The Puritan Widow

I have finally had a chance to get my hands on the new Collected Works of Middleton. What a tome! I'll be curious what other folks think. Among the things that I am trying to digest: it includes Macbeth, Timon, and Measure for Measure. I mean, I get the argument that Middleton had a hand in some version of these, but still, it makes me a little queasy to see these here.

Anyway, in honor of updating some references to the new Collected Works, and again without my Holzknecht at hand to know if this is summarized elsewhere, I offer the following summary to my friends at Blogging the Renaissance. If they'd like to cut and paste it over to their blog, they're welcome to it! The Puritan Widow was among the Shakespeare apocrypha, which I suppose is apt for the occasion of my not being in an SAA seminar this year. Enjoy! And watch out for conjurors duelling in the streets of Dallas!


The Puritan Widow, by Thomas Middleton, c.1607

Dramatis Personae

Widow Lady Plus, a citizen’s widow
Frank }
}her two daughters
Moll }
Edmund, son to the Widow Plus
Sir Godfrey, brother-in-law to Widow Plus
George Pieboard, and scholar and a citizen
Peter Skirmish, an old soldier
Captain Idle, a highwayman
Corporal Oath, a vainglorious fellow
Nicholas St. Antlings }
Simon St. Mary Overies } serving men to Widow Plus
Frailty }
Sir Oliver Muckhill, a suitor to the Widow Plus
Sir John Pennydub, a suitor to Moll
Sir Andrew Tipstaff, a suitor to Frank
Sheriff of London
Puttock }
} two of the sheriff’s sergeants
Ravenshaw }
Dogson, a yeoman
Gentleman
Nobleman
Two Knights
Servant
Prison Keeper
Officers
Musicians

Scene: London

Act One
Widow Plus mourns her deceased husband and she and Frances swear not to marry, though Sir Godfrey points out that they now have much to offer. Moll and Edmund, however, pledge to enjoy life. The impoverished scholar Pieboard (stand-in for Peele?) and the furloughed soldier Skirmish talk about their poverty, with Pieboard beginning to scheme for ways to fleece the Widow Plus. They meet and follow their friend Captain Idle, on his way to prison for turning to robbery. Corporal Oath and the puritanical Nicholas, Simon, and Frailty meet and exchange barbs; Oath is going to prison to find help for Idle and Nicholas realizes that the captain is his cousin, resolving to try to help him as well. At the Marshalsea, Pieboard and Skirmish learn of Idle’s offense, the simpleton Nicholas arrives and protests that he’ll do anything to help his cousin. Idle asks him to steal Sir Godfrey’s very expensive necklace to be pawned for Idle’s bail. Nicholas balks at the sin of “robbing” but agrees that “nimming” is not forbidden in the scriptures. Pieboard then reveals his plan: when the chain goes missing, Godfrey will storm, and Nicholas is to tell him that his imprisoned kinsman can conjure and reveal the location of any object including the necklace. Surely, Godfrey will bail Idle to regain his necklace. Meanwhile, Pieboard will work other plans for fleecing the widow.

Act Two
While Moll plots to find a husband, the Widow berates Godfrey for suggesting that she remarry, and turns away three courtiers who come to her door offering themselves to her and her daughters. When the pious scholar Pieboard arrives, he tells the Widow that he is in communication with her husband, who suffers in purgatory for his hypocritical, puritanical dealings. Though the Widow knows the truth of his dealings, she cannot admit them. Pieboard prophesizes that a fight will break out before her door, leading to bloodshed and a death, and that Godfrey will suffer a loss; if it does not happen, the Widow and Frank will go mad and Moll will be dumb, but if it does, then the Widow and Frank will marry and Moll will be prevented. In soliloquy, Pieboard explains how he’ll bring this to pass: he will have Skirmish and Oath fight at the Widow’s door, then slip a sleeping potion to Oath while ministering to his wound, making him appear temporarily dead; when Skirmish is about to be executed for the murder, Pieboard will intervene to revive Oath and gain a reputation as a miracle worker. Finally, Nicholas arrives with Godfrey’s chain and hides it in the rosemary bush as agreed.

Act Three
Skirmish makes small talk with the Widow’s servants until Oath arrives and they quarrel about calculating time (Oath calls Skirmish a fool for not understanding military time, i.e. that 17 is the same as 5 o’clock). In the brawl, officers arrive to carry off the wounded Oath, just after Pieboard administers his potion; Skirmish, who didn’t realize that was part of the plan, finds himself arrested for murder. The Widow feels reluctant relief that Pieboard’s prophecies have come to pass, saving her from madness, and tries to comfort Godfrey who raves at the loss of his chain. Nicholas mentions that his imprisoned cousin may be able to divine its location. Pieboard thrills that his plan is moving along, but despairs when Puttock and Ravenshaw arrest him for the debts he owes his landlady. He persuades them that a paper in his pocket is a masque he’s written for a nearby gentleman, and that if they’ll take him to that man’s house before they go to the Counter, he will use the payment to settle his debts to the landlady, pay them double their fees, and treat them to a feast. He picks a random gentleman’s house, gains entry, and in hushed conference talks the nobleman into helping him with his trick. They enter further into the house for his “payment,” where Pieboard sneaks out the back door. The sergeants are left to lament their foolish trust of a debtor. Pieboard arrives at the Marshalsea and helps the nervous Idle prepare for the role of conjuror. Godfrey arrives having expunged Idle’s crimes and solicits him to help him with the chain, offering a huge reward. The foolish Nicholas almost wrecks the plot a few times, but at last the conjuror Idle and the seer Pieboard, having consulted their almanac, agree to meet Idle the next day at noon to conjure up a devil who can find the chain.

Act Four
Moll plans her marriage to Pennydub whose country father has just died and left the fortune to him. The Widow tries to put off Muckhill and Tipstaff and when she learns that the conjuror has arrived, she must show them into her gardens to be rid of them. Godfrey and excited Edmund show Idle and Pieboard into the parlor and warn them to keep the devil from burning the tapestry and the plaster. They exit into another room to watch and listen through a keyhole. Idle puts on a good show and the timid Godfrey and Edmund retreat further. When they return, Idle says that the devil has gone and has left the chain on the rosemary bush in the garden. While Godfrey goes for the chain, Edmund remains behind and Idle and Pieboard convince him they have made him invisible. He strikes Godfrey who sees him as plain as day. The Widow finds herself enamored of Idle. Meanwhile, a procession dragging Skirmish to the gallows and Oath in his coffin passes the Widow’s door. Pieboard promises to take Skirmish’s place if he cannot revive Oath, which he does. While relieved, Skirmish promises to get even with Pieboard for the narrow escape. Godfrey calls for a banquet to celebrate the return of his chain, the miracles that have happened, and the marriage of the Widow to Idle and Frank to Pieboard. (There’s still an Act Five, of course...)

Act Five
The foolish Edmund and Frailty quibble over the details of the festivities. Pieboard and Idle arrive for the nuptials. Moll and Pennydub make their own preparations. Informed by Skirmish, the disgruntled Muckhill and Tipstaff plot to ruin the wedding by hiring a nobleman, whose words naturally carry extra weight, to defame the tricksters and support the courtiers. As the Widow’s party heads to church, the nobleman interrupts, reveals how Pieboard and Idle have tricked the Widow and Sir Godfrey. To make the Widow feel better, the nobleman proffers the love of Muckhill and Tipstaff, whom Godfrey now seconds. The nobleman declares that this happy ending has been brought about to make the heavens rejoice.

FINIS

The Old Law: Or a New Way to Please You

On one of the blogs I enjoy reading (relatively anonymously, so far--I feel uncertain about returning to blogging), the community is creating an updated Holzknecht. I think that's a great idea. Since I just happened to be reading Middleton and Rowley's The Old Law, I thought I might write up a little synopsis of it. [ETA: I offered this little summary to the folks over at Blogging the Renaissance, and I am happy to say that they have added it to their Holzknecht Redivivus.]

Dramatis Personae

Evander, Duke of Epire
Cratilus, The Executioner
Creon, Father to Simonides
Simonides, A Young Courtier
Cleanthes, A Young Courtier (the hero)
Lysander, Husband to Eugenia, and Uncle to Cleanthes
Leonides, Father of Cleanthes
Gnotho, The Clown
Lawyers (2)
Courtiers (2)
Dancing-Master
Butler, Bailiff, Tailor, Coachman, Footman, Cook, Servants of Creon
Clerk
Drawer

Antigona, Wife of Creon
Hippolita, Wife of Cleanthes
Eugenia, Wife of Lysander, Mother of Parthenia
Parthenia
Agatha, Wife of Gnotho
Old Women who marry Creon's servants
Courtezan

Fiddlers, Servants, Guard, etc.
Scene: Epire

ACT I
In ancient Epire, the new Duke has passed a law that all men who reach their eightieth birthday (and all women who turn sixty), having outlived their usefulness to the state, will be euthanized. Simonides enters discussing the strength of this new law with two lawyers. He can hardly wait to get his hands on his inheritance, as two courtier friends of his have already done. Cleanthes laments the imminent demise of his father, but can find no way around the law. Creon and his wife arrive and Simonides puts on a show of grieving that today Creon turns eighty; old Creon can see through his son's feigned care. Leonides, accompanied by his virtuous daughter-in-law Hippolita, arrives and hears Cleanthes' sincere despair but accepts his fate because he has had a good life. Cleanthes and Hippolita hatch a plan to fake Leonides' death and hide him out in the countryside.

ACT II
Creon and his wailing wife appear before Evander to receive the death sentence. Simonides's courtier-friends congratulate him on his inheritance. Meanwhile a gaudy funeral procession crosses the stage, with Cleanthes and Hippolita rejoicing that Leonides has passed away of natural causes rather than under the executioner's blade. Simonides dismisses his father's former servants who must shift for themselves now. Young Eugenia comes on stage; she can hardly wait to be released from marriage to her much older husband, Lysander, and accepts the flirtations of the courtiers, especially Simonides, who hope to marry her and gain her wealthy husband's fortune. Her husband scolds her and departs. Her cousin, Hippolita, arrives and mistakes Eugenia's tears for genuine sadness over Lysander's approaching death and, to comfort her, reveals the secret that Leonides is not dead but is hiding in a hunting lodge. Maybe Eugenia would want to do the same for Lysander?

ACT III
Gnotho, who is married to an older wife, Agatha, tries to persuade the Clerk to amend the baptismal registry to make the date of her baptism in 1539, sixty years before the play's "present" [the play was written in 1618 however]. He meets the newly unemployed servants of Creon, explains how much profit is to be made from marrying 59-year-old widows, and wagers that he can make his fortune by marrying two in quick succession while getting rid of Agatha, who arrives and scolds Gnotho while being depressed by his determination to be rid of her. Eugenia receives the stylish Simonides and his friends, but Lysander arrives and attempts to prove his youthfulness by challenging the suitors to three feats of strength: he duels with one, out-dances a second, and drinks Simonides under the table. Cleanthes arrives, rebukes Eugenia as an undutiful wife, and scolds Lysander for not soberly acting his age. When Eugenia confronts Cleanthes, he accuses her of being a whore. To get her revenge, she heads off stage to inform Evander that Leonides is still alive.

ACT IV
Reveling in a tavern with a courtesan, Gnotho domineers the unemployed servants. Disguised Agatha arrives with several old women, who dance for and entertain these poor men. Cleanthes, at the hunting lodge with Hippolita, cares for Leonides. The sound of a hunting horn dismays him. Evander arrives and Leonides is discovered. Cleanthes rails against Hippolita, the only other person to know the secret. Eugenia arrives to gloat and Cleanthes argues back, but ultimately blames himself for provoking wicked Eugenia to use the information his wife had disclosed.

ACT V
Empowered as magistrates, Simonides and the Courtiers dally with Eugenia, pass judgment on Lysander who has reached eighty, and then as Evander arrives, prepare to pass sentence on Cleanthes and Hippolita for helping Leonides escape his due punishment. An extended scene ensues between Cleanthes, defending conscience and filial piety, and Simonides and his crew. As Cleanthes demands that judgment be passed, Evander intervenes (this is a tragicomedy after all) to reveal that none of the old men have been executed. Further, he has passed a new law that only sons who exhibit proper respect for their fathers can inherit their property. As Simonides watches his plans go up in smoke, Gnotho arrives, dragging Agatha along to execution, with his beautiful courtesan on his arm. The fact that the old law has been repealed, a kind of test, means that Gnotho will remain married to Agatha and Creon's old servants will remain married to the old widows they'd been pursuing, though Creon will now take his servants and their new wives back into his household.