever and anon an opportunity to make a Mouth of you in the like nature'. Cotton completes the paragraph containing this advice, 'We need no other testimony to confirm the danger of associating with these Anthropo-phagi, or Man-Eaters, than Lincolns Inn Fields whilst Spearings Ordinary was kept in Bell-yard, and that you need not want a pair of Witnesses for the proof thereof, take in also Covent-Garden' (p. 9). By 1674, the battle for respectability so confidently declared won in the 1640 Prologue to The Weeding of Covent Garden had been decisively lost.
of him.
n803
555NicholasO, ’tis his precise brother. But where’s thy mistress and Madama Damaris, that they come not?
556PigThey desire to meet you there too, ’tis more private.
557AnthonyAway, we’ll follow thee.
558ClotpollPig, how does thy father Hog, the Turkey merchant*n804
Clotpoll plays on the ambiguity of Turkey, either the place in the Levant or the bird. A 'Turkey merchant' could mean someone who engaged in the Levant trade; or it could mean a poulterer. This ambiguity was famously exploited by Horne Tooke (1736-1812) when quizzed on his social origins at Eton (his father sold poultry and had been appointed supplier of poultry to Frederick, Prince of Wales). Clotpoll’s verbal play is about farmyard animals. Turkey merchants dealt in commodities of all sorts from the Levant but there was often an air of the rogue about them in this period, with the suspicion that they dealt in stolen or contraband goods. Nonetheless, Clotpoll's joke is a sign of the steadily increasing prominence of overseas trade and 'Turkey merchants' in early modern London: 'The increasing importance of these trades, and more especially the intimately connected Levant and East India trades, ... is a central feature of early Stuart commercial history' (Robert Ashton, The City and the Court, 1603-1643 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), p. 15).
?
n804
559PigI am in haste, sir*n805
Pig, the servant, like the Drawer before him, has no time for the stale and forced repartee of the Philoblathici.
.[PIG] exits
n805
560AnthonyWhy “Turkey merchant”?
561Clotpoll*n3135
In 1659 this speech is assigned to Pig, but he has already left the stage. Anthony is asking Clotpoll to explain his joke.
Because he trades in nothing but Turkey commodities: eggs and concubines. ’Twere well to geld him, and send him to the Grand Signior, to wait in his Seraglio.
n3135
DRAWER enters
562NicholasThou hast such a wit in this Clotpoll of thine. The reckoning*n2171
The account of what is owed, as in a tavern account, the bill for the evening’s entertainment, or a debt.
, Drawer?
n2171
563DrawerHere, here, sir, here’s your bill.[DRAWER offers the bill]
565[Drawer]*n3137
In 1659 there is no Speech Prefix and the Drawer's speech in response to the Captain's question is set as part of the latter's speech. Given that the Captain ends with 'Drawer', the compositor has probably skipped the Speech Prefix, thinking he has already set that word.
Forty shillings and three pence, sir, your dinner, and what you had since, in all, sir.
n3137
566Driblow’Tis very reasonable. Commend me to thy master. Son Clotpoll, pay ’t. [DRIBLOW gives bill to CLOTPOLL] It is your duty.
567ClotpollYes, for my Brothership.
568DriblowBoys, I must leave you.
569Cockbrain [Aside to the DRAWER] Forty shillings for four men’s dinners, note that, yet he says ’tis reasonable.
570Drawer [Aside to COCKBRAIN] Good Captain. He was ever the fairest reckoner, though he has never the luck to pay anything.
571AnthonyFare you well, father*n3845
Anthony bids farewell to Captain Driblow as his 'father', the leader of the fraternity. This is ironic, because, as Anthony will discover later, his real father, Cockbrain, is beside him in disguise.
.
n3845
572NicholasWhen we have further occasion, we’ll repair to your lodging.
573ClotpollAt Bloomsbury*n807
Like the Covent Garden district itself, Bloomsbury was on the brink of transformation in the seventeenth century. The property of the earls of Southampton, until merged through marriage with the Bedford estates in the eighteenth century, Bloomsbury was in 1600 largely agricultural and dominated by the Southampton’s manor house, later Montague House, the site of the British Museum. But as London continued its extraordinary growth, irregular residential development took place, and the district, like Covent Garden, acquired a reputation for lax morality and unregulated conduct. The pattern of squares, gardens, and orderly grid streets that now characterises the district is largely a product of eighteenth-century urban planning.
, father, I know.
n807
574CockbrainBloomsbury? Good, I note it.
575DriblowSirrah, look to the second article of your Oath.*n808
Clotpoll has forgotten that he is not to disclose any information about a fellow member of the Philoblathici that might be used to identify him. He is, indeed, overheard by that aspiring magistrate, Cockbrain.
n808
576ClotpollAgainst discovery of lodgings, haunts, or bywalks, I am warn’d.
577DriblowLook that you be so.DRIBLOW exits
578NicholasForty shillings and three pence. You’ll bate†gg1692
to reduce or forgive, as in rebate
the three pence, will you not?
gg1692
579DrawerWe’ll not much stand for that, sir, though our master sits at dear rent*n811
It is ironic that the landlord may well be Rooksbill, Nick’s father. Nick’s silence on this point suggests once again his moral slipperiness. In Act 1, scene 2, when he thought such information might gain him advantage with Dorcas through intimidation and barely-concealed threats, Nick was only too willing to disclose that his father was a major property owner in the district.
.
n811
580NicholasGive me your two pieces.
581AnthonyPray let me see the bill before you pay it.*n810
Anthony’s willingness to scrutinize the bill or reckoning marks him as no real gallant. See Thomas Dekker, The Guls Horne-book (1609): 'When the terrible reckoning (like an inditement) bids you hold up your hand, and that you must answer it at the bar; you must not abate one penny in any particular, no, though they reckon cheese to you, when you have neither eaten any, nor could ever abide it, raw or toasted: but cast your eye only upon the totals and no further: for to traverse the bill would betray you to be acquainted with the rates of the market: nay, more; it would make the vintners believe you were pater-familias, and kept a house which, I assure you, is not now in fashion' (p. 35). Significantly, Cockbrain praises his son’s citizen-like attention to detail, revealing their affinity and marking them both as less than fashionable. Nick does ask to 'abate one penny', or rather three; perhaps his station is not entirely secure.
[CLOTPOLL passes the bill to ANTHONY]
n810
582NicholasWell, I can hold it then.*n4264
The general meaning of this exchange is clear: Nicholas is more than happy not to receive the bill, which passes to Anthony for checking and then to Clotpoll for payment. The exact meaning of Nicholas's line is unclear, however.
n4264
583Anthony“Bread and beer, one shilling four pence”. I do not think we four could eat three pence of bread and, for my part, I drank but two glasses of beer.
584NicholasAnd I but one, I vow.
585ClotpollAnd my father and I but one betwixt us, I protest.
586DrawerHa’ you no men below*n812
The drawer asks if the amount listed doesn’t include some food and drink consumed by their servants, 'below'.
?
n812
587NicholasBelow the earth, doest mean? I am sure we have none above ground.
588DrawerI know not, gentlemen, there’s so much reckoned at the bar; and you please you may see it.
589AnthonyNay, an’t be at the bar*n813
Anthony plays on the different meanings of bar. A barrister is said to have been 'called to the bar' (OED bar n 24). Dekker uses the same pun (see note 810).
, it stands for law. Well, wine five shillings nine pence, I think we had no less. A shoulder of mutton stuffed with oysters, eight shillings, that cost your master very near ten groats; a brace of partridge, five shillings; a couple of cocks, four shillings six pence; a dozen of larks, twenty pence; anchovies, six shillings. I swear, but a saucer full!
n813
590DrawerI’ll be sworn they are so much reckoned in the kitchen.
591AnthonyAll’s law, I tell you, all’s law in taverns. But I hope there will be a law for you one o’ these days*n3394
Kaufmann notes (p. 70) that 'there was a royal proclamation, dated February 1633-34 (o.s.), which fixed ceiling prices on poultry, eggs, butter, etc.'.
. Then is there fruit and cheese, tobacco, fire, and I know not what. Is ’t right cast*n814
Is the addition correct?
?
n3394
n814
592Cockbrain Aside There is more hope of that young man than of all the rest. Indeed it is a sore abuse, another very weed in the city. I do note that also.
593NicholasSirrah, before you have your money, fetch me a glass of beer. But canst thou sing this upon any subject?
594CockbrainAny, sir, any, an’t be till midnight.Exit [DRAWER]*n9056
The 1659 edition simply has 'Ex.' at the end of Cockbrain's line, with no indication of who leaves the stage. Cockbrain, Anthony, Nicholas, and Clotpol continue talking, however, and the Drawer re-enters some lines later.
n9056
595NicholasBut you have strange helps to your invention. I did note the rolling o’ th’ eye, and rubbing your brows sometimes.
596ClotpollSo did I, I protest, and therefore, I tell you what. If he can sing such another song, and look steadfastly the while upon anything, and hold his hands behind him, I’ll give him half a crown; if not, not, he shall ha’ nothing for tother.
597CockbrainAgreed, gentlemen, give me your theme.
598AnthonyYou shall give it him.
599NicholasAnd withal, watch him if he stir hand or eye, especially the eye.
600ClotpollI will, I protest, and set mine eye against his, that he shall not twink†gg1693
wink an eye (OED v. 1)
, but I’ll perceive it, and lay him o’er the pate.
gg1693
601CockbrainWell, sir, your theme?
602ClotpollIn praise of the Battoon, and if you miss it you shall be sure on’t.*n2172
Sing well about the Battoon or you will be beaten with it.
n2172
603CockbrainYou’ll help me with the burden, gentlemen?
604NicholasYes, yes, for the more grace of the song.
605ClotpollTake you care for that. Set your eyes*n816
Nick has set Cockbrain and Clotpoll up with a staring competition, with the result that they are not aware of his and Anthony’s escape without paying.
and begin.
n816
[COCKBRAIN sings. COCKBRAIN and CLOTPOLL stare fixedly at each other. NICHOLAS and ANTHONY join in the refrain initially but exit undetected during the song]*n2210
1659: Song
n2210
606CockbrainTo prove the battoon the most noble to be,
Of all other weapons observe his degree,
In field to be leader of all other arms,
To conquest and honour, through hazard and harms.
The gallant and peasant, the lord and the loon,
Must move by the motion of the leader’s battoon.
The pike and the halbard are subject to it,
The ensign, the partisan†gg1962
a member of a small body of light or irregular troops operating independently and engaging in surprise attacks, etc.; a guerrilla (OED Partisan n1, 2)
, all must submit,
gg1962
To advance, or retire, fall back, or come on,
As they are directed by the leader’s battoon.
Then it is to the soldier the greatest renown,
To purchase by service to bear the battoon.
607ClotpollMarry, and take it, sir. [CLOTPOLL gives COCKBRAIN money]*n8824
Cockbrain seems to have succeeded in singing ex tempore without looking away or 'pumping'.
Why do you stare about? Though you have broke covenant, I have not.
n8824
608CockbrainWhere be the gentlemen?
609ClotpollHa! They are not gone, I hope. Enter DRAWER*n2211
The Stage Direction has been moved up in this edition.
Where be my Brothers, Drawer?
n2211
610DrawerGone, sir, and have sent me to you for the reckoning.
611ClotpollI protest, you jest, do you not? I gave ’em the full sum*n818
Actually, Clotpoll had his money returned to him by Nick. Either there’s a confusion or missing moment or Clotpoll is getting the hang of forcing others to pay up, to make a 'mouth' of others: Cockbrain funds them here.
, and all the money I had, I protest, I swear, I vow. [Aside] Now they are not here, I may make bold with their words*n819
He uses expostulations more than 'I protest' because those members of the Philoblathici to whom they properly belong are out of earshot.
. They have my money, I am sure.
n818
n819
612DrawerIf you have no money, pray leave a pawn, sir.
613ClotpollTake him there, put him in a cage, and let him sing it out.
614DrawerWe know him not, sir.
615ClotpollNo? He said he had the favour of the house to sing to gentlemen.
616Cockbrain [Aside] I fear I shall be discovered. [Aloud] Sir, I can give your worship credit for a piece till you come to your lodging.[COCKBRAIN gives CLOTPOLL a coin]
617Clotpoll’Protest, thou art generous; nay, I know where to find ’em; and thou shalt go with me to ’em, we will not part now, we’ll show*n3138
1659: shoune. McClure: show. The OED does not list this as a variant of show, but Clotpoll may be using a country dialect variant that connects to the Old English etymology of the modern word.
’em. I vow,*n3139
1659, McClure: 'I vow, (the words out) here'. This reading makes no obvious sense and so the phrase '(the words out) here' have been omitted. I suspect that the compositor has misinterpreted annotation to the playbook: someone in the printing house has noted a problem with the manuscript -- 'the word's out [in error, missing, or misplaced] here' -- and the compositor has assumed that the annotation is part of Clotpoll's speech. The word 'out' is used with this sense in The Winter's Tale 2.1.73, when Leontes loses his train of thought under the pressure of emotion: 'oh, I am out'. Even more pertinently, Joseph Moxon in Mechanick exercises on the whole art of printing (1683) describes how to indicate an omission occuring during composition: 'If a whole Sentence be Left out, too long to be writ in the Margin, he makes the mark of Insertion where it is Left out, and only Writes (Out) in the Margin' (p. 248).
I’ll leave my sword for tother piece.[CLOTPOLL offers his sword as surety;
DRAWER refuses to accept it]
n3138
n3139
DRAWER refuses to accept it]
618DrawerYour sword will not serve, sir, I doubt.
619ClotpollTake my coat too; [CLOTPOLL offers both his sword and his coat; DRAWER accepts them] a friend and a battoon is better then a coat and a sword at all times.
620Cockbrain [Aside] I am glad my fear is over.
And after all my sufferings, if at last,*n820
The final two lines are set as verse in the 1659 text, making the couplet rhyme more obvious. Although the beginning of this sentence is set as prose, it is an iambic pentameter and so set here as verse. Ending a scene on a couplet is conventional; here, however, it also allows Cockbrian to display his self-delusion and self-satisfaction as the weeder of the garden.
n820
Cockbrain crow not these roaring lions down,
Let him be balladed about the town.All exit
3.2
[ROOKSBILL’s house.]
LUCY and KATHERINE enter
n3140
1659: Scæn. 2. Enter Lucie, Katharine, Belt. McClure: Enter Lucy, Katherine.
Belt does not speak in this part of the scene and is marked separately as entering within a few lines of its end. McClure deletes him from the entrance here, as does this edition. However, keeping him onstage, as a silent but significant character, overhearing the women's conversation while they to differing degrees ignore someone who is only a servant, offers fascinating possibilities for staging. Belt's overhearing of dangerous, and thus potentially useful, secrets would be consistent with his role in the play: several times he overhears and then reveals sensitive information when he thinks he might derive benefit.
Staging the scene with Belt present from the outset, though it would probably not survive in a full performance, highlights the tensions and dangers of the interchange between Katherine and Lucy. Lucy is acting as hostess or landlady, a proxy for her father Rooksbill; her relationship in one aspect is commercial or professional. But both she and Katherine know that they may soon be related, by virtue of Lucy's marriage to Katherine's brother Mihil. The two women have to navigate their way from one relationship to another, with all that that entails of shifting power and class relations. This is done through the sharing of somewhat shaming family secrets (at least by Katherine); by Lucy more freely acknowledging sexual motives and conduct in ways not usually done in bourgeois conversation; in changes of diction and syntax. All this is complicated by the presence of a male servant, which intensifies both the class and gender negotiations of the two women.
The conversation between Katherine and Lucy occurs at the midpoint of the play. From this point onwards, the plot will hurtle forward, with multiple plot lines being resolved at breakneck speed. Brome has Katherine and Lucy recapitulate major elements of the story, and Katherine is given lines that enable the actor to insist that the audience pay attention. In the workshop exploration of the exchange, Richard Cave pointed out that the audience knows virtually all the information given in Katherine's exposition, but it has not known what is or is not significant, nor how different plot elements connect. The scene's dense exposition is carefully structured and expressed, gathering up the audience to ensure that everyone is 'up to speed' before proceeding.
n3140
Belt does not speak in this part of the scene and is marked separately as entering within a few lines of its end. McClure deletes him from the entrance here, as does this edition. However, keeping him onstage, as a silent but significant character, overhearing the women's conversation while they to differing degrees ignore someone who is only a servant, offers fascinating possibilities for staging. Belt's overhearing of dangerous, and thus potentially useful, secrets would be consistent with his role in the play: several times he overhears and then reveals sensitive information when he thinks he might derive benefit.
Staging the scene with Belt present from the outset, though it would probably not survive in a full performance, highlights the tensions and dangers of the interchange between Katherine and Lucy. Lucy is acting as hostess or landlady, a proxy for her father Rooksbill; her relationship in one aspect is commercial or professional. But both she and Katherine know that they may soon be related, by virtue of Lucy's marriage to Katherine's brother Mihil. The two women have to navigate their way from one relationship to another, with all that that entails of shifting power and class relations. This is done through the sharing of somewhat shaming family secrets (at least by Katherine); by Lucy more freely acknowledging sexual motives and conduct in ways not usually done in bourgeois conversation; in changes of diction and syntax. All this is complicated by the presence of a male servant, which intensifies both the class and gender negotiations of the two women.
The conversation between Katherine and Lucy occurs at the midpoint of the play. From this point onwards, the plot will hurtle forward, with multiple plot lines being resolved at breakneck speed. Brome has Katherine and Lucy recapitulate major elements of the story, and Katherine is given lines that enable the actor to insist that the audience pay attention. In the workshop exploration of the exchange, Richard Cave pointed out that the audience knows virtually all the information given in Katherine's exposition, but it has not known what is or is not significant, nor how different plot elements connect.
The scene's dense exposition is carefully structured and expressed, gathering up the audience to ensure that everyone is 'up to speed' before proceeding.
621LucyLet me now bid you welcome to my father’s housen2212
The opening exchanges between Lucy and Katherine are dominated by possessive pronouns, a powerful indication of the powerlessness of the women in the play, which is only too well recognized by these characters. Their opening exchanges emphasise 'his' and their subjection to their fathers.
The exchange is also fascinating for the cautious and respectful manner in which Lucy approaches Katherine, perhaps not only because of the difference in their status but also because she is not sure whether Katherine will be trustworthy. Lucy's first speech is distanced, a commercial formulation, even slightly legal in its caution.
where, till your own be fitted, though my father keep too private a family to express large entertainment, yet I hope at worst you shall ha’ convenient lodging.
n2212
The exchange is also fascinating for the cautious and respectful manner in which Lucy approaches Katherine, perhaps not only because of the difference in their status but also because she is not sure whether Katherine will be trustworthy. Lucy's first speech is distanced, a commercial formulation, even slightly legal in its caution.
622KatherineIndeed, I am glad that my father yielded to your father’s friendly request in itn7337
Katherine's reply, with its exaggerated emphasis on both young women as proxies for their fathers, without power to express their own wills, begins the process of creating a more intimate relationship between them. Subjection to their fathers is an experience common to them; acknowledging it creates a shared space in which intimacy can develop.
Throughout exploration of the scene, the director Brian Woolland and the actors kept trying to discern and mark the stages of the journey from wary reserve to complicity and intimacy. This was all the more complex given that the scene is not solely naturalistic. As exposition becomes more prominent, so the actors addressed the audience more, archly acknowledging the theatricality and humour of the scene. In a speech such as this there seemed almost an element of stand-up comedy.
, and the more, in regard he is so hard to be entreated to anything; but especially for your society’s sake, sweet sister. Indeed I’ll call you sister always*n7345
Katherine's heavy use of 'sister' shows her trying hard to break down Lucy's reserve.
, and I hope you shall be shortly in my brother Mihil’s right.
n7337
Throughout exploration of the scene, the director Brian Woolland and the actors kept trying to discern and mark the stages of the journey from wary reserve to complicity and intimacy. This was all the more complex given that the scene is not solely naturalistic. As exposition becomes more prominent, so the actors addressed the audience more, archly acknowledging the theatricality and humour of the scene. In a speech such as this there seemed almost an element of stand-up comedy.
n7345
623LucyI have laid open my heart to you, which indeed is his; but your father, I fear, will never be won.
624KatherineWhy, you would not have him too, sister, would you?n821
Katherine’s slightly or potentially off-colour joking has something of the quality of Mary Crawford’s inappropriate speech in Mansfield Park (Vol. 1, Ch. 6): '"Certainly, my home at my uncle's brought me acquainted with a circle of admirals. Of Rears and Vices, I saw enough. Now, do not be suspecting me of a pun, I entreat". Edmund again felt grave, ....'. Lucy Rooksbill does not have the security of gentry status and perhaps shows her city morality by failing to join in, at least initially. Katherine’s secure status permits her to get away with such a transgression; Lucy has no such latitude. But Katherine's conduct is a kind of invitation to Lucy to emerge from her cautious reserve, to establish a more intimate relationship. The actors sought to mark this by having Katherine at this point force Lucy, previously standing and looking at a non-commital tangent, to engage in direct eye-contact. In performance there was a sense of Lucy discovering new emotional possibilities.
However, there is again a hint of a potential incest plot: Crosswill has already appraised Lucy’s person and will do so again in the final act. As a widower, there is nothing to prevent him from marrying Lucy himself. Katherine's joke -- maybe Lucy does want Crosswill for herself -- may have an edge to it. Lucy could become not her sister but her step-mother.
n821
But Katherine's conduct is a kind of invitation to Lucy to emerge from her cautious reserve, to establish a more intimate relationship. The actors sought to mark this by having Katherine at this point force Lucy, previously standing and looking at a non-commital tangent, to engage in direct eye-contact. In performance there was a sense of Lucy discovering new emotional possibilities. However, there is again a hint of a potential incest plot: Crosswill has already appraised Lucy’s person and will do so again in the final act. As a widower, there is nothing to prevent him from marrying Lucy himself. Katherine's joke -- maybe Lucy does want Crosswill for herself -- may have an edge to it. Lucy could become not her sister but her step-mother.
625LucyHis consent I would*n7339
Already the male pronouns are becoming bewildering: just who is 'he' in these speeches? The confusion possibly suggests the difficulties of this play's female characters making their way through a universe of almost undifferentiated male power.
, and my father’s, I hope, would easily be wrought. You saw he was willing your other brother should have me at the first sight, merely for his reservedness, and Mihil methought carried himself as civil today as he; I mean, as civilly for a gentleman, that should not look like one [of the] fathers*n3141
1659: one fathers. This emendation is also made by the National Art Library Dyce 25.E.45 ms. annotator.
of the Dutch Church at five and twenty.*n3142
Calvinism dominated the Protestantism of the Low Countries and Lucy associates excessive and ostentatious sobriety and seriousness with them. No gentleman, she says, least of all a man of twenty-five, would countenance presenting himself in this way.
n7339
n3141
n3142
626KatherineHe was put to ’t today. The noise of the tavern had almost wrought his zeal into fury. It is scarce out of my head yet.
627LucyBut you were about to tell me*n822
The pronouns here are confusing. 'He' in Katherine's previous speech refers to Mihil: he was almost unable to keep up the pretence because the noise of the tavern was so intoxicating. But here 'he' must refer to Gabriel and how he became a Puritan.
This is another of Lucy's interventions to steer Katherine back to telling the story. Lucy's phrases of encouragement and reminder almost resemble prompts to the other actor.
how he first fell into this vein, this vanity indeed.
n822
This is another of Lucy's interventions to steer Katherine back to telling the story. Lucy's phrases of encouragement and reminder almost resemble prompts to the other actor.
628KatherineI’ll tell you now, and in that something worth your observationn7343
Katherine is instructing not only Lucy to pay attention, but also the audience. 'Observation' and 'observe' (in Lucy's next line) are followed by 'note' and more injunctions ('mark') to pay attention as the scene progresses. In the workshop performance, the actors experimented with different degrees of interaction with the audience, the director Brian Woolland encouraging them to range up to a point which would be too much for a full staging but which demonstrated the degree to which the actor appeared simultaneously with the character.
.
n7343
629LucyI will observe you.
630KatherineMy father has an humour not to like anything at first, nor accept best courtesies of friends, though presently he finds ’em most commodious to him, things that he knows not how to be without; and oftentimes desires with the same breath the things he vilified, and scorned them the last syllable he spake before. You saw when your father offered him the use of his house here till his own be furnished, he cried, “Hah! Are all the houses in the town yours, sir?”; and yet presently†gg103
immediately (OED adv. 3); without delay
entreated for’t, and thanked him.
gg103
631LucyThat shows the best nature, they say.
632KatherineBut that is seldom attended by the best fortune. Nay, in us, I mean, his children, he will like nothing, no, not those actions which he himself cannot deny are virtuous; he will cross us in all we do, as if there were no other way to show his power over our obedience.
633Lucy’Tis a strange fatherly care.
634KatherineNow, note the punishment that follows it. There’s not a child he has, though we all know what we do, that makes any conscience of crossing him, we have so much of his good nature in us.
635LucyAnd that’s as odd a duty in children.
636KatherineI must confess it is a stubbornness. Yet for the most part we do nothing but that which most parents would allow in their children. And now for my brother Gabriel, with whom I must bring in the story of another kinswoman of ours my father had at home with us.
637LucySo*n823
The actors need to determine how to interpret Lucy’s concise responses in this dialogue. One possibility is that her reservedness communicates the tension of the relationship, as she reveals little in response to Katherine's revelations. In this interpretation she resembles Horatio in Hamlet (5.2.1-82), when he is extremely cautious in responding to news of the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. It may be that Lucy’s reserve indicates that she is aware of the ambiguity of Dorcas’s status.
Alternatively, the scene could be played with silences following her interjections, making clear Katherine's difficulties in speaking so openly to a stranger of her family's disfunction.
.
n823
Alternatively, the scene could be played with silences following her interjections, making clear Katherine's difficulties in speaking so openly to a stranger of her family's disfunction.
638KatherineNay, mark, I pray you, as I would entreat an auditory†gg1694
audience
, if I now were a poet, to mark the plot and several†gg1695
different, separate
points of my play, that they might not say when ’tis done, they understood not this or that, or how such a part came in or went out, because they did not observe the passagesn826
Such a speech is bound to provoke laughter in a theatre, as it did in the reading at the Globe Theatre in London in the 'Read not Dead' series. The metatheatricality acknowledges the contrived nature of the play and complexity of the plot, and also that it is much to do with disguise and assumed and created identities. However, the admonition to the audience to pay close attention to this piece of exposition is only too necessary at this stage.
In the workshop exploring the scene, the actors and director experimented with different degrees of openness in the acknowledgement of the audience. The scene seems to demand more rather than less explicitness in addressing this admonition to the audience. Thereafter, the actors maintained this contact, but through glances at individual audience members; having made this unambiguous metatheatrical statement, they could be understated for the rest of the scene.
.
gg1694
gg1695
n826
In the workshop exploring the scene, the actors and director experimented with different degrees of openness in the acknowledgement of the audience.
The scene seems to demand more rather than less explicitness in addressing this admonition to the audience. Thereafter, the actors maintained this contact, but through glances at individual audience members; having made this unambiguous metatheatrical statement, they could be understated for the rest of the scene.
639LucyWell on, I pray.
640KatherineMy brother Gabriel, when he was a boy, nay, till within these two years, was the wildest untamed thing that the country could possibly hold.
641LucySo he is still for ought I know, for I think no man of his religion in his wits.
642KatherineI mean in outward conversation, he was the ring-leader of all the youthful fry†gg3106
children
,
to fairs, to wakes, to May-games, football-matches, anything that had but noise and tumult in it;
then he was captain of the young train-band, and exercised the youth of twenty parishes in
martial discipline. O, he did love to imitate a soldier the best, – and so in everything,
that there was not an handsome maid in an whole county
could be quiet†gg3172
undisturbed, free from interference
for him.
gg3106
gg3172
643LucyHe may be good at that sport still, for there is almost none
of his sect holds any other game lawful*n3846
Lucy refers to the Puritan opposition to all forms of sport; the controversy over traditional games and pastimes has already been mentioned in connection with Gabriel's Puritanism. See [NOTE n362]. Here, Lucy on one level says that the only form of entertainment allowed ('lawful') by Puritans ('his sect') is military training or playing soldiers. However, Katherine has gone on to say that playing the soldier was also a way of seducing young women: 'there was not a handsome maid in an whole county could be quiet for him'. Lucy maybe implies that the Puritans hypocritically find the 'sport' of seduction allowable too.
.
n3846
644KatherineYet did he bear the civilest and the best ordered affection to our kinswoman I spoke of.
645LucyYes, I remember.
646KatherineSo loving to her person, so tender of her honour that nothing but too near affinity of
blood could have kept them asunder.
647LucyAnd she did love him as well?
648KatherineO dearly, virtuously well; but my father, fearing what youth in heat of blood might do,
removes my brother Gabriel from home into the service
of a reverend bishop*n3847
The 1630s saw growing controversy over the episcopacy, the validity and authority of which had been in question since Calvinism became a powerful strain in English protestantism in the 1560s. The Laudian episcopacy was increasingly attacked by some as corrupt and scarcely reverend, and this line may well have elicited a wry chuckle from sections of the original audience. Writings by such as John Bastwick (Elenchus religionis papisticae (1624, 1627; republished (often) as Flagellum pontificis et episcoporum Latialium (1634)) and Alexander Leighton (Sion's Plea Against the Prelacy (1629)) were notorious during the period of this play's first performances.
to follow good examples.
n3847
649LucyBut he learned not to be a Puritan there, I hope.
650KatherineYou shall hear, sister. Soon after came a gallant into the country
from London*n827
This is the sole use of the word 'London' in the play.
here, and, as we after
found, a citizen’s son, though he showed
like a lord there*n828
Rooksbill is a citizen and of inferior class, at least in the eyes of country gentry like the Crosswill family. But money, however accumulated, seems to be able to claim whatever status it likes once in the country. If gentility, honour, and virtue are defined only by the outward signs of clothing and accessories, there is nothing to differentiate the well-dressed upstart from the prince. This connects with Mihil's complaint about the pernicious effects of money in Act 2, Scene 1. But such caste disdain is undercut by the irony that Katherine is speaking of Lucy's own family. It is certainly true that Crosswill's younger son is the one who marries into trade or commerce; but there seems little sign in the play that Gabriel will mature enough to marry and beget legitimate heirs. The danger of educating and marrying a younger son without regard to the possibility that he might become the heir are well embodied in the career of John (Jack) Verney, younger son of Sir Edmund. Born in 1640, Jack Verney became a merchant in the Levant, then London; married first the daughter of a draper; but inherited the baronetcy and the estates after his elder brother predeceased their father. Ironically, it was this City-culture son who guided the family to higher status, becoming Baron Verney of Belterfast and Viscount Fermanaugh (Irish peerage) in 1703. (See Adrian Tinniswood, The Verneys (London: Cape, 2007), Ch. 23 in particular.
. Briefly, he grew acquainted with my brother Mihil.
Then wooed and won my cousin so secretly, my father never suspected; not he
nor I e’er knew whose son he was, nor of what occupation my old lord
his father*n4586
Katherine is unaware that she is referring to Rooksbill, Lucy's own father; Lucy does not know this either. The breezy jocularity is ironic.
was; but he promised her marriage, clapped her you may guess wheren7348
Katherine's starkly Anglo-Saxon verb is almost vulgar. It is both potentially shocking and also liberating for Lucy.
,
and so like the slippery Trojan*n829
Aeneas, who seduced and abandoned Dido.
left her.
n827
n828
n4586
n7348
n829
651LucyO devilish rascal!n7347
Katherine's almost rakish jocularity could be played as having its effect here, permitting Lucy (and the audience) to take a certain pleasure is risque conversation.
n7347
652KatherineAnd, foolish creature, she soon repented it, and with her shame is fled to what part of the world we know not.
653LucyIn truth ’tis pitiful; that villain would†gg1696
should
be hanged.*n4587
Again, the audience recognizes the irony that, unknown to her, Lucy is condemning her own brother.
gg1696
n4587
654KatherineNow upon this my poor brother that loved her so, fell into discontent, forsook his lord, and would have left the land, but that he was prevented and brought home.
655LucyAnd ever since he has been thus religious.
656KatherineThus obstinate, or I think verily he does it but to cross my father, for sending him out of the way when the mischief was done.
657LucyI will not then believe ’tis religion in any of the gang of ’em, but mere wilful affectation. But why or wherein do you or Mihil cross your father?
658KatherineI tell you, sister, we must. He is so cross himself, that we shall never get anything of him that we desire, but by desiring the contrary.
659LucyWhy then do you desire him to get you a husband?n7346
Lucy here seems to be playing the 'straight man' in this double-act, offering Katherine opportunities to say revealing and funny things. But Lucy is also acting as a proxy for the audience, which is working hard to assimilate new information and, more importantly, to sort through knowledge acquired earlier in the play to discern the plot and relative importance. In the workshop exploration of the play it became clear that Brome at times makes Lucy especially slow on the uptake -- she is the least perceptive member of Katherine's audience. Lucy's slowness becomes another of the ways in which the scene gives the audience permission to laugh in complicity. The audience, as Marion O'Connor pointed out, feel superior to Lucy and enjoy the feeling that they understand more than her.
n7346
660KatherineBecause he should get me none. O sister, both he and Master Cockbrain can wish now that I had had his son.*n4589
The audience must not linger here, for the play provides no reason why Katherine and Anthony should not get married, now that their fathers are in agreement.
n4589
661LucyThere’s another youth now gone on love’s pilgrimage, e’er since your father crossed him in your love not to be heard of*n3848
Lucy's jocular phrasing makes this slightly unclear on the page: Katherine and Anthony's love was not tolerated by their fathers, hence it is their 'love not to be heard of'.
.
n3848
662KatherineHush! the old men.n7349
Katherine's irreverend reference to their fathers is something Lucy would not have joined in with at the scene's beginning; it is a measure of the distance the two women have travelled in their relationship.
The scene could be static, with the actors trapped by exposition; but by the end of the workshop staging it had several different kinds of vitality: physical, psychological, and theatrical in the sense that the actors and audience shared the experience of thinking about the play's structure and acknowledging its complexities and contrivances. What could have been seemed somewhat leaden on the page was revealed as funny and energising on the stage.
n7349
The scene could be static, with the actors trapped by exposition; but by the end of the workshop staging it had several different kinds of vitality: physical, psychological, and theatrical in the sense that the actors and audience shared the experience of thinking about the play's structure and acknowledging its complexities and contrivances. What could have been seemed somewhat leaden on the page was revealed as funny and energising on the stage.
ROOKSBILL and CROSSWILL enter
663RooksbillIn good truth, sir, I am taken with your conversation. I like it now exceeding well.
664CrosswillI am glad it pleases you.
665Rooksbill’Tis very fair and friendly, I find we shall accord.
666CrosswillI am glad I have it for you, sir; I pray, make bold with it.
667RooksbillThen pray, sir, let me urge my motion a little further to you.
668CrosswillWhat is ’t? You cannot utter it so easily as I shall grant it; out with it, man.
669RooksbillThat you will be pleased to accept my daughter for either of your sons, your youngest if you please; now I have seen him, I’ll give him with her presently†gg103
immediately (OED adv. 3); without delay
, either in hand a thousand pound and five hundred pound a child as fast as he can get ’em. And all I shall die seized of.
gg103
670Crosswill [Aside] What a dogbolt†gg1697
Applied to a person as a term of contempt or reproach. Perhaps originally the term meant a 'mere tool to be put to any use' or 'one at the command of another'; but generally defines a 'contemptible fellow, mean wretch'. Now obsolete.
is this to think that I should get a child*n832
Part of the egotistical sublime of these fathers, that they speak of 'child' when they mean 'grandchild'.
for him!
gg1697
n832
671RooksbillI hope you do think well on ’t.
672Lucy [Aside to KATHERINE] Pray love he does. I hope so too.
673Katherine [Aside to LUCY] Aye, mark his answer.
674LucyI could find in my heart to ask his goodwill myself.
675KatherineAnd that were a sure way to go without it,
676RooksbillHow say you, sir, is’t a match?
677CrosswillI will not stay a minute in thy house, though I lie in the street for ’t. Huswife, I’ll sort you with fitter companions. Come, follow me quickly.
678RooksbillHeaven bless me and my child too from matching with such a disposition!
679KatherineTruly, sir, I longed to be out o’th’ house before.
680CrosswillBefore you came in it, did you not? Ha!
681KatherineThese new walls do so stink of the lime, methinks.*n4590
Katherine is clearly referring to more than the newly-constructed building here. Her insult encompasses the upstart Rooksbill family and exposes her father's class-based disdain. Her strategy is, no doubt, to provoke him to back down in response, thus using his own 'crossness' and perversity to defuse his snobbery.
n4590
682CrosswillMarry, fough†gg1963
an exclamation of abhorrence or disgust (OED)
. Goody†gg2801
a term of civility formerly applied to a woman, usually a married woman, in humble life; often prefixed as a title to the surname; hence, a woman to whose station this title is appropriate (OED Goody 1a)
Foist†gg441
a cheat or a rogue (OED n4)
*n2173
Crosswill knows he is being manipulated by his daughter, but he is nonetheless unable to resist the bait. Her pretend squeamishness and enthusiasm to leave force him to cross her and confirm that they will remain.
.
gg1963
gg2801
gg441
n2173
683KatherineThere can be no healthy dwelling in ’em this twelve-month yet.
684CrosswillAre you so tender-bodied?
685RooksbillEven please yourselves, then, where you can like better, and you shall please me.
686CrosswillWhy, you will not thrust me out of your house, will you? Ha!
687RooksbillThere’s no such haste, sir.
688CrosswillIndeed there is not, nor will I out, for all your haste neither. I’ll look to my bargain.*n3849
] I'le have look to my bargain
Deletion of 'have' makes this grammatically correct and comprehensible. This appears to be another currente calamo correction in the manuscript; the compositor has set what he sees, rather than correcting the grammar.
*n4591
Crosswill as ever is inconsistent, opposing whatever has been last said. Having threatened to depart Rooksbill's house on class grounds, the moment his landlord expresses the desire to be rid of his new tenant Crosswill becomes fixated on the fulfilment of the bargain to provide him with lodging.
n3849
Deletion of 'have' makes this grammatically correct and comprehensible. This appears to be another currente calamo correction in the manuscript; the compositor has set what he sees, rather than correcting the grammar.
n4591
689RooksbillWith all my heart, sir.
690CrosswillBut no more of your idle motions, if you love your ease in your house, your inn here.
BELT enters
691BeltHere’s a letter, sir, from Master Cockbrain.
692CrosswillIs the bearer paid, or give him that, an’t please you.
[CROSSWILL beats BELT]*n2213
Crosswill gives Belt something, which could conceivably be a tip for the bearer of the message. But Belt says 'I must suffer', so it is likely that he is beaten as so often in the play.
n2213
693BeltSomebody has angered him, and I must suffer.
694CrosswillI sent you to seek my sons, good sir, have you found ’em? Ha!
695BeltI cannot find ’em, sir. They went out of the tavern together, they say, and I have been at Master Mihil’s chamber, and there they are not. I went to the tavern again, and there they were not. Then I beat all the rest o’ th’ bushes*n3386
As Steggle comments (p. 51), Belt is misled by the fact that so many unlicensed drinking places are attempting to evade detection by not displaying the traditional sign of a tavern. He puns on 'bushes', the signs of drinking establishments, to present his search in terms of a forest hunt.
in this forest of fools and mad men, and cannot find ’em, I, where e’er they be.
n3386
696CrosswillSirrah, go find ’em where e’er they be, anywhere, or nowhere, find ’em, and find ’em quickly; I’ll find ’em in your coxsomb else, d’ ye see! And bring my son’s sanctity*n833
A contemptuous reference to Gabriel’s religiosity.
home before it be dark, lest he take up his lodging in a church porch; and charge Master Mihil that he come not to me till I send for him. Here’s danger i’ th’ house. There was a match-motion indeed.
n833
697RooksbillGood sir, either like my house well, or be pleased to please yourself with some better.
698CrosswillPray, sir, be quiet in your house, lest I send you out of it to seek another. Let me see my chamber.
699RooksbillHe must have his way, I see.All exit
Edited by Michael Leslie