Richard Brome Online

ACT TWO

2.1*

With the opening scene of the second act we return to Letoy’s mansion and find from his converse with the Doctor that they are in league together respecting Peregrine’s cure and the bringing of Joyless’s family to London. Letoy appears to be the mastermind behind the whole enterprise, which he is organising and controlling rather in the manner of Shakespeare’s Prospero. Of special note is the information that Hughball on Letoy’s orders has encouraged Diana in her flirtatiousness (which retrospectively explains his rather arch behaviour with her in the final scene of Act One). He leaves to attend to his patient whose drugged state will soon be wearing off, while Letoy gets his actors ready for the ensuing performance, instructing them about the proper acting style and modes of decorum they should adopt as befitting the particular play they are soon to enact. He wishes them to play for realism rather than exhibit themselves overtly as actors. His man, Byplay, is singled out for special advice: since his is an acknowledged talent for improvisation, it is he who must lead the troupe’s invention in responding to however Peregrine reacts and be attentive to any whispered instructions that the Doctor may choose to offer. The actors depart when Letoy’s guests arrive with Blaze, who proceeds to introduce them to their host. Letoy’s chance observation that Diana is wearing his ring provokes an angry enchange between her and Joyless, who threatens to take her home. Letoy openly courts Diana and asserts his authority as a lord over Joyless, insisting that either husband and wife both stay or that Joyless depart alone while Diana remains behind to enjoy the promised entertainment. A grudging Joyless agrees to join the party, and all depart to Letoy’s private theatre. To the themes of madness and jealousy Brome has begun meticulously to introduce the concept of drama and acting as therapy. Significantly, Letoy insists that his actors adopt a studied seriousness in what they do and that they be wholly attentive to the purpose of the drama they are to play and not self-consciously vaunt their personal expertise.

[Enter] LETOY [and] DOCTOR.

224[Letoy]*Tonight*, sayest thou, my Hughball?

225DoctorBy all means;

And if your play takes† to my expectation,

As I not doubt my potion works to yours,

Your fancy† and my cure shall be cried up†

Miraculous. Oh, you’re the lord of fancy†.

226LetoyI’m not ambitious of that title, sir.

No, the Letoys are of antiquity,

Ages before the fancies† were begot,

And shall beget still† new to the world’s ends.

But are you confident o’your potion, doctor?

Sleeps the young man?

227DoctorYes, and has slept these twelve hours

After† a thousand mile an hour outright

By sea and land; and shall awake anon†

In the Antipodes.

228LetoyWell, sir, my actors

Are all in readiness; and, I think, all perfect†

But one* that never will be perfect in a thing

He studies; yet he makes such shifts† extempore†*,

(Knowing the purpose† what he is to speak to)

That he moves† mirth in me ’bove all the rest.

For I am none of those poetic furies*,

That threats the actor’s life in a whole play,

That adds a syllable or takes away.

If he can fribble† through, and move delight

In others, I am pleased.

229DoctorIt is that mimic† fellow, which your lordship

But lately entertained†.

230LetoyThe same.

231DoctorHe will be wondrous apt in my affair:

For I must take occasion to interchange†

Discourse† with him sometimes amidst their scenes,

T’inform my patient, my mad young traveller,

In diverse matters.

232LetoyDo. Put him to’t†: I use’t myself sometimes.

233DoctorI know it is your way.

234LetoyWell, to the business.

Hast wrought† the jealous gentleman, old Joyless,

To suffer† his wife to see our comedy?

235DoctorShe brings your ring, my lord, upon her finger,

And he brings her in’s hand. I have instructed her

To spur his jealousy off o’ the legs*.

236LetoyAnd I will help her in’t.

237DoctorThe young distracted

Gentle waiting woman too that’s sick of her virginity,

Yet knows not what it is; and Blaze and’s wife

Shall all be your guests tonight*, and not alone

Spectators, but (as we will carry it) actors*

To fill your comic scenes with double† mirth.

238LetoyGo fetch ’em then, while I prepare my actors.DOC[TOR] ex[its].

Within there ho!

2391 [within]This is my beard and hair.

2402 [within]My lord appointed it for my part.

2413 [within] No:

This is for you; and this is yours, this grey one.

2424 [within]Where be the foils† and targets† for the women?*

2431 [within]Here, can’t you see?

244LetoyWhat a rude coil† is there!

But yet it pleases me.

2451 [within]You must not wear

That cloak and hat.

2462 [within]Who told you so? I must

In my first scene, and you must wear that robe.

247LetoyWhat a noise make those knaves? Come in one of you.

Enter QUAILPIPE*, [three] actors and BYPLAY.

Are you the first that answers to that name*?

248QuailpipeMy lord.

249LetoyWhy are not you ready† yet?

250QuailpipeI am not to put on my shape† before

I have spoke the prologue. And for that my lord

I yet want something.

251LetoyWhat, I pray, with your grave formality?

252QuailpipeI want my beaver shoes and leather cap*

To speak the prologue in*; which were appointed†

By your lordship's own direction.

253LetoyWell, sir, well: [He fetches them.]*

There they be for you; I must look to all.

254QuailpipeCertes†, my lord, it is a most apt conceit:

The comedy being the world turned upside-down

That the presenter† wear the capital† beaver

Upon his feet, and on his head shoe leather.

255LetoyTrouble not you your head with my conceit*,

But mind your part*. Let me not see you act now

In your scholastic† way you brought to town wi’ye,

With seesaw† sack-a-down, like a sawyer†;

Nor in a comic scene play Hercules Furens*,

Tearing your throat to split the audients’† ears.

And you, sir, you had got a trick of late,

Of holding out your bum in a set speech,

Your fingers fibulating† on your breast,

As if your buttons or your band-strings† were

Helps to your memory. Let me see you in’t†

No more I charge† you. No, nor you, sir, in

That over-action of the legs I told you of:

Your singles† and your doubles†, look you, thus――

Like one o'th' dancing masters o’the Bear-garden*;

And when you have spoke, at end of every speech,

Not minding the reply, you turn you round

As tumblers† do; when betwixt every feat†

They gather wind† by firking† up their breeches.

I’ll none of these absurdities in my house,

But words and action married so together,

That shall strike harmony in the ears and eyes

Of the severest, if judicious, critics.

256QuailpipeMy lord, we are corrected.

257LetoyGo, be ready*. [QUAILPIPE and the three actors exit, leaving BYPLAY.]

But you, sir, are incorrigible and

Take licence to† yourself to add unto

Your parts your own free fancy†; and sometimes

To alter or diminish what the writer

With care and skill composed: and when you are

To speak to your co-actors in the scene,

You hold interlocutions† with the audients*.

258ByplayThat is a way, my lord, has been allowed

On elder† stages to move mirth and laughter.

259LetoyYes in the days of Tarlton* and Kemp*

Before the stage was purged from barbarism

And brought to the perfection it now shines with.

Then fools and jesters spent† their wits because

The poets were wise enough to save their own

For profitabler uses. Let that pass.

Tonight I’ll give thee leave to try thy wit

In answering my doctor and his patient*

He brings along with him to our Antipodes.

260ByplayI heard of him, my lord. Blaze gave me light†

Of the mad patient, and that he never saw

A play in’s life. It will be possible

For him to think he is in the Antipodes

Indeed, when he is on the stage among us,*

When’t has been thought by some that have their wits

That all the players i’ th’ town were sunk past rising*.

261LetoyLeave that, sir, to th’ event. See all be ready:

Your music, properties, and――

262ByplayAll, my lord.

Only we want a person for a mute†.

263LetoyBlaze, when he comes, shall serve*. Go in.BYP[LAY] ex[its].

My guests, I hear, are coming.

Enter BLAZE*, JOYLESS, DIANA, MARTHA, BARB[ARA].

264BlazeMy lord, I am become your honour’s usher

This scene from the entrance of Blaze with Diana and Joyless to their exit was the subject of a short workshop. (That is, from [AN 2.1.speeches264-291].) The characters Martha and Barbara were omitted along with such dialogue as was addressed to them to allow for three actors only to focus on the work; Michael Leslie joined them in the role of Blaze.) Though on the surface it might seem just a filling-in sequence showing the arrival of Joyless with his family at Letoy’s London mansion, intent on observing his son Peregrine’s cure, in practice we discovered it is layered with tensions and subtle directives to the audience to view Letoy especially in a questioning light. By the end of the play the audience learns that Letoy has been play-acting with Diana and for a specific purpose. In the workshop we were interested to explore how soon an audience might or should become aware of this fact. He appears from his first encounter with Diana to be flirting with her outrageously and, as Joyless sarcastically remarks in observing this, his actions look like those of a lord who pursues women by right of conquest (le droit de seigneur) with no scruple or qualm of conscience: “Indeed, ‘tis a high point of honour in /A lord to keep a private gentleman’s wife /From him”. Everything that Letoy says and does aggravates tensions within the marital relationship between Joyless and Diana. And yet their coming to Letoy’s house is in quest of a cure and from the opening scene the doctor has intimated that more in the family seem to need his attentions than just Peregrine. He has offered to cure Diana, Martha and Joyless himself too. To what degree might Letoy be seen as working a cure of Diana and Joyless’s dysfunctional marriage, parallel to the Doctor’s curing of Peregrine’s madness? None of this is stated and it is only established as fact within the final scenes of the play. How purposefully should the cast “prepare” an audience for this final revelation so that when it comes it seems quite plausible and not outright absurd? There is ample evidence that Caroline audiences were accustomed to going more than once to a play. Playgoers at a second viewing of The Antipodes would be privileged to know the outcome and for them the “preparation” for the revealing of Letoy’s intentions with Diana and Joyless would occupy at least part of their interest.

The workshop began with some discussion of stage space and how it might be used to define Letoy’s superior social status as aristocrat. It then moved on to debating how to handle the numerous asides within the scene: whether as general direct address to the whole audience, which might involve an actor moving to a position where he or she could get full view of them and command their attention, or by a turn of the head to engage with specific individual spectators. The pace of the scene seemed to require the latter approach but would be explored in the playing. Richard Cave initiated discussion of the lines: “Let me beseech /Your lordship’s reacceptance of the un- /Merited favour [that is the ring Diana retrieved in an earlier scene] that she wears here.” Is the fact that the line-division falls across and so bisects the word “unmerited” an instance of a poor ear for metrics on Brome’s part or might it be a cue to the actor to use in some way? How flirtatiously pressing should Letoy’s approach to Diana be, since within six lines of Joyless’s entrance with his wife the latter has the aside, “He courts her”? The actors noted how Letoy immediately resorts to what one of the performers called “lovespeak” rather than a formal greeting; and the actor playing Letoy (Hannah Watkins) became concerned about how “big” to make the courtship, vocally and physically. How deliberately, she asked, is Letoy trying to make Joyless jealous? With this discussion in mind, the actors made the following first attempt at staging the scene.

Taking her cue from the text, Letoy [Hannah Watkins] avoids contact with Joyless [Adam Kay] and moves straight to Diana [Beth Vyse], immediately establishing what the lord’s priorities are. Reference to the ring allows Letoy then to kiss Diana’s hand; and his continuing to talk with Diana (thus ignoring Joyless’s questions about the origins of the ring) effectively marginalises the husband in a manner which clearly motivates Joyless’s ensuing aside. Left apart, he can direct that aside to the whole audience. Though a matter of a few lines, this rendering clearly established Diana’s awakening interest in Letoy for his not standing on conventional ceremony. Beth Vyse wondered whether she should be so responsive (since later dialogue shows Diana to be suspicious of Letoy and astonished when she learns he is a lord). The sequence was played again with Diana being deeply unsure how to respond: she offers her hand out of politeness but physically draws back in some perplexity when Letoy seems to take advantage of having contact with her.

Brian Woolland, the director, wondered whether this was too innocent a reading. Some preliminary work based on the premise that Letoy was deliberately setting out to provoke Joyless’s jealousy showed Hannah Watkins’s acting beginning to move towards conscious performance and Woolland asked her to emphasize this quality; and Adam Kay as Joyless asked if he might explore moving through asides to the audience towards seeking some kind of support in his confusion from Blaze (Michael Leslie). This is what next was attempted.

Gradually layers of meaning, psychological and social, have been added to the playing and a feature recurrent throughout Brome’s dramaturgy of the divided focus within the playing space has been almost unconsciously set up by the players. It was decided to move on to later in the scene to explore the outcome of the seemingly private exchanges between Joyless and Diana that Brome shows taking place while Letoy is greeting his other guests and arranging for Blaze to join the players, as “there is an actor wanting”. This commentary on the workshop continues at [AN 2.1.speech278] “I say restore the ring, and back with me”.

To these your guests. The worthy Master Joyless

With his fair wife and daughter-in-law.

265LetoyThey’re welcome,

And you in the first place, sweet Mistress Joyless.

You wear my ring, I see; you grace† me in it.

266Joyless [Aside] His ring! What ring? How came she by’t?

267Blaze [Aside] ’Twill work.

268LetoyI sent it as a pledge† of my affection to you,

For I before have seen you and do languish†

Until I shall enjoy your love.

269Joyless [Aside] He courts her.

270LetoyNext, lady―you―*I have a toy† for you too.

271MarthaMy child shall thank you for it, when I have one.

I take no joy in toys since I was married.

272LetoyPrettily answered! I make you no stranger,

Kind Mistress Blaze.

273Barbara [Aside to LETOY] Time was† your honour used

Me strangely† too, as you’ll do these, I doubt not.

274LetoyHonest Blaze,

Prithee† go in; there is an actor wanting.

275BlazeIs there a part for me? How shall I study't†?

276LetoyThou shalt say nothing.

277BlazeThen if I do not act

Nothing as well as the best of ’em, let me be hissed.[BLAZE] exit[s] .

278Joyless [Aside to DIANA] I say restore the ring, and back* with me.

The welcome that Letoy offers to Martha and Barbara and his private instruction to Blaze to join the players has taken audience awareness away from Joyless and Diana and, when next the focus returns to them, we find them already advanced into a quarrel. What follows was the first attempt at staging the final sequences of the scene which, though still often exploratory and hesitant, shows both Beth Vyse as Diana finding a newly decisive voice in the proceedings and, most interestingly, Adam Kay’s spontaneously inventive handling of the textual crux that is the scansion of the word, “un- /merited” (speech 286).

Brilliantly Adam decides to use the line-break to mime removing the ring from Diana’s finger: the near-violence of the one gesture contrasting markedly with the elegant holding of the ring out to Letoy for his acceptance. Diana’s body language now is different from her initial retreating away from Letoy and more expressive of her growing interest in him. Having provoked Joyless’s jealousy, Hannah Watkins’s Letoy now objectively stands to observe the consequences on the married pair. The director, Brian Woolland, decided next to build on this and urged Hannah to keep her distance at least initially from Joyless and Diana, as this would allow Adam Kay as Joyless more room to move about the figure of his wife, rendering it easier for him to move between dialogue and direct address for his aside beginning at “The air of London /Hath tainted her obedience already” (speech 286). Michael Leslie noted how Joyless’s “Let me beseech” in effect completes the “public” pentameter begun by Diana’s “To lose my longing now” (speeches 285-286), which renders his intervening lines (about the decadence befalling his wife since she has come to London) more obviously “private”. Adam was asked to try and reproduce this effect in his delivery, since the dramaturgy meticulously indicates the required changes in vocal register. After thinking through the implications of this, he and the director decided that the sheer pacing of the changes of register necessitated that the lines that are designated an “aside” should be directed at individual audience members while physically he stayed within the group of three actors involved in the sequence. This information fed into the next attempt. Numerous interruptions occurred to disrupt the flow of the scene, which grew out of the actors’ uncertainty with the implication of their respective lines. Much of the ensuing discussion that attempted to resolve these issues is kept in the recording, as it demonstrates what kinds of questions need to be answered in the rehearsal situation and the degree to which proxemics, vocal tone and the movement of actors in relation to each other, the audience and the playing space can be deployed to add layers of implication to the growing meaning generated by the performance. What continually impressed in workshopping the scene was the return by the actors on several occasions to what at a first encounter they had instinctively done in negotiating seeming difficulties in the text.

Director and cast had become increasingly interested in Letoy’s status and how close they might approach a lord (though it was clear to them that he could bridge the gap between himself and persons of lower rank whenever he so chose). Elizabeth Schafer noted that although Joyless and Diana have asides, Letoy never does. The impact of this is that Letoy’s inner motivation remains unknown, which adds to the confusion of Joyless especially but also builds up in spectators a sense of the lord as a decided enigma. There is a way in which Letoy has no need of asides, since he is absolutely confident of who he is and what he is doing. There was further discussion about tone and physical positioning in relation to Joyless’s lines about a lord keeping “a private gentleman’s wife /From him” (speech 288), since many sensed that this was a different order of comment from the rest of the character’s lines in this sequence. It is not marked textually as an aside, but the actors wished to play it as such. They felt too that it was more a general social comment than an expression of private anguish. The previous playing had brought Adam as Joyless downstage of Letoy and Diana and he was encouraged to use this new position within the stage space to address the broad sweep of the audience and so distinguish this speech from other asides, which as the recording shows he had begun to direct to individuals directly in his line of vision. To do this seemed to mark him out for some degree of audience sympathy rather than leave him objectively and abjectly as the butt of jokes about cuckolds as a type, particularly given Diana’s following line indicating that she is becoming attracted to Letoy. Marginalised, Joyless still determines to stay whatever the outcome.

There was some discussion as to whether a further possibility of staging Joyless’s intended departure would be for him to take an unwilling Diana with him, having given the ring to Letoy, only to have Diana intercepted by the lord who escorted her back into the main playing space. This might give further poignancy to Joyless's comment on the power of lords and a ironic contrasting delight in Diana at getting her wish to see the play granted. Pressures of time did not, however, allow an enactment of this detail, but it can be readily imagined from the complex dynamics that already obtain with the scene as performed.

279Diana [Aside to JOYLESS] To whom shall I restore it?

280Joyless [Aside to DIANA] To the lord that sent it.

281Diana [Aside to JOYLESS] Is he a lord? I always thought and heard

I’th’ country, lords were gallant creatures. He

Looks like a thing not worth it. ’Tis not his.

The doctor gave it me, and I will keep it.

282LetoyI use small verbal courtesy Master Joyless,

You see, but what I can in deed, I’ll do.

You know the purpose of your coming, and

I can but give you welcome. If your son

Shall receive ease† in’t, be the comfort yours,

The credit of’t my doctor’s. You are sad.

283JoylessMy lord, I would entreat we may return;

I fear my wife’s not well.

284LetoyReturn! Pray slight† not so my courtesy.

285DianaBesides, sir, I am well; and have a mind

(A thankful one) to taste my lord’s free bounty†.

I never saw a play, and would be loath

To lose* my longing now.

286Joyless [Aside] The air of London

Hath tainted† her obedience already;

And should the play but touch† the vices of it,

She’d learn and practise ’em. [Aloud] Let me beseech

Your lordship’s reacceptance of the un-

Merited favour† that she wears here, and

Your leave for our departure.

287LetoyI will not

Be so dishonoured; nor become so ill

A master of my house to let a lady

Leave it against her will, and from† her longing.

I will be plain wi’ye therefore: if your haste

Must needs post† you away, you may depart;

She shall not, not till the morning, for mine honour.

288JoylessIndeed ’tis a high point of honour* in

A lord to keep a private† gentleman’s wife

From him.

289Diana [Aside] I love this plain† lord better than

All the brave† gallant† ones that e’er I dreamt on.

290Letoy’Tis time we take our seats. So: if you’ll stay,

Come sit with us; if not, you know your way.

291Joyless [Aside] Here are we fallen through the doctor’s fingers

Into the lord’s hands. Fate deliver us.[All exit.]

2.2*

The initial episode of this scene establishes the degree to which fantasy is a trick of the imagination: all but Peregrine are aware of the divide between truth and fiction. The Doctor and his assistants know that Peregrine has merely slept long and deeply but Peregrine is easily made to believe that he has been travelling for months on end around the circumference of the globe. While Peregrine concentrates on changing his clothes to ones appropriate to the new climate of the Antipodes, Letoy and his guests take their seats as onstage audience without Peregrine’s perceiving them. Ostentatiously Letoy continues to flirt with Diana to Joyless’s chagrin, till a musical flourish announces the start of the play and a Prologue craves his spectators’ indulgence, stressing that nothing the actors present is to be viewed as reflecting on anyone present in the auditorium (again instructing spectators to be wary of confusing a constructed fiction with the reality of their private lives). The theatre audience is confronted by two groups of spectators onstage and will in time be presented with a variety of responses to what they too watch performed. As the play-within-the-play begins, the Doctor’s promise of a world that is the exact reversal of life in London is fulfilled: legal catchpoles are seen running away from the man they should be arresting; a young gentleman is married to an elderly lady of some means but both are in thrall to their waiting woman, who is carrying her young master’s child; old men are sent to school while young men assume positions of responsibility; and there is frank talk of young gallants being commissioned by ageing citizens to get their wives pregnant to satisfy the women’s sexual longings. None of this is seen by the characters of the play-within-the-play as shocking, immoral or salacious, but is accepted by them as in full accord with Antipodean law, social rules and precedent (Byplay in role expounds this with rigour). Peregrine with his traveller’s mindset is enchanted by all he sees; Joyless is disturbed by the play; but Diana again confidently opens herself intellectually and imaginatively to the possibilities of a world where none of the restrictive conventions that structure her own life obtain: she is perceptive and curious, searching for information and understanding as she senses (particularly for women) new personal freedoms. Joyless raises objections to what he has witnessed on ethical grounds, voicing in justification the traditional patriarchal norms of his own society that the Antipodean world consistently challenges. All withdraw, as indeed the Caroline theatre audience would have done at this point, for an interval of refreshment: Peregrine, besotted with what he deems a new world that he has discovered, joins the actors backstage but in the firm belief that he is being entertained by Antipodean citizens. A similar loss of a hold on reality was experienced earlier by Peregrine’s wife, Martha: when the gentleman vows he prefers sex at home in preference to sex on commissioned demand, Martha, quite missing the point of the young man’s punctiliousness, leaps to her feet and offers to go home with him herself if he will get her with child. The continual interjections, comments, interpretations, criticisms proffered by the onstage spectators invite the theatre audience to examine their own attitudes and values and the nature of their relation to the theatre and its world of enacted fictions. *

Enter in sea-gowns† and caps, DOCTOR and PEREGRINE [who is] brought in a chair by two sailors; cloaks and hats brought in.*

292DoctorNow the last minute of his sleeping fit

Determines†. Raise him on his feet. So, so.

Rest him upon mine arm. Remove that chair.

Welcome ashore, sir, in th’ Antipodes.

293PeregrineAre we arrived so far?

294DoctorAnd on firm land.

Sailors, you may return now to your ship.Sail[ors] ex[it].

295PeregrineWhat worlds of lands and seas have I passed over,

Neglecting to set down my observations!

A thousand thousand things remarkable

Have slipped my memory, as if all had been

Mere shadowy phantasms† or fantastic dreams.

296DoctorWe’ll write as we return, sir; and ’tis true,

You slept most part o’ th’ journey hitherward,

The air was so somniferous†; and ’twas well

You ’scaped the calenture† by’t.

297PeregrineBut how long do

You think I slept?

298DoctorEight months and some odd days,

Which was but as so many hours and minutes

Of one’s own natural country sleep†.

299PeregrineEight months――――*

300Doctor’Twas nothing for so young a brain.

How think you one of the seven Christian champions*,

David by name, slept seven years in a leek-bed*.

301PeregrineI think I have read it in their famous history*.

302DoctorBut what chief thing of note now in our travels

Can you call presently† to mind? Speak like a traveller.

303PeregrineI do remember, as we past the verge†

O’ th’ upper† world, coming down, down-hill,

The setting sun then bidding them good night,

Came gliding easily down by us and struck

New day before us, lighting us our way;

But with such heat that, till he was got far

Before us, we even melted.

304Doctor [Aside] Well-wrought potion! [Aloud] Very well observed, sir.

But now we are come into a temperate clime†,

Of equal composition of elements

With that of London*, and as well agreeable

Unto our nature, as you have found that air.

305PeregrineI never was at London*.

306DoctorCry you mercy.

This, sir, is Anti-London. That’s th’ Antipodes

To the grand† city of our nation,

Just the same people, language, and religion,

But contrary in manners, as I ha’ told you.

307PeregrineI do remember that relation†,

As if you had but given it me this morning.

308DoctorNow cast your sea weeds† off, and don† fresh garments.

Hark, sir, their music.Shift**

Hautboys. Enter LETOY, JOYLESS, DIANA, MARTHA, [and] BARBARA in masks; they sit at the other end of the stage*

How plays-within-plays were staged has been the subject of considerable argument. Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy appears from details in the dialogue to situate the onstage audience in the gallery so that they confronted the larger part of the theatre audience and looked down on the action being played out on the main stage area. This positioning is required by Brome for the later sequences of the play-within-the-play when Letoy, Diana and Joyless view the action from what we are to suppose is a window in his gallery. Here, however, the onstage audience is situated on the same level as the actors in the Antipodean world, though separated from them as the reference to the ‘other end of the stage’ indicates. But much depends on how one interprets the word ‘end’. Brome wrote The Antipodes for performance by Beeston’s company of boy players at the Cockpit (although it was actually first played by the Salisbury Court company). About the latter theatre little is known, but some evidence survives about the Cockpit, including drawings by Inigo Jones for the conversion of the fighting arena into a theatre. From these Martin White in Renaissance Drama in Action (London: Routledge, 1998) has calculated that the playing space at the Cockpit was fifteen feet deep and at its widest nearly twenty-four feet across; this would make for a rectangular stage, amost half as wide again as deep (pp.156-157). By the end of this first scene in the Antipodean world some fourteen actors (or maybe even sixteen actors, if there were no doubling amongst the two sergeants and two of the old men) need to be variously grouped about the playing space, including two separate groupings of onstage spectators of the play-within-the-play. Letoy, Diana, Joyless, Barbara and Martha comprise one such audience, while Peregrine and the Doctor comprise a second, independently situated audience; the remaining seven (or nine) performers would be performing the play-within-the-play. Only the first group of five spectators are designated a precise situation onstage at ‘the other end’. Peregrine and the Doctor are as much the object of that first group’s observation as the actors in Letoy’s play and so there needs must be space between those groupings to allow for such divided fields of scrutiny. The possibilities are many: Letoy’s group might be placed to the rear of the stage seated on stools along with the more affluent members of the audience who sat there, while Peregrine and the Doctor sat either alongside but apart from that first group or were positioned to the front of the stage, leaving Letoy’s actors to perform in the space between those two groupings. Both groups of onstage spectators might be placed at the rear of the stage looking forwards to view the play-within-the-play (when they would face the actual theatre audience) or they might all be placed with their backs to the theatre audience (but that might create problems with sight-lines for the theatre audience seated at ground level). If John H. Astington's account of the possible prow-like formation of the stage at Salisbury Court is accurate (see 'The Messalina Stage and Salisbury Court Plays', Theatre Journal, 43 [May 1991], pp. 141-156), then it would seem viable to place the two onstage groups of spectators at the sides to stage left and stage right, leaving the central space for Letoy’s actors. Modern directors will need to experiment within the available space for a suitable configuration of performers; but, whatever arrangement is decided on, attention must be given to allowing upwards of fourteen performers to command an audience’s attention at various points in the action. For a practical exploration of this issue, see the workshop and commentary at [NOTE n9840]. .

309LetoyHere we may sit, and he not see us.

310DoctorNow see one of the natives of this country.

Note his attire, his language and behaviour.

Enter QUAILPIPE [as] PROLOGUE.*

311QuailpipeOur far-fetched† title over lands and seas,

Offers unto your view th’ Antipodes.

But what Antipodes now shall you see?

Even those that foot to foot ’gainst London be,

Because no traveller that knows that state

Shall say we personate or imitate

Them in our actions; for nothing can

Almost be spoke, but some or other man

Takes it unto himself and says the stuff†,

If it be vicious or absurd enough,

Was woven upon his back. Far, far be all

That bring such prejudice† mixed with their gall†.

This play shall no satiric timist† be

To tax† or touch at† either him or thee

That art notorious. ’Tis so far below

Things in our orb† that do among us flow†,

That no degree† from kaiser† to the clown†,

Shall say this vice or folly was mine own.

312LetoyThis had been well now, if you had not dreamt†

Too long upon your syllables.Prol[ogue] ex[its].

313DianaThe prologue call you this, my lord?

314Barbara’Tis my lord’s reader† and as good a lad,

Out of his function†, as I would desire

To mix withal in civil conversation.

315LetoyYes, lady, this was prologue to the play,

As this is to our sweet ensuing pleasures.Kiss[es her].

316Joyless [Aside] Kissing indeed is prologue to a play

Composed by th’ devil and acted by the Children†

Of his black† Revels†. May hell take ye for’t!

317MarthaIndeed I am weary and would fain† go home.

318BarbaraIndeed, but you must stay and see the play.

319MarthaThe play? What play? It is no children's play,

Nor no child-getting play, pray is it?

320BarbaraYou’ll see anon†. Oh, now the actors enter.

Flourish.†

Enter* two SERGEANTS†, with swords drawn, running before a GENTLEMAN.

321GentlemanWhy do you not your office†, courteous friends?

Let me entreat you stay and take me with you.

Lay but your hands on me. I shall not rest

Until I be arrested. A sore shoulder-ache*

Pains and torments me till your vertuous hands

Do clap or stroke it.

3221 SergeantYou shall pardon us.

3232 SergeantAnd, I beseech you, pardon our intent,

Which was indeed to have arrested you.

But sooner shall the charter† of the city

Be forfeited† than varlets† like ourselves

Shall wrong a gentleman’s peace. So, fare you well, sir.[They] ex[it].

324GentlemanOh, you’re unkind.

325PeregrinePray, what are those?

326DoctorTwo catchpoles*

Run from a gentleman, it seems, that would

Have been arrested.

Enter OLD LADY and BYPLAY, like a servingman*.

327Old LadyYonder’s your master.

Over the course of working on the edition the panel of editors became impressed with Brome’s ability to draft scenes which involve a large cast of characters and to develop them such that no one role is disadvantaged within the group and no role is overly privileged at the expense of the rest of the cast. No scene of this type is more intricate in its demands or more sustained than the play-within-the-play sequences that occupy most of the action of acts two to four of The Antipodes. These scenes mark the highpoint of Brome’s experiments with metatheatricality: they far exceed the experimentation attempted by Shakespeare, Webster or Jonson in this vein. A play is largely improvised around a character (Peregrine) who, beginning as a spectator, becomes increasingly involved in the world of the play that he is supposedly watching; the play and this man’s response to it are watched by an onstage audience who repeatedly give their judgements on what they are seeing; two of the women spectators (Martha and Diana) at various times bridge the boundary normally established between onstage and offstage worlds; a male spectator (Letoy) has a specialist’s eye to the performance, being employer of the acting troupe and deviser of the play they present, into which he too intrudes to supervise what is happening when the performance threatens to get out of hand; a range of other male and female spectators (ostensibly Letoy’s guests at the entertainment) express their reactions to what they are observing and one of them (Joyless) begins to watch some members of this audience (Diana and Letoy), as if they too were improvising the script of a private drama of their own making; and, of course, there is the theatre audience watching the inter-relation of all this activity and making their own judgements about its modes of presentation, the quality of its performance, the accuracy of its satire, the success of its strategies for meaning-making and what it reveals and critiques about the act of going to the theatre. It is the permeability of the various boundaries between stage and auditorium that creates an underlying sense of threat and danger behind the comedy.

The challenge to a director is to make this complex fabric of interchanges between different levels of reality absolutely clear to the theatre audience through pacing, the shifting into and slippage between different styles of acting, and the keeping of a tight hold on the multiple layers of plotting involved. The play-within-the-play in the antipodean world is rather like a satirical review where a rapid flow of situations is designed to illustrate a common theme that unites them all, since within this part of the action there is no linking plot-line. It is how the various onstage spectators respond to the performance (enchanted by it, critical of it, provoked to intervene in it) that on another level develops the various plot-strands that were set going in the opening act. Ostensibly the onstage audience are observing the process of drama as therapy at work on Peregrine, but as the play-within-the-play proceeds, others (Joyless, Diana, Martha, even Letoy) seem equally in need of some kind of cure: moral, emotional or psychological. All four present themselves as disturbed or damaged, the more so as they individually assert a need to control events. Staging these sequences, which can involve upwards of thirteen or fourteen characters onstage together, is challenging in what it requires in terms of ensemble acting: the need to listen so as to contribute spot on cue and not disrupt the rhythmic flow of dialogue and action which make up a kind of mosaic of details. The offstage audience experiences this as a continuum, but also needs to be able to discriminate its constituent parts. To work best within the time-constraints we were forced to observe, Brian Woolland, the director, decided to spend a short session working simply on a few of the opening episodes of the play-within-the-play with a group of three actors swelled out with one or two editors to establish what amounted to a ground-bass, above, into and against which the reactions of the two onstage audiences (Peregrine and the doctor; Letoy and his guests) might be introduced the following morning, when the number of professional actors would be augmented from three to ten. The scenes chosen were those involving the Gentleman, the Old Lady and the Waiting Woman.

Clearly the primary need is to find a means to distinguish the world of the play-within-the-play from the world of the play proper. That required some discussion of an appropriate style of acting especially for the former. Too extreme or histrionic a style (such as commedia dell’arte) would perhaps make the connections between the two worlds difficult for the theatre audience to determine: the preference was for a heightened version of the acting style prevailing when performing in the world of the play proper (a heightening towards the cartoon-like to some degree). To aid that process of stylisation (and to allow space to accommodate later the two onstage audiences) director and cast opted to work on a highly confined space within the main stage area: gestures became larger, more precise in their definition; movement was limited but tellingly significant when effected. Entrances were found to be a usefully instant means of establishing a particular and somewhat larger-than -life characterisation. A read-through and group discussion led to the idea of using accents for inverse status: the poshest, for example, was deployed by the Old Lady, who is revealed as the scene develops to be the lowest in her household’s pecking-order, while the all-powerful pregnant Waiting-Woman has the coarsest. This would begin to establish for the theatre audience the pattern of comic inversions that Brome extends into ever more bizarre situations. The cast also came to perceive that much of the comedy in the sequence comes from the fact that a family group is rationally discussing whether the Gentleman should get another man’s wife with child: this is the stuff of adulterous farce where usually everyone involved tries to keep their motives and actions secret, whereas here it is all out in the open and on the agenda of a family-council. The actors felt they needed a structure of movements, a physical scenario within which to work out detail. The scene was divided into what actors delight in calling “beats” and an appropriate tableau-effect was devised for each. Here is a short recorded sequence showing Brian Woolland working on these stage pictures within what can be seen to be a highly confined space with, in order of appearance, Adam Kay (Gentleman); Eleanor Lowe (Byplay); Hannah Watkins (Old Lady) and Beth Vyse (Waiting-Woman).

There was some debate as to whether the Gentleman, knowing he is in disgrace with wife and household, might appeal to the theatre audience at least by gesture if not by word; but it was agreed that the characters in the play-within-the-play are in their own enclosed world at least until Peregrine is invited into it at the end of the act and indeed no asides are indicated in Brome’s text for these scenes. Feeling confident that there was now a defining shape to the sequence which they had elaborated on with a series of equally defining movements, the actors next attempted a run-through including the dialogue.

While the actors were now confident with the overall structure they had devised, they wished to work on specific aspects of the sequence with a view to augmenting the comedy, which they felt was overly reliant on accents and the one gag of the Gentleman being treated like a dog, till the Waiting-Woman comes to his rescue. Time was devoted to working on the Waiting-Woman’s entrance to augment its comic potential. The cast are seen here developing this. The sequence neatly exemplifies the interaction between editors and practitioners in jointly shaping the comedy.

Prompted by Adam Kay, the cast next explored keeping the movement structure and the accents while playing for outright realism. They were motivated in this by the awareness that the characters seemed to believe wholly in the events that are being described, however bizarre they might seem to a watching audience: within a comedic structure each wished to play absolutely true to self. They were encouraged in this by the editors, since such a style seemed wholly in line with the advice Letoy gives earlier in this act to his players, where he asks them not to indulge in affectation or other absurdities but to achieve a style where “words and action married so together / [Shall] strike harmony in the ears and eyes /Of the severest, if judicious critics” (2.1. speech 255).

The actors were pleased with this attempt because it allowed an audience to find the silliness and absurdity within the situation, the actors did not set out deliberately to play the comedy. It was agreed that the slowing down of the delivery of the dialogue in line with the actors’ characterising of an old woman and a breathless pregnant woman actually enabled the details of the situation to be grasped more easily by spectators so that their finding the absurdity became more of a possibility. Too fast-paced a delivery meant that the levels of comedy were lost. What was now emerging strongly was the primacy and power of women over men, who are required in this upside-down world to exhibit all the qualities expected of a wife in seventeenth-century society. Hannah Watkins questioned how good these actors of Letoy should be and the general view was that their style of playacting was “definitely not Pyramus and Thisbe”. To add a layer of comedy relegating Letoy’s actors to the third-rate or worse would detract from Brome’s satire, which as a group these actors were beginning to own through their performing style, allowing it to come to the fore.

The following day with the addition of seven actors, a second workshop addressed the issue of staging the whole scene as written with its complex structure involving two separate onstage audiences. The first question was where to place these groups within the playing space. Initially it was decided to situate them behind and to the sides of the special space marked out for the play-within-the-play with Joyless, Diana, Letoy, Barbara and Martha seated to the audience’s left while Peregrine and the Doctor sat on the audience’s right, that is to either side of the entrance through the curtaining and in each case with the chairs defining a curve, which joined to either side with the end of the row of chairs used by the theatre audience. The following extract from an early run-through in this formation shows how the grouping was realised in relation to the actors in the play-within-the-play: here the Antipodes was framed by London.

The framing device allowed the theatre audience to perceive the parallels and contrasts on which Brome’s satire will develop. However the static presentation of the onstage audience meant that it was sometimes difficult to spot who exactly from within their group was speaking and these actors all spontaneously began to speak their lines sotto voce like asides, which tended to make them lose prominence and thus significance too. Other disruptions may be noted, as when Eleanor Lowe as Byplay chooses to glance at Diana and Joyless when they have a particularly long exchange and the general unease of the players when their work stops while their spectators take over the dialogue. There ensued lengthy discussions about what should happen amongst the actors in the play-within-the-play while this commentary occurs. It was suggested that they “freeze”; but, as Sam Alexander (Peregrine) observed: if Peregrine’s focus is directed wholly to the play-within-the-play which he, as a traveller, takes for the reality that is the Antipodes, this sudden halting of the action is going to disturb his concentration and with that his eventual cure. Something, it was generally agreed, needs to occur to carry the actors of the play-within-the-play over in a plausible silence till they take up the dialogue again. Asked why the onstage audience alongside Letoy had resorted to sotto voce delivery, they all agreed they had intuitively sought not to upstage the players they were watching. Richard Cave pointed out along with Brian Woolland that, admirable though their intentions were, Diana’s responses in particular needed to be heard, since they have a direct bearing on her progress morally and emotionally through the play. While The Antipodes initially appears to be about Peregrine, a second plot-line involving the theatre audience’s exploration of the complexities of Diana’s character is subtly being brought to their attention. And so her voice and the voices of those she converses with must be heard in a sustained way.

In trying to resolve these difficulties that a first attempt at a staging had provoked, there was discussion next whether the seating of the onstage audiences in their current formation was helpful in drawing the theatre audience’s attention to them. A wholly static Peregrine seemed wrong too: he may actually be in a theatre, but in his own perception he is not in a world of make-believe but in a geographical locality which is the realisation of a lifetime’s hopes and ambitions. By the end of this sequence he has begun to fraternise with the “inhabitants” and goes off to see their homes and share their food; and Sam Alexander thought he should be free to engage with the play-within-the-play as if he is increasingly wanting to be a part of its world. A rearrangement of the onstage audience was organised: Letoy and his party were seated directly in front of the theatre audience on the very front of the stage-area and they were separated such that Martha and Barbara sat to the audience’s left and the rest (Letoy, Joyless and Diana) to their right. Peregrine and the Doctor remained where they originally had been placed, but they abandoned their chairs and were encouraged to interact with each other (Peregrine expressing growing excitement, Hughball being worldly-wise, as one who has seen it all before). A further read-through while the play-within-the-play was performed was continually disrupted by actors questioning the use of the space and their individual relation to it. While at times sheer mayhem seemed to obtain, the continual enquiry showed how intricate the dramaturgy is and how demanding on the actors if a steady flow is to be maintained despite the constant shift of focus. The longer the discussions were allowed to run and the more actors looked to the text to explain their dilemmas, the more they began in time to proffer solutions to their own questions. Why “freezing” of the action in the play-within-the-play is not necessary became clear when Hannah Watkins (the Old Lady) pointed out that, immediately before the first intrusion of Diana, Joyless and Letoy, she has commanded the Gentleman be silent while she decides for herself why he has been pursued by the law: she is thinking and her young husband waits anxiously for the outcome of her deliberations and Peregrine waits with mounting curiosity. The text itself offered an answer. The following short extract involving this particular moment shows all this thinking in operation and the effect of seating Letoy, Diana and Joyless with their backs to the theatre audience, which while not upstaging the play-within-the-play nonetheless gives greater prominence to how the onstage audience choose to act and to the specific ideas from the action they are watching which they choose to pick up for comment.

The next short extract shows the effect of Peregrine being free to move within the whole playing space when sheer fascination compels him to get a closer view of what is going on (that he will soon join this world that captivates him becomes much more plausible in consequence).

Again the pause in the action of the play-within-the-play was motivated by the Old Lady’s bringing an end to her criticism of her husband by turning her back on him which leaves him uncertain how to break the impasse between them. A third short extract shows Martha trying to enter the play-world once the subject of child-getting is seen to be the source of the quarrel between the Old Lady and the Gentleman, a subject with which she readily identifies. Her action comes close to jeopardising Letoy and Hughball’s scheme for Peregrine when his concentration is disturbed by her intrusion; some quick thinking by the doctor is required to allay his suspicions.

The layering, juxtaposing and interweaving of different levels of reality which is the daring feature here of Brome’s dramaturgy has begun to find an appropriate expression; the comic dynamic which results actually gains from the actors’ new proximity in this second arrangement of them within the playing space.

The next extract is included because, though it comprises discussion only and no performance, it demonstrates how invaluable the actors were repeatedly in aiding editors to resolve textual cruxes or to show where passages required paraphrase and comment. The debate centred on the meaning of the words that frame Peregrine’s question: “Have you no young men scholars, sir, I pray, /When we have beardless doctors?” which prompt the doctor’s reply: “He has wiped /My lips. You question wisely, sir” (2.2. speeches 385-386). Interestingly this was a debate that continued between the editor of the play and Eleanor Ryecroft, when she was drafting the essay on beards that is to be found elsewhere in this edition. It is not a textual crux as such; the problem stems from Brome’s compressed use of syntax that requires some elucidation: much depends on how one interprets the word “When”. Here is the discussion on the rehearsal floor when Sam Alexander (Peregrine) requested help from editors, Richard Cave and Michael Leslie (equipped to appear in the extract as two of the Old Men), his fellow actor, David Broughton-Davies (Hughball) and the director on how he should understand these lines in order to convey their import fully to an audience. The discussion offered one of the best annotations on the passage one could hope for and a succinct contextualising of the question in the context of the developing action.

The lines were now delivered as the fruit of Peregrine’s intense concentration on the antipodean world: he had begun to find possible inconsistencies in its inversions, which is a challenge to Letoy’s vision as dramatist and startling proof that Peregrine is not mad in any conventional sense, if he is in command of such logic.

The last extract from this workshop concerns the final moments of this act, where Peregrine intervenes to protect the Old Men from being punished for playing truant from school. Their arrival provides one of the first truly hilarious inversions in The Antipodes: one-time figures of authority, sent back to school in old age, behave like boys of ten. It is disturbing, therefore, when they are promptly threatened with being whipped (the conventional punishment for errant schoolboys in the seventeenth century) and humiliated by being forced to the ground and made to raise their backsides in the air in preparation for the lash. Peregrine acts humanely and requests their pardon.

Here the difficult lines about “beardless doctors” are carried off lucidly; so too is Hughball’s response. Peregrine’s involvement in the plight of the Old Men leads naturally to his being introduced by Byplay inventively to the Old Lady and her family. This is seen in mime, while Diana begins to confide in Letoy, who is clearly by now proving a more sympathetic listener and companion at the theatre than her husband. The actors had almost spontaneously through the mime found the means to continue the one plot-line in an audience’s awareness without distracting their attention at this crucial moment from a provocative new stage in Diana’s attitude to Letoy. It is by such means that the flow of action can be sustained but it requires considerable sensitivity from each group of actors to their companions onstage, if a necessary balance is to be created and sustained. As Brian Woolland observed in thanking the actors for this workshop, they had found the means (as this last video extract exemplifies) to give each of the multiple levels of action in the sequence its due weight while making it absolutely clear to spectators where the focus of attention was shifting at any given moment and why.

Go, take him you in hand†, while I fetch breath†.

328Byplay [To GENTLEMAN] Oh, are you here? My lady and myself

Have sought you sweetly†.

329LetoyYou and your lady*, you

Should ha’ said, puppy*.

330ByplayFor we heard you were

To be arrested. Pray sir, who has bailed you?

I wonder who of all your bold acquaintance

That knows my lady durst bail off her husband.

331GentlemanIndeed, I was not touched.

332ByplayHave you not made

An end by composition†, and disbursed†

Some of my lady’s money for a peace

That shall beget an open war† upon you?

Confess it, if you have, for ’twill come out.

She’ll ha’ you up†, you know. I speak it for your good.

333GentlemanI know’t, and I’ll entreat my lady wife

To mend† thy wages t’other forty shillings*

A year for thy true care of me.

334Old Lady’Tis well, sir.

But now, if thou hast impudence so much

As face to face to speak unto a lady

That is thy wife and supreme head, tell me

At whose suit was it? Or upon what action?

Debts, I presume, you have none, for who dares trust

A lady’s husband who is but a squire*

And under covert-barne†? It is some trespass――†

Answer me not till I find out the truth.

335GentlemanThe truth is――――

336Old LadyPeace. How dar’st thou speak the truth

Before thy wife? I’ll find it out myself.

337DianaIn truth, she handles† him handsomely†.

338JoylessDo you like it?

339DianaYes, and such wives are worthy to be liked

For giving good example.

340Letoy [Aside to DIANA] Good! Hold up

That humour† by all means.

341Old LadyI think I ha’ found it.

There was a certain mercer† sent you silks

And cloth of gold to get his wife with child;

You slighted† her and answered not his hopes,

And now he lays† to arrest you. Is’t not so?

342GentlemanIndeed, my lady wife, ’tis so.

343Old LadyFor shame!

Be not ingrateful to that honest man,

To take his wares and scorn to lie with his wife.

Do’t I command you. What did I marry you for?

The portion† that you brought me was not so

Abundant, though it were five thousand pounds

(Considering too the jointure† that I made you)

That you should disobey me.

344DianaIt seems the husbands

In the Antipodes bring portions, and

The wives make jointures.

345JoylessVery well observed.

346DianaAnd wives, when they are old and past child-bearing,

Allow their youthful husbands other women.

347LetoyRight. And old men give their young wives like licence†.

348DianaThat I like well. Why should not our old men

Love their young wives as well?

349JoylessWould you have it so?

350LetoyPeace, Master Joyless, you are too loud. Good still.*

351ByplayDo as my Lady bids, you got her waiting woman

With child at half these words.

352GentlemanOh, but another’s

Wife is another thing. Far be it from

A gentleman’s thought to do so, having a wife

And handmaid of his own, that he loves* better.

353ByplayThere said you well. But take heed, I advise you,

How you love your own wench or your own wife

Better than other men’s.

354DianaGood Antipodean counsel.

355Old LadyGo to that waiting woman; if she prove with child,

I’ll take it as mine own.

356GentlemanHer husband would

Do so. But from my house I may not stray.

357MarthaIf it be me your wife commends you to,

You shall not need to stray from your own house.

[She stands] I’ll go home with you.

358BarbaraPrecious†! What do you mean?

Pray keep your seat: you’ll put the players out†.

359JoylessHere’s goodly stuff! She’s in the Antipodes too.

360Peregrine [Gesturing towards LETOY and his guests] And what are those?

361DoctorAll Antipodeans.

Attend, good sir.

362Old LadyYou know your charge†, obey it.

Enter WAITING WOMAN*, great-bellied†.

363Waiting WomanWhat is his charge? Or whom must he obey,

Good madam, with your wild† authority?

You are his wife, ’tis true, and therein may

According to our law, rule and control him.

But you must know withal, I am your servant

And bound by the same law to govern you

And be a stay† to you in declining age,

To curb† and qualify your head-strong will,

Which otherwise would ruin you. Moreover,

Though you're his wife, I am a breeding mother

Of a dear child of his; and therein claim

More honour from him than you ought to challenge.

364Old LadyIn sooth†, she speaks but reason.

365GentlemanPray let’s home then.

366Waiting WomanYou have something there to look to, one would think*,

If you had any care. How well you saw

Your father at school today, and knowing how apt

He is to play the truant!*

367GentlemanBut is he not

Yet gone to school?

368Waiting WomanStand by, and you shall see.

Enter three OLD MEN* with satchels, etc.*

369All 3.Domine†, domine duster.†

Three knaves in a cluster, etc.*

370GentlemanOh, this is gallant pastime! Nay, come on,

Is this your school? Was that your lesson, ha?

3711 Old ManPray now, good son, indeed, indeed.

372GentlemanIndeed,

You shall to school. [To Byplay] Away with him; and take

Their wagships† with him, the whole cluster* of ’em.

3732 Old ManYou shan’t† send us now, so you shan’t.

3743 Old ManWe be none of your father, so we bain’t†.

375GentlemanAway with ’em, I say; and tell their school-mistress

What truants they are, and bid her pay† ’em soundly†.

376All 3.Oh! Oh! Oh!

377ByplayCome, come, ye gallows-clappers†.

378DianaAlas, will nobody beg pardon for

The poor old boys?

379Doctor [He gestures to Byplay] Sir, gentle sir, a word with you.

380ByplayTo strangers, sir, I can be gentle.

381LetoyGood.

Now mark that fellow: he speaks extempore†.

382DianaExtempore call you him? He’s a dogged† fellow

To the three poor old things there. Fie upon him!

383PeregrineDo men of such fair*† years here go to school?

384ByplayThey would die dunces else.

385PeregrineHave you no young men scholars, sir, I pray,

When we have beardless doctors?

386DoctorHe has wiped†

My lips†. You question very wisely, sir.

387ByplaySo, sir, have we; and many reverend teachers,

Grave counsellors at law, perfect statesmen,

That never knew use of razor, which may live

For want of wit to lose their offices.

These were great scholars in their youth. But when

Age grows upon men here, their learning wastes

And so decays that if they live until

Threescore†, their sons send them to school again.

They’d die as speechless else as new-born children.

388Peregrine’Tis a wise nation; and the piety

Of the young men most rare and commendable.

Yet give me, as a stranger, leave to beg

Their liberty this day; and what they lose by’t,

My father, when he goes to school, shall answer.

389JoylessI am abused on that side too.

390Byplay’Tis granted.

Hold up your heads and thank the gentleman

Like scholars; with your heels now*.

391All 3.Gratias†, gratias, gratias.――The Old Men exit

392DianaWell done, son Peregrine. He’s in’s wits, I hope.

393JoylessIf you lose yours the while†, where’s my advantage?

394DianaAnd trust me, ’twas well done too of Extempore

To let the poor old children loose. And now

I look well on him, he’s a proper† man.

395Joyless [Aside] She’ll fall in love with the actor, and undo† me.

396DianaDoes not his lady love him, sweet my lord?

397LetoyLove? Yes, and lie with him, as her husband does

With’s maid. It is their law in the Antipodes.

398DianaBut we have no such laws with us.

399JoylessDo you

Approve of such a law?

400DianaNo; not so much

In this case, where the man and wife do lie

With their inferior servants; but in the other,

Where the old citizen would arrest the gallant

That took his wares† and would not lie with’s wife,

There it seemes reasonable, very reasonable.

401JoylessDoes it?

402DianaMak’t your own case: you are an old man;

I love a gentleman; you give him rich presents

To get me a child, because you cannot. Must not

We look to have our bargain?

403JoylessGive me leave

Now to be gone, my lord, though I leave her

Behind me. She is mad and not my wife,

And I may leave her.

404LetoyCome; you are moved†, I see.

I’ll settle† all. But first, prevail with you

To taste my wine and sweetmeats†. The comedians†

Shall pause the while†. This you must not deny me.[LETOY, DIANA, MARTHA and BARBARA] ex[it].*

405JoylessI must not live here* always, that’s my comfort.[JOYLESS] exit[s]

406PeregrineI thank you, sir, for the poor men’s release*.

It was the first request that I have made

Since I came in these confines†.

407Byplay’Tis our custom

To deny strangers nothing; yea, to offer

Of any thing we have that may be useful

In courtesy to strangers. Will you therefore

Be pleased to enter, sir, this habitation

And take such viands†, beverage and repose

As may refresh you after tedious travels?

408DoctorThou tak’st† him right†: for I am sure he’s hungry.

409PeregrineAll I have seen since my arrival are

Wonders. But your humanity† excels.

410ByplayVirtue in the Antipodes only dwells.[PEREGRINE, DOCTOR and BYPLAY exit.]

Edited by Richard Cave