ACT FOUR
4.1*
n6228
This act like Act 3 is one continuous flow of action. Only Peregrine and the Doctor return after the interval as the play-within-the-play resumes. Hughball urges Peregrine to disguise his kingly apparel and, heavily cloaked, they watch a new series of strange relationships: an old woman with a passion for bear-baiting gets the better of her puritan granddaughter, but that young maiden proves anything but maidenly when a young gallant and his aged servant come into view. When the young man resists her advances, she attacks him and his servant physically, then with the arrival of a constable and the watch feigns being the victim of gross abuse, winning the constable to her support. Peregrine is outraged by the constable’s intention to send the young man to prison and intervenes to insist on passing his own judgement. He decides that the Antipodes is in need of substantial reordering and determines to bring the country to honour his own values. Enchantment with the difference of his newly discovered world is rapidly displaced by the need to mould it to familiar social and political structures. The woman fighter returns victorious from her combat, but the questioning of justice immediately is foregrounded again by the arrival of a man-scold who has been ducked by a party of women; their jeering reduces him to tears. His abject state is reflected too in a group of three courtiers that next take the stage, revealing themselves to be brainless, ill-educated fools whose lives revolve around horseplay and drinking. Their inadequacies are further exposed by contrast with the three working men in the next episode, who are masters of the courtly phrase and of extremes of polite behaviour. When the stage fills with a procession of situations that reverse what Peregrine knows as social or political norms, he fears he may go mad as he realises the extent of what he will need as king to reform. Byplay now enters in the role of a grand statesman, surrounded by fawning projectors who seek his patronage for various bizarre schemes or ply him with suits for the relief of indigent individuals (one and all might more profitably be characterised as of the decidedly undeserving poor). A horrified Peregrine again intervenes into what he considers a manifest abuse of power and privilege, but the Doctor advises against punishment and recommends mercy, which Peregrine graciously bestows. Letoy, Joyless and Diana return to view the performance from the window of a private chamber above the playing space. Thrown by Peregrine’s intervention, Byplay is suddenly at a loss how to proceed, which angers Letoy and causes him to rebuff Diana rudely, to Joyless’s secret enjoyment. Chaos ensues, till the situation is saved by Byplay improvising a rapid shift of focus in the playing to announce with many offstage sound effects that the whole nation of Antipodeans is approaching to do honour to their new king. A procession appears which brings with it Martha, Peregrine’s wife, now dressed like a Queen, who is offered as a bride to Peregrine in a dynastic marriage. Despite some reluctance at first, fuelled by vestiges of his reading of strange marital customs in Mandeville, Peregrine agrees to the union; they leave to wed and in time to bed. Letoy hastily commands his men to adapt to this new situation (Quailpipe is to become a curate again and officiate at the wedding). Alone with Joyless and his wife, he explains the thinking behind the therapy he and the Doctor have been undertaking with its stress on play and playing to gain new perspectives on life and on sexual experience in order to find joy. Diana is envious when she hears this and expresses her resentment at Joyless’s treatment of her, fed by his jealous imaginings. It is late and Letoy bids them retire to bed at his house. Though Joyless attempts to demur, he is overruled. The action in this act has centred on Peregrine, given Diana and Joyless’s long absence from the stage; and his plot-line appears to have been successfully resolved. Letoy, when calling Diana and her husband down from the upper window on to the stage, deployed the enigmatic words: “come down /Quickly; your parts are next” (my emphasis). This implies for the theatre audience that the second plot-strand and its accompanying theme has still to be resolved. The withdrawal of the characters to bed chambers on Letoy’s instructions and with Diana’s willing compliance plunges Joyless into a new state of crisis.
n6228
Enter DOCTOR and PEREGRINE.
669DoctorNow, sir, be pleased to cloud†gg2945
hide, conceal
your princely raiment†gg2946
garments, clothing
gg2945
gg2946
With this disguise. Great kings have done the like*n3584
The best known theatrical examples of such behaviour in monarchs or leaders are Shakespearean: Henry V on the eve of the battle of Agincourt; Duke Vincentio throughout Measure for Measure; and Polixenes in The Winter's Tale when he wishes to spy on his son, Florizel's relations with Perdita. Shakespeare's late play had been revived by the King's Men for court and possibly public performance during January 1633.
n3584
[PEREGRINE] puts on a cloak and hat.
To make discovery of passages†gg2947
movements (about a town or country); incidents; exchanges (verbal or physically violent); doings, goings-on
gg2947
Among the people: thus you shall perceive
What to approve, and what correct among ’em.
670PeregrineAnd so I’ll cherish or severely punish.
Enter an OLD WOMAN, reading [a handbill]. To her, a young MAID [carrying a book].
672Old Woman [Reads] “Royal pastime ... in a great match between the tanners†gg2948
artisans who make leather out of hide by the process of tanning
and the butchers, six dogs of a side, to play single†gg2949
one at a time (in single combat)
at the game bear*n3585
the bear currently being baited
for fifty pound and a ten-pound supper, for their dogs and themselves. Also you shall see two ten-dog courses at the great bear*n3586
Two rounds in which a pack of ten dogs attack an especially large creature (lions and bulls were variously deployed as well as bears); this was to be the climax of the event.
.”
gg2948
gg2949
n3585
n3586
673MaidFie, granny, fie! Can no persuasions,
Threat’nings, nor blows prevail, but you’ll persist
In these profane and diabolical courses*n3587
The maid is here using typical puritan rhetoric which was levelled against most forms of popular entertainment at this date. Theatre and blood sports in particular were deemed idolatrous, heathen and the work of the devil (diabolical). Jonson had satirised this kind of verbal attack in the person of Zeal-of-the-Land Busy in Bartholomew Fair, who condemns the fair for the gluttony, iniquity and debauchery such entertainments provoke, but indulges his appetites hugely when not observed.
?
n3587
To follow bear-baitings, when you can scarce
Spell out their bills with spectacles?
674Old WomanWhat though
My sight be gone beyond the reach of spectacles,
In any print but this, and though I cannot
(No, no, I cannot) read your meditations*n3588
most likely, a book of sermons
,(strikes down her book)
n3588
Yet I can see the royal game played over and over,
And tell which dog does best, without my spectacles.
And though I could not*n3589
that is, could no longer actually see the sport
, yet I love the noise;
n3589
The noise revives me, and the bear-garden scent*n3590
in the view of most writers on the subject, the more accurate term would be "stench"
n3590
Refresheth much my smelling.
675MaidLet me entreat you
Forbear such beastly pastimes; they’re satanical.
676Old WomanTake heed, child, what you say: ’tis the king’s game*n3591
The reference carries a critical irony: though bear-baiting had been an entertainment enjoyed by the Tudors, including Queen Elizabeth, and again by James I, King Charles pursued more refined and cultured pleasures.
.
n3591
677PeregrineWhat is my game?
678DoctorBear-baiting, sir, she means.
679Old WomanA bear’s a princely beast, and “one side venison”*n3592
Editors of the play have generally considered this to be a reference to Ben Jonson ("the good author"), who in the Induction to The Magnetic Lady refers to the "left side" of a beast as "the venison side" on the basis of the popular pun on "hart" (meaning deer) and "heart"; but Jonson is not specifically referring to bears in the context and so the reference would seem to be somewhat forced. No other "good author" has been put forward, however, as source of the quotation.
,
n3592
680MaidAnd I must bear*n3593
The actor has a choice whether to point the pun verbally and even guy it as somewhat laboured or just to pass over it silently, leaving the audience to perceive it, if they will.
with it. She’s full of wine,
n3593
And for the present wilful, but in due
Too subject to infirmity*n3594
The puritanical cliche of this is exposed as hypocritical by the viciousness of the Maid's threats which precede it and by her louche behaviour in the ensuing episode.
.
n3594
Enter a [second] young GENTLEMAN*n4193
This edition adds the denomination "second" to distinguish this young gentleman from the Gentleman who appeared in the second and third acts, accused of going back on his word to lie with the Citizen's wife. Q marks a new scene with the entry of the two new characters: "Act 4. Scene 2.".
and an old SERVINGMAN.
n4193
681GentlemanBoy—. Boy—.
682ServingmanSir.
683GentlemanHere take my cloak.
684PeregrineBoy, did he say?
685DoctorYes sir, old servants are
But boys to masters, be they ne’er so young.
686Gentleman’Tis heavy, and I sweat.
687ServingmanTake mine, and keep
You warm then. I’ll wear yours.[They exchange cloaks.]
688GentlemanOut, you varlet!
Dost thou obscure it, as thou meant’st to pawn it?
Is this a cloak unworthy of the light?
Publish*n3595
That is: spread it wide to everyone's view. Cloaks at this date were often sumptuously embellished and lined and it was fashionable to throw the garment over the shoulder and often then fold part of it under the opposite arm and around the chest so that both topside and lining were fully displayed. The effect can be seen in many of Van Dyck's portraits of aristocrats and the men of the royal family and King Charles's household. See also the first act of Jonson's The Devil Is An Ass, which features an ostentatious cloak exchanging hands, which is described as made of plush at "three pound ten shillings a yard" (Wilkes, volume IV, 1.4.40), lace (the decoration) and velvet (the probable lining). Fitzdotterel, who comes into possession of it, intends to go to the theatre, sit onstage and show off its excellencies to (he hopes) an envying audience to the despair of the (upstaged) players.
it, sirrah. ――Oh, presumptuous slave!
n3595
Display it on one arm*n5730
There is obviously good opportunity here for comic business, as the Servingman tries to find the correct mode of display intended by the Gentleman. The dashes copied from Q suggest where the business should occur.
. ――Oh, ignorance!
n5730
689ServingmanPray load your ass†gg2950
donkey, beast of burden, which was often laden with panniers full of merchandise
yourself, as you would have it.
gg2950
690GentlemanNay, prithee, be not angry.
[Rearranging the cloak on the SERVINGMAN's arm]
Thus. And now
Be sure you bear’t at no such distance but
As’t may be known appendix*n3596
I have retained the italics of the first published text as an invitation to the actor to make much of the word by way of self-aggrandisement.
to this book.*n3597
Brome is continuing the book-publishing metaphor: the servant is to walk close behind the gentleman to be sure that passers-by fully appreciate to whom the cloak properly belongs.
n3596
n3597
691PeregrineThis custom I have seen with us.
692DoctorYes, but
It was derived from the Antipodes.
Rebels against the spirit*n3598
"Blood" here means "passion" or "carnal appetite, lust" (see OED n, 5 and 6). Despite her protestations of puritan morality, as voiced throughout the previous episode, the Maid quickly succumbs to bodily desire when she sights a handsome man. Though she refers to a struggle within herself ("rebels"), she puts up no resistance whatever.
: I must speak to him.
n3598
694ServingmanSir, here’s a Gentlewoman makes towards you.
695GentlemanMe? She’s deceived. I am not for her mowing†gg2951
a richly allusive term, since a complex range of meanings is possible: the relentless advancing of one with a scythe cutting down corn or hay, reaping; striking down men (in battle); making faces (that is, provocative, come-hitherish moues with the lips); being sexually available
.
gg2951
696MaidFair sir, may you vouchsafe†gg496
'to show a gracious readiness or willingness, to grant readily, to condescend or deign, to do something' (OED v, 6b)
my company?
gg496
697GentlemanNo truly, I am none of those*n3599
The use of the plural implies that from what he has seen of her antics, her "mowing", the Gentleman takes the Maid for a prostitute on the look-out for clients. All this indicates how the actress should play the sequence, while the reference to how "broad" the way is in the following line suggests that she should steadily come very close to him.
you look for.
n3599
The way is broad enough.[She seizes his arm.]
Unhand me, pray you.
698MaidPray, sir, be kinder to a lass that loves you.
699GentlemanSome such there are, but I am none of those.
700MaidCome, this is but a copy of your countenance*n3600
That is: you are putting on a pretend face, your harsh frown and attitude are just for show.
.
n3600
I ha’ known you better than you think I do.
701GentlemanWhat ha’ you known me for?
702MaidI knew you once
For half a piece*n3601
About eleven shillings. How this exchange is played offers various possibilities for the actors involved. Has the Maid decided to play the role that the Gentleman has assigned her, or is this an indication that the earlier puritan mouthings were a mask to cover her real game as whore? The fee quoted is surprisingly high (though Mistress Saleware in A Mad Couple Well Matched agrees to a single encounter with Thrivewell for £100). Lawrence Stone in The Family, Sex and Marriage in England: 1500-1800, writing of amateur prostitution in the last decades of the sixteenth century, comments: "Some poor families let out a room in their house to a whore, and the occasional married woman indulged in casual fornication in the fields for 4d a time, partly to earn money, and partly, it would seem, for mere pleasure. Sex was, therefore, rather more readily available to rural bachelor youths than one would have suspected [...]"(p.391). The Maid has drawn conclusions from the "advertisement" of the young Gentleman's rich cloak and so her approach would seem motivated more by commercial than sexual intent.
, I take it.
n3601
703GentlemanYou are deceived
The whole breadth of your nose*n3602
The surface meaning here is "completely", that is: "you are utterly deceived". But the Gentleman may also be continuing his barbed, caustic innuendo on a figurative level, since the nose was the first site to be affected by advanced syphilis and, according to Gordon Williams (A Dictionary of Sexual Language and Imagery in Shakespearean and Stuart Literature [London: Athlone, 1994]), the slitting of noses was a known punishment for a woman taken in adultery (and the young man is soon to refer to his wife in attempting to fend off the Maid's advances). Williams also cites this very line as "a vaginal quibble", referring to the woman's sexual capacity. Robert Herrick in his Epigram "Upon Scobble" includes the lines: "Scobble for whoredom whips his wife; and cries /He'll slit her nose" (1-2), where again the phrase is used in the context of a woman suspected of committing adultery. There is a similar example of such a threat in Chapman's A Humorous Day's Mirth (performed 1597), where the Countess, suspecting that her young husband is meeting with a woman, Martia, at an ordinary (eating house), starts to go in pursuit of them, vowing "I'll slit her nose, by Jesus." (Scene 5, lines 146-7). Some decades after the writing of The Antipodes Pepys's wife still resorted to the threat when she found her husband with his hand up her maid, Deb Willet's skirt.
. I scorn it.
n3602
704MaidCome be not coy, but send away your servant,
And let me gi’ you a pint of wine.
705GentlemanPray keep
Your courtesy, I can bestow the wine
Upon myself, if I were so disposed*n3603
The Gentleman's snootiness here shows how right the Maid was initially to see him as "dainty" (fastidious).
n3603
To drink in taverns. Fah!
706MaidLet me bestow’t
Upon you at your lodging then; and there
Be civilly*n3604
The Maid is matching her response to the Gentleman's seeming fastidiousness, since both meanings of the term are relevant here: "courteously" but also "lawfully" in the sense that at his home private sexual antics would not in themselves be open to punishment, unless adultery were involved (which explains the Gentleman's immediate recourse to references to his wife).
merry.
n3604
707GentlemanWhich if you do,
My wife shall thank you for it; but your better
Course is to seek one fitter for your turn†gg2952
the use here is punning on various meanings of the noun, "turn": as need, requirement, objective; "turn" as meaning strategy, trick; or, drawing on hunting and farming terminology (where the reference is to coupling beasts), it can mean a sexual romp, "the best turn in the bed", though the tone is often denigratory (OED turn, n. 30a, 21, 15c)
;
gg2952
You'll lose your aim in me, and I befriend you
To tell you so.
Take that for your coy counsel.Kicks [GENTLEMAN].
709GentlemanHelp! Oh, help!
710ServingmanWhat mean you, gentlewoman?
711MaidThat to you sir.Kicks [SERVINGMAN too].
712GentlemanOh murder! Murder!
713ServingmanPeace, good master,
And come away. Some cowardly jade†gg532
on the analogy with an exhausted horse, a jade is an overused prostitute (or more crudely: a clapped-out tart)
, I warrant,
gg532
That durst not strike a woman*n3606
The implied meaning here is: "But is happy to hit a man!" Brome's Antipodean inversions are extending cleverly into proverbial usages and many other levels of diction.
.
n3606
714ConstableWhat's the matter?
715Servingman [To Maid] But an†gg1312
if
we were your match—
gg1312
716WatchWhat would you do?
Come, come afore the Constable. Now, if
You were her match, what would you do, sir?
717MaidDo?
They have done too much already sir: a virgin[She] weeps.
Shall not pass†gg2953
go about one's business
shortly†gg2954
soon
for these street-walkers*n3607
Usually the term applied to practising prostitutes soliciting for clients in the streets, but is here applied to a fashion-obsessed gallant. The detail (like the whole speech and the Maid's behaviour) is full of antipodean inversions, showing how thoroughly Brome has thought through his basic premise with the play. In Caroline England and in many other periods of legal history, the word of a commoner or generally the word of a woman would not stand up in court against that of a gentleman. Here in the Antipodes the word of a gentleman will not stand up in a legal situation against a tearful woman who asserts her virginity as her moral support and vindication. That the Maid's virginity has been called into question by the preceding episode should, if the patterns involved in the inversion are followed through, give a spectator pause for thought about the status of gentlemen and whether that status too with all its assertion of masculinist power is not simply a pose. The Maid is an actor playing a role (in the Caroline theatre, even the gender is role-play) and in role "she" uses her gender and her sexuality in a series of power games against members of the opposite sex. As was Jonson in such plays as Epicoene (1609), The Devil Is An Ass (1616) and The New Inn (1629), Brome throughout this act of The Antipodes seems deeply preoccupied with gender as a social and political construct. His comic inversions continually invite spectators to critique contemporary Caroline society, its assumptions, practices, traditions and conventions.
,
gg2953
gg2954
n3607
If some judicious order be not taken.
718GentlemanHear me the truth*n3608
That is: hear from me the truth, hear me speak the truth.
.
n3608
719ConstableSir, speak to your companions:
I have a wife and daughters and am bound
Be’t truth, or no truth. Therefore, virgin, speak,
720MaidSir, they assailed me, and with violent hands,
Aside unto their lust,*n4205
That is: taken (me) into a private place (aside from the public throughfare), intent on rape.
till I cried murder.
n4205
And as my man's a man, she beat us both
Till I cried murder.
722ServingmanThat’s the woeful truth on’t.
Besides you’re two, and one is easier
To be believed. Moreover, as you have the odds
In number, what were justice, if it should not support
The weaker side? Away with them to the Counter*n3611
Generally the meaning was as here "to prison"; but specifically the term was used to apply to the two debtors' prisons in Caroline London in Cheapside and at the Poultry.
.
n3611
724PeregrineCall you this justice?
725DoctorIn th’Antipodes.
726PeregrineHere’s much to be reformed. Young man, thy virtue
727DoctorBe gone.
728GentlemanHe puts me out†gg2958
disrupts my part (role) as written, disturbs my concentration so that I forget my lines
. My part is now
gg2958
To bribe the constable.
729DoctorNo matter*n5584
mat er (Q)
. Go.*n5731
This edition. Q reads: "Goe――
GENTLEMAN and [SERVINGMAN]*n4433
Q here reads "Servant" but this edition continues to use "Servingman" for consistency.
ex[it].
n5584
n5731
n4433
730PeregrineAnd you sir, take that sober seeming wanton
I’ll strip you of your office and your ears*n4462
This would seem to be a second reference to Prynne's appearance in the pillory in 1637 and the lopping away of what remained of his ears after his first punishment of 1633. The image is conjured up in spectators' imaginations within a short space (in terms of playing time) of the first such reference in Act 3 [NOTE n3559]. Again the context is an assertion of judicial right (this time on the part of Peregrine in his role as self-created King of the Antipodes). Throughout the play and particularly in the play-within-the-play justice is chiefly expressed as punishment and that invariably as a violent manifestation of power (ducking, bodily disfigurement).
else.
n4462
731DoctorAt first show mercy.
732PeregrineThey are an ignorant nation
And have my pity mingled with correction:
And therefore, damsel (for you are the first
Offender I have noted here and this
Your first offence, for ought I know)
733MaidYes, truly.
734DoctorThat was well said.
735PeregrineGo, and transgress†gg1879
offend, disobey (a rule of conduct)
no more.
gg1879
You be not cruel to your grandmother
When she returns from bear-baiting.
736DoctorSo all be gone.[MAID] ex[its]
Enter BUFF WOMAN*n5691
Interestingly Q does not make a new scene division for this entry, presumably because it simply involves a procession of actors across the stage with no assigned dialogue.
, her head and face bleeding, and many women, as from a prize.†gg2961
a contest in which a trophy or money (prize) is awarded the victor
n5691
gg2961
737PeregrineAnd what are these?
738DoctorA woman fencer, that has played a prize†gg2961
a contest in which a trophy or money (prize) is awarded the victor
,
gg2961
It seems, with loss of blood.
739PeregrineIt doth amaze me.They pass over [the stage and exit].
What can her husband be, when she’s a fencer?
740DoctorHe keeps a school and teacheth needlework,
Or some such arts, which we call womanish.
741Peregrine’Tis most miraculous and wonderful.
742Man-Scold (within)*n5701
One of the particular dramaturgical felicities of this comedy is Brome's deployment of offstage sound to provoke an audience's curiosity and laughter. Like the cacaphony that precedes Byplay's hasty entrance and account of Peregrine's attack on the theatre company's props and costumes in Act 3, this upsurge of shouting indicative of a street fight in which a crowd of women is clearly getting topside of an irate man is highly provocative and, for male spectators, somewhat unsettling (particularly since the last stage picture they witnessed was the procession of the Buff Woman with her supporters returning victorious from her boxing match). The pattern of antipodean inversions is now being firmly extended to engage with issues of gender-identity.
Rogues! Varlets!†gg2962
knaves, rogues, menials
Harlots! Ha’ you done your worst,
n5701
gg2962
Or would you drown me? Would you take my life?
743Women (within)Duck him again. Duck him again.
n9841
The brief scene of the ducking of the man-scold is one of the darker and more challenging of the inversions Brome imagines for his antipodean world. The actual practice of so treating women who were believed to transgress male prerogatives and authority seems outrageously barbaric in its sadism and cruelty to modern sensibilities. The workshop set out with several objectives: to examine the degree to which the scene might be presented as comedy and to find an appropriate tone for the proceedings; to explore the changing dynamic of presenting the scene with an entirely male cast (as would have been the case with the original Stuart production) or with a mixed cast of several women and one man (as, arguably, the episode was realised in Brome’s imagination); to investigate what effect it would have on the overall dynamic of the scene if the Man-scold were played by an older man or a young one; and to look into a textual crux involving the line, "No, no; I charge ye, no!" [AN 4.1.speech753], which in the Quarto is assigned to "2 Woman". The words are uttered in response to Woman 3's "In with him again" [meaning: let's duck him in the pond since he is calling us names]. On a first reading it might seem acceptable for Woman 2 to try and intervene as having witnessed enough violence. However, her next assigned speech (756) shows her displeasure at the ending of the man-scold’s punishment, which she manifestly enjoyed and hoped to prolong as "more holiday sport". Could an actress make the two speeches plausibly compatible with her characterisation of the woman? Or should the words be re-assigned to Woman 1 who, as the scene progresses, increasingly seems both to adopt a proper legal attitude in line with the force of the word "charge" in the disputed speech which argues a certain authority, and to urge a peaceful outcome to the proceedings (see [AN 4.1.speech750] and [AN 4.1.speech755])? (A very different interpretation of the role and of Woman 1's lines was offered by Kate Spiro, as will be evident from the video extracts.) It would be equally logical to assign the problematic speech to the Man-Scold, when it would become an expression of his terror at being thrust "in" yet again and motivate the development of his ensuing speech (753), which outlines the fearsome realities of being ducked under water in a river or pond. Amongst earlier editors, Haaker ignores the problem entirely, while Kastan and Proudfoot follow Parr and assign the difficult line to the Man-Scold. Within the workshop this was the solution adopted in time by the actors, and it is one that undeniably gives a dramatic momentum to the Man-Scold’s long evocation of what it is like "to learn dumbness /Amongst the fishes". The alternative ascription of the line to Woman 1 would be equally plausible: it is the simplest solution and in line with her "characterisation", though this was not attempted here. Various attempts were made by actors to try and render the line plausible if it were spoken by Woman 2, but none proved generally satisfying.
Initially the director wished to work with a chair or stool as a prop with the Man-Scold tied to it, but this proved impractical to manage; also the implication of the scene is that the worst of the man’s punishment is over at least for the time being. Instead it was decided to use ropes as in part signifying his release from his immediate ordeal but also allowing for his recapture and continuing punishment if the Women felt this necessary. This brought an ominous sense of threat and menace to the scene even when a tone of broad comedy was the objective. The workshop began with a read-through, after which there was lengthy discussion about the textual crux and whether to reassign the particular lines to a different speaker. Various possibilities were explored (through reading not acting) in which a further issue presented itself: to what degree are the women united against the Man-Scold and to what degree are they factionalised amongst themselves between those who want an end to the event and those of a more sadistic bent who would like to protract it further. One suggestion was that Woman 3, who has the line "In with him again: he calls us names", should accompany her speech with placing her hand firmly over the Man-Scold’s mouth to silence him and that Woman 2 had the lines assigned her by the Quarto to stop her doing that since, if the man continue to shout abuse at them, they would be justified in ducking him again. This possibility was not taken further into action. A first run-through (not shown) proved tame and rather static with the women standing at a distance leaving Robert Lister as the Man-Scold to hold the stage. The effect was to make him appear merely the victim and open to audience sympathy. The Women had yet to find an appropriately Bacchic quality: they tended to downplay their lines with a dry delivery, which was undeniably funny but had no quality of menace. After this version there was some discussion about how the scene opens. Richard Cave pointed out how there are numerous sequences in this comedy where Brome invites his audience to imagine what might be happening offstage in relation to the sounds they hear emerging from the activity (Peregrine’s breaking into the tiring house in Act 3 is a notable example). The cast next explored how to work up a sense of violence and abuse through offstage sound, using the words initially assigned to the whole group by Brome and over-riding the shouts and screams of the Man-Scold with cries of jubilation. Once onstage the cast would need to sustain this tone and volume, and so move their performance up by several gears. This is the second full run-through with such a build-up of offstage sound. The delayed entrance here creates considerable tension and expectation and the women conduct their exchanges with the man (Robert Lister) with tones ranging through jeering, taunting, derision, mockery, even mimicry. The Women in this version were definitely a pack with no division into factions. Lines for Woman 1 that might have been read as asserting a measure of legal authority, were here in Kate Spiro’s treatment of them turned instead into a potent threat. It is to be noted that Clare Calbraith as Woman 2 was still at this stage speaking the problematic line; it was her sense that she could not motivate her intrusion because she did not understand why or on what authority the woman tried to take command of the situation at this moment that led to a renewed discussion that ended with the decision to assign the line to the Man-Scold. The sheer heartlessness of the scene is now apparent, a quality chillingly exemplified by Clare Calbraith in her final lines; her attempt to instil the same quality earlier into "No, no; I charge ye, no!" disappointed her by contrast, because it "came from nowhere and achieved nothing". Her decision to place herself mostly outside the main group gave her movement into the centre on this line a tone of command, which proved spurious because the situation did not then build on it.
For the next attempt at the scene the roles of the Women were taken by the men in the group with Robert Lister still in the role of the Man-Scold. Here the disputed line was taken by Sam Alexander as Woman 1, who throughout assumed a tone of leadership within the group, clearly keeping a loutish element under some semblance of control. The four Women here were decidedly factionalised into opposed groups: two determined to follow the letter of the law, and two intent on more extreme measures; but the element of threat was consequently reduced, even subdued. Perhaps Sam was too authoritative? The women in the cast who had watched this version thought the men were being far too manly, which lost the subversive quality of the comedy. They made the same criticism of the men’s second attempt, here shown in a shorter sequence. The cast here wished to emphasize the contrasting groups (the loutish element now arrived wielding the rope around the Man-Scold, while the more authoritative party stood well back from the taunting) and Jack Fortescue had a shot at making the ascription of the problematic speech to Woman 2 work. Again, though the delivery was in character with the persona Jack was creating, the speech and its arresting the renewal of violence seemed just a device to keep the characters onstage. It was an idea that led nowhere and seemed as spurious as Clare’s attempt earlier. One strength of this version for everyone involved was the use of the full length of the rope and Robert’s delayed entry: his being pulled into the playing space prepared spectators to see yet more sadistic action. The menace, however, still seemed overly masculine. What intrigued Richard Cave and Brian Woolland was why the male actors were making nothing of the possibilities of the tongue/penis joke which lies at the heart of the scene [AN 4.1.speech753]. They broached the issue with the cast, pointing out how the Man-Scold is effectively emasculating himself at this moment by trying to inhabit the female stereotype of the loquacious gossip or shrew and claiming the tongue as his most meaningful icon of self-definition. To help engage with this Brian Woolland decided to return to a largely female casting, but this time with a younger man (Sam Alexander) as the Man-Scold. This is not the full scene but it runs long enough to establish a number of useful points. The long-delayed entrance of the Man-Scold with the seemingly endless rope fostered excitement at what might eventually be revealed: it was a comic moment, but it also suggested the absolute exhaustion that had overtaken the man during his prolonged punishment (the offstage opening sequence was noticeably getting longer and louder with each presentation). Sam chose to interpret the whole scene as about sexual humiliation; his falling to the floor within the half-circle of dominant women rendered him instantly abject; and, though the line about the man’s pleasure in his tongue was somewhat forced ("tongue" was virtually delivered in quotation marks), the sense that we were watching a man deliberately unman himself introduced a new and disturbing tone into the scene.
The next experiment was with a wholly male cast with those playing women now in skirts and headscarfs. Brian Woolland deliberately wished to evoke an image of female domesticity (though he discouraged the men from playing as if in drag). Sam Alexander continued to play the Man-Scold and indicated that the difficulty he found with the scene as an actor was the rapid transition it required of him from the aggression of his initial outburst to the collapse into tears when his belief in the primacy of the tongue as his means of self-expression was ridiculed. He felt he had grasped a structure to his role within the scene but that it needed stronger backing from the ensemble to help motivate the tonal changes. Renewed discussion honed in on the perception that the early offstage build-up of sound and implied activity frittered away once the characters appeared onstage when perhaps what was required was that that volume of noise should be sustained till the Women’s exit, particularly since the objective of at least two of the Women was to provoke more scolding and asperity out of their victim. Something of this had been present in the first recorded version above, where the Women kept going a constant level of abusive scorn; subsequent versions had lost this element. It was generally agreed that the use of the long ropes, though funny tended to deflate the energy and the danger that spectators had been led to expect from the barrage of offstage sound.
This rendering still in everyone’s view failed to do full justice to the complexities of the scene (despite the injunction against "drag" acting, the way the men chose to wear their costumes made them appear cartoon-like; and Sam’s defence of the tongue lacked conviction by missing the right comic intonation and timing). Yet there was an undeniable vigour in the playing; Sam felt the tide of sound against which he had to act now better aided his descent into tears; audience response was noticeably vocal rather than confined to inward amusement, but the laughter had an uneasy edge to it because of the omnipresent sense of a potential for violence hardly held in check. The women actors thought that, despite the hints of drag, there were strong intimations that the women’s dignity had been abused by the Man-Scold, that they had suffered a domestic affront through his verbal attacks on them and that this fuelled their rage. Whether this was quite in line with Brome’s games with gender-stereotyping was, however, open to question: the Women in The Antipodes, as he presents them, are transgressive in that they live like European men and uphold their values, and yet they abuse a man who wishes to usurp the prerogatives of what, by European standards of the seventeenth century, was a particular female stereotype. Brome’s satirical vision challenges both genders in their exclusiveness.
A last attempt to capture this complexity was made with the female actors returning with Sam again as the Man-Scold. Brian Woolland encouraged them to learn from the men’s recent portrayal especially in relation to its incipient violence but bring an element of sexuality to their taunting of a member of the opposite gender whom they had in their power. He suggested they think of Amazons, of the Bacchae; and he insisted they all wear practice skirts (all had come to the workshop in jeans or trousers, which brought too modern a set of associations to their performance). He asked them to take whatever had impressed them from previous attempts but above all to play macho. The cast chose to improvise even at this late stage: there was a new element occasioned by the fact that it was the Man-Scold who for the first time raced into the scene in advance of the Women, as if putting as much distance as possible between himself and the horror that he had gone through. He moved constantly throughout the playing space, but always the Women lined up anew against him, slowly advancing in ever more threatening formations. And the Women aided Sam’s characterisation as he had requested, particularly in the lead-up to the line about the tongue, where Kate Spiro derisively mimed a conventional phallus-gesture which gave point to the man’s correcting her. Sam’s collapse into tears was now a consequence of experiencing even this last aspect of his selfhood (his joy in his loquacity) being vilified. In these moments something of the intricacy of Brome’s satire came into view. The menace rather lost its focus and momentum in the final speeches and the exit was too prolonged, but the spontaneously effected detail of leaving the kerchief as a sop to the man’s femininity carried complexities of resonance in line with the overall satire. It was a simple, even homely gesture that within the context of the whole scene was now made so strange that one did not know how precisely to interpret its motivation. From all this it can be appreciated how a scene can be built up through rehearsal, exploring possibilities, critiquing each stage, layering into successive performances what seemed valuable discoveries in the immediate work. Time-restraints prevented this exploration from going further, but the richness of invention required adequately to stage what is a very brief scene in Brome’s comedy can be sensed even so.
n9841
Initially the director wished to work with a chair or stool as a prop with the Man-Scold tied to it, but this proved impractical to manage; also the implication of the scene is that the worst of the man’s punishment is over at least for the time being. Instead it was decided to use ropes as in part signifying his release from his immediate ordeal but also allowing for his recapture and continuing punishment if the Women felt this necessary. This brought an ominous sense of threat and menace to the scene even when a tone of broad comedy was the objective. The workshop began with a read-through, after which there was lengthy discussion about the textual crux and whether to reassign the particular lines to a different speaker. Various possibilities were explored (through reading not acting) in which a further issue presented itself: to what degree are the women united against the Man-Scold and to what degree are they factionalised amongst themselves between those who want an end to the event and those of a more sadistic bent who would like to protract it further. One suggestion was that Woman 3, who has the line "In with him again: he calls us names", should accompany her speech with placing her hand firmly over the Man-Scold’s mouth to silence him and that Woman 2 had the lines assigned her by the Quarto to stop her doing that since, if the man continue to shout abuse at them, they would be justified in ducking him again. This possibility was not taken further into action. A first run-through (not shown) proved tame and rather static with the women standing at a distance leaving Robert Lister as the Man-Scold to hold the stage. The effect was to make him appear merely the victim and open to audience sympathy. The Women had yet to find an appropriately Bacchic quality: they tended to downplay their lines with a dry delivery, which was undeniably funny but had no quality of menace. After this version there was some discussion about how the scene opens. Richard Cave pointed out how there are numerous sequences in this comedy where Brome invites his audience to imagine what might be happening offstage in relation to the sounds they hear emerging from the activity (Peregrine’s breaking into the tiring house in Act 3 is a notable example). The cast next explored how to work up a sense of violence and abuse through offstage sound, using the words initially assigned to the whole group by Brome and over-riding the shouts and screams of the Man-Scold with cries of jubilation. Once onstage the cast would need to sustain this tone and volume, and so move their performance up by several gears. This is the second full run-through with such a build-up of offstage sound.
The delayed entrance here creates considerable tension and expectation and the women conduct their exchanges with the man (Robert Lister) with tones ranging through jeering, taunting, derision, mockery, even mimicry. The Women in this version were definitely a pack with no division into factions. Lines for Woman 1 that might have been read as asserting a measure of legal authority, were here in Kate Spiro’s treatment of them turned instead into a potent threat. It is to be noted that Clare Calbraith as Woman 2 was still at this stage speaking the problematic line; it was her sense that she could not motivate her intrusion because she did not understand why or on what authority the woman tried to take command of the situation at this moment that led to a renewed discussion that ended with the decision to assign the line to the Man-Scold. The sheer heartlessness of the scene is now apparent, a quality chillingly exemplified by Clare Calbraith in her final lines; her attempt to instil the same quality earlier into "No, no; I charge ye, no!" disappointed her by contrast, because it "came from nowhere and achieved nothing". Her decision to place herself mostly outside the main group gave her movement into the centre on this line a tone of command, which proved spurious because the situation did not then build on it.For the next attempt at the scene the roles of the Women were taken by the men in the group with Robert Lister still in the role of the Man-Scold.
Here the disputed line was taken by Sam Alexander as Woman 1, who throughout assumed a tone of leadership within the group, clearly keeping a loutish element under some semblance of control. The four Women here were decidedly factionalised into opposed groups: two determined to follow the letter of the law, and two intent on more extreme measures; but the element of threat was consequently reduced, even subdued. Perhaps Sam was too authoritative? The women in the cast who had watched this version thought the men were being far too manly, which lost the subversive quality of the comedy. They made the same criticism of the men’s second attempt, here shown in a shorter sequence. The cast here wished to emphasize the contrasting groups (the loutish element now arrived wielding the rope around the Man-Scold, while the more authoritative party stood well back from the taunting) and Jack Fortescue had a shot at making the ascription of the problematic speech to Woman 2 work. Again, though the delivery was in character with the persona Jack was creating, the speech and its arresting the renewal of violence seemed just a device to keep the characters onstage. It was an idea that led nowhere and seemed as spurious as Clare’s attempt earlier. One strength of this version for everyone involved was the use of the full length of the rope and Robert’s delayed entry: his being pulled into the playing space prepared spectators to see yet more sadistic action. The menace, however, still seemed overly masculine. What intrigued Richard Cave and Brian Woolland was why the male actors were making nothing of the possibilities of the tongue/penis joke which lies at the heart of the scene [AN 4.1.speech753]. They broached the issue with the cast, pointing out how the Man-Scold is effectively emasculating himself at this moment by trying to inhabit the female stereotype of the loquacious gossip or shrew and claiming the tongue as his most meaningful icon of self-definition. To help engage with this Brian Woolland decided to return to a largely female casting, but this time with a younger man (Sam Alexander) as the Man-Scold. This is not the full scene but it runs long enough to establish a number of useful points. The long-delayed entrance of the Man-Scold with the seemingly endless rope fostered excitement at what might eventually be revealed: it was a comic moment, but it also suggested the absolute exhaustion that had overtaken the man during his prolonged punishment (the offstage opening sequence was noticeably getting longer and louder with each presentation). Sam chose to interpret the whole scene as about sexual humiliation; his falling to the floor within the half-circle of dominant women rendered him instantly abject; and, though the line about the man’s pleasure in his tongue was somewhat forced ("tongue" was virtually delivered in quotation marks), the sense that we were watching a man deliberately unman himself introduced a new and disturbing tone into the scene.
The next experiment was with a wholly male cast with those playing women now in skirts and headscarfs. Brian Woolland deliberately wished to evoke an image of female domesticity (though he discouraged the men from playing as if in drag). Sam Alexander continued to play the Man-Scold and indicated that the difficulty he found with the scene as an actor was the rapid transition it required of him from the aggression of his initial outburst to the collapse into tears when his belief in the primacy of the tongue as his means of self-expression was ridiculed. He felt he had grasped a structure to his role within the scene but that it needed stronger backing from the ensemble to help motivate the tonal changes. Renewed discussion honed in on the perception that the early offstage build-up of sound and implied activity frittered away once the characters appeared onstage when perhaps what was required was that that volume of noise should be sustained till the Women’s exit, particularly since the objective of at least two of the Women was to provoke more scolding and asperity out of their victim. Something of this had been present in the first recorded version above, where the Women kept going a constant level of abusive scorn; subsequent versions had lost this element. It was generally agreed that the use of the long ropes, though funny tended to deflate the energy and the danger that spectators had been led to expect from the barrage of offstage sound.
This rendering still in everyone’s view failed to do full justice to the complexities of the scene (despite the injunction against "drag" acting, the way the men chose to wear their costumes made them appear cartoon-like; and Sam’s defence of the tongue lacked conviction by missing the right comic intonation and timing). Yet there was an undeniable vigour in the playing; Sam felt the tide of sound against which he had to act now better aided his descent into tears; audience response was noticeably vocal rather than confined to inward amusement, but the laughter had an uneasy edge to it because of the omnipresent sense of a potential for violence hardly held in check. The women actors thought that, despite the hints of drag, there were strong intimations that the women’s dignity had been abused by the Man-Scold, that they had suffered a domestic affront through his verbal attacks on them and that this fuelled their rage. Whether this was quite in line with Brome’s games with gender-stereotyping was, however, open to question: the Women in The Antipodes, as he presents them, are transgressive in that they live like European men and uphold their values, and yet they abuse a man who wishes to usurp the prerogatives of what, by European standards of the seventeenth century, was a particular female stereotype. Brome’s satirical vision challenges both genders in their exclusiveness.
A last attempt to capture this complexity was made with the female actors returning with Sam again as the Man-Scold. Brian Woolland encouraged them to learn from the men’s recent portrayal especially in relation to its incipient violence but bring an element of sexuality to their taunting of a member of the opposite gender whom they had in their power. He suggested they think of Amazons, of the Bacchae; and he insisted they all wear practice skirts (all had come to the workshop in jeans or trousers, which brought too modern a set of associations to their performance). He asked them to take whatever had impressed them from previous attempts but above all to play macho.
The cast chose to improvise even at this late stage: there was a new element occasioned by the fact that it was the Man-Scold who for the first time raced into the scene in advance of the Women, as if putting as much distance as possible between himself and the horror that he had gone through. He moved constantly throughout the playing space, but always the Women lined up anew against him, slowly advancing in ever more threatening formations. And the Women aided Sam’s characterisation as he had requested, particularly in the lead-up to the line about the tongue, where Kate Spiro derisively mimed a conventional phallus-gesture which gave point to the man’s correcting her. Sam’s collapse into tears was now a consequence of experiencing even this last aspect of his selfhood (his joy in his loquacity) being vilified. In these moments something of the intricacy of Brome’s satire came into view. The menace rather lost its focus and momentum in the final speeches and the exit was too prolonged, but the spontaneously effected detail of leaving the kerchief as a sop to the man’s femininity carried complexities of resonance in line with the overall satire. It was a simple, even homely gesture that within the context of the whole scene was now made so strange that one did not know how precisely to interpret its motivation. From all this it can be appreciated how a scene can be built up through rehearsal, exploring possibilities, critiquing each stage, layering into successive performances what seemed valuable discoveries in the immediate work. Time-restraints prevented this exploration from going further, but the richness of invention required adequately to stage what is a very brief scene in Brome’s comedy can be sensed even so.
744PeregrineWhat noise is this?
745DoctorSome man it seems, that’s ducked for scolding*n3612
This was a traditional judicial punishment for women accused and found guilty of being scolds or shrews (that is, asserting their independence or critical spirit against the patriarchal order). It involved being strapped into a chair that had been attached to a plank of wood which was balanced across a fulcrum; this was then lowered into a pond or river and the woman immersed wholly under water for a period of time that could sometimes induce early symptoms of drowning.
.
n3612
746PeregrineA man for scolding?
747DoctorYou shall see.
Enter WOMEN*n4194
There are lines of dialogue assigned in Q to three women, but there is potential in the staging to have as many to make up a crowd as the size of the company will allow at this point.
and MAN-SCOLD*n4455
Q marks a new scene with the arrival of these characters: "Act. 4. Scene 4.".
.
n4194
n4455
748WomenSo, so.
Enough, enough. He will be quiet now.
749Man-ScoldHow know you that, you devil-ridden witch*n3613
The common accusation against witches was that they consorted with the devil, were ridden upon or broken in (in both the equestrian and sexual senses) by Satan or his cohorts.
, you?
n3613
Over and over me, and must I be quiet?
7501 Woman*n9890
] Wom. (Q's reading is troublingly ambiguous: it may require the group of women to divide the words between them (this is Haarker's choice) or it may be assigned to a single woman (as here, following the examples of Baker, Parr, Kastan and Proudfoot).
Will you incur the law the second time?
n9890
751Man-ScoldThe law’s the river, is’t? Yes, ’tis a river
Through which great men, and cunning, wade or swim;
But mean and ignorant must drown in’t.*n3614
The satire and the humour in this episode are appreciably darkening. Noticeably the Man-Scold's accusation here goes unanswered: his complaint is that the affluent, the titled and the clever can manipulate or buy out the processes of the law to suit their own ends, whereas those of lowlier status, the poor and the naively innocent can expect little by way of redress for wrongs done to them. Perhaps some of Brome's own recent experience at the hands of the law in connection with his contract with the Salisbury Court company coloured this image of the law as an implacably flowing river that few but the experienced can hope to navigate or cross. The larger irony behind the passage (though one not even implicit in the writing) is that, through the years of personal rule and the abandonment for long periods of time of parliamentary procedure, the king had increasingly shaped law to suit himself and his concept of regal authority. 1637, the year in which Brome's comedy was being completed, has been seen by the historian, Kevin Sharpe, as "the critical year" in Charles I's fortunes (see Kevin Sharpe, The Personal Rule of Charles I 2nd edn [New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995], especially chapter XIII). The fact that composition on the play began a year earlier (especially when passages like this one are read in the light of historical event) may indicate that artists such as Brome had begun to perceive and subtly articulate a need for change before the "critical year" showed change as inevitable.
No
n3614
You hags and hellhounds, witches, bitches, all
That were the law, the judge and executioners,
To my vexation, I hope to see
You cast me in can quench.
7523 WomanIn with him again:
He calls us names.
753Man-ScoldNo, no; I charge ye, no!*n9792
In the quarto these lines are assigned to "2 Woman" [AN 4.1.line2054] but her implied desire with these words to stem the violence seems out of keeping with her final speech (AN 4.1.speech756), where she expresses the wish to prolong the women's "holiday sport" with the Man-Scold. Haaker makes no emendation here; Kastan and Proudfoot follow Parr and assign the words to the Man-Scold as the start of speech 753; this reading has been adopted here too. However it would be equally plausible to assign this problematic speech to 1 Woman, who increasingly seems to be conscious of the law and to be keen on ending the violence. This gives her a certain authority which, were this speech assigned to her, would give weight to the significant word "charge", which seems out of place in the Man-Scold's mouth: he is in the wrong and has no power to assert himself within the sequence: hence his tears and frustration. A director and cast would be well advised to experiment with the lines and decide the issue in terms of what seems best within the context of their overall production. There is further discussion of this textual crux in the commentary on the video recording of the workshop devoted to this scene, where the assigning of the lines to the Man-Scold was the adopted solution. It was to bring the edition in line with the workshop that the emendation was carried through into the text. But consideration of the alternative is worth pursuing in the rehearsal room and in a close reading.
n9792
Was ever harmless creature so abused?
To be drenched under water, to learn dumbness
Amongst the fishes, as I were forbidden
To use the natural members I was born with,
And of them all, the chief that man takes pleasure in:
The tongue!*n3615
The joke is, of course, that one expects that the "member" which affords a man his chief source of pleasure will be his penis. But the jest is somewhat more complicated than that. Webster offers a different take on the joke in The Duchess of Malfi, when Ferdinand talks about women liking the "part" which has no "bone" in it, but defeats spectators' and his onstage audience's expectations, when he elucidates the answer to his riddle as "the tongue"(I.i.338). Instead of phallic assertion, one gets misogynistic caricature. Here Brome takes Webster's form of the joke and, by antipodean inversion, further defeats audience expectations by a subtler means, which confuses the conventional gender-boundaries on which the joke rests, as a man claims the woman's "part" as the quinessential expression of his identity. The darkest irony is reserved for the fact that women who claimed the tongue as the quintessential expression of their selfhood were the ones traditionally punished by ducking.
Oh me, accursed wretch![He] weeps.
n3615
754PeregrineIs this a man?
And so the tempest’s over.
7562 WomanI am sorry for’t
I would have had him ducked once more.
But somebody will shortly raise the storm
In him again, I hope, for us to make
More holiday-sport*n3616
It is a grim reflection that such a sadistic practice as ducking was the occasion for a holiday mood in bystanders. This may be a challenge for Brome's theatre audience to take the situation and the satire more seriously by looking beneath the situation at its levels of implication and import. Like numerous episodes of horseplay in Jonson's comedies, the presence of an onstage audience whose sadism is clearly stirred by the cruelty of the situation causes the wary spectator in the auditorium to examine his or her motives for laughter. (See, for example, the taunting of Daw and La-Foole in Epicoene (4.5.232-301), which is watched by the Collegiate women from "above".)
of him.[MAN-SCOLD and WOMEN] exit.
n3616
757PeregrineSure these are dreams,
Nothing but dreams.
759PeregrineCan men and women be so contrary
761Peregrine’Twill ask long time and study to reduce
Their manners to our government.
762DoctorThese are
But see, sir, here come courtiers; note their manners.
Enter a COURTIER*n4456
Q creates a new scene with the entrance of the courtier: "Act.4.Scene 5.".
[counting his money.]
n4456
7631 CourtierThis was three shillings yesterday, how now!n9879
This particular scene was included as part of a workshop investigating the speaking of Brome’s verse. Lyn Darnley, Head of Voice at the Royal Shakespeare Company, who led the workshop, chose to explore in this episode how violent action and fisticuffs could be timed in with the verse. Just as Jonson uses regular pentameters throughout The Alchemist to contain the mounting anarchy, so here farce is the funnier for being similarly “contained”. The verse in the scene also deploys a number of shared lines, which require actors to have a feeling for the shape of the whole line to which they are contributing; this generates a sense of ensemble, a necessary togetherness, which the chaotic action is then pulling against. What is offered here is one of the later renderings, where the cast were asked to handle the verse lightly and to use this dichotomy between verse and action to emphasize the comedy of Brome’s satire. We are in a world of inversions where courtiers behave like louts (we are soon in the next scene to meet workmen who behave with the good breeding normally expected of aristocrats). Far from being above normal everyday cares, civil, self-aware and courteous, these courtiers are preoccupied with their lack of money, petty squabbling, concern to guard their backs and backsides, inability to read, enjoyment of common, rustic ballads and of ale rather than wine. The actors had got some measure of the satirical contrasts, but began to own the full richness of the comedy once Lyn invited them to “up” the accents and really “speak posh”. This was the result.
n9879
All gone but this? Six pence, for leather soles
To my new green silk stockings*n3624
Silk stockings were delicate and expensive, and so easily damaged through wear at heel and toes or on the ball of the foot. Consequently they were often made with felt or in some cases leather soles for indoor wear when street shoes were set aside. It may be, however, that the impoverished courtier is seeking to economize by acquiring inner soles to insert between each stocking and shoe to protect the silk from heavy wear, thus prolonging their use. In the period these inner soles, properly shaped to one's inner shoe measurements, were normally made of felt for upper-class wear; the use of leather in this instance may be seen as a comic insight into the courtier's poverty and the invention this causes him to resort to.
, and a groat†gg75
coin valued at roughly fourpence (OED 2), which in today's currency would be worth about £1.43
n3624
gg75
My ordinary†gg2968
a meal at a fixed price in a tavern
in pompions†gg2969
pumpkins
baked with onions.
gg2968
gg2969
764PeregrineDo such eat pompions?*n6319
Peregrine's surprise reflects the fact that in the seventeenth century, pumpkins were considered food for countryfolk and for animals, especially pigs. An insult in Brome's Sparagus Garden [SG 3.1.speech616] illustrates this point succinctly: "For aught I see pompeons are as good meat for such a hoggish thing as thou art."
n6319
765DoctorYes; and clowns†gs504
countryfolk
musk-melons†gg2970
the aromatic, orange flesh of melons which, being but recent imports into England, were costly
.
gs504
gg2970
7661 CourtierThree pence I lost at ninepins†gg2971
"a game in which nine skittles are set up to be knocked down by a ball or bowl"
; but I got
gg2971
Six tokens†gg2972
"a stamped piece of metal", similar to a coin, issued by tradesmen, "who engage to take it back at its nominal value, giving goods or legal currency" in exchange
towards†gs545
to contribute, to go to meet (the cost of something)
that at pigeon-holes――――†gg2973
"an outdoor game, popular in the 17th and early 18th centuries, in which balls were bowled at targets"; these last were probably arched so appeared like the recesses for pigeons in a dovecote
gg2972
gs545
gg2973
’S nails!†gg2974
an abbreviation: By God's nails! (instruments of Christ's crucifixion)
[Enter 2 COURTIER, unseen by 1 Courtier.]*n4195
Q gives no entrance for the second courtier who rapidly makes his presence felt by the first. Where such an entry should be timed is not altogether clear. Haaker places the entrance alongside her speech-prefix for the second courtier's first line. Parr, Proudfoot and Kastan place the entrance before the first courtier's line, "Threepence I lost at ninepins" but indicate that the second courtier remains at first unseen. This edition places the entrance at the point where the implication of the first courtier's lines is that he is bending down searching for supposedly lost coins from his damaged pocket, so presenting his backside to his fellow as a provocatively tempting target for a kick.
Where’s the rest? Is my poke†gg2975
pocket; but perhaps also carrying overtones of the further meaning, a beggar's bundle
bottom broke?
gg2974
n4195
gg2975
7672 CourtierWhat, Jack! A pox†gs505
chickenpox, smallpox, syphilis, any illness, such as plague, that manifests in pustules on the skin
o’ertake thee not? How dost?Kicks [him].
gs505
7681 CourtierWhat with a vengeance ail’st? Dost think my breech†gg2976
applied variously to both the garment covering the buttocks and also the buttocks
gg2976
Is made of bell-metal†gg2977
an alloy made from copper and tin, akin to bronze, from which bells are made
? Take that!Box[es him] o’th’ ear.
gg2977
7692 CourtierIn earnest?†gg2978
Initially the word is used in the sense of "seriously", "was that intentional or in jest?" But then the First Courtier takes the word in its other sense of an instalment paid as a pledge "of anything afterwards to be received in greater abundance" and follows up his kick with pulling his opponent's hair.
gg2978
7701 CourtierYes, till more comes.[Grabs him by the hair.]*n4201
Q offers no direction here, but one is to be inferred from the ensuing dialogue.
n4201
7712 CourtierPox rot your hold! Let go my lock†gg2979
a tress of hair (in this instance, a good handful)
. D’ye think
gg2979
You’re currying†gg1482
action of rubbing down or grooming (a horse) with a curry-comb
of your father’s horse again?
gg1482
7721 CourtierI’ll teach you to abuse a man behind
Was troubled too much afore*n3618
Initially this means "before" (as in "before you arrived on the scene"); but, taken with the reiterated use throughout the episode of the word, "behind", homosexual resonances enter the exchange. (Parr notes, quoting Lovelace, that the word "antipodes" was often coded sexual slang in the period for sodomy).
.
n3618
Ent[er]*n5692
Q marks a new scene with the third courtier's entrance. Instead of this division and the related stage direction being placed centrally within the column of text as all such divisions have been sited so far in this act, the information is crammed tightly into the right hand margin alongside the second line of the first courtier's speech, ending "Was troubled too much afore". Given the space it has to occupy, the information is given in abbreviated form: "Act 4. Sc.6. Ent. 3.Court.". The setting of all subsequent scene divisions in this act are formatted in this way.
3rd COURT[IER, just as 2nd COURTIER knocks down*n4202
Q offers no such direction here, beyond the entrance for 3rd Courtier, but one has been added to supply actions to be inferred from the ensuing dialogue.
1st COURTIER.]
n5692
n4202
7733 CourtierHey! There boys, there.
Good boys are good boys still. There, Will! There, Jack!
Not a blow, now he’s down.
7742 Courtier’Twere base, I scorn’t.
7751 CourtierThere’s as proud fall as stand in court or city.
7763 CourtierThat’s well said, Will. Troth, I commend you both.
How fell you out? I hope in no great anger.
7772 CourtierFor mine own part I vow I was in jest.
7781 CourtierBut I have told you twice and once†gg2981
repeatedly, more than just once, often (but with the overtone of "for the last time", "once and for all")
, Will, jest not
gg2981
With me behind. I never could endure
And that my tutor knew: I had been a scholar else.*n3619
Jokes and stories abound in classical literature, especially in Roman comedies, about pederastic or sodomitic practices between tutors and their pupils, which may be being hinted at here. Brome, like Jonson, is charily reticent on the subject, but this would be appropriate antipodean behaviour (old men seducing young boys; sexual relations by unconventional orifices). Interestingly in this sequence, however, as with the scene for the Man-Scold and that for the Gentleman and the Maid, topsy-turvy behaviour in the antipodean fashion is productive of a considerable outburst of anger in the First Courtier. One could interpret the episode as just grown men behaving like irresponsible adolescent lads, in whose horseplay genital and anal groping is not infrequent.
n3619
Besides you know my sword was nocked*n3620
This is a curious, figurative usage. The OED notes under "nock, n1" that the word usually and primarily is a technical term applied to the notch made in the end of an arrow to carry the bowstring; but that (2a) it also was applied to the cleft in the buttocks or to the actual anus (the OED cites Cotgrave's Dictionary of French & English Tongues (1611) "the nock, fould or dint betweene the buttocks" and Medwall and Heywood are quoted as deploying the word in this bawdy sense in plays as early as 1533). What the First Courtier would appear to be saying, while remaining innocent of his own innuendo, is that he carries a concealed weapon in the form of a short sword or dagger thrust through his belt in the small of the back for quick reach should he be attacked. (The weapon is likely to be worn diagonally with the hilt towards his right hand.) If, however, the attack should come from behind him, he would be prevented from defending himself in the manner that he planned.
i’th’ fashion,
n3620
Just here behind, for my back-guard and all;
And yet you would do’t.*n3621
The half-line of verse allows for a lengthy pause in performance in which the sheer frustration and anger of the First Courtier could be explored by the actor and expressed through gesture. When he next calls for the Second Courtier to "take a knife", it may be to demonstrate practically what his speech tried to describe. (Has his opponent perceived the unintended innuendo and begun to smirk?) Violence of some kind is being invited, which the Third Courtier has to step in rapidly and stop. There is space in stage time here for the cast to improvise to both comic and menacing effect, matching the complex tone of the episode.
n3621
I had as lief you would take a knife――
7793 CourtierCome, come,
You’re friends. Shake hands I’ll give you half a dozen
At the next ale-house to set all right and straight.
And a new song; a dainty one*n3622
Of the many meanings of the word, "dainty", the most appropriate here would be "choice" or "excellent".
; here ’tis.[Showing them] a ballad[-sheet].
n3622
7801 CourtierOh, thou art happy that canst read――
I would buy ballads too, had I thy learning.
782PeregrineCall you these Courtiers? They are rude silken clowns*n3625
crude louts dressed in silk
,
n3625
As coarse within as watermen†gg454
licensed wherry men who plied for hire on the river (in London on the Thames) (OED 2)
or car-men†gg2983
carters or carriers
.
gg454
gg2983
Ent[er] CAR-MAN*n4457
Q marks a new scene with the entrance of the two new characters, cramming the information into the right margin in a block of three lines, starting beside line 2121: "Act 4. Scen 7. /En. car- /man, & waterman.".
[and] WATERMAN.
n4457
784WatermanSir, I am your servant.
785Car-ManI am much obliged,
Sir, by the plenteous favours your humanity
And noble virtue have conferred upon me,
To answer with my service your deservings.
786WatermanYou speak what I should say. Be therefore pleased
T’unload, and lay the weight of your commands
Upon my care to serve you.
787Car-ManStill your courtesies,
Like waves of a spring-tide, o’er-flow the banks
Of your abundant store; and from your channel
Or stream of fair affections you cast forth
Those sweet refreshings on me (that were else
But sterile earth) which cause a gratitude
To grow upon me, humble, yet ambitious
In my devoir*n3626
This term drawn from polite French diction is characteristic of the comic exaggerated rhetoric of this whole sequence, which apes courteous discourse with its use of elaborate and extended compliment. This is the kind of language and manner that writers, artists, composers and playwrights of the period had to adopt in dedicating their works to aristocratic patrons (see Brome's "dedicatory epistle" to the Earl of Hertford which prefaces the text of the 1640 quarto of The Antipodes). The manner is kept up right to the moment of the three workmen's departure, where they absurdly defer precedence to each other in leaving the scene.
†gg2985
duty, obligation
to do you best of service.
n3626
gg2985
788WatermanI shall no more extend my utmost labour
With oar and sail to gain the livelihood
Of wife and children than to set ashore
Of your best wishes.
789Car-ManSir, I am no less
Ambitious to be made the happy means,
With whip and whistle, to draw up or drive
All your detractors†gg2987
enemies, those who defame (another's reputation)
to the gallows*n3627
Carters drove condemned felons to their execution at Tyburn.
.
gg2987
n3627
Enter SEDANMAN†gg2988
one of the two men required to carry a sedan chair, a closed kind of litter borne on two parallel poles or shafts
*n4458
Q marks a new scene with this entrance: "Act 4. Scene 8. /Enter Sedan-man.". The scene heading and the details of the entrance are situated in the right margin and spread alongside two lines of dialogue at lines 2146-47. The ensuing scene is notable for its textual layout, which differs markedly from earlier sections of the play in the way that verse lines shared between two speakers are set. Till now in the setting of shared lines, the second portion that begins a new character's speech has been placed to create a new independent line of text. In this scene where the exchange of speakers is frequent, the compositor begins to observe the verse lines more meticulously, so the words of the speaker who concludes the verse line are set with an appropriate speech prefix alongside the words of the speaker who initiates the line. This pattern is largely followed throughout the rest of the play in respect of the setting of shared lines, though not with absolute consistency. One hypothesis would be that the change came about because the compositor(s) became concerned at the length of text still to be set. Another is possibly that a change occurred here in the copytext (either Brome's manuscript or a clean copy of it) because Brome wished to make a dramaturgical point: that the comedy in this sequence derives from the speakers falling over themselves politely to elaborate on each other's ideas, courtesies or observations. The comedy resides in the speed of the delivery (which the new layout captures to some degree) and the sense of an audience being overwhelmed with vacuous, though unctuous, verbiage.
.
gg2988
n4458
790WatermanSee,
Our noble friend*n3628
There is irony here, when the phrase is viewed from the perspective of the late 1630s. Sedans had but newly arrived in London that decade and immediately created fierce competition with watermen and carmen, who till then had the monopoly of conveying citizens rapidly around the capital. The OED actually cites Brome's The Sparagus Garden in its definition of the term: "She's now gone forth in one o' the new hand-litters: what call ye it, a sedan." Steggle convincingly dates that play to the early months of 1635, when such a line attests to the fact that sedans were still a novelty. Haaker also cites The Court Beggar of 1640, where a project is envisaged to build a new theatre on barges floating on the Thames to help the boatmen recover some of their losses incurred since the arrival of sedan chairs. There is too the comic scene in A Mad Couple Well-Matched, where Careless comes home drunk in a sedan-chair [MC 3.1.speech520].
.
n3628
791SedanmanRight happily encountered――*n5732
The extended dash, copied from Q, suggests that elaborate forms of courteous greeting were performed between the three men at this juncture.
n5732
I am the just admirer of your virtues.
792[Both]We are, in all, your servants.
793SedanmanI was in quest
A dinner-time withal.
795SedanmanThree are the golden number*n3629
In Pythagorean mathematics, three is deemed the perfect number, where "the golden rule" is "the rule of three". "Golden" here carries resonances of the use of the epithet in relation to the word "age" or "world", an ideal time characterised by joyousness and prosperity. (See OED golden a, 5b and 7)
in a tavern:
n3629
And wine the house affords (if you so please)
We will be competently†gg2990
suitably, adequately (merry); that is, not to the point of being drunk and disorderly
merry. I
gg2990
Have received, lately, letters from beyond seas,
Importing much*n3631
This and the ensuing two speeches are a lively parody of the many scenes of exposition favoured by Shakespeare in his later plays for conveying necessary but not particularly dramatic information to his audiences. The Winter's Tale and Henry VIII afford some notable scenes of this type. It is particularly funny in this instance to watch commoners discussing affairs of state (the letters relate to diplomatic, intellectual and courtly political matters) so earnestly but with such courteous attention and civility. Workmen they may be, but they converse in the finest urbane style.
of the occurrences,
n3631
And passages†gg2947
movements (about a town or country); incidents; exchanges (verbal or physically violent); doings, goings-on
of foreign states. The knowledge
gg2947
Of all, I shall impart to you.
796WatermanAnd I
Our universities*n3632
Cambridge and Oxford (the only English universities in the period)
of what has passed
n3632
The most remarkably of late.
797Car-ManAnd from
The court I have the news at full,
Of all that was observable this progress†gg2992
a journey undertaken by the monarch and his/her court (usually during the summer months, as a kind of holiday; but often to avoid residing in London during a time of year when plague was prevalent)
.
gg2992
798PeregrineFrom court?
799DoctorYes, sir. They know not there they have
A new king here at home.
800Sedanman’Tis excellent!
We want but now the news-collecting gallant*n3633
Taverns and ordinaries (eating-houses) were a fount of gossip, rumour and factual news. The implication of the lines here is that between them the three workmen have enough material to satisfy a gossip-prone gallant for some time to come, should he join them at table. It was a common practice for upper-class family-members who chanced to be resident in London to send home into the country lengthy weekly epistles ("dispatches") giving all the latest news. A notable extant example of this practice is the hoard of letters passing between members of the Verney family throughout the Caroline period, which provided a fund of information for Adrian Tinniswood's The Verneys (London: Jonathan Cape, 2007).
n3633
To fetch his dinner and materials
For his this week’s dispatches.
801WatermanI dare think
The meat and news being hot upon the table,
He’ll smell his way to’t.
802SedanmanPlease you to know yours, sir?
803Car-ManSir, after you.
804SedanmanExcuse me.
805WatermanBy no means, sir.
806Car-ManSweet sir, lead on.
807SedanmanIt shall be as your servant
Then to prepare your dinner.
808WatermanPardon me.
809Car-ManIn sooth†gs506
indeed
I’ll follow you.
gs506
810WatermanYet ’tis my obedience.[CAR-MAN, WATERMAN and SEDANMAN] Ex[it].
811PeregrineAre these but labouring men and t’other courtiers?
812DoctorTis common here, sir, for your watermen
To write most learnedly*n3634
John Taylor (1578-1653), fondly known as "the Water Poet", was such a working-class versifier, who fell foul of Brome's circle, to judge by both this observation and CG's "Commendatory Verses" that preface the quarto of The Antipodes. The lines praise the Jonsonian qualities of Brome's comedy before chastising the pretensions of Taylor to be Jonson's equal: "Taylor his goose quill may abjure again, /And to make paper clean, scribbling refrain."
, when your courtier
n3634
Has scarce ability to read*n3635
Illiterate and uncultured aristocrats were a particular target of Jonsonian satire, which Brome is emulating here. (See "To My Lord Ignorant" in Jonson's Epigrams (1616) and the treatment of uncultured and uneducated courtiers throughout the corpus of Brome's comedies from The City Wit to The Court Beggar.) Jonson's yardstick of excellence was always Sir Philip Sidney. If, as is likely, Brome assisted Jonson in rehearsing the staging of the many masques that Jonson penned, then he too would have encountered at first hand badly educated courtiers struggling to learn their lines, blocking and dance-movements (many of such men, in James's reign especially, had received royal favour for their looks and flattering tongues rather than their intellectual attributes).
.
n3635
813PeregrineBefore I reign
Or I’ll ordain a course to change their coats*n3637
That is: prescribe a procedure whereby men shall dress differently (according to their abilities and culture). Elizabeth, James and Charles had each in turn framed sumptuary laws to control excess in apparel by ordering how men and women should dress according to their particular class, occupation or station in life and not in relation to what their income might afford. Brome is envisaging an antipodean sumptuary law where dress defines an individual's intellectual worth. It is significant that Brome sees culture here as the antipodean opposite to wealth and class, a radical proposal for a meritocracy akin to what Jonson proposes through comedies such as Cynthia's Revels (staged 1600).
n3637
I shall have much to do in reformation†gg2681
improvement, ‘correction or removal of defects or errors’ (OED n, 2); radical political change (OED n, 3)
.
gg2681
814DoctorPatience and counsel will go through it, sir.
815PeregrineWhat if I craved a counsel from New England?*n3638
For those weary of or infuriated by Charles's continuing personal rule (England had been without a parliament since 1629), the democratic ordering of New England in America was an attractive alternative, even if, as here, it was just a fanciful dream of possibilities.
n3638
The old will spare me none.
816DoctorIs this man mad?*n3639
The Doctor is substantiating as eminently sane Peregrine's vision of a "reformed" England. This is one of the most radical sequences in the play and, given Brome's coda to the printed quarto which informs readers that there is more in the text than was originally performed, one cannot but wonder whether passages like this one were actually acted in Caroline London.
n3639
My cure goes fairly on. Do you marvel that
Poor men outshine the courtiers? Look you, sir,
These persons pass over the stage in couples,
according as he describes them.*n3645
This long sequence is remarkable on many counts. In some ways the various couples briefly crossing the stage are like notes for episodes which Brome decided ultimately not to dramatize in full. Interestingly he chooses to stage here what in effect are a series of dumbshows or mimes with descriptive accompanying interpretation. There is a long history to this device going back to the earliest renaissance plays such as Sackville and Norton's Gorboduc in the early 1560s, where the device carries allegorical weight, foretelling the outcome of events, which the drama will subsequently unfold. Brome had recently deployed the device in a similarly ritualistic way in The Queen and Concubine (which Steggle dates on the evidence as in all likelihood composed early in 1636 and before The Antipodes). In this tragicomedy the mime presents a dream-sequence in which Eulalia learns from her guardian Genius that no ill will befall her, despite the hazards that afflict her; the device intimates, therefore, how the plot will be resolved in her favour. Brome's use of dumbshow in The Antipodes is more complex and original in that it offers instances of antipodean inversions in such rapid succession that, for all the comedy of the individual detail, they cumulatively have the force of a nightmare, which compels Peregrine to question frantically "Will you make me mad?" The absurdity of the inversions has been carried to such a length that it appears now to be threatening, obsessive. If a modern production were to choose to stage the sequence, then care must be taken to relate the several figures seen in procession to the impact they have on Peregrine as alarmed spectator of the enactment.
according as he describes them.*
n3645
A sick man giving counsel to a physician;
And there’s a puritan tradesman teaching a
Great traveller to lie;*n3640
A comic reversal according to antipodean principles: puritans were required to be truth-tellers, while travellers were assumed to be great weavers of fantasy.
that ballad-woman
n3640
In all the kingdom.
817Ballad-SingerBuy new ballads, come.
818DoctorA natural fool†gg2994
born simpleton (as distinct from a professional court fool)
, there, giving grave instructions
gg2994
T’a lord ambassador; that’s a schismatic*n3641
This is a term that changes its meaning depending on whether one views it from a Catholic or Protestant perspective: to the former, it denotes a heretic; to the latter, a recusant, dissenter, one refusing to honour the authority of the Church of England.
,
n3641
Teaching a scrivener†gg2995
a professional scribe or copyist
to keep his ears*n3642
References to this particular mode of punishment continue to recur throughout the dialogue. This is the third such instance and within some 66 lines of the previous one. Did Brome have the recent case of William Prynne's second mutilation for treasonous writing in mind at the time of composing the play? And at some level of his psyche, did he dread this as a possible fate for his own daring thinking within his comedy (even though that thinking is scrupulously placed within the realm of fantasy, folly and madness that is the Antipodean world of the play-within-the-play)?
;
gg2995
n3642
A parish clerk, there, gives the rudiments
Of military discipline to a general:
And there’s a basket-maker confuting†gg2996
proving wrong, confounding, putting to silence
Bellarmine*n3643
Cardinal Bellarmine, a great Catholic theologian, had disputed with King James about the political (as distinct from the spiritual) authority of the Pope. Despite his brilliant intellect, he is here in the Antipodes being put in his place by an artisan with ardent protestant convictions.
.
gg2996
n3643
819PeregrineWill you make me mad?*n3644
If Peregrine is beginning to question the relentless absurdity of the inversions he is witnessing, then that is a sign that his sanity is returning and his folly cured. He is starting to perceive the fantasy for what it is.
n3644
Ent[er during the following speech] BYPLAY*n4459
Q creates a new scene with Byplay's entrance. Again the compositor situates the scene heading and the lengthy stage direction in the right margin and compresses it into a block of seven lines to fit the available space. The stage direction describing the entrance is separated from the scene heading by a long bracket to the left of the italicised text that embraces lines 2 through 7. The text here reads: "Act 4. Sc. 9. /Ent. Byplay /like a States- /man. 3. or 4. /Projectors /with bundles /of papers.".
like a statesman
[and] three or four PROJECTORS*n4196
Though three or four projectors are listed in the stage direction, only one joins in dialogue with Byplay. He acts as a kind of intermediary who introduces the others to Byplay in his role of aristocrat.
with bundles of papers.
n4459
[and] three or four PROJECTORS*
n4196
820DoctorWe are sailed, I hope,
Beyond the line of madness. Now sir, see
A statesman, studious for the commonwealth*n3646
that is, concerned for the general good, for the welfare of the state
,
n3646
Solicited by projectors of the country*n3647
The OED defines the word as possessing both positive and negative senses, and gives for the latter the following interpretation: "A schemer; a person who lives by his or her wits; a promoter of bogus or unsound business ventures; a cheat; a swindler" (OED projector, 1b). This was the term applied in the period to speculators who devised schemes (projects), which they hoped would be lucrative if they could but patent them and so get the grant of a royal monopoly to promote them. While some projects in Charles's reign were of relative benefit to large sections of the community, such as the Earl of Bedford's scheme to build Covent Garden, many were money-making scams. The entrepreneurs relied on courtiers and statesmen to forward their interest with the king often in return for bribes or other forms of payment. The abuse dated back to James's reign (but was augmented, not stemmed in Charles's) and many city comedies presented projectors in a damningly satirical light from Jonson's The Devil Is An Ass (1616) to Brome's The Court Beggar (1640), which, Steggle records, deeply offended King Charles. The OED quotes in support of its negative definition from Featley's Clavis Mystica of 1636: "Let not the Projector pretend the publike good, when he intends but to robbe the riche and to cheat the poore"(XXXIV. 477).
.
n3647
821ByplayYour projects are all good; I like them well,
Especially these two: this for th’increase of wool,
And this for the destroying of mice. They’re good
And grounded on great reason. As for yours
For putting down the infinite use of jacks†gg3206
machines, often simple in construction, designed to save human labour (the ones referred to specifically in the context were made to turn a spit during the roasting of meat)
gg3206
(Whereby the education of young children*n3648
Spits were horizontally placed rods of metal that were thrust through meat to allow it to be suspended above a fire when being roasted. It was the practice to use young children (or servants) to turn a spit manually from beside the fire. The invention of spit jacks (mechanical mechanisms involving a system of connecting weights and counterweights, cogged wheels and cylinders, which allowed the meat slowly to rotate) inevitably put a stop to the practice, though such devices were cumbersome and tended in an ordinary kitchen to get in the way of the cooks.
n3648
In turning spits*n3648
Spits were horizontally placed rods of metal that were thrust through meat to allow it to be suspended above a fire when being roasted. It was the practice to use young children (or servants) to turn a spit manually from beside the fire. The invention of spit jacks (mechanical mechanisms involving a system of connecting weights and counterweights, cogged wheels and cylinders, which allowed the meat slowly to rotate) inevitably put a stop to the practice, though such devices were cumbersome and tended in an ordinary kitchen to get in the way of the cooks.
is greatly hindered)
n3648
It may be looked into. And yours against
The multiplicity of pocket watches,
(Whereby much neighbourly familiarity,
By asking, “what d’ye guess it is o’clock?”
Is lost) when every puny clerk can carry
The time o’th’ day in’s breeches: this, and these,
Hereafter may be looked into. For present:
This for the increase of wool (that is to say,
By flaying of live horses and new covering them
With sheepskins), I do like exceedingly.
And this for keeping of tame owls in cities
To kill up rats and mice, whereby all cats
May be destroyed, as an especial means
To prevent witchcraft and contagion*n3649
Cats were popularly believed to be both witches' familiars (creatures of the devil sent to aid in promoting magic) and carriers of plague.
.
n3649
822PeregrineHere’s a wise business!
823ProjectorWill your honour now,
Be pleased to take into consideration
The poor men’s suits for briefs†gg2997
mandates, certificates giving legal (or royal) authority
to get relief,
gg2997
By common charity throughout the kingdom,
Towards recovery of their lost estates?
824ByplayWhat are they? Let me hear.
825ProjectorFirst, here’s a gamester†gs507
one who lives by gambling, a professional dice- or card-player
that sold house and land
gs507
To the known value of five thousand pounds,
And by misfortune of the dice lost all,
To his extreme undoing, having neither
A wife or child to succour†gs508
aid and sustain, support
him.
gs508
826ByplayA bachelor?
827ProjectorYes, my good lord.
828ByplayAnd young and healthful?
829ProjectorYes.
830ByplayAlas, ’tis lamentable! He deserves much pity.
831PeregrineHow’s this?
832DoctorObserve him further, pray sir.
833ProjectorThen, here’s a bawd of sixty-odd years’ standing†gg2998
length of service in a profession
.
gg2998
834ByplayHow old was she when she set up?
835ProjectorBut four
And twenty, my good lord. She was both ware
Of twice four thousand choice virginities;
And twice their number of indifferent gear†gg2999
goods, merchandise, stuff (but in a depreciatory sense, meaning rubbish) but also in slang at this date may punningly refer to the sexual organs, much like the twenty-first century use of the word, tackle (OED gear n, 9a, 10 and 5b)
.
gg2999
(No riff-raff†gg3253
the rabble; low, disreputable individuals
was she ever known to cope†gg3000
manage, deal with, but also barter
for)
gg3253
gg3000
Her life is certified here by the justices,
Adjacent to her dwelling―――
836ByplayShe is decayed.
837ProjectorQuite trade-fallen, my good lord, now in her dotage;
And desperately†gg3001
hopelessly, irretrievably, incurably
undone by riot†gg2158
debauchery, extravagance (OED n, 1a); violence, disorder (OED n, 4a)
.
gg3001
gg2158
838Byplay’Las, good woman.
839ProjectorShe has consumed in prodigal†gg3002
extravagant, recklessly wasteful
feasts and fiddlers
gg3002
And lavish lendings to debauched comrades
To the full value of six thousand pounds*n3652
This in the period would be a prodigious sum. For comparison: Sir Edmund Verney after 1625 could expect an annual stipend of £200 as Knight-Marshal at King Charles's court; his mother's jointure as widow was also £200 on which she comfortably ran a distinguished household in Drury Lane; and he determined out of his estate to set aside dowries of £1000 for each of his daughters (see Adrian Tinniswood, The Verneys [London: Jonathan Cape, 2007] pp. 41-42). The National Archives Currency Converter posits that the equivalent of £6000 from the 1630s would be almost £535,000.00 in 2009.
.
n3652
840ByplayShe shall have a collection, and deserves it.
841Peregrine’Tis monstrous, this.
842ProjectorThen here are divers†gs509
various, sundry
more,
gs509
Of pandars, cheaters, house and highway robbers,
That have got great estates in youth and strength
And wasted all as fast in wine and harlots,
Till age o’ertook ’em, and disabled them
For getting more.
843ByplayFor such the law provides
Relief within those counties where they practised.
844PeregrineHa! What, for thieves?
845DoctorYes, their law punisheth
The robbed and not the thief, for surer warning
And the more safe prevention. I have seen
Folks whipped for losing of their goods and money
And the pickpockets cherished.
As it severely punisheth their neglect
(Undone by fire-ruins, shipwreck and the like)
With whips, with brands*n3655
Branding (burning a permanent scar on a felon's flesh) was a continual reminder to a criminal and society at large of his or her one-time guilt.
, and loss of careless†gg2652
unconcerned (OED 2); inattentive, negligent (OED 3)
ears*n3653
Once again the reference is to the legal punishment that involved docking all or part of a prisoner's ears. It is but some 75 lines since the last such mention of the practice. The carefree, breezily offhand tone of this speech is particularly disturbing and places exactly the sadism of a society that could conceive of such a form of publicly staged punishment [NOTE n3559] [NOTE n4462] [NOTE n3642].
,
n3655
gg2652
n3653
Imprisonment, banishment, and sometimes death;
And carefully maintaineth houses of correction*n3654
buildings for the confinement and punishment of offenders with a view to their reformation
n3654
For decayed scholars and maimed soldiers,
For such as lived by rapine†gg3254
violent robbery or pillage
and by cozenage†gg3005
fraud, duplicity
.
gg3254
gg3005
847PeregrineStill worse and worse! Abominable! Horrid!
848ProjectorYet here is one, my lord, ’bove all the rest,
Whose services have generally been known,
Though now he be a spectacle of pity.
849ByplayWho’s that?
850ProjectorThe captain of the cutpurses†gg3006
A term often generally used for thieves in the period, but specifically it denotes robbers who slit open purses attached to belts to steal the contents therein, or cut through the laces by which purses were so hanging to run off with purse and contents.
, my lord;
gg3006
That was the best at’s art that ever was,
In both his hands, and craves a large collection.
851ByplayI’ll get it him.
852PeregrineYou shall not get it him.
Do you provide whips, brands and ordain death
For men that suffer under fire or shipwreck
The loss of all their honest gotten wealth,
And find relief for cheaters, bawds, and thieves?
I’ll hang ye all.
853ByplayMercy, great king.
854AllO mercy!
Before we understand your highness’ laws.
We went by custom and the warrant, which
We had in your late predecessor’s reign.*n3656
Parr sees this as a not too covert reference to the licentiousness of James I's court, notorious for its extravagant squandering of wealth, its indulgence in favourites (male and female), drunkenness and open sexuality. The shameless hedonism and corruption may have been Middleton's inspiration for the court scenes in The Revenger's Tragedy (1607).
n3656
But let us know your pleasure, you shall find
The state and commonwealth in all obedient
To alter custom, law, religion, all,
856Peregrine’Tis a fair protestation†gg3009
declaration or affirmation (of intent), "typically made in response to an explicit accusation" (OED n, 1)
; and my mercy
gg3009
Meets your submission. See you merit it
In your conformity.
[During the following] LETOY, DIANA [and] JOYLESS, appear above*n3657
This entrance is on the upper stage or gallery, as at the "window" described by Letoy at the close of the previous act: "We'll at a window see the rest o' th' play."
.
n3657
857ByplayGreat sir, we shall.
In sign whereof we lacerate†gg3010
tear to pieces
these papers*n3658
the draft schemes of the projectors and the petitions of the needy
gg3010
n3658
And lay our necks beneath your kingly feet.
858PeregrineStand up, you have our favour.
859DianaAnd mine too.
Never was such an actor as Extempore!
860JoylessYou were best to fly out of the window to him.
861DianaMethinks I am even light*n3659
The usage puns on the two senses of the word: "lacking in weight" and "unchaste, wanton".
enough to do it.
n3659
862JoylessI could find in my heart to quoit†gg3011
throw (like a quoit and so the word carries sexual connotations, since quoits are round objects aimed at upright spikes with the intention of circling them about)
thee at him.
gg3011
863DianaSo he would catch me in his arms, I cared not.
864LetoyPeace both of you, or you’ll spoil all.
865ByplayYour grace
Abounds― abounds― your grace― I say, abounds.
866LetoyPox o’ your mumbling†gg3012
babbling, making indiscriminate sounds, muttering (the term actually derives from the idea of eating tentatively with toothless gums, making masticating noises)
chops†gs560
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)
. Is your brain dry?*n3660
Are you empty-headed? Has your brain run out of matter? The appropriate, present-day theatrical idiom would be: "Have you dried?" That is: "Have you forgotten your lines?"
gg3012
gs560
n3660
Do you pump?*n3661
Are you exhausted, out of breath and panting?
n3661
867DianaHe has done much, my lord, and may
Hold out a little.
868LetoyWould you could hold your peace
So long.
870JoylessHa, ha, ha!
871LetoyBlockhead!
872JoylessI hope his hotter zeal to’s actors
Will drive out my wife’s love-heat.
873DianaI had
No need to come hither to be sneaped.
874LetoyHoyday!†gg3015
an exclamation of annoyance, anger and exasperation (akin to 'Heyday!', which is more expressive of surprise or delight)
gg3015
The rest will all be lost, we now give over
The play, and do all by extempore,
For your son’s good, to sooth him into’s wits.
If you’ll mar†gg2441
spoil, damage
all, you may. Come nearer, coxcomb†gg3016
conceited ass (the term is derived from the cap worn by professional fools, which was shaped like a cock's crest or comb, which came to be the natural substitute for the word "fool", the emblem representing the man)
,
gg2441
gg3016
Ha’ you forgotten (puppy†gg3017
derogatory term for an arrogant, undisciplined youth (colloquial)
) my instructions
gg3017
Touching his subjects and his marriage?
875ByplayI have all*n3662
That is: "I recall it all" or "I've remembered my lines, cues and directions".
now, my lord.
n3662
876PeregrineWhat voice was that?
877ByplayA voice out of the clouds*n4204
Letoy has shouted down from his position in the upper playing space (the "window" referred to in Act 3 and what is designated "above" at Letoy's entrance into this scene with Joyless and Diana). This shows a bit of quick thinking on Byplay's part, as he interprets the voice as of divine origin bringing order to the chaos of earthly activity.
that doth applaud
n4204
Your highness’ welcome to your subjects’ loves.
878LetoySo, now he’s in. Sit still, I must go down
And set out things in order.Ex[its].
Spread through your kingdom, of your great arrival;
And of the general joy your people bring
To celebrate the welcome of their king.
Shouts within.*n3663
This sound effect and those which follow are all created theatrical illusions. Is this to be interpreted as an indirect and subtle comment on the nature of support for Charles I and his policies at this date throughout the country? The masques staged at court throughout the decade repeatedly end with expressions of national concord and acclaim but they too were theatrical illusions, dreams of kingly power, control and authority. See, for example, Davenant and Inigo Jones's Britannia Triumphans performed at Whitehall during the Twelfth Night celebrations of Christmas 1637-38.
n3663
Rending the air with music of their throats.
Drum & trumpets.
Hark how the soldier with his martial noise
Threatens your foes, to fill your crown with joys.
Hautboys.†gg3027
"a wooden double-reed wind instrument of high pitch, having a compass of about 2 octaves, forming a treble to the bassoon (now usually oboe)" (OED hautboy, 1)
gg3027
Hark how the city with loud harmony
Chants a free welcome to your majesty.
Soft music.
Hark how the court prepares your grace to meet
With solemn music, state†gs511
pomp and ceremony
and beauty sweet*n4460
In the right margin alongside line 2354, Q inserts a new scene heading in advance of the processional entrance that immediately follows: ""Act 4 Sce. 10.". The text of the stage direction describing the extended entrance is set in a block of six italicised lines.
.
gs511
n4460
The soft music playing, ent[er] by two and two, divers†gs509
various, sundry
COURTIERS,
MARTHA after them, like a queen*n4410
That is, dressed or arrayed like a queen.
, between two boys in robes, her train borne up by BARBARA.
All the LORDS kneel and kiss PEREGRINE’S hand. MARTHA approaching, he starts back†gs512
flinches, recoils
,
but is drawn on by BYPLAY and the DOCTOR. LETOY enters and mingles with the rest, and
seems to instruct them all.
gs509
n4410
gs512
880DianaOh, here’s a stately show! Look, Master Joyless:
Your daughter-in-law presented like a queen
Unto your son. I warrant now he’ll love her.
881JoylessA queen?
882DianaYes, yes, and Mistress Blaze is made
The mother of her maids*n3664
This is the matron of honour or leading bridesmaid (usually married herself).
, if she have any*n3665
Diana checks her enthusiasm on seeing that, instead of bridesmaids, Martha has two pages ("two boys in robes") in her train. Kastan and Proudfoot suggest that Diana, given many of the scenes she has just witnessed, may be questioning whether there are any virgins (maids) in the Antipodes.
:
n3664
n3665
Perhaps the Antipodean court has none.
See, see, with what a majesty he receives ’em.
Song
Health, wealth, and joy our wishes bring,
All in a welcome to our king:
May no delight be found,
Wherewith he be not crowned
Apollo with the Muses,
Who arts divine infuses†gs561
instils, insinuates, inspires (OED v. 2 notes that the verb is used specifically of "the work of God in the imparting of grace" but it is here deployed with reference to the attributes of a classical deity)
*n3666
Apollo here is invoked not as the sun-god but as patron of the arts, represented by the nine Muses, who according to classical lore, nursed the god in his infancy and supervised his cultural education.
,
gs561
n3666
With their choice garlands deck his head;
Love and the Graces make his bed:
And to crown all, let Hymen*n11647
In classical mythology and lore, Hymen was the god of marriage, usually represented as a young man carrying a torch and veil.
to his side
n11647
Plant a delicious†gg3255
highly pleasing, delightful, affording sensuous pleasure
, chaste and fruitful bride.
gg3255
883ByplayNow, sir, be happy in a marriage choice,
That shall secure your title of a king.
See, sir, your state presents to you the daughter,
The only child and heir apparent of
Our late deposed and deceased sovereign,
Who with his dying breath bequeathed her to you.
884PeregrineA crown secures not an unlawful marriage.
I have a wife already.
885DoctorNo: you had, sir,
But she’s deceased.
886PeregrineHow know you that?
887DoctorBy sure advertisement†gs513
official notification
; and that her fleeting†gg3021
departing, passing away
spirit
gs513
gg3021
Is flown into, and animates this princess.
888PeregrineIndeed she’s wondrous†gg3256
strangely, marvellously, wonderfully
like her.
gg3256
T’embrace and kiss her, sir.
He kisses her and retires.
890MarthaHe kisses sweetly;
And that is more than e’er my husband did.
But more belongs than kissing to child-getting;
And he’s so like my husband, if you note him,
That I shall but lose time and wishes by him.
No, no, I’ll none of him.
892MarthaOh, but try him you first and then tell me.
893BarbaraThere’s a new way indeed to choose a husband!
895PeregrineMandeville writes
Of people near the Antipodes, called Gadlibriens*n3668
The story of the "gadlibiriens" (whose name Brome misremembers or adapts to suit his metre) is situated towards the end of Mandeville's Travels. They were also known as the "fools of despair". These young men are employed in their country to deflower women on their wedding night by the brides' husbands because of a legend within their culture, which tells how in former times brides "had snakes within them, which stung the husbands on their penises inside the women's bodies; and thus many men were slain, and so they follow that custom there [involving the gadlibiriens] to make other men test out the route before they themselves set out on that adventure" (The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, translated by C.W.R.D. Moseley, [London: Penguin Books, 1983]
p.175). The story explains many references in the ensuing lines.
,
n3668
Where on the wedding-night the husband hires
896Doctor’Slid, he falls back again to Mandeville madness.
897PeregrineShe may be of that serpentine generation
That stings oft-times to death (as Mandeville writes).
898DoctorShe’s no Gadlibrien, sir, upon my knowledge.
You may as safely lodge†gs515
reside (but also with intimations in the context of being intimate with someone)
with her, as with
gs515
A maid of our own nation. Besides,
You shall have ample counsel: for the present,
Receive her and entreat her to your chapel.
899ByplayFor safety of your kingdom, you must do it.
Hautboys†gg3027
"a wooden double-reed wind instrument of high pitch, having a compass of about 2 octaves, forming a treble to the bassoon (now usually oboe)" (OED hautboy, 1)
[. PEREGRINE, MARTHA, BARBARA, the DOCTOR and the procession] exit in state†gs511
pomp and ceremony
, as LETOY directs. LETOY stays.
gg3027
gs511
900LetoySo, so, so, so. This yet may prove a cure.
901DianaSee my lord now is acting by himself.
902LetoyAnd Letoy’s wit cried up triumphant. Ho!
Come, Master Joyless and your wife, come down
Quickly, your parts are next. I had almost
Forgot to send my chaplain after them.
You, Domine†gg1151
polite form of address to a schoolteacher or master, deriving from the latin, dominus (meaning "Master")
, where are you?
gg1151
Enter QUAILPIPE*n4461
Q gives a new scene heading with Quailpipe's entrance but compresses the heading and the details of Quailpipe's appearance into a three-line block of italicised text running in the right margin alongside the last three lines of speech 902 (lines 2413-15 in Q), thereby anticipating the actual moment of entrance. The text reads: "Act.4.Sce.11. /Enter Quailpipe in /a fantasticall shape.".
in a fantastical shape*n3669
It may be that Quailpipe appears here in the costume that he is to wear in the final masque. If it is as one of the followers of Discord, then it nicely sets the tone for the sequences that precede the masque in the final act. It should be sufficiently bizarre ("fantastical") as to intrigue the audience about what may be intended to happen next. A curate or parson appearing here in the guise of a demonic figure would be a wild inversion but by this stage of the comedy anything can be expected as possible within the world of the Antipodes.
†gg1035
stage costume
.
n4461
n3669
gg1035
903QuailpipeHere, my lord.
904LetoyWhat in that shape?
905[Quailpipe]*n4197
Q gives "Chap." as the speech prefix here, referring to Quailpipe's role in Letoy's house as his chaplain and curate. Noticeably he was summoned earlier into Letoy's presence with the word "Domine", a further latin reference to his status [AN 4.1.line2415]. This slip in the prefix is one of several indications that Q was in all likelihood set from Brome's foul papers or a clean copy of them.
’Tis for my part, my lord,
n4197
Which is not all performed.
Have other work in hand.
907QuailpipeThen have you lost
Action (I dare be bold to speak it) that
Most of my coat†gg3028
profession (it would be possible in a world were sumptuary laws obtain for the precise garb to indicate the profession)
could hardly imitate.
gg3028
Cover it with your own*n3671
This would be a cassock and surplice, ready to effect the "marriage" of Peregrine and Martha. The extensive folds in these garments would allow him adequately to hide his theatrical garb beneath.
, due to your function†gg3030
status, position in a lord's household
.
n3671
gg3030
Follies as well as vices may be hid so;
Your virtue is the same. Dispatch, and do
As Doctor Hughball shall direct you. Go.
QUA[ILPIPE] exit[s, as] JOYLESS [and] DIANA enter.*n4198
Q compresses this complex stage direction together with a scene break into a block of three lines in the right margin, starting alongside Letoy's instruction that Quailpipe should now "go": "Act 4. Sce. 12. Exit, /Qua. Enter /Ioylesse, Diana.".
.
n4198
Now Master Joyless, do you note the progress
And the fair issue†gs562
outcome, but with the punning sense too that the hoped for outcome will be the birth of a child and heir (so both usages of the word are deployed here)
likely to ensue
gs562
In your son’s cure? Observe the doctor’s art.
First, he has shifted your son’s known disease
Of madness into folly; and has wrought him
As far short of a competent reason as
He was of late beyond it. As a man
Infected by some foul disease is drawn
Before flesh fit for health can grow to rear†gs563
restore, recover, in the sense of raise again to his feet, animate (with possible comic overtones, given the reference in the context to the patient being reduced to a skeleton, of bringing back from the dead)
him,
gs563
So is a madman made a fool before
Into his proper centre†gg3034
true state of mental balance
, or the medium†gg3035
generally carries meaning "a middle or midway course between extremes", hence the appropriate meaning here is moderation
gg3034
gg3035
From which he flew beyond himself. The doctor
Assures me now, by what he has collected
As well from learned authors*n3673
Kastan and Proudfoot (p.144) simply paraphrase this as "authorities"; Parr (p.305) invokes Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy and his discussion about the psychological consequences of sexual abstention and of over-indulgence but notes too that the supposed curative effects of carnal experience "belongs more to folklore".
as his practice,
n3673
That his much troubled and confused brain
Will by the real knowledge of a woman,
Now opportunely ta’en, be by degrees
Settled and rectified with the helps beside
Of rest and diet, which he’ll administer.
909DianaBut ’tis the real knowledge of the woman,
Carnal, I think you mean, that carries†gg3038
completes, perfects (the cure); takes away the adverse effects of (something); also with the idiomatic sense, "wins the day"; brings safely through a crisis
it?
gg3038
910LetoyRight, right.
911DianaNay, right or wrong, I could even wish,
If he were not my husband’s son, the doctor
The means of such a cure.
912JoylessHow, how?
913DianaPerhaps that course might cure your madness too
Of jealousy, and set all right on all sides.
He would forgo his madness, and be brought
To Christian sense again.
914JoylessHeaven grant me patience
And send us to my country home*n3675
That is, away from the temptations, subversions, diversions, dangerous entertainments of the city, which invite misrule and undermine the authority of a husband.
again.
n3675
915DianaBesides, the young man’s wife’s as mad as he.
What wise work will they make!
916LetoyThe better, fear’t not.
Bab Blaze shall give her counsel; and the youth
Now in this kingly humour. I have a way
To cure your husband’s jealousy myself.
917DianaThen I am friends again. Even now I was not,
When you sneaped†gg3014
snub, reprove, chide
me, my lord.
gg3014
918LetoyThat you must pardon.
Come Master Joyless. The new married pair
Are towards bed by this time; we’ll not trouble them*n3676
This was unusual for the period, when the bridal pair especially in dynastic marriages were accompanied to the bedchamber with songs and continuing festivites (usually bawdy in nature); both bride and groom were prepared for the wedding night by respective friends or relations amid much laughter and innuendo. Rarely were they, as here, left to their own selves (though, of course, Letoy has arranged that Barbara and Hughball are on hand to offer any guidance that might be solicited). A dramatised rendering of a traditional wedding night is to be found in the opening two acts of Beaumont and Fletcher's The Maid's Tragedy which presents a marriage masque, followed by a scene in which the bride, Evadne, exchanges songs and repartee with three ladies of the court as they undress her for bed: "The wars are nak'd that you must make tonight" (Volume 2, 2.1.2) and the bridegroom when he next appears continues affectionately to sustain the bawdy, until with a sharp change of tone Evadne informs him she is the King's mistress, that the marriage is all a cover and a complete sham and bids him sleep alone.
n3676
But keep†gs516
stay, reside, lodge
a house-side to our selves*n4411
Letoy is proposing that he, Diana and Joyless have rooms in a different part of the house. "Side" here carries a similar meaning to "wing" in terms of domestic architecture. This situating of the characters all over Letoy's mansion prepares for the complications and misconstructions of the final act.
. Your lodging
gs516
n4411
Is decently appointed.
919JoylessSure your lordship
Means not to make your house our prison?
920LetoyBy
My Lordship but I will, for this one night.
See sir, the keys are in my hand. You’re up†gs564
agitated, roused, angry (OED adv. II. 16d); but there is also a further sense here, drawing on idiomatic phrases such as "All's up": (you are) caught, trapped
,
gs564
As I am true Letoy. Consider, sir,
The strict necessity that ties you to’t,
As you expect a cure upon your son―――*n5733
The extended dash, copied from Q, suggests that a long pause is sustained while Letoy provocatively waits for Joyless to comply with him. The moment is sufficiently threatening to prepare the audience for the darker tone with which the ensuing act begins.
n5733
Come, lady, see your chamber.
921DianaI do wait
Upon your lordship.
922JoylessI both wait and watch†gg3041
(keep) watch, be on the look out, stay awake or alert
.
gg3041
Never was man so mastered by his match†gg3042
wife
.All ex[it].*n4199
This edition translates from Q's latin instruction: "Ex. omn." ("Exeunt omnes"). A direction for a general exit here is perhaps misleading: Diana is clearly all-too-keen to depart in Letoy's company, but Joyless has to be coerced into following them. That they should leave the stage in advance of him would once again give him the space to direct his final two lines to the audience (if such a convention were deployed within a production) or to speak them with a more inward register as private musing. If the final stage picture echoes that at the close of Act Three where Joyless was seen as a markedly isolated figure, then his predicament will begin to provoke some element of pathos.
gg3042
n4199
Edited by Richard Cave