THE NEW ACADEMY,
OR, THE NEW EXCHANGE.
OR, THE NEW EXCHANGE.
The Actors’ Names.
| [Link] | |
| Sir Swithin WHILMBY | a melancholy widower; suitor to the Lady Nestlecock |
| Old MATCHIL | a merchant that married his maid; Gabriella’s* n5115
|
| PAPILLION*n5153
| alias [Young] Philip Matchil, his son |
| Old LAFOY | a French gentleman, guardian to young Matchil |
| GALLIARD*n5154
| alias [Young] Frances Lafoy, his son |
| Master HARDYMAN*n5118
His name, 'Hardyman', is probably intended to communicate his robust, stoic nature. | Captain Valentine’s father-in-law;*n5148
|
| STRIGOOD | half brother to Matchil |
| VALENTINE Askal | son-in-law to Hardyman*n5116
|
| ERASMUS*n5149
Quite what this means for Brome's character is difficult to say. It may be that Brome is suggesting through this name the character's uneasy position on the play's moral spectrum: friend and enabler of the exploitative Valentine, Erasmus nonetheless chaperones Rachel Matchil to prevent her from committing adultery; and he assists Blith Tripshort to escape marriage to the idiot Nehemiah. He does so by himself marrying her and her fortune. Another and perhaps more powerful association relates to the play's concern with education and, in particular, the formation and reformation of the manners of young males (of whom there are many in The New Academy. One of Desiderius Erasmus's most famous and influential works is a little treatise on the socialisation of male children: De civilitate morum puerilium (1530; first translated into English in 1532). Brome's Erasmus in this play offers a contrast to the immature and unsocialised figure of Lady Nestlecock's son, Nehemiah, who embodies much that De civilitate presents as reprehensible and to be eradicated. Contrastingly, Brome's Erasmus manifests both the exquisitely polite behaviour and the sophisticated moral judgement De civilitate is designed to inculcate. | a young gentleman, [Valentine's] companion |
| CASH*n4993
KITELY: He is a jewel, brother. / I took him of a child up at my door, / And christened him, gave him my own name, Thomas, / Since bred him at the Hospital; where proving / A toward imp, I called him home, and taught him / So much, as I have made him my cashier, / And giv'n him, who had none, a surname, Cash; / And find him in his place so full of faith /That, I durst trust my life into his hands. (2.1.12-20) Brome's Cash turns out to be an embezzler and, in the play's opening moments, Matchil's half-brother Strigood plays on the word's other meaning: ready money. The servant is dispersing money from Matchil's coffers, but he is also, in effect, ready money for Strigood, who is blackmailing him. As Strigood says, what better name can he have, given his role? Strigood and Cash are also closely related to characters in Philip Massinger's The City Madam: Luke Frugal, Young Tradewell, and Young Goldwire. Luke urges the two apprentices of his merchant brother Sir John Frugal to exploit their positions of trust and steal from their master in order to live lives of fashionable riot (Plays and Poems of Philip Massinger, vol. 4; Act 2 scene 1). For the wider connections between The New Academy and both Every Man in his Humour and The City Madam, see the introduction. | Matchil’s apprentice*n5117
|
| NEHEMIAH*n5150
| a foolish gentleman, the Lady’s son |
| EPHRAIM*n5151
| the Lady Nestlecock’s servant |
| A FOOTPOST†gg598
|
|
| Rafe CAMELION*n5152
| an uxorious†gg3732
|
| LADY NESTLECOCK*n5155
Nowhere in the play is the source of her title explained, but she wishes that her late husband were alive to condemn Strigood. Her husband was a magistrate, probably of the City, and so not a member of the non-urban gentry. Lady Nestlecock reveals non-gentle attitudes and behaviour particularly in her disputes with Rachel. | a fond mother |
| JOYCE | Matchil’s daughter, [foster sister to Gabriella] |
| GABRIELLA | Lafoy’s daughter, [foster sister to Joyce] |
| Mistress BLITH*n5156
n5157
| Sir Swithin Whimlby’s niece*n5158
|
| HANNAH*n5159
| Camelion’s wife, Captain*n5118
His name, 'Hardyman', is probably intended to communicate his robust, stoic nature. |
| [RACHEL] Maudlin*n5160
The choice of Rachel as this character's name is again a reference to the Old Testament. Rachel is the second wife of Jacob (Genesis 29.16-20). | Matchil’s maid and wife |
| [Servant] |
ACT ONE*n5239
The first act is composed of a single scene, set probably outside Matchil's house, but possibly within it in a more public area: various characters refer to moving into more intimate spaces, especially the parlour. The public nature of the space is significant, as is the case with the setting of Act 2, Scene 1. On both occasions discussions take place openly that should be confidential or private, both because they deal with private matters and because some of the attitudes displayed are questionable or reprehensible. Brome may be playing here with the ambiguous character of the playing space, which can be imagined as private but which is inherently public. The theatre shares this character with the nature of the New Exchange itself, and both stand for new forms of public space in early modern London.
The act achieves its theatrical dynamism through the rapid entrances and exits of different groups of characters, all of whom are associated with the play's main plot. Brome creates splendidly vital characters immediately and rapidly, their natures becoming apparent through verbal combat; dispute erupts almost as the play opens. As often is the case, Brome gives his chief characters a verbal 'tic', and in this case Matchil significantly shares his 'tic' with some of his immediate family members. They frequently end lines with 'ha!'.
The play opens with an initial dialogue between Valentine and Erasmus which informs the audience concerning Matchil's mercurial temperament and launches the topic of the attractiveness of Matchil's daughter and her French companion as marriage partners. The audience is likely to assume that the symmetry -- two young men discussing two young women -- reveals the probable structure of the play. Brome will disappoint those expecting this outcome.
The main plot concerns the merchant Matchil and his dysfunctional relationships with members of his family; this is far from being an unusual topic in Brome's plays. Matchil is a widower, constantly celebrating the death of his first wife. Matchil has a ne'er-do-well half-brother, Strigood; a deeply irritating sister, Lady Nestlecock, who is besotted with her immature son, Nehemiah; and a daughter, Joyce, who has been brought up with a French companion, Gabriela. Matchil has just received a letter telling him that his son, who has been raised to manhood and educated in France, has died. In the wider sense of his household, his family is completed by his cashier, Cash, and his household servant, Rachel.
The relationship between Matchil and Cash makes this in some respects a recognisable master-servant play, with Cash appearing to be a witty rascal. However, the play begins with Cash already on the brink of disaster, his crimes about to be disclosed. He hopes to recover his position by marrying his master's daughter, but he appears to be alone in the play in entertaining this fantasy. Strigood is able to blackmail Cash by threatening to reveal that the servant's after-hours highlife among the fashionable is funded entirely from his master's coffers.
None of the men appearing in this first act displays much in the way of sympathy or honourable behaviour or motive. With the exception of Erasmus, whose surer moral compass will become evident in Act 2, all reveal a lack of principle, a concentration on the fulfilment of their own desires without concern for others, and callousness in relation to women. Women are seen only as a means to money or as subservient, dehumanised things. These attitudes are amusing in the moment, but become shocking as soon as one has the chance to reflect. Like many a good satire, the audience laughs at the brazenness and vitality of the amoral (or immoral) men, even while becoming steadily more discomforted.
By the end of the act the audience feels most sympathy for the servant Rachel, even though she has appeared on stage only briefly and spoken very few lines. We have seen her bullied and humiliated by Matchil, in front of Erasmus and Valentine. We have also seen Matchil's daughter and her companion treated tyrannically and violently, with the result that they are going to be exposed to danger at the hands of Lady Nestlecock and, more certainly, Strigood. But Brome makes them somewhat histrionic: weeping, kneeling, and pleading in an excessively elevated diction, repeatedly calling each other 'Mine own true heart'. As with Celia in The Alchemist, we know we should feel for their predicament more urgently; but the way they are written tends to keep them at one remove. The representation of Rachel is particularly interesting, in that -- having become alarmingly independent after marriage -- she will be brought to heel by Matchil in the final act, losing audience sympathy as a result. However, hers is a very public final subordination; is she going to be so docile in private? Earlier in the play this husband and wife have agreed that she will display outward subservience but rule the roost behind closed doors.
By the time the act ends, the audience feels as though it has been in something of a whirlwind. Characters have been introduced, quarrels have blown up, a report received of the death of a son and heir, a servant has fled, children have been banished, and the central figure, the merchant Matchil, has passed through an extraordinary series of emotions, ending by resolving to marry his servant and taking off Erasmus and Valentine for a session of all-male conviviality: 'Let's in, and drink, and talk'. This conclusion completes a perverse circle: Erasmus and Valentine first appeared on the stage complaining that they were not going to be able to see Matchil and carouse with him; it ends with him leading them off stage to do exactly that.
n5239
The act achieves its theatrical dynamism through the rapid entrances and exits of different groups of characters, all of whom are associated with the play's main plot. Brome creates splendidly vital characters immediately and rapidly, their natures becoming apparent through verbal combat; dispute erupts almost as the play opens. As often is the case, Brome gives his chief characters a verbal 'tic', and in this case Matchil significantly shares his 'tic' with some of his immediate family members. They frequently end lines with 'ha!'.
The play opens with an initial dialogue between Valentine and Erasmus which informs the audience concerning Matchil's mercurial temperament and launches the topic of the attractiveness of Matchil's daughter and her French companion as marriage partners. The audience is likely to assume that the symmetry -- two young men discussing two young women -- reveals the probable structure of the play. Brome will disappoint those expecting this outcome.
The main plot concerns the merchant Matchil and his dysfunctional relationships with members of his family; this is far from being an unusual topic in Brome's plays. Matchil is a widower, constantly celebrating the death of his first wife. Matchil has a ne'er-do-well half-brother, Strigood; a deeply irritating sister, Lady Nestlecock, who is besotted with her immature son, Nehemiah; and a daughter, Joyce, who has been brought up with a French companion, Gabriela. Matchil has just received a letter telling him that his son, who has been raised to manhood and educated in France, has died. In the wider sense of his household, his family is completed by his cashier, Cash, and his household servant, Rachel.
The relationship between Matchil and Cash makes this in some respects a recognisable master-servant play, with Cash appearing to be a witty rascal. However, the play begins with Cash already on the brink of disaster, his crimes about to be disclosed. He hopes to recover his position by marrying his master's daughter, but he appears to be alone in the play in entertaining this fantasy. Strigood is able to blackmail Cash by threatening to reveal that the servant's after-hours highlife among the fashionable is funded entirely from his master's coffers.
None of the men appearing in this first act displays much in the way of sympathy or honourable behaviour or motive. With the exception of Erasmus, whose surer moral compass will become evident in Act 2, all reveal a lack of principle, a concentration on the fulfilment of their own desires without concern for others, and callousness in relation to women. Women are seen only as a means to money or as subservient, dehumanised things. These attitudes are amusing in the moment, but become shocking as soon as one has the chance to reflect. Like many a good satire, the audience laughs at the brazenness and vitality of the amoral (or immoral) men, even while becoming steadily more discomforted.
By the end of the act the audience feels most sympathy for the servant Rachel, even though she has appeared on stage only briefly and spoken very few lines. We have seen her bullied and humiliated by Matchil, in front of Erasmus and Valentine. We have also seen Matchil's daughter and her companion treated tyrannically and violently, with the result that they are going to be exposed to danger at the hands of Lady Nestlecock and, more certainly, Strigood. But Brome makes them somewhat histrionic: weeping, kneeling, and pleading in an excessively elevated diction, repeatedly calling each other 'Mine own true heart'. As with Celia in The Alchemist, we know we should feel for their predicament more urgently; but the way they are written tends to keep them at one remove. The representation of Rachel is particularly interesting, in that -- having become alarmingly independent after marriage -- she will be brought to heel by Matchil in the final act, losing audience sympathy as a result. However, hers is a very public final subordination; is she going to be so docile in private? Earlier in the play this husband and wife have agreed that she will display outward subservience but rule the roost behind closed doors.
By the time the act ends, the audience feels as though it has been in something of a whirlwind. Characters have been introduced, quarrels have blown up, a report received of the death of a son and heir, a servant has fled, children have been banished, and the central figure, the merchant Matchil, has passed through an extraordinary series of emotions, ending by resolving to marry his servant and taking off Erasmus and Valentine for a session of all-male conviviality: 'Let's in, and drink, and talk'. This conclusion completes a perverse circle: Erasmus and Valentine first appeared on the stage complaining that they were not going to be able to see Matchil and carouse with him; it ends with him leading them off stage to do exactly that.
[Outside MATCHIL's house]*n5019
There is no indication of location in the original, but the setting is clear from the dialogue.
n5019
[Enter] VALENTINE and ERASMUS
2[Valentine]Is this the entertainment you
promised me in the jovial merchant’s house? Is this the great
interest†gg3300
being objectively concerned in something, by having a right or title to, a claim upon, or a share in (OED I, 1)
you have in his huge hospitality? When by half an hour’s
attendance and entreats†gg2273
entreaties, pleas
we cannot obtain the sight of him.
gg3300
gg2273
3ErasmusI wonder at it. Sure, some
strange disaster has suddenly befallen him. He was
last night the merriest man alive: drank healths,
told tales, sung catches: Trowl the Bowl*n4989
Trowl the Bowl is a well-known drinking song that appears in Thomas Decker, The Shoemaker's Holiday, 5.4. The name comes from the refrain:
Trowl the bowl, the jolly nut-brown bowl,
And here, kind mate, to thee:
Let's sing a dirge for Saint Hugh's soul,
And down it merrily.
; Toss the
Cannikin†gg3440
a diminutive of 'can', a drinking-vessel, usually large
*n4990
Toss the Cannikin is another well-known drinking song. It appears in Thomas Ravenscroft, Pammelia. Musickes miscellanie: or Mixed varietie of pleasant roundelayes, and delightfull catches (1609). The name comes from the refrain:
Tap the cannikin,
Toss the cannikin,
Troll the cannikin,
Turn the cannikin,
Hold good son and fill us a fresh can,
That we may quaff it round from man to man.
(p. 31)
; and what not! And all for joy, that his
son, he said, was upon his return*n4605
Was on the point of his return, or on the point of returning. (See OED point n1, 6.)
, whom he has not
seen these dozen years, since he sent him a little lad
into France, to be bred there.
n4989
Trowl the bowl, the jolly nut-brown bowl,
And here, kind mate, to thee:
Let's sing a dirge for Saint Hugh's soul,
And down it merrily.
gg3440
n4990
Tap the cannikin,
Toss the cannikin,
Troll the cannikin,
Turn the cannikin,
Hold good son and fill us a fresh can,
That we may quaff it round from man to man.
(p. 31)
n4605
4ValentineI heard he did so; and that in lieu, by way of exchange*n4606
This is the first use of the word 'exchange' in the play; it will occur many more times in relation to different kinds of transactions and changes. The repeated use of the term acts to knit these together so that the audience constantly compares different interactions and alterations, seeking correspondences and differences.
, he brings up the daughter of the Parisian
that breeds his son.
n4606
5ErasmusRight.
6ValentineBut is that daughter so exquisite a creature,
as is this merchant Matchil’s own, whom you so much
extol?
7ErasmusThey are both so equally handsome, and virtuous,*n5161
One of the play's principal topics, the different valuations put on exterior beauty and deeper qualities, is launched at this point.
that, be their dowries*n5162
Erasmus, for all his virtues, still prudently wants to be sure that Joyce and Gabriella's dowries are equal before he makes his choice of which to pursue. Other than Matchil, who marries down to preserve his authority, and his sister Lady Nestlecock, who marries a gigolo in Captain Valentine, no-one in this play will contemplate marriage without the clear prospect of enhancing his or her financial position.
so, and their consents
alike, I’ll take my choice of cross and pile*n4607
'Pile' is an obsolete term for the reverse side of a coin: see OED pile n 2.1. Erasmus says he would be happy with either young woman as a wife and would be content to toss a coin with Valentine for them.
for either*n8907
Erasmus's lack of preference will be mirrored in the similar willingness to take either potential partner seen in the eventual marital relationships between Joyce, Gabriella, Galliard, and Papillion.
,
with such a friend as thou art.
n5161
n5162
n4607
n8907
8ValentineTroth, and that’s friendly spoken, Mus.
9ErasmusIt is so, Val. Yet not without*n4991
with. As printed in 1659 this makes no sense. The emendation is made by annotators in the National Art Library Dyce 25.E.45 and Folger Shakespeare Library B4872 copies.
some policy do I wish
thee a fortune: for, insooth, young gentleman,
though I like your person,†gs613
the body, often with its clothing and accoutrements; its physical appearance (OED person 4a)
and some of your qualities,†gs615
an attribute, a characteristic (OED quality n, II 7a)
*n5163
Erasmus again draws attention to the difference between exterior and moral characteristics. Universally pleasing as the 'person' may be, he carefully notes that he admires only some of Valentine's 'qualities'.
yet by reason of your wants, I find you something
heavy on my purse-strings; and myself scarce able
to supply you. And, if we fail of good matches,†gg617
hunt, chase, especially the pursuit of hares with greyhounds (the term may also refer to the hare itself or other prey being coursed or hunted)
I
must even turn you over shortly to the hopes you
boast of in your City-mistresses and tradesmen’s
wives –
n4991
gs613
gs615
n5163
gg617
10ValentinePeace, prithee hold thy peace.
Enter CASH
Friend Cash! Is your master, Master Matchil, yet
at leisure to be seen?
11CashHe much desires, sir, to be held excused. ’Tis
true that he invited you. His dinner’s ready; and his
heart welcomes you. But he has met with an unhappy news today –
12ValentineI feared some ill. What is the matter?
13CashHis only son, whom he of late expected home out of France, we hear is dead.
14ValentineHis daughter will prove a bouncing†gs586
big, healthy, strapping, as in 'bouncing baby' (see OED bouncing ppl. a), but in this context, the admiration is directed to the wealth she would bring as Matchil's sole heir
match,
then.
gs586
15Cash [Aside] That's the impression the heavy news makes
in you, gentlemen.
16ErasmusCome, let’s go.
17CashNay, gentlemen, although my master’s sudden sadness shuts him from you, his meat and wine
are ready. There are some good company in his parlour†gg3441
a room for entertaining guests in a private house
too. Pray stay.
gg3441
18ValentineAre his fair daughter and the French-born
damsel there to be seen?
19CashBoth. Pray be pleased to enter.
I hope his passionate fit ere you have dined will be
past over. He is not wont to suffer long under the
hand of sorrow.
’Tis like that you shall see him ere you go.
20ErasmusIn that fair hope we’ll enter and fall to†gs267
begin; start consuming (food, wine, or more metaphorically, women; OED v. 67e)
.VALENTINE and ERASMUS exit
gs267
21Cash’Tis like you shall fall short though of your aim*n6148
Cash's final sentence and Erasmus's response as he leaves are both iambic pentameters, giving an emphatic concluding rhythm to their exchange. Cash responds to this sense of the neat and decisive as soon as the young men have left the stage by using again ''Tis like', but this time to question ironically the 'fair hope' Erasmus has so complacently expressed. Cash then continues in verse.
n6148
At my young mistress, who by this black news
Becomes my master’s heir, and so the white†gg3301
the centre of an archery target
*n4608
Cash uses the metaphor of archery for the pursuit of Joyce now that she is likely to be an heiress. There is an underlying ironic glance at Cupid's arrows of love, but these gallant suitors will be motivated entirely by the desire for her fortune.
gg3301
n4608
That all the gallant suitors of the City†gg3452
The City of London, the ancient capital and commercial area with its own system of power and government; often contrasted with the Royal Court, based a few miles down the Thames at Westminster and Whitehall, a rival base of power, authority, and culture
gg3452
And Court†gg3453
(when capitalised) the royal court based in Westminster and Whitehall, surrounding the monarch; often contrasted with the City of London, a rival base of power, authority, and culture
will level their keen shafts at.*n5164
Cash's metaphor is drawn from archery, rendering Joyce a target. His choice is partially authorised by the association of love with Cupid's arrows, and courtship as a hunt.
Where
gg3453
n5164
Are mine own hopes, then, that stood as fair
In competition for her love as any,*n5165
Joyce's amused and patronising responses to Cash's protestations of love surely suggest that he is deluding himself. However, it was by no means unusual for the senior apprentice or trusted senior employee to marry his master's daughter, or his widow.
n5165
Shall drown each lover’s tongue, that cannot say,
It is a lord’s at least?*n5476
Cash laments that news of the death of her brother and her own new status as Matchil's sole heir will make Joyce a highly-desirable marital prize. The only suitors whose voices will be heard are those with titles.
I rather wish
n5476
The young man had not died.*n4992
Cash's speech has all the callousness and absorption with his own desires and prospects that he has spotted earlier in Valentine. The actor will have to choose whether to make this a knowing and ironic comment to the audience, or whether to make this a revelation of Cash's own shallowness. Having been clearly iambic verse throughout the speech, suitable to Cash's declaration of his ambition to wed Matchil's daughter, the final phrase -- 'I rather wish / The young man had not died.' -- falls to the prosaic as he suggests the callousness of his own and the other suitors' motives.
n4992
Enter STRIGOOD*n8920
In Act 3, when Strigood appears as Lightfoot, the 'Regent' of the New Academy, Cash remarks on his changed appearance, which Strigood explains by saying that he has shaved off 'my old / Grey hair and beard'. In this first appearance, therefore, the actor must be wearing a beard and long-haired wig.
n8920
22StrigoodWhere’s my Boykin†gg3302
a little boy, as a term of intimacy and affection
? My Friskoe†gg3303
a frisky, lively person, as a term of intimacy and endearment (OED cites this example alone)
? My delight? My Cash*n4993
Cash's name is short for 'cashier', his position in Matchil's enterprise. In modern usage the role of a cashier may be lowly; the exception is the Chief Cashier whose signature appears on English bank notes. In Brome's play Cash holds the senior position of trust and authority in Matchil's business; his treasurer, perhaps. Brome's character appears modelled on that of Thomas Cash, the trusty servant of Kitely, in the 1616 version of Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour:
KITELY: He is a jewel, brother. / I took him of a child up at my door, / And christened him, gave him my own name, Thomas, / Since bred him at the Hospital; where proving / A toward imp, I called him home, and taught him / So much, as I have made him my cashier, / And giv'n him, who had none, a surname, Cash; / And find him in his place so full of faith /That, I durst trust my life into his hands.
(2.1.12-20) Brome's Cash turns out to be an embezzler and, in the play's opening moments, Matchil's half-brother Strigood plays on the word's other meaning: ready money. The servant is dispersing money from Matchil's coffers, but he is also, in effect, ready money for Strigood, who is blackmailing him. As Strigood says, what better name can he have, given his role?
Strigood and Cash are also closely related to characters in Philip Massinger's The City Madam: Luke Frugal, Young Tradewell, and Young Goldwire. Luke urges the two apprentices of his merchant brother Sir John Frugal to exploit their positions of trust and steal from their master in order to live lives of fashionable riot (Plays and Poems of Philip Massinger, vol. 4; Act 2 scene 1).
For the wider connections between The New Academy and both Every Man in his Humour and The City Madam, see the introduction.
? By what better name can I call
thee?
gg3302
gg3303
n4993
KITELY: He is a jewel, brother. / I took him of a child up at my door, / And christened him, gave him my own name, Thomas, / Since bred him at the Hospital; where proving / A toward imp, I called him home, and taught him / So much, as I have made him my cashier, / And giv'n him, who had none, a surname, Cash; / And find him in his place so full of faith /That, I durst trust my life into his hands.
(2.1.12-20) Brome's Cash turns out to be an embezzler and, in the play's opening moments, Matchil's half-brother Strigood plays on the word's other meaning: ready money. The servant is dispersing money from Matchil's coffers, but he is also, in effect, ready money for Strigood, who is blackmailing him. As Strigood says, what better name can he have, given his role?
Strigood and Cash are also closely related to characters in Philip Massinger's The City Madam: Luke Frugal, Young Tradewell, and Young Goldwire. Luke urges the two apprentices of his merchant brother Sir John Frugal to exploit their positions of trust and steal from their master in order to live lives of fashionable riot (Plays and Poems of Philip Massinger, vol. 4; Act 2 scene 1).
For the wider connections between The New Academy and both Every Man in his Humour and The City Madam, see the introduction.
23CashO me! Master Strigood, what make you
here?
24StrigoodI come to comfort my brother in his sorrow. His son is dead, they say. Ha! Is’t not
so?
25CashAnd he is almost dead with sorrow. Back, sir: the sight of you, that are his sole vexation, will
make him mad.
26StrigoodThat is my way to cure him.
Madness drowns grief in any man – Probatum†gg3304
a thing proved (see OED probatum n, 1)
.
gg3304
27CashGood Master Strigood, depart.
28StrigoodGood Master Cash, and Master Matchil’s man,
I’ll see your master. What! Deny his brother?
His own natural brother? By the surer side*n5166
Strigood refers to the greater certainty of relationship because both are sons of one mother. Before DNA testing, paternity always included an element of doubt.
too
n5166
We tumbled in one pannier†gg3305
a container or basket, used for carrying fish to market
; though we had*n4609
Strigood says their half-brother Matchil had the same mother but different fathers, using the metaphor of fish carried in the same basket to market but by different men.
gg3305
n4609
Strigood was in my mother before Matchil.*n5167
Strigood speaks with breath-taking brutality and vulgarity.
n5167
Therefore, because I have spent an estate
And he has got one, must not I maintain*n4994
Strigood means here 'assert and support in argument': he is the better man because he is the elder half-brother. But Cash puns on the other use of maintain, to be able to support something financially: 'Yes, if you had the wherewithal.'
n4994
Myself the better man?*n5168
Strigood's class system is a traditional one: a gentleman spends money, a tradesman makes it. Therefore Strigood, the spender, is the better man.
n5168
29CashYes, if you had the wherewithal.
30StrigoodSir, you had been as good ha’ held your tongue.
Lend me some money, Cash.
31CashI have no money, sir, but what’s my master’s.
32StrigoodWhose money, sir, was that you played last night,
Among the knights and braveries†gs587
fine fellows, gallants (see OED bravery 5, which cites Ben Jonson, Epicoene 4.6.5-9 (Herford and Simpson, vol. 5, p. 246); Philip Massinger, The City Madam 2.1.87; and Brome's Queens Exchange)
at the
ordinary†gg2968
a meal at a fixed price in a tavern
?
gs587
gg2968
Gold by the handfuls, Cash! Lend me two pieces.
33CashSpeak lower, sir.
34StrigoodLend me three pieces, Cash,
Before I speak too loud. Whose money’s that
You use to wear abroad at feasts and revels
In silver lace and satin, though you wait
At home in simple
serge†gg3307
woollen fabric, robust and durable, chiefly worn by lower income people
or
broad-cloth†gg898
plain-woven, black cloth, used chiefly for men's apparel
, sir?
gg3307
gg898
35CashBe not so loud, I pray.
36StrigoodLend me five pieces.
I shall grow louder else. Who pays your barber?
I mean not for your prentice pig-haired†gg3308
coarse fabric, ill cut; an insult; OED cites, as well as this instance, Middleton's A Trick to Catch the Old One: 'Farewell and be hanged, you short-pig-haired, ram-headed rascalls' (1608: G3r)
cut*n4610
Strigood sneers at the poor haircuts of servants, but he suggests that Cash either wears a coarse-haired wig at home (made of pig's bristle) or a more stylish one when out on the town; or both.
gg3308
n4610
Your locks and lady-ware*n4611
Strigood seems literally to mean that Cash has various ornaments in his stylish periwig, including perhaps trinkets obtained as favours from women. But 'ware' in this period is a term for genitals and 'lady ware' appears predominantly to have this sense. Strigood's speech periodically verges on the bawdy.
that dangle in ’em,
n4611
Like straws in the
bush†gg3310
head of hair
natural*n4612
In this period, 'bush' often means 'head of hair'. However, Strigood's reference to the 'bush natural' again uses terms associated with genitalia.
*n4613
Strigood is punning: the natural (that is, real as opposed to a wig) hair of a simpleton (that is, a 'natural').
of a Bedlem†gs588
(by extension) an insane person, one who is or ought to be in Bedlam Hospital
?
gg3310
n4612
n4613
gs588
37CashWhat mean you, Master Strigood?*n5169
Cash's question could have many meanings. Strigood ignores the larger ones that question his whole conduct and purposes, instead narrowing it down to the fact that he means to extort some money.
n5169
38StrigoodI mean ten pieces now;
I’ll go†gs682
to be sold for or disposed of for a sum of money (see OED go 24a)
no less. Do not I know your haunts? –
gs682
39Cash [Aside] You may; you trained one to ’em*n5142
Though an unusual formulation, Cash's point is clear: Strigood enticed Cash into a life of fashion and gambling. The servant can only afford this by stealing from his master, giving Strigood the means to blackmail Cash.
.
n5142
40StrigoodDo not I know your outleaps†gg1314
destination of excursions; places of assignation
, and vagaries†gg3312
excursions, particularly of a somewhat extravagant and whimsical kind
?
gg1314
gg3312
Your tiring houses†gg3059
communal dressing room (though large enough to allow for dance rehearsals)
, where you shift†gg654
change
yourself,
gg3059
gg654
Your privy lodgings, for your trunks†gg3313
a box for storage (in this particular context there may also be a reference to 'trunks' as an item of clothing, especially given that Cash is changing his attire to assume his character as a man-about-town)
and punks†gg438
prostitute
*n4617
The same phrase is used in Ben Jonson, George Chapman, and John Marston, Eastward Hoe!:
I now am free; and now will justify
My trunks and punks: Avaunt dull flat-cap then,
Via, the curtain that shadowed Borgia;
There lie thou husk of my envassaled state.
I Samson now, have burst the Philistines' bands,
And in thy lap my lovely Dalila,
I'll lie and snore out my enfranchised state. (1605: C1r)
?
gg3313
gg438
n4617
I now am free; and now will justify
My trunks and punks: Avaunt dull flat-cap then,
Via, the curtain that shadowed Borgia;
There lie thou husk of my envassaled state.
I Samson now, have burst the Philistines' bands,
And in thy lap my lovely Dalila,
I'll lie and snore out my enfranchised state. (1605: C1r)
Your midnight walks and meetings? Come, the money.
But I’ll keep thy council: thou shalt find me virtuous.
I want, he gives me nothing, and thou canst not
Do him better service than relieve his brother.
41Cash Aside I am in; and must, to hide my old faults, do
Like an ill painter, daub ’em o’er with new*n4614
Instead of beginning again after making an error, the bad painter will simply cover over his mistake with something newly-painted.
.
n4614
42StrigoodQuickly. I shall grow loud again else, Cash.
43CashSir, I am in your hands, here are ten pieces.
I hope you will not thank my master for ’em.
44StrigoodNo, not for all he has that comes through thy hands,
My nimble Cash; and from his I am sure,
Though I were starving, I should finger†gg3299
to touch or handle (money) with unworthy motives (OED finger v, 2b cites Richard Mulcaster, Positions vvherin those primitiue circumstances be examined, which are necessarie for the training vp of children, either for skill in their booke, or health in their bodie [1581]: 'The fellow said much, and that state felt more, when they [the Romans] fell to fingering' [p. 159].)
*n5180
Strigood plays on images of hands and fingers to express his hopes of diverting some of Matchil's wealth.
nothing.
gg3299
n5180
45CashWill you go now?
46StrigoodI’ll see him e’er I go.
And dine, if there be meat i’ th’ house. What eaters
Are there within? I’ll draw a knife among ’em.*n4995
I'll join in a meal with them. No other uses of this phrase have been found.
Exit STRIGOOD
n4995
47CashThis desperate old ruffian would undo me
But*n4996
'except that'. Strigood would have no compunction about abandoning Cash to his fate should it seem to be to his benefit.
he hopes to waste his brother by me.
n4996
He has spent himself to beggary; and would fall so,
But that he has pernicious fire in’s brain,
That raging spreads to ruin others with him.
I must beware of him.
Enter LADY NESTLECOCK and EPHRAIM
[Aside] Is she come too?
Then, ’tis decreed, my master must, from sorrow,
Suffer in madness.
[CASH blocks entry to the house]*n5014
Lady Nestlecock will soon accuse Cash of locking up Matchil. Cash must make some action to prevent her entry, causing her to make this accusation.
n5014
48Lady NestlecockGo home, Ephraim,
And have a care you suffer not my boy
To straggle forth ’mong his unhappy play-mates,
For fear of mischief.
49EphraimIt shall be my care.Exit EPHRAIM
50Lady NestlecockWhat, do you lock up my brother, ha? –––
51CashH’ has locked himself up, madam; and will suffer
Be somewhat over.
52Lady NestlecockNot’s own sister, ha? –––
53CashNor his half-brother, neither. Yet he’s here.
54Lady NestlecockIs he here, ha? That Strigood? Is he here?
Hang him, old reprobate. And beshrew thy heart,
It is no marvel, if my brother Matchil
Lock up himself, and such a wickedness
Be in his house as is that Strigood, ha!
Let him take heed, he comes not in my nail-reach,
And call me sister, or my brother, brother,
Like a debauched old villain, as he is.
O, that my husband Nestlecock were alive,
But for three minutes, to send him to
Newgate,*n4615
Newgate was one of London's principal prisons, from the twelfth century onwards. It stood near the walls of the City, close to the Old Bailey.
if he presume to call me sister.
n4615
But I command you in my husband’s name,
Who was a justice*n5170
Lady Nestlecock's dead husband was a London magistrate.
when he lived, to thrust him
n5170
Out of your master’s doors, my brother’s house,
Lest I be sick with the loathed sight of him.
You will not disobey this, will you, ha?
If not, why stir you not?*n5171
Cash must hesitate before these lines, in order to provoke Lady Nestlecock's ire.
Ha!
n5171
55Cash [Aside] I must remove
This fit of hers. There’s but one way to do it,
56Lady NestlecockWill you not send him packing, ha? –
57CashFirst, madam,
By your good ladyship’s leave, how does your son,
Sweet master Nehemiah Nestlecock?
58Lady NestlecockI thank you, courteous friend. In truth, last night,
One of my coach-geldings*n4616
Gelded (castrated) horses used for pulling coaches. Lady Nestlecock's reference to this accident contributes to the sense that her son Nehemiah is himself in some way gelded or impaired.
fell lame, and I,
n4616
By that constrained to come afoot,
Was forced to leave my boy at home, or else
He had come with me, to have been a comfort
To his sad uncle. But I would not now
For twice my gelding’s price my child were here
And that foul fiend i’ th’ house, whose very looks
Would fright him into sickness.
59CashO good lady!
60Lady NestlecockI can’t so soon forget the fright he took
At seeing the roguish juggler once eat tow†gg3315
a bundle of fibres, often soaked in some flammable substance like pitch
,
gg3315
And blow it out of’s mouth in fire and smoke.
61CashThat’s two years since,
And he was then but young. He’s now a man.
62Lady NestlecockAlack, a child; but going in’s nineteenth year*n4618
Omitting 'only': 'Alack, he's only a child'. But Nehemiah, at nineteen, is well beyond what contemporaries would have thought the limits of childhood.
.
n4618
Where’s my niece Joyce?
63CashWithin there, madam; so is Gabriella,
The French young gentlewoman, to attend you.
64Lady NestlecockI’ll stay with them till I may see my brother.Exit LADY NESTLECOCK
65Cash [Aside] I hope old Strigood, who now on the sudden
Hath slipped her memory, meets her by the ears first.*n4998
Cash hopes Strigood hears his half-sister coming and is able to make his escape before encountering her.
n4998
Enter MATCHIL, an open letter in his hands
But the good minute’*n4619
No contemporary uses of this phrase have been found, but Robert Browning is probably using it still in 1855 in 'Two in the Campagna', meaning the moment when something comes together perfectly (ll. 46-50):
No. I yearn upward, touch you close,
Then stand away. I kiss your cheek,
Catch your soul's warmth, -- I pluck the rose
And love it more than tongue can speak --
Then the good minute goes.
(Robert Browning, Poems, vol. 1, p. 729) Cash's use is clearly ironic: though a 'good minute' for Matchil, it is the reverse for him. He had not anticipated having his embezzlement discovered yet and has not prepared his escape.
s come, before I looked for’t.
n4619
No. I yearn upward, touch you close,
Then stand away. I kiss your cheek,
Catch your soul's warmth, -- I pluck the rose
And love it more than tongue can speak --
Then the good minute goes.
(Robert Browning, Poems, vol. 1, p. 729) Cash's use is clearly ironic: though a 'good minute' for Matchil, it is the reverse for him. He had not anticipated having his embezzlement discovered yet and has not prepared his escape.
My master now appears. He looks most sourly,
Expressing more of anger than of grief.
I fear old Strigood was so loud with me
66MatchilSorrow be gone
A nobler and more manly passion,
Anger, that may instruct me to revenge.
My child is lost by treacherous neglect
In that false Frenchman, to whose seeming care
I trusted the chief comfort of my life.
MATCHIL reads
My boy. Nay, read again. ’Tis written, here,
He was grown man.
67Cash CASH listens to MATCHIL, and speaks aside. His man, I think he said.
Does your man trouble you? I do not like that.
68MatchilAnd here he writes that in his youthful spring
And heat of spirit, he began to grow
Intemperate and wild –
69Cash [Aside] Wild! Are you there?
70MatchilWhich drew him on to riotous expense –
71Cash [Aside] And there again, to riotous expense!
’Tis I directly that he’s troubled with.
72MatchilAnd sometimes into quarrels. What o’ that?
In all this he was still mine own. O boy –––MATCHIL kisses the paper.
73Cash [Aside] Some slave has writ some fearful information
Against me, and he hugs and kisses it.
74MatchilAnd had his guardian had a feeling care –
Hang his French friendship – over my dear child,
As I had over his, these youthful follies
Might have been tempered into manly virtues.
75Cash [Aside] I hear not that.*n4999
This appears to be a joke about the farcical contrivance of half and mistaken eavesdropping. Had Cash been able to hear Matchil's last speech, he could not have continued drawing false conclusions and the plot would have failed.
n4999
76MatchilBut I fall back again.
From my revenge to grief. Away; I will not.[MATCHIL] reads again.
In my young forward son – I find it here –
Were, by his churlish and perfidious guardian,
Interpreted no less than reprobation*n5000
This appears to be an unusual, perhaps unique use of 'reprobation', to mean the thing that is shameful, as opposed to the action of condemning or reproving. Alternatively, there may be an ellipsis: 'Interpreted [as being worthy of] no less than reprobation'.
,
n5000
And, by his ignorant cruelty, so punished.
For here he shuts his ear and door against him!*n5001
Matchil probably gestures to the passage in the forged letter in which Lafoy is thought to express his rejection of Matchil's son.
n5001
When suddenly the loose licentious world
To imminent destruction; so being engaged
In a rash quarrel, he in duel fell.
Th’ opponent's sword was instrument; yet I infer,
Lafoy, his guardian, was his murderer.
Farewell, my boy; and this is the last tear
Thou shalt wring from me. Something I’ll do*n8970
Hannah's final comments on Camelion's obtuseness or callous recklessness convey her frustration even through their indefiniteness, like Lear's angry 'I will do such things -- /
What they are, yet I know not: but they shall be /
The terrors of the earth!' (King Lear 2.4).
n8970
Shall show a father’s love, and valour too.
I’m young enough to draw a sword in France, yet.
But first––– Come hither, sirrah.
77Cash [Aside] Now it comes.
78MatchilI purpose
straight†gg2252
immediately
to
order my estate†gg3319
to arrange, organise, set to rights
.
gg2252
gg3319
And bring me all my books of debtor and creditor,
Receipts and payments. What you have in wares,
And what in cash, let me inform myself.*n5002
Though Cash is to supply the accounts, Matchil will use these materials to inform himself of his financial circumstances.
n5002
79Cash [Aside] ’Tis as I feared.
80MatchilI’ll set all right and straight,
All statutes, bonds, bills, and sealed instruments†gs683
a legal document, often establishing rights or ownership
gs683
That do concern me, I have in my closet
Or at my counsel's†gs590
a legal advisor or counsellor, an attorney
, or my scrivener's†gg2995
a professional scribe or copyist
.
gs590
gg2995
I’ll call in them myself. Why doest thou look so amazedly?
Would’st have me yield a reason? Why, I’ll tell thee
I mean to make a voyage and, perhaps,
To settle and proportion out my estate
By will, before I go. Do you as I command you.
81Cash [Aside] Whatever he pretends, I know his drift;
And, e’er I’ll be discovered by my stay,
Being run out,*n5172
Cash probably means that he has run out of luck, or of time.
I’ll choose to run away.Exit CASH
n5172
82MatchilMy daughter in the first place must be cared for.
I’ll make her a good match. My next in blood, then,
My knave half-brother, and my whole fool-sister:
But the best is, her ladyship has enough;
And all I have, in Strigood’s hands, were nothing.
Therefore I’ll purpose nothing to him.
Enter JOYCE and GABRIELLA
Oh,
The joy and torment of my life, at once
Appear to me. I must divide them, thus.
[MATCHIL] thrusts off GABRIELLA
Hence hated issue of my mortal foe
Whom I have fostered with a parent’s piety
As carefully and dearly as mine own.
While the inhumane cruelty of thy sire
Has to untimely death exposed my son.
Thank me I kill not thee; so leave my house.
There’s French enough in town*n4620
Matchil refers to the common view that there were many - maybe too many - French people in London in the 1630s; Gabriella is to find her way among them. He reveals an anti-French prejudice here and elsewhere, but the play does not necessarily endorse his view: Gabriella and her father Lafoy are blameless; her brother Frances (Francois, alias Galliard) is lusty but stands up for virtue.
, that may befriend you,
n4620
To pack you o’er to Paris. What’s your own,
Take w’ ye, and go. To JOYCE Why cleave you to her so?
Forsake her, cast her off. Are not my words
Of force, but I must use my hands to part ye?*n5173
Matchil probably tries to separate Joyce and Gabriella by physical force. He makes such a move towards violence several times in the play.
Throughout this section the modern reader, at least, cannot help but compare the relationship between Joyce and Gabriella, their upbringing, and Matchil's attempt to separate them with Rosalind and Celia in As You Like It, especially Act 1, Scene 3, and Duke Frederick's instruction to Rosalind to 'get you from our court' (line 34).
n5173
Throughout this section the modern reader, at least, cannot help but compare the relationship between Joyce and Gabriella, their upbringing, and Matchil's attempt to separate them with Rosalind and Celia in As You Like It, especially Act 1, Scene 3, and Duke Frederick's instruction to Rosalind to 'get you from our court' (line 34).
83JoyceDear, honoured father, I beseech you hear me.
In parting us you separate life from me,
And therein act a real cruelty
On me your only child, sharper than that
Which you can but pretend done by her father.
84MatchilDurst thou speak so?
85JoyceI cannot live from her.
86MatchilO monstrous! Pray, your reason? Why not
live?
87JoyceYou know, sir, from our infancy we have been
Bred up together by your tender care
As we had been twin-born, and equally
Your own; and by a self-same education
We have grown hitherto in one affection;
We are both*n6607
In the 1659 text this is printed as 'hoth', a compositor's error.
but one body, and one mind;
n6607
What Gabriella was, I was, what I, was she.
And, till this hapless hour, you have enjoined me,
Nay, charged me on your blessing, not to arrogate
More of your love unto myself, than her.
88MatchilThat was ’cause I presumed her father loved,
Or should have loved, my son, your brother.
89JoyceI never knew brother, or sister, I;*n4621
Joyce's rhetorical formality marks her as a romantic heroine, particularly here when contrasted with the roughness and vehemence of her father's speech patterns.
n4621
Nor my poor self, but in my Gabriella.
Then blame me not to love her, I beseech you –
Upon my knees.
[JOYCE kneels]
90MatchilTh’ art knee-deep in rebellion.
Unnatural gypsy†gg2651
cunning, deceitful; also used as a derogatory term for a woman, similar to 'hussy' or 'baggage' (OED n. 2b), so could refer to the actions of such a woman
, since thou prov’st†gs684
to show oneself as or turn out to be something (OED v. 2d)
my torment
gg2651
gs684
In being the same with her; and hast declared
Thyself no more my child than she, whom now
I do abhor. Avoid, with her, my sight.
Rise, and be gone, lest thou pull curses on thee
Shall sink thee into earth.
91GabriellaO rather, sir,
Suffer alone the sharpness of your vengeance;
And let it not be said, ’cause you surmise,
My father lost your son, that, therefore, you
Have cast away your daughter. Hurl me, rather,
Into the ruthless waves to seek my way;
Or do but take her, hold her in the arms
Of your paternal love, and I’ll take flight
To wean her to you.*n5174
Gabriella's use of 'wean' is at first puzzling, but in this period it could mean 'train' as a transitive verb. (See OED wean v 5.) Gabriella will remove herself, as a means of training Joyce to depend on, obey, and love her father. The metaphor is drawn from that of weaning a baby from breast-milk and to solid food.
n5174
92JoyceShe cannot, may not leave me.
93MatchilOut of my doors, then, with her–––
Enter LADY NESTLECOCK
94Lady NestlecockWhat’s the matter? Ha–––
95MatchilSuch as you cannot mend, dear lady sister.
What come you hither with your 'Ha' for? Ha!*n4622
As in other plays, Brome here gives his protagonist a particular speech pattern: 'Ha!'. It is shared with Matchil's sister, Lady Nestlecock. The verbal tick they share contributes to the preservation of a comedic tone in a scene that could easily spill over into something darker.
–
n4622
96Lady NestlecockTo comfort you, dear brother, if you’ll hear me.
Your son is dead, they say; and here I find
Your daughter is rebellious ’gainst your will.
97MatchilYou speak much comfort, do you not, think you?
98Lady NestlecockBut is it so, Joyce? Ha! – I thought you, Joyce,
Would have rejoiced*n4623
Lady Nestlecock puns leadenly on her niece's name: 'Joyce ... rejoice ... Joyce'.
your father in obedience, Joyce;
n4623
And not afflict him with your stubbornness.
99MatchilO this impertinent woman!
100Lady NestlecockBut my brother,
Let me advise you, rather than suffer her
To be an eyesore to you, put her out*n5003
Expel her, send her away, perhaps drawing on the biblical injunction, 'if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out' (Mark.9.4), following on from Lady Nestlecock's labelling of Joyce as an 'eyesore'.
,
n5003
Where she may learn more duty. If you please,
I’ll take her home, and show her how it should be.
101MatchilYes, as you have shown your Nestlecock, your son.
102Lady NestlecockAye*n5119
I. This is another in a series of homophones ('Aye', 'I', and 'eye'), linking this series of speeches from Lady Nestlecock.
, there’s a child! Brother, you’ll pardon me
n5119
If I aspire in hope that he shall be
Your heir, if Joyce miscarry in rebellion.
103MatchilAnd therefore you would breed her*n5004
Matchil assumes his sister offers to house and educate Joyce, not to assist in reforming her stubbornness, but to ensure that she continues to alienate her father, so keeping the nephew Nehemiah as sole heir.
. How the devil*n5175
This phrase has a proverbial ring, but no exact equivalent has been found.
n5004
n5175
Works in a covetous woman! Though a fool too,
Your son’s an ass, an idiot, and yourself
No better, that have bred him so. Do you tell me
Of your sweet sugar-chopped†gg3013
literally jaws and/or lips (as used here in combination with "mumbling", the phrase is a comic inversion of the popular idiom of the period, "nimble-chops", meaning a talkative person)
†gg3321
of one who eats sweets, leaving sugar on his jaws and chin, like a child (OED sugar n, 6b, which cites this instance alone)
Nestle cockscomb?
gg3013
gg3321
105MatchilHe’s fit t’inherit nothing but a place
I’ th’ Spittle-house, Fools’ College, yond, at Knightsbridge*n353
The Knightsbridge Hospital, probably dating from the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries, served lepers, the destitute, and the simple-minded; and it was transferred to the control of St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1549. Without endowment, it required direct funding from St Bartholomew's and this ceased in 1623. By 1629 the chapel was in disrepair but was rebuilt by the residents of Knightsbridge. It stood on the main road towards London from the West Country. See Victoria County History, A History of the County of Middlesex (1969).
.
n353
106Lady NestlecockAnd did I come to bring thee consolation?
Now let me tell thee, I rejoice in thy
Just punishment, thy scourge of crosses. Thou,
That for these six years’ space, until this day,
Hast kept continual feast and jollity
For thy wife’s death, who was too good for thee.
107MatchilRight, for she was my master, a perpetual
Vexation to me, while she was above ground.
Your ladyship could not have spoke more comfort to me
Than the remembrance of that shook-off shackle*n5478
Matchil means his deceased wife, whom he calls a shrew. The phrase 'to shake off one's shackles' has a long history, but in the early modern period has a specific application to marriage. See OED shackle n1 2.b.
,
n5478
Which now, in my affliction, makes me smile.
108Lady NestlecockA further punishment I prophesy
Grows in the neck*n5005
No exactly similar phrase has been found. Lady Nestlecock may be thinking of the 'neck' of a plant: 'A narrow or constricted supporting or connecting part in a plant; esp. (a) the part of a bulb or corm where the leaves and stem emerge; (b) the slightly constricted junction between the roots and the stem (OED neck n1 9). If so, Matchil has already been punished by the loss of his stem or bulbs, in the form of his son; a further punishment may grow. There may also be a sense that Lady Nestlecock is wishing her brother hanged.
of thy lewd insolence.
n5005
109MatchilI could e’en find in heart to marry again,
In spite, now, of thy witchcraft. My son dead!
My daughter disobedient! And your child
But marry again? All women are not devils,
I may yet get an heir unto my mind.
Enter STRIGOOD
110MatchilArt thou here too–?
111StrigoodStay, you forget your brother, Master Matchil.
You have matched ill once already, and take heed
You match not worse. Your children, though untoward†gs685
intractable, unruly, perverse (a close synonym for wayward) (OED 2a)
gs685
Were likely of your own begetting; yet
Your second wife may bring you a supply
Of heirs, but
who must get them first is doubtful*n4624
Strigood says there may be children of a new marriage, but it is likely someone else besides his elderly brother will be the real father.
.
n4624
112MatchilThy impudence amazes me.
113StrigoodHa, ha.
114Lady NestlecockI’m sick at sight of the lewd reprobate.
115StrigoodD’ye cast about for heirs; and have besides
Your daughter here, a brother and a sister?
116Lady NestlecockCall not thyself our brother. He appears
Unkind*n5176
Lady Nestlecock makes a common pun on the different meanings of kind: a person or thing's nature; and sympathetic, gentle, nice. Matchil may be behaving as though not of the same 'kind' as his sister, denying their relationship, but Strigood is anything but sympathetic or nice.
to me, but thou insufferable,
n5176
I loathe to look upon thee.
117Strigood [Aside] He has spoke
Against her oaf*n5007
aunt. This must be an error: Lady Nestlecock is Joyce's aunt; Strigood means that his brother, Matchil, has spoken against his nephew, Lady Nestlecock's son, Nehemiah. 'Oaf' is substituted, without much confidence that this is certain to be the correct word. The Folger Shakespeare Library B4872 ms. annotator notes the problem and substitutes Auf; but the meaning of this is unclear.
, her mooncalf†gg3734
a born fool; a congenital idiot; a simpleton (OED mooncalf n, 2c)
son. I’ll make
n5007
gg3734
Her love me best, and presently.
[Aloud] Brother, I say.
118MatchilI cannot look upon thee.
Provoke me not to speech, I charge thee.
119StrigoodGive me leave to speak. Hold you your peace;
Give your consent in silence.
120Matchil [MATCHIL hums loudly]*n5487
Three directions to Matchil to hum loudly are set in the 1659 text against the right hand margin and these are reproduced here. The actor must decide whether to keep up a continuous humming or only do so at the points indicated in the text.
hum, hum, &c.*n5486
See the Original Spelling text for setting of this and succeeding indications that Matchil hums to drown out the speeches of his sister and half-brother.
n5487
n5486
121Lady NestlecockHear him not.
122MatchilNor you neither,
hum, hum, hum
123Lady NestlecockI am not angry with you now; and therefore
I charge you, hear him not.
124Matchilhum hum ––
125StrigoodMy advice is thus, that for your daughter’s good,
For mine own good, and for your sister’s good,
And for her son, your nephew’s good–––
126Lady NestlecockHow’s that? Ha!
127StrigoodAnd chiefly for your own good, and the credit
A wise man would desire to hold i’th’ world,
Think not of marrying, nor of buying horns
At the whole value of your whole estate*n5006
Strigood's repetition may be to enforce the aural pun, 'whole'/'hole'. His point is to render Matchil fearful of being made a cuckold.
,
n5006
But match your daughter while you have the means
In your own hands; give her a good round portion.
Here are deserving gentlemen i’ th’ house.
Next, think of me, your brother, that has spent
All*n5009
Strigood's reflection on the notion of 'downright fellowship' is not easy to understand in detail. The problem perhaps lies in 'what all'. This is a usage no longer current in British English but recorded in 1702 and surviving in American English (as in 'you-all' in Southern US dialects), the equivalent of 'what not', a catch-all for a variety of things. Strigood means 'who knows what among the variety of fraudulent purposes'.
fraudulent purposes to make any man
n5009
A miser or a gainer by’t – a fair estate
And now do want a brotherly supply,
A hundred a year or so. But above all
That hopeful gentleman, sweet Nehemiah.
128Matchilhum.
129Lady NestlecockNow, brother, you may hear him.
Remember yet he is your mother’s grandchild*n4625
Strigood avoids the direct term, nephew, in order to make the relationship sound more distant.
.
n4625
131Lady NestlecockWhy d'ye not hear him, brother?–
132Matchilhum.
133StrigoodAs I hope to be a landed man myself,
Had I a thousand yearly, I would leave it him.
134Lady NestlecockTruly, I thank you. Now I’ll call you brother.
You’re a good natured gentleman, if you had it*n4626
The blunt, monosyllabic phrase sheds a cold light on Strigood's avowed generosity: his willingness to bequeath land to Nehemiah would make him a 'good-natured gentleman', had he any assets to leave.
.
n4626
Come home, and see my son. – [To MATCHIL] Will you not hear him? Ha!
135MatchilI need not, nor yourself. I see you gape
Like monsters that would swallow me alive.
I know your minds; and I will do mine own.
And thus it is. Stay, let me stay a little.
136Lady NestlecockLook you how wild he looks.
137StrigoodHe’s falling mad,
stark staring mad.
138Lady NestlecockI would he had a wife, then,
for nothing else can tame him.
139MatchilSo it shall be.
First, I’ll be master of mine own estate.
Next –
140StrigoodTake a wife to master that, and you.
141Matchil [To GABRIELLA] Next, you mademoiselle, on whom with patience
I cannot look, forsake my house, and suddenly;
Linger not for a man to wait upon you,
But let your black-bag*n4873
No contemporary definition of the 'black bag' has been found, but the term appears frequently in contemporary literary texts (I am grateful to Lucy Munro for adding numerous instances to the few I had collected). It appears to be the term for a woman's black head covering, as seen in a number of representations, serious and satirical, of women's fashions [IMAGE DM_3_1]. From the references in this play, the fashion seems to be French in origin. As well as Dr. Munro, I am grateful to Susan North of the Victoria and Albert Museum for her attempts to trace the 'black bag' in early seventeenth-century clothing and for her advice on further research; and to Jenny Tiramani.
guard you, ’tis a fashion
n4873
Begun amongst us here by your own nation.
[To JOYCE] And if I longer must call you my daughter,
Forsake you her.
142JoyceWhat, mine own heart?*n5120
This is the first use of a phrase of endearment that characterises the exchanges between Joyce and Gabriella; each uses it repeatedly. It is mocked by Strigood, who sneers at their use of 'Mon Coeur' [NOTE n4628]. Stigood's phrase marks their effusiveness as foreign, French, and perhaps false. The audience may sympathise with Strigood somewhat: there is a hot-house quality to the exchanges between the two young women, as though they are enjoying the drama of their situation and their affections.
Dear sir –
n5120
143MatchilAt your own choice. I can force her departure,
Though not persuade your stay; determine quickly
Either to leave her, and enjoy a father,
Or never more expect a father’s blessing.
144GabriellaDear, mine own heart, leave me, obey your
father.
145JoyceIt must be to my death, then.[JOYCE] weeps
146MatchilI’ll be sudden.
Therefore, be you as brief in your resolve.
147Lady NestlecockAlas, poor hearts. Just so loth
To part was I and my son Nehemiah
Today when I came forth.
148StrigoodNiece Joyce, let me
advise you –
149MatchilPray, sir, none of your advice.
Let her advise herself, whilest I impart
To you my next intention, which is thus:
To end your strife for shares in mine estate,
I’ll venture*n5010
Matchil's word means 'to hazard or risk' [GLOSS gg1831]; but this is commercial language too [GLOSS gg193]. His conflation of an intimate relationship with his business dealings is manifest.
on a wife; indeed, I’ll marry.
n5010
150Lady NestlecockWill you so? Ha!*n5015
La. The compositor has probably assumed that this reads as the speech prefix for Lady Nestlecock: 'La.' However, this makes no sense and it is more likely that she continues to use the characteristic exclamation she shares with her brother Matchil. They trade 'Ha's' throughout this heated exchange.
n5015
151MatchilYes indeed, ha!*n5144
La, - This could be an abbreviation of 'Lady', but the text uses this abbreviation nowhere else within a speech. Instead, it seems likely that the compositor, seeing 'ha' (Matchil's characteristic exclamation) has mistaken it for 'La', the abbreviated Speech Prefix used throughout for Lady Nestlecock.
–
n5144
152StrigoodIf then
You’ll estate nothing on me for my life,
Give me a fee to help you to a wife.
I can, a good one.
153MatchilI’ll none, sir, of your good ones.
Besides, sir, I’m provided.
154Lady NestlecockYou are not, are you? Ha.
155MatchilLet it suffice, I say it; so quit my house.
156StrigoodShall I expect then nothing?
157MatchilPray sir, do.
’Tis all I can afford you. You have wit,
Yes, you can dance, tread money out of rushes*n4627
Ironically, this is exactly what Strigood proceeds to do, using his social skills to make a living. Matchil implies that Strigood will be on the verge of criminality: 'sleight', 'nimble', 'airy'.
,
n4627
Sleight*n5016
slight. Matchil is talking disdainfully about Strigood's trickery, so this reading is preferred.
and activity†gg3326
liveliness, energy
to live upon.
n5016
gg3326
A nimble brain, quick hands and airy heels
To get a living.
158StrigoodHa!
159MatchilPray†gg3327
a contraction of 'I pray you', or 'I ask you'
,
fall to practice†gs591
in pejorative senses, to practice upon, to fool or deceive
.
gg3327
gs591
160Strigood [Aside] I may, sir, to your cost, if you put off
Your daughter with her sweet-heart, her Mon Coeur*n4628
'My heart', a term of endearment. Strigood is picking up and sneering at the characteristic endearment used by Joyce and Gabriella, 'mine own dear heart' (see [NOTE n5120]), and he does so in French, adding insult.
n4628
There, as she calls her. [To LADY NESTLECOCK] Dear, my lady sister:
You see how churlishly this merchant uses us.
He has forgot, sure, he was born a gentleman.
Will you be pleased, I speak to you in your ear.
161Lady NestlecockAny way, brother Strigood, hang him, Nabal*n4629
In 1.Samuel 25.3, Nabal refuses hospitality to David's men. Lady Nestlecock brands her brother as inhospitable and evil.
.
n4629
To turn a stranger from within his gates,
But offer to cast out his child too, ha!
162Strigood’Tis about that I’d speak. Pray, madam, hark you.
[STRIGOOD and LADY NESTLECOCK talk aside]
Enter ERASMUS and VALENTINE
163ErasmusNoble Master Matchil, though we ate your meat
Before we saw you, you will give us leave
To take our leaves, and thank you ere we part.
164MatchilO, gentlemen.
165ValentineW’ have heard your cause of sorrow.
166MatchilBut I have overpassed it. Hark ye, gentlemen.
167ErasmusYou’ll give us leave first to salute the ladies.
168MatchilNay, if you love me, hear me first.
169Erasmus, ValentineYour will, sir.[MATCHIL, ERASMUS, and VALENTINE] talk aside.
170Lady Nestlecock [To JOYCE] Niece, you shall no way disobey your father
In being ruled by me.
171Strigood [Aside] So, so, it takes.
172Lady NestlecockYou and your second self shall home with me
To which the first means is to shun his sight,
And then let me alone to make your peace.
173Joyce, GabriellaWe thank your ladyship.
174Lady NestlecockSo let us slip
Home to my house together. Hist*n5145
La. Hist Duplicate Speech Prefix removed.
, brother, lead the way.
n5145
175Strigood [Aside] As glad as ever fox was of his prey.*n4630
The rhyme marks Lady Nestlecock and Strigood as confederates against Matchil, even though they would be ruthless is seeking advantage over each other.
Exit [STRIGOOD, LADY NESTLECOCK,
JOYCE, and GABRIELLA.
MATCHIL, ERASMUS, and VALENTINE remain]*n5018
Exit om. Pet. Mat. Er. Val.
n4630
JOYCE, and GABRIELLA.
MATCHIL, ERASMUS, and VALENTINE remain]*
n5018
176Matchil’Tis even so, gentlemen, sorrow finds no lodging
In my light heart. Sometimes she knocks at door,
And takes a drink, but here she must not sit by’t.
177ValentineYou’re happy, sir.
178ErasmusYet I have heard you say
You never tasted joy for diverse years
Till your wife died; since when, a king of mirth;
And now to marry again is such a thing*n5012
Erasmus means that marrying for a second time is a momentous decision; Matchil picks up the phrase, crudely, to describe the woman he intends to marry.
.
n5012
179MatchilYes, sir, ’tis such a thing*n5012
Erasmus means that marrying for a second time is a momentous decision; Matchil picks up the phrase, crudely, to describe the woman he intends to marry.
that I will marry
n5012
That I foreknow can never disobey me,
And I’ll defy the devil to dishonest†gg3735
to violate the honour or chastity of; to defile (OED dishonest v, 3)
her.
gg3735
180ErasmusIs she so ugly?
181ValentineNo, he means so virtuous.
182MatchilWell said, sir, you shall drink before me.
[MATCHIL calls offstage] Rachel, Maudlin!
’Protest you shall, though’t be in my own house.
183ErasmusNow he resumes his humour.
184Matchil [MATCHIL calls offstage] Rachel, I say,
Bring me a can o’ sack.
185ErasmusBut how can you
Presume before the dangerous marriage-trial
That she whom y’ have chosen will be obedient?
186ValentineD’ye think he has not tried†gg1333
proved or tested by examination
her*n4631
Literally, Matchil means that he has tested Rachel's obedience and docility, but the audience cannot help but hear a more physical meaning, especially when Matchil says that he has tried her 'day and night'. Sexual connotations lurk near the surface at several points in his exchanges with Erasmus and Valentine, as the two young men know.
? There’s a
gg1333
n4631
question!
187MatchilWell-said again. I was about to say so.
[MATCHIL calls offstage] Rachel, some sack, I say. [To VALENTINE] Yes, I have
tried†gg1333
proved or tested by examination
her, sir,
gg1333
Tried her, and tried her again: all over and over
These five years day and night; and still obedient.*n4631
Literally, Matchil means that he has tested Rachel's obedience and docility, but the audience cannot help but hear a more physical meaning, especially when Matchil says that he has tried her 'day and night'. Sexual connotations lurk near the surface at several points in his exchanges with Erasmus and Valentine, as the two young men know.
n4631
189MatchilNo, I never used
A marriage-question, nor a wooing word.
But do all by command, she is so obedient.
190ValentineAnd yet she’s chaste and virtuous withal.*n5013
Valentine's lines could be innocent, but the implication appears to be that Matchil's 'trying' of his servant cannot have been without sexual experience, even though he never mentioned marriage.
n5013
191MatchilWell-said again, sir, so I was a’saying.
192ErasmusBut we have talked away the gentlewomen.
193MatchilNo matter, let ’em go. Would they were*n6151
wete
far enough.*n5146
enough. Enter Rach. This stage direction is repeated in 1659 by the longer Enter Rachel, silver Kan and Napkin. The duplicate has been removed.
n6151
n5146
Enter RACHEL, [carrying] silver can and napkin.
Come, the sack, the sack. [RACHEL curtseys] Who taught you that curtsey, maid?
Pray, try a better to the gentleman.
[To VALENTINE] ’Protest you shall begin.
194ValentineIn your own house, sir?
195MatchilI’ll rather g’ ye my house, than break my word in’t.
196ValentineYou’re lord here, and may command me, sir.
And so my service to you.*n5177
Valentine responds with exaggerated courtesy and servility, highly ironic given his intentions and scepticism concerning the likely future deference and obedience of Matchil's new wife.
n5177
197MatchilI’ll do you reason, sir.––– VAL[ENTINE] drink[s]
[To RACHEL] Be ready with your napkin†gg3334
a small rectangular piece of cloth or a small towel
; [RACHEL proffers the napkin and cursties] and a lower douke†gg3328
a variant of 'duck': an instantaneous lowering of head and body; a rapid jerky bow or obeisance (OED duck n2, 2)
, maid,
gg3334
gg3328
I’ll hang dead weight at your buttocks else. [RACHEL performs a deeper curtsey] So. *n5488
Rachel has not performed a sufficiently deep curtsey and Matchil threatens to attach weights to force her to curtsey lower. Matchil's 'So' and next speech of self-congratulation indicate that she complies to his satisfaction.
n5488
[To ERASMUS and VALENTINE] Is not this obedience, gentlemen? Master Erasmus?[MATCHIL toasts ERASMUS]
Mus, I will call thee Mus, I love to be
Familiar, where I love; and Godamercy
For your friend here. [MATCHIL toasts VALENTINE] You both shall see my daughter.
But my French damsel and I are parted,
I hope, by this time. So here’s to you, Mus.
198ErasmusTo me, to me, to me.M[ATCHIL] drinks.
199MatchilHa, boy, art there? DispatchERASMUS drinks.
[To RACHEL] Your curtsey quickly, and go call my daughter.
200RachelShe is gone forth, forsooth.
201MatchilForth, ha? When? Whither?[RACHEL begins crying]
La ye, she thinks I’m angry, and the finger
Is in the eye already. Is not this
Fear and obedience, gentlemen? Who went with
her?
202RachelShe went with my Lady Nestlecock, to bring
Gabriella on her way, they said.
203MatchilI would
They were all in France together.
204ErasmusWhat, your daughter?
205MatchilShe comes again, I doubt not. [To RACHEL] Dry your eyes,
And drink that sack, without a curtsey*n5017
Matchil's autocratic capriciousness is manifested in this scene by his bewildering injunctions to Rachel to curtsey or not to curtsey, to curtsey more deeply or not at all.
, drink it.
n5017
You do not know my meaning, gentlemen.
Stay: now gi’ me’t again. –– Now go and dry
Your face within –– without a curtsey? Ha!Exit RACHEL
Now is not this obedience, gentlemen?
206ValentineBut this is not the rare obedient piece
That you will marry?
207MatchilYou do not hear me say so,
But I presume, as much obedience
In her I have made choice of.
208ErasmusMarry a maid,
209MatchilNo, I’ll have no such blades†gg649
smart, fashionable young men, so called from the swords or rapiers they carried as signs of their prowess (although such a reference to gallants was often familiarly laudatory, just as frequently it was contemptuous)
’bout my wife’s hanches†gg3335
a variant of 'haunch': 'the part of the body, in men and quadrupeds, lying between the last ribs and the thigh' (OED haunch n, 1a)
*n5178
Matchil draws on the aural resemblance between 'hanches' and 'hench-men' to make a somewhat leaden joke.
.
gg649
gg3335
n5178
But come, to end this tedious scene*n4632
Matchil means that it is time to stop discussing these troubling and disturbing matters, but in a metatheatrical gesture the play is drawing ironic attention to itself and, in particular, its structure: the first act is drawing to a conclusion.
, in which
n4632
I ha’ passed*n5179
passed through
the purgatory†gg2267
place of spiritual purging and purification; in Roman Catholic doctrine a place 'in which souls who depart this life in the grace of God suffer for a time, because they still need to be cleansed from venial sins, or have still to pay the temporal punishment due to mortal sins, the guilt and the eternal punishment of which have been remitted' (OED n. 1a)
of my passions†gg2535
suffering, affliction, disorder; overpowering emotion; fit of madness or anger
*n4633
Matchil's phrasing is religious, but the gesture seems jocular and superficial: there is no sense elsewhere in the play of any religious sensibility. It is characteristic that he will move immediately, and without any greater depth, to the analogy of alchemy.
n5179
gg2267
gg2535
n4633
Of sorrow, anger, fear, and hope at last.
I am refined†gg3330
purified, especially by some technical process
, sublimed†gs592
of a substance subjected to the action of heat in a vessel so as to convert it into vapour, which is carried off and on cooling is deposited in a solid form; especially used as an alchemical term (OED)
, exalted†gg3331
of a substance subjected to the action of heat in a vessel so as to convert it into vapour, which is carried off and on cooling is deposited in a solid form (OED exalt v, 3); especially used in alchemy
, fixed†gg3332
deprived of volatility or fluidity (OED fix v, 4a); an alchemical meaning
gg3330
gs592
gg3331
gg3332
In my true sphere†gg2848
realm (referring to the Ptolemaic system in which the heavens were imagined as a series of concentric spheres)
of mirth, where love’s my object
gg2848
And bloody thought of black revenge cast by*n4634
Throughout this speech Matchil adopts and then as easily and quickly discards terminology from different fields and subjects. Having cast his unhappiness in religious terms, he then says that his trials have been analogous to refining alchemical processes, purifying his essential being, which is that of mirth or happiness. But he then lurches into self-presentation as a lover; the audience has seen little sign of love but merely the desire to marry an inferior over whom he has complete command. He ends with a trite alliteration: 'bloody thought' and 'black revenge'.
.
n4634
210Valentine
Could your fair breast harbour a bloody
211MatchilFor some few minutes, in which ecstasy†gg3333
the state of being beside oneself, transported by passion
gg3333
I meant t’ ha’ gone, as other gallants do,
To fight in France, forsooth, and charged my man
To draw up his accounts, call in my monies,
Thought to have made my will––
212ErasmusI saw your cashier
Go forth e’en now with a strong lusty porter
Loaden with money; I will not say my teeth
Watered at it.*n5489
Erasmus uses a jocular phrase to acknowledge the desire he experienced on seeing Cash with so much money. The vigour of the idiomatic phrasing establishes an ironic distance and thus somewhat neutralises his naked envy. Both his and Valentine's colloquial and idiomatic phrasing, behaving to Matchil as though he too were one of the impecunious young men about town, with a frank desire for other people's money, panders to Matchil but also makes the audience uncomfortable.
n5489
213[Valentine]*n5134
Val. The italicised Speech Prefix and following line - 'But 'twas enough to make / A very true man's fingers itch' - are set as part of Erasmus's previous speech in the 1659 text.
But ’twas enough to make
n5134
214MatchilI cannot
Think he is run away; but yet I like not
His carrying forth, when I say fetch in money.
But this is from my purpose. Love ye mirth?
Let’s in, and drink, and talk.
That gives it birth.*n4636
The rhyme concludes the act with vigour and an air of celebration, but it also shows that Matchil is embarking on a second marriage with a mindset that is entirely homosocial, finding the heart of pleasure only in the activities associated with male conviviality. The act ends with a perverse symmetry: Erasmus and Valentine were seen at the beginning lamenting that they could not feast with Matchil because of his grief at the loss of his son; it ends with their leaving the stage to do so nonetheless.
[All exit]
n4636
Edited by Michael Leslie