PLOT #1 AGAINST ARDEN'S LIFE: Alice catches Michael, Arden's servant, and reminds him of his promise to kill Arden in return for the hand of Susan, Mosbie's sister. Michael has everything planned out. The murder of Arden will win Susan, then the murder of Michael's elder brother will win him the farm in Bolton (this latter murder is mentioned only once and has nothing to do with the rest of the plot). Michael's main concern is a nearby painter, Clarke, who also has designs on Susan.

Mosbie enters and scolds Alice away from him. It soon comes out that he is testing her fidelity to him.

PLOT #2 AGAINST ARDEN'S LIFE: Mosbie has contracted with the painter to paint a poisoned picture of Alice that, when Arden looks at it, will kill him. Alice does not like the plan, fearing that someone else, even she, might accidentally look at the painting and die.

PLOT #2(a) AGAINST ARDEN'S LIFE: Instead of the painting, they acquire from Clarke a subtle poison to put into Arden's broth. Clarke is also promised Mosbie's sister, Susan, in marriage if he helps them kill Arden.

Arden returns to find his bitter enemy Mosbie with his wife. He takes Mosbie's sword away from him and calls him several names. Mosbie dissembles that he no longer loves Alice and wishes only Arden's friendship. Arden is duped.

ATTEMPT #1 ON ARDEN'S LIFE: Alice brings Arden the poisoned broth for his breakfast, but the poison makes the broth taste foul to Arden and he won't eat more than a spoonful. Alice cries that he doesn't trust her and dumps the rest of the broth on the ground. Nevertheless Arden takes some mithridate from Franklin in case the broth was poisoned. Arden and Franklin leave for London.

PLOT #3 AGAINST ARDEN'S LIFE: Alice suggests that she and Mosbie hire some London alehouse ruffians who will murder Arden for gold.

PLOT #4 AGAINST ARDEN'S LIFE: Richard Greene enters. He has been dispossessed of his rents owing to Arden's letters patent on the Feversham land. He comes to square it with Arden. Alice says Arden is a monster who beats her and gives Greene money to procure murderers to undo Arden for the sake of both Greene and her. In return for Greene's help Alice promises to give him twenty pounds above the ten she has already given and return his Feversham lands.

PLOT #5 AGAINST ARDEN'S LIFE: Mosbie tells Clarke that his poison failed to work, but he may still have Susan if he concocts another of his special poisons--a poisoned wax crucifix. The viewing of it blinds, the odor stupefies, and the touch kills. Clarke says he can have it in ten days.

Mosbie and Alice enter Alice's house to play at man and wife.

II.i: Bradshaw, a man accused of stealing plate from Lord Cheiny, is with Greene looking for two ruffians. They meet Black Will and Shakebag. Black Will tells Bradshaw, for a price, that it was Jack Fitten who stole the plate he bought. Bradshaw is relieved that he can escape jail with this information and begins to leave. Greene gives him a letter to take to Alice.

PLOT #4 PUT INTO ACTION: After Bradshaw leaves Greene hires Black Will and Shakebag to murder Arden. He promises them a great deal of money to do the deed and they readily agree.

II.ii: In London Michael has written a letter to Susan in hopes of outdoing the painter in his suit. Arden and Franklin find him, and Arden forbids him to dally with his other servant Susan.

ATTEMPT #2 ON ARDEN'S LIFE: Black Will and Shakebag lie in wait in St. Paul's for Arden to come by. As they wait, however, a shop boy accidentally drops a window on Black Will. While they argue with the boy, Arden and Franklin pass by them unnoticed. Greene enters and tells them that Arden is already gone. He knows, however, that Michael is sworn to kill Arden. They wait and accost Michael as he is leaving Paul's.

PLOT #6 AGAINST ARDEN'S LIFE: The ruffians, Greene, and Michael plan to kill Arden in his sleep. Michael is to leave the door open so that Black Will and Shakebag can sneak into Arden's lodging and kill him in his bed.

III.i: Arden and Franklin retire to bed. Michael has left the doors unlocked as planned. Michael has an attack of conscience, though, and screams at the thought of his good master's demise. His screams bring Arden and Franklin down. Michael says he had a bad dream. Arden, to calm the boy, goes about to check the doors. Finding them unlocked, he locks them and chastises Michael for his lack of diligence. He takes the keys with him as they all retire to bed.

III.ii: ATTEMPT #3 ON ARDEN'S LIFE: Black Will and Shakebag try to enter the house, but find all the doors bolted. They swear to be avenged upon Michael, who they think has cozened them.

III.iii: Arden tells Franklin of a dream he had of being the quarry in a hunt and fears that his dream might prove true.

III.iv: Black Will, Shakebag, and Greene accost Michael. Michael explains what happened (slanting the story a little to leave out his attack of conscience and scream) and is forgiven. He tells them that Arden is going to Feversham and may be attacked at Rainham Down.

III.v: Mosbie enters. He fears that he can trust none of his co-conspirators and in the end he will have to kill Greene, Michael, Clarke, and even Alice. Alice enters with a Bible. She has repented her part in the plot and wants only to be Arden's wife again. She says Mosbie bewitched her. Mosbie says he passed up a good, honest, and profitable marriage for Alice's sake. If anyone was bewitched it was him by her. Alice repents her repentance and tears up the Bible that led her to turn away from Mosbie. The are reconciled to each other and the plan to kill Arden. Bradshaw enters with the note from Greene saying that they missed Arden in London but intend yet to take him on the road.

III.vi: Black Will and Shakebag, after a brief altercation over their relative manhood, lie in ambush with pistols to kill Arden as he passes.

ATTEMPT #4 ON ARDEN'S LIFE: Arden, Franklin, and Michael enter. Michael insists upon taking the horse, which has come up lame, back to the ferrier (actually, Michael has lamed the horse so he will not have to witness his master's murder). Just as Arden and Franklin come into pistol shot, Lord Cheiny enters with his men. He invites Arden to supper. When he sees Black Will, and not suspecting his reasons for being on the road, the Lord Cheiny gives him a crown and tells him to be on his way.

After Cheiny, the men, Arden, and Franklin leave, Shakebag fires his pistol in the air out of frustration. Greene enters, believing Arden is shot. He learns of another failure.

PLOT #7 AGAINST ARDEN'S LIFE: The three rogues plan to try again tomorrow as Arden and Franklin go to Lord Cheiny's for supper.

IV.i: Arden is back home with Alice. It is early morning. Arden and Franklin intend to set out for Lord Cheiny's to keep their supper appointment. Michael prepares the horses but feigns having lost his purse in order to remain behind. Again he does not want to be present at his master's death. Black Will and Shakebag are in a broom close, lying in wait for Arden. After Arden and Franklin leave, Michael and Clarke fight over Susan.

PLOT #5 PUT INTO ACTION: Clarke has come to deliver the poisoned cross to Mosbie.

IV.ii: Arden and Franklin come to the Ferryman. The morning is thickly fogged, and it is very difficult to see. The Ferryman carries them across.

IV.iii: ATTEMPT #5 ON ARDEN'S LIFE: Black Will and Shakebag are lost in the fog. Shakebag announces that he heard horses pass. Black Will realizes they have missed Arden again. Shakebag falls into a ditch and fouls himself. The Ferryman responds to Shakebag's cry for help and confirms the ruffians' fears that he has already carried Arden and Franklin across. Mosbie, Greene and Alice enter and learn of the failure. The ruffians are quite frustrated by their continued failure at "so slight a task as this." Alice gives them money to go warm up at an inn.

PLOT #8 AGAINST ARDEN'S LIFE: The ruffians will try yet again when Arden and the Franklin are returning from Lord Cheiny's. Alice hits upon the happy idea of meeting Arden on the road arm-in-arm with Mosbie. When Arden becomes jealous and draws his sword, Shakebag and Black Will will leap out to rescue their friend Mosbie and the killing will then look like justifiable homicide.

IV.iv: Dick Reede, a sailor, accosts Arden and Franklin on their return from Lord Cheiny's. He curses Arden for taking the lands at the Abbey of Feversham to which he had an interest. Arden's acquisition has spelled the end of Reede's ability to provide for his wife and children--the rents he received were small but adequate to keep them clothed and fed. Arden is pitiless and passes Reede but not before Reede curses him.

ATTEMPT #6 ON ARDEN'S LIFE: Alice and Mosbie enter as arranged--arm-in-arm. Arden is enraged, but when swords are drawn and Shakebag and Black Will enter, Shakebag is wounded. Then Mosbie is wounded. Mosbie, Shakebag, and Black Will must retreat. Alice thinks quickly and tells Arden that all was a jest and Arden has overreacted. He is duped. Alice makes him go after Mosbie and apologize. Franklin is amazed that his friend is so easily persuaded by Alice.

V.i: Black Will is astounded at Arden's continued good fortune. Greene is on the verge of giving up the attempt, but Shakebag (because of his wounding) is all the more determined that they should keep on trying. Michael enters with the news that Arden has reconciled with Mosbie. Alice enters to learn how the previous night's attempt failed. Apparently Shakebag flourished his sword too much rather than stabbing home, thus allowing Franklin to wound him. When Mosbie saw his comrade fall, he hesitated. This allowed Arden to wound him. With the two men out of the fight Black Will had no choice but to withdraw with his wounded comrades.

PLOT #9 AGAINST ARDEN'S LIFE: Black will suggests that he and Greene should follow Arden through the fair and stab him undetected in the crush of people. Alice rejects the idea.

PLOT #10 AGAINST ARDEN'S LIFE: Alice muses about how she has stalked her bedchamber the night before debating the ease of killing her husband as he slept. Mosbie rejects that idea as being too perilous--she would certainly be caught in such a murder.

PLOT #11 AGAINST ARDEN'S LIFE: Mosbie suggests that in the evening, before the guests arrive at a planned party, he should engage Arden in a game of backgammon. At a prearranged verbal signal Black Will should creep out of the counting house behind Arden's chair and drag him to the ground with a towel. Then Arden might be stabbed to death and his body borne to the Abbey to look as though thieves had murdered him there. When Arden comes in, Michael is to lock the outer doors to prevent anyone seeing the murder and to prevent Arden's escape.

ATTEMPT #7 ON ARDEN'S LIFE: All goes as planned. Arden comes home and Michael secretly locks the doors behind him. Mosbie is with Arden and Alice feigns disapproval of Mosbie. Arden insists that Mosbie stay. Mosbie suggests a game of backgammon. Black Will creeps out, drags Arden down to the floor with a towel, and Mosbie stabs him. Shakebag stabs him. Alice stabs him. Arden's body is carried into the counting house. Black Will and Shakebag leave with their money for the job.

Susan enters with news of the arriving guests. Alice orders her to bring in a bucket of fresh water to clean away the blood. The blood, however, will not come out of the flooring. Mosbie says to strew rushes over the stain to hide it. Alice begins to repent the murder immediately and is weeping when the guests arrive. Bradshaw and Adam Fowle (of the Fleur-de-luce) are told that Alice is afraid because Arden has been away a long time, and she fears foul play because of the ruffians he wounded the night before.

Greene enters and says he saw Arden around the Abbey earlier. Franklin enters and suspects the truth at once. Michael and Susan secretly fear that Alice will give away the plot with her crying, and Michael considers poisoning her. Mosbie fears that Alice will give them all away. The guests leave the house on various pretenses (looking for Arden, going home before it gets much darker and the highwaymen come out, etc.) The Mayor and the Watch are reported approaching the house. Mosbie and Greene sneak out the back way with Arden's body. They will plant it at the Abbey, and Mosbie will return to the Fleur-de-luce.

When the Mayor and Watch enter, Alice feigns hope that they have brought Arden home. The Mayor has a warrant for the arrest of Black Will, who has been seen at her house. She bids them search for Black Will.

The Franklin enters with news that Arden's body has been found at the Abbey. He says that Arden's wife and household is to blame. He produces as evidence the towel and knife found on the body. Michael, in his fear, forgot to throw the damning evidence down the well but instead left it on the body accidentally.

In addition there were rushes found in Arden's slipper indicating that he was murdered indoors and carried to the Abbey. In addition there are footprints in the snow leading from the body to the Arden house. The rushes are removed from the floor where Arden's blood is found. Alice's protestations that the blood is spilled wine are in vain. Franklin sends men to the Fleur-de-luce to arrest Mosbie. Alice, Susan, and Michael are arrested on the spot.

V.ii: Shakebag is in London. He had hoped to hide at an old female acquaintance of his. When she refused him, he kicked her down the stairs and broke her neck. He stabbed her tapster to death as well. He is on his way to sanctuary at a church.

V.iii: When Alice is brought before the body of her husband, the wounds open and bleed, thus condemning her. The confessions of guilt are made, and Black Will and Shakebag are also named.

V.iv: Black Will is in London. He has heard that Shakebag has gained sanctuary, but he intends to leave England and fly to Flushing.

V.v: Mosbie and Susan are sentenced to be executed in London at Smithfield. Alice is sentenced to be burned to death at Canterbury. Michael and Bradshaw are sentenced to die in Feversham (despite Alice's affirmation that Bradshaw was an innocent courier who did not know the contents of the letter he brought her from Mosbie).

In the Epilogue, Franklin tells us that Shakebag was later murdered in Southwark as he was heading for Greenwich. Black Will was burned on a scaffold in Flushing. Greene was hanged at Osbridge in Kent. Clarke fled and was never heard of again. Arden was buried on the plot of ground that had belonged to Reede, and the print of his body could be seen on the ground for two years and more after the deed was done.

Alice is the duplicitous, lustful wife. She is made interesting by her vacillations. She is constantly repenting and then returning to the plot. Her breakdown after the murder, therefore, is well anticipated.

Mosbie, like Alice, is an interesting psychological portrait of a man who is not certain whether he should do the deed he desperately wants to do. He is especially interesting when he actually considers murdering Alice, for whom he plans to murder Arden, in order to protect himself from discovery. The warping of his priorities makes him soon view the murder of Arden as an end in itself rather than the acquisition of Alice, which was his original purpose.

Arden is a troublesome character. The letters patent that he receives at first do not please him in view of the fact that his wife is untrue. He therefore does not seem avaricious except when he meets Dick Reede; he scoffs at the poor sailor's plight and his starving family, which does make him a less sympathetic character. Yet his luck at avoiding murder (when viewed as something other than a plot device to keep the action going for five acts) seems to mark him as a man worthy of protection by some divine influence. Even Black Will begins to suspect that Arden is charmed somehow. Also Arden's friend Franklin is a good man who seems to be an excellent judge of character, and he likes Arden.

The contradiction, then, is whether the audience is meant to like Arden and feel horrified at his brutal murder or are meant to dislike Arden for his ruthless business dealings and therefore see some good come out of his murder. In the end, the murder of Arden leaves an ambivalent feeling in the audience.

Franklin seems to be rather unnecessary. He is constantly at Arden's side and functions to try to give Arden a perspective on what is happening around him. He ultimately detects the crime. He is not so much of a character as a functionary of the plot.

Greene is like Franklin. He is used in the play as a catalyst to other action without really having much character himself.

Clarke is also rather weak as a character. He loves Susan, and fights Michael over her, but seems to give her up readily toward the end of the play. His peculiar ability to paint poisoned pictures and fashion poisoned crucifixes, though claimed, is never really tested. If we are to judge by the "subtle" poison he gives to Alice to put in Arden's broth, which is detected by Arden upon his first taste, Clarke really doesn't know much about poisons. It is likely that his peculiar poisoned artwork would be impotent.

Michael, like Mosbie and Alice, demonstrates a psychological complexity. He is willing to swear to kill his master, and even consider killing his brother, in return for marrying Susan. But when it comes to the murder itself, he shrinks every time. He fails to keep the door unlocked for Black Will and Shakebag because of an attack of conscious; he feigns excuses on two occasions to keep from seeing the murder of his master. He calls to mind his master's many kindnesses to him. And finally, after Arden is dead, he is too distraught to destroy the evidence of guilt, the knife and towel. A modern psychologist might say that Michael's subconscious guilt forced him to give himself away--that he wanted to be caught.

Bradshaw is just a poor sod in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Susan is little more than a bartering chip used by Alice and Mosbie to bargain with Michael and Clarke for their aid. She does, however, show herself willing to help with the murder even though she finds out about it after the fact. She readily pitches in to clean up the blood and keeps her peace when the authorities come to investigate. She certainly could have saved herself by turning Queen's evidence.

Reede acts more or less as a voice of the oppressed man who has been wronged by Arden's business practice. He is in the same position as Greene and demonstrates the same depravity as Greene. Reede is content to curse Arden without actually plotting to kill him. In addition, he helps to underscore Arden's blacker side and thereby helps make Arden's murder something less than the fall of a great man. Arden, through the perspective of Reede's denouncement, comes to be nothing more than an average middle-class businessman caught up in the web of his wife's petty lusts.

Black Will and Shakebag are probably the most peculiar of the characters. They are presented at first as wholly evil. They would kill a man's mother for a price--even their own mothers. Yet their attempts to kill Arden border on the comic; from Black Will's broken head at Paul's to Shakebag's fall into the ditch these two murderers are nothing short of laughable. Black Will's character is more than a one-dimensional buffoon killer, however, he begins to question Arden's ripeness for murder and notes Arden's fortunate escapes from one trap after another.

Shakebag becomes increasingly resolute even as Black Will grows uneasy about the plan. They are made all too real, however, in Act V when Arden is actually murdered. All their comic attempts are forgotten when blood is finally spilt. Their escapes to London are as filled with Hitchcock-style suspense as their earlier scenes were full of slapstick humor. Shakebag's reported murder of the lady and tapster and his subsequent flight to sanctuary are black and detestable. Black Will's flight to Flushing and subsequent auto-de-fe is also horrific. The volte face the audience must feel for these two characters must go a long way toward giving the play a great deal of depth.

The appearance of the names "Arden," "Black Will," and "Shakebag" in addition to its country setting and time of composition all seem to hint at Shakespeare's hand in the work. The problem, of course, is that it was not attributed to Shakespeare until long after 1616. If it is Shakespeare's, it is very early Shakespeare. The penetrating psychology and quality of the blank verse seem to argue against this being his at such an early stage in his career. Modern commentators have suggested Kyd as the possible author. The question certainly bears further examined.

Because of its "newsy" nature, contemporary setting, and non-courtly characters, this play is an interesting look into historical England in the time of Shakespeare. Unlike Gammer Gurton's Needle, for example, it is not a silly comedy of bumpkins; and unlike the later City Comedies, it does not deal with comic "types," but rather it gives an earthy representation of Elizabethan commoners engaged in dramatically satisfying action.

The interesting Epilogue, which tells us that Shakebag was murdered (not executed) in Southwark, gives us some glimpse into the dangerous reputation of the Bankside theatre district in the Renaissance.

Alice early on says that oaths are just words and thereby worthless (I.i.101-02; 436-7). At the end of the play, however, she seems to think that words are her only ally. She uses words to attempt to deceive the Mayor and, at Arden's body, she promises to love Arden in heaven--which is a rather bold assumption she is making that she should go to heaven after her crime. She may be entreating her husband's soul to intercede in her behalf.

The contract Alice makes with Greene to kill Arden (I.i.520-6) is indicative of her real desires. She does not want Arden's land or wealth--although they do interest her. She is interested mainly in being with Mosbie. This may be true unless, like Mosbie, she considers killing off those accomplices who know of her involvement in the murder. In such a case she can promise Greene anything because he'll never live to collect it. Such a plan, however, is not made clear in the play. One is left to surmise that Alice means to keep her contract with Greene and that she really doesn't care about the lands in Feversham.

The poisoned cross Clarke is to make and the scene wherein Alice tears up the Bible in order to win back Mosbie's love (III. v.115-17) indicate the depths of depravity to which Alice's world has sunk. As with the motif of the poisoned Bible the Cardinal uses in The Duchess of Malfi, one can see that God has been cast aside in the world of Arden, and only the ornaments of religion are left to be used for the damnable plots of the characters.

Webster's The Duchess of Malfi (for the motif of using Bibles to further evil ends--cf. both the poisoned cross and the tearing of the Bible in Arden);

Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor (for a weak line echo--Arden "If I be merry, thou straightways thinks me light" and MWW "Wives may be merry and honest, too.").

Shakespeare's Richard III (for the superstition of bodies "bleeding afresh" when its murderer comes near it--see also other such plays that allude to the same belief).