circa 1615-1617
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The Colonel has just returned from his campaign to England. With him is his good friend and comrade Captain Ager, Lady Ager's son. Lady Ager is anxious to keep her son from going on anymore campaigns. A friend of the Colonel's and a friend of Ager's fall into an argument over the respective qualities of their friends and, being "sudden and quick in quarrel" as soldiers are, they draw their swords on this little provocation and fall to fighting in front of Russell's house. Russell seeks to stop them when the Colonel and Ager come in and part their friends. When the reason for the quarrel is told, Ager says that the comparison of him and the Colonel is a "little wrong." The Colonel takes offence at the captain's suggestion that they may be compared and he and the captain quarrel. Russell commands them not to fight on his property. Ager, Russell's nephew, stops on grounds of loyalty to kinship. The Colonel, remembering that his kinsman Fitzallen has a hope of marrying Russell's daughter and not wishing to spoil his chances, stops upon that ground. Fitzallen comes in with Jane. Russell pretends to prefer Fitzallen as a son-in-law. In order to insure peace (Russell's dissembling reason for disarming the soldiers before his trick is played), Russell takes up the soldiers' weapons and has them removed.
Just as the Colonel and the captain (new in amity) begin to entreat Russell to give Jane to Fitzallen, two sergeants enter and, bribed by Russell, arrest Fitzallen on a trumped-up charge of debt to Masters Leech, Swallow, and Bonesuck in the amount of one thousand pounds. The Colonel calls for his weapons to defend his kinsman from arrest, but Russell refuses to be an accessory to such an unlawful act. Fitzallen begs Russell, a rich man, to bail him, but Russell says that he feels deceived to learn that Fitzallen, who had represented himself as solvent, is being arrested for debt, and therefore refuses to bail him. Fitzallen swears that he has no such debts. The Colonel guesses that Russell has betrayed Fitzallen and curses him. Ager takes up for his uncle and the enraged Colonel calls Ager a "son of a whore"--the standard formula for obtaining a challenge. Both Ager, as the lady's son, and Russell, as the lady's brother, take exception to the Colonel's insult. Ager challenges the Colonel. They call for their weapons. Russell refuses to allow the quarrel to come to a fight in his house. The two men, enraged, stalk off.
Russell orders Fitzallen to be taken away by the sergeants and leaves. Jane bribes the sergeants to wait a moment. She uses the time to talk with the arrested Fitzallen. They swear undying devotion to one another and Fitzallen is taken off to prison.
Russell comes back to tell Jane that she is better off now without Fitzallen and that he has arranged for her to be betrothed to a propertied man from Cornwall, one Master Chough. He counts himself pleased with his plans and he and his daughter go into the house.
II.i Ager is still fuming about the "son of a whore" insult. He is bound to fight for his mother's honor, but he has heard that men who die in an unjust quarrel never go to heaven. He seeks then to test his mother's virtue before defending it. He tells her that a fellow like the Colonel has bespurtled her honor and the Colonel is gone to the field of honor over the insult. He asks Lady Ager if the quarrel is righteous. She is angered that her son would have to ask and says that, of course, she is chaste--that she has not violated her chastity either before marriage or for the seven years she has been a widow and that she was never untrue to her husband's bed. Ager says that is all he needs to know and that he will fight the Colonel for her honor. Once Lady Ager learns that it was the Colonel who did the insulting and that Ager, not the Colonel, is venturing his life to defend her honor, she immediately changes her story. She says that, yes, she had been betrayed by a sinful kinswoman of hers who she was given in trust to be watched. Ager, fearing his quarrel is not fair since the insult has turned out to be true, refuses to fight the Colonel for fear of dying in the unjust cause.
Ager's friends are dismayed at his lack of resolution and fear he may be a coward. They try to convince him to fight the Colonel but he will not. He does not tell them why for shame of his mother's wickedness.
II.ii finds Jane with a physician. She has not been well but will not tell the physician what is wrong with her. She promises to tell a woman close to the physician and the physician brings his sister Anne in to counsel Jane. Jane tells Anne she is with child and that she and Fitzallen were married de praesenti, and only "the barren ceremony wants." Anne swears she will be secret and that the physician, her brother, will be the only other to know her condition and that he, for professional reasons, will also be secret.
Russell brings in Chough--a Cornish wrestler--and his servant Trimtram. Chough offers to wrestle with Jane but the physician advises against it. Chough likes her well. Trimtram is something of a "little lord echo" to Chough (cf. the old saying "Trim-tram, like master, like man"). The physician tells Russell that Jane has agreed to tell him what is wrong with her, but that he must take her to his house to find out. Russell agrees. Chough and Trimtram go off to the roaring-school to learn to roar like London gallants.
III.i begins on the field of honor. Ager and his friends meet the Colonel and his friends. Instead of fighting, Ager delivers an encomium to the Colonel. The Colonel is put off by the praise, but still wants to fight. Ager calls on their long-standing friendship and refuses to fight. The Colonel shrugs off the fight, declaring that Ager must be a coward, and begins to leave. The "coward" gives Ager a new cause--a just one--with which to challenge the Colonel anew in a fair quarrel. Ager's friends are amazed that "coward" can move Ager to what "son of a whore" could not. The Colonel and Ager fight and the Colonel falls. Ager sees this as proof of his righteousness in the quarrel. Ager leaves the field crowing his victory. The fallen Colonel also sees that he has been unduly harsh to Ager and that he is justly paid. He determines to be the victor still by forgiving Ager and getting Ager to forgive him before he dies.
III.ii finds Jane, the physician, and Anne giving the newborn child into the safe-keeping of a Dutch (that is, German) nurse. In order to preserve the secret, the physician says that it is his child and gives the nurse money. Jane says that she is the godmother and gives the nurse money. Anne says that she has reason to wish for the child's welfare and also gives the nurse money. The nurse leaves as does Anne. When Jane asks how she can repay the physician's kindness he says she can go to bed with him. She rebukes him and refuses, calling him a white devil. The physician bids her to think upon how he can ruin her reputation and then leaves her. Anne comes in, bid by her brother to sway Jane, but instead she sides with Jane and tells her to keep to her convictions and not sleep with her brother.
III.iii is in Lady Ager's house. When she asks where Ager is the servants say he has gone to the field of honor. She is certain that Ager will be defeated and determines to tell her son the truth about her virtue so that he will not die believing a falsehood about his mother.
IV.i opens in the roaring school. The Colonel's friend is the master of the school and he and the Usher of the school teach Chough and Trimtram how to roar. It mainly consists of hurling imprecations at one another in high-flown style, using flowery Latinate words and the names of monsters picked from Homer and Virgil until the time comes to fight, then making peace before the fight begins by buying up wine and tobacco for all concerned. An extremely humorous scene. Chough informs his tutor that he is to marry soon (Jane) and needs to learn how to roar so that he may be the head of his household.
IV.ii discovers the Colonel in bed with grievous wounds to the throat and stomach. The surgeon, using almost incomprehensible jargon, gives the impression that the wounds are not as bad as they appear, but may prove fatal. The Colonel calls for his will to be read to him. He has given everything to his sister provided she marries Ager. She is at first loath to marry the man who has killed her brother, but her brother insists that she swear to carry out his will. He explains that by giving Ager his most valuable possession, his sister, he is making amends for the grievous injury he has done to Ager. It is his way of buying his way into heaven. The sister understands and swears to carry out the will.
IV.iii brings Ager home to Lady Ager. She is surprised to see her son home and victorious. She explains that she lied to him about her virtue in order to keep him off the dueling field, and that she is, indeed, spotless. This new information breeds in Ager a new fire. He feels he must now fight the Colonel again in defense of his mother's honor. He prays to the "sacred ministers of preservation" to spare the Colonel's life that they may fight again. He admonishes his mother on her honor not to try to dissuade him from this duel. Lady Ager is distraught that her virtue should be the cause of so much of her grief.
The Colonel's sister enters. Ager believes she has come to upbraid him for the injury to her brother and he determines to hear her out. She kneels to him and says that she is sworn to seek to marry him by her brother's will. She explains it is her duty to do so for her brother to depart a Christian. The Colonel's nobility moves Ager. He accepts the terms of the will, takes the sister, and forgives the Colonel. He says that the Colonel has won the contest indeed.
IV.iv introduces an Irish captain/bawd (modeled upon the historical person of Arthur Severus O'Toole who was at this time residing in London), and Meg, a bawd, and Priss, a whore. They make reference to the popularity of a play, which by their description must be A Fair Quarrel. They meet Chough and Trimtram, who try out their roaring on the panders. Much bawdy by-play in engaged in and the bawds like the roarers well.
V.i opens with the physician still pursuing Jane to be his bed-mate. She is still resolutely refusing. The physician swears he will undo her marriage to the wealthy Chough. Jane, secretly desiring just such an occurrence, eggs him on to try it. Trimtram enters wearing rosemary (worn at weddings as well as funerals "for remembrance"). The physician tells him to call forth his master. When Chough comes out the physician tells him about Jane's baby. Chough has Trimtram consult an almanac and learns that "there's a hole in her coat." He swears he will not marry her. Chough confronts Russell with his new intelligence. Russell wants proof. He calls out Jane, who comes with Anne. The physician goes to bring the child.
Russell asks Jane whether, just between them, it is true that she has a child. She says yes. Russell is pleased to be a grandfather, but chooses to dissemble in hopes of still catching Chough for a son-in-law. Russell calls to a servant and sends him off on a secret errand.
The physician enters with the nurse and child. Russell asks the nurse whose child it is and the nurse responds that the physician said it was his. Everyone believes that the physician has undone Jane. Chough refuses her. Russell asks that, though he will not marry her, he agree not to discredit her by giving out her sin. Chough agrees not to disclose what he knows about the child. Trimtram is also sworn to secrecy, like master, like man. The servant enters with Fitzallen. Russell tells Fitzallen that his imprisonment was but a trick to sharpen his appetite for marriage and that he may now marry Jane. Chough has an attack of conscious and sings a song "Behold a baby of this maid's begetting."
Fitzallen takes offence that Russell would wrong him so. Russell admits his daughter's guilt and offers to pay Fitzallen one thousand pieces to erase the sin. Fitzallen agrees and receives five hundred pieces in earnest. He then reveals that the child is his and that Russell has selected the perfect father for his daughter's baby. Jane tells Russell about the de praesenti wedding. Russell calls them "a couple of cunning ones" and asks for the money back from Fitzallen since there is no more bargain. Fitzallen says he will keep the money to pay his fees of imprisonment.
The Colonel, recovered, enters. Ager feels unworthy to be seen in the same place with so noble a man. He sends the will back, saying he has been paid nobly enough with the love of the Colonel's sister. The Colonel is glad to get the will back. He modifies it to include the Fitzdale manor he has recently acquired and sends it back to Ager. He says it is best for Ager and his sister to have it because his mistress is and ever will be war, which is always best able to maintain her servant. The magnanimity of the Colonel causes Ager to swoon. He falls into the Colonel's arms. The two men are truly friends again. The Colonel has the final line; "Fair be that quarrel makes such happy friends!"
Russell, rather than being the overbearing father who insists upon his daughter marrying his choice (cf. the father from MD who locks Aurelia up in the fort when she refuses to marry the Governor), he really seems interested in getting her set up with a wealthy husband for her sake as well as his own. He is not tyrannical when Jane tells him she has, indeed, had a baby, but seems pleased to be a grandfather. He tries to buy Jane's virtue when he could just as easily abjured her. He accepts the gulling by Fitzallen, which costs him one thousand pieces, with a good-graced shrug.
Ager, though "sudden and quick in quarrel," seems a true-hearted fellow who wants to do the right thing by his mother, by himself, and ultimately by the Colonel and the Colonel's sister.
The Colonel, though brusque and foul-mouthed at the beginning, has the greatness of spirit to be moved by Ager's plea for friendship on the dueling field and repents his vile treatment of Ager after he falls. Far from being vengeful, he seeks forgiveness from the man who he has every reason to believe has killed him.
The Colonel's sister, though not having a large part, also has the greatness of spirit of her brother. She balks at marrying Ager, but when she sees it as a way to her brother's salvation she accepts the terms of the Colonel's will. It is fortuitous that she actually falls in love with Ager.
Fitzallen, like Jane, demonstrates the fidelity of love-the course of which never does run smooth.
Chough and Trimtram, though great bores and foolish men, are nevertheless likeable. There is mischief but no real harm in them. And each demonstrates a certain moral fiber--Chough when he breaks his oath in order to save a stranger (Fitzallen) from a dishonorable marriage, and Trimtram when he advises Chough of his oath and tries to pursued his master to keep his word.
Lady Ager forswears herself only to keep her son from coming to harm. She is, in truth, a virtuous widow. Her lie, therefore, can be counted to her credit. Jane, though she appears to be a whore, we learn she has married the father of her child and all is right--her secrecy to her father is not, therefore, reprehensible.
Anne is truly good. Though her brother, the physician, sends her to do his evil bidding, she refuses even though he is her benefactor.
Even Captain Albo and the whores, Meg and Priss, are likeable people to whom it is difficult to attach moral judgments.
Only the lecherous physician, who acts altruistically only for his own lustful ends and who breaks his vow of secrecy in retaliation for being refused, can be termed wholly despicable.
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The characters are cunningly integrated between the plot and subplot:
Synopsis:
I.i Russell, Lady Ager's brother and Jane's father, has a plan to marry his daughter off to a wealthy Cornish man named Chough. His problem is to get rid of a young man who has been courting Jane, one Fitzallen--a kinsman to the Colonel. Characterization:
The characters in FQ are better drawn than those of Middleton's two most recent attempts before FQ, NW/HLW and MD. There is more depth to them and better shades of grey. Notes of Interest:
This play may have been originally performed at the Hope Theatre. A reference to bear baiting in II.ii.212 might indicate the Hope, which was used for such shows.