HYDE PARK

licensed 20 April 1632

a synoptic, alphabetical character list

BAGPIPER
Plays music to accompany the return of the victorious Jockey. He is given money by Bonavent, so that he will play more, this time to provide a tune to which Lacy will have to dance.

BONAVENT
Disguised, he approaches his old home, hearing the high spirits. He learns from a servant that Lacy is due to marry his wife, Mistress Bonavent, Bonavent having been lost at sea for nearly seven years. Having been brought into the company by the Servant, he is humiliated and forced to dance by Lacy. He reacts angrily, even pointing to his sword. He wins a bet with Venture over the foot race, but becomes angry again when Venture fails to pay up. He follows the company, unseen; hearing the Nightingale, he assumes that it is a lucky sign. He tips a Bagpiper to play music and, with the threat of violence, forces Lacy to dance. On Mistress Bonavent's request, he agrees to be civil to Lacy. In a note, he reveals his identity to his wife; she agrees to his request that he remains concealed for now. Bonavent appears at the wedding party of Lacy and Mistress Bonavent. He gives willow garlands (a sign of mourning) to all of the losers in love–Rider, Trier, and Venture. Lacy is shocked when he too receives a garland. Lacy's befuddlement is settled when, with a great flourish, Bonavent revels his identity. He will now resume his marriage with Mistress Bonavent, and promises to relate his maritime adventures after supper.

CICELY BONAVENT
Mistress Bonavent's husband was a maritime trader. They had a pact: if he disappeared, Mistress Bonavent would wait for seven years before remarrying. The end of this time is approaching fast: she will marry Lacy as soon as the seven-year wait is over. She does not enjoy the way in which Lacy mocks and forces the strange newcomer (who is actually her husband in disguise) to dance. She loses a small bet with Carol on the foot race–wrongly, she predicted that the English runner would win. She is angry with the newcomer when he humiliates Lacy in revenge for the earlier forced dancing incident. She wonder aloud what his credentials are to be among the company–and who let him join them. On receipt of a note, she realizes that the newcomer is her husband in disguise. She promises not to reveal his identity, and will go along with his plan. She announces to the company that she has known that her once-lost husband has been present since they were in the Park earlier. She enjoys the theatricality with which Bonavent reveals himself, and celebrates the reinvigoration of her own marriage and the new bond between Carol and Fairfield.

BONVILLE, LORD
Trier (who is obsequious to the Lord's face) tells the company that Bonville is lecherous. He meets Julietta, and immediately falls for her innocent charm. He compliments and flatters Julietta, stepping up his seduction plan when he walks with her in Hyde Park. He bets in the foot race, picking the English runner on patriotic grounds. He tells the feuding Bonavent and Venture to relax, and that a drinking session in a Covent Garden tavern will ease all tensions. He is extremely (suspiciously?) confident about the outcome of the horse race, opposing Venture and placing a lot of money on the 'Jockey'. He is correct: Venture loses. He narrates, with hilarity, the fall of Venture in the race. He gives money to, and receives acclaim from, two Park keepers. He makes a mammoth effort to seduce Julietta, becoming quite clear and explicit about his motivations. But Julietta rebuffs him, appealing to his sense of pride in his exalted, noble status. He professes that he will change his lustful ways. He is apparently reformed and chaste. He agrees that Trier has been wrong to test Julietta's character. He wishes good health to the new couple, Carol and Falstaff.

CAROL
Carol rails against the concept of love. She would rather hear boring tales from Holinshed than amorous sonnets. She receives her suitor, Fairfield, with coldness. She berates Mistress Bonavent for agreeing to marry Lacy as soon as her seven-year wait is over. She should retain her widowed status, insists Carol. Frankly, she tells Mistress Bonavent that she only enjoys men's company when she is mocking them for sport. She laughs at the humiliation of Bonavent, and, more brutally, she mocks her other suitors, Rider and Venture. She agrees, however, to an oath with Fairfield: she will not seek his company. This intrigues and confuses Carol–after all, Fairfield wants her to desire his company. She even blunders into kissing Fairfield. Carol backs the Irishman in the race, winning a pair of gloves from Mistress Bonavent–mischievously, she wonders if the runners will be naked. She sees Fairfield walking in the Park with his sister, Julietta, and thinks that the pair are lovers, responding with obvious curiosity and jealousy. She meets up with Fairfield, claiming that she is sticking to her oath of not desiring his company. Trier receives money from her, but she goes too far in railing against Fairfield, provoking him to tell her that he will never countenance her company again. Later, she denies the company's suspicions that she has been shedding tears. Carol is delighted to hear that Julietta is actually the sister of Fairfield. On the horse race, she again bets on trivial articles of clothing–she does not seem to realize the scale of the men's gambling. In a private conference with Julietta, she expresses the fear that Fairfield will kill himself because of his estrangement from her. She shows Julietta a letter that supposedly comes from Fairfield, threatening suicide. So, Carol will marry Fairfield–but only for the sake of his health and longevity. When Fairfield denies any notion of distress at his separation from Carol, she announces that she loves him anyway: she asks for his consent in a marriage with her. Fairfield agrees. She announces her wedding plans to the company, including her two failed suitors, Rider and Venture. Carol is pleased to call Julietta 'sister'. Carol accepts the congratulations of the company.

CUCKOO
This parasitic bird sings in Hyde Park. Trier (correctly) thinks that the sound is a bad omen, as does Venture, who thinks that he will lose the horse race because of it.

ENGLISH RUNNER
Runs against an Irishman, Teague, in the Hyde Park foot race, losing.

FAIRFIELD
Fairfield flatters Carol, but is rebuffed with some vehemence. His favored applicant for the hand of his sister, Julietta, is Trier, but he is bothered by Trier's apparent disinterest. He endures more mocking from Carol, but he tries a trick–he makes her promise that she will not desire his company. He walks with Julietta in the Park, deliberately rousing feelings of jealousy in Carol. He uses Carol's increasing curiosity about him to persuade her to lend money to Trier. He receives further verbal abuse from Carol, and storms off, vowing to have nothing more to do with her. He kisses the Milkmaid, and confidently proclaims her to be a virgin. Fairfield is shown a letter by Carol, the one that supposedly indicates that he is feeling suicidal because of Carol's coldness. But he denies heartbreak, even saying that he will castrate himself to demonstrate his lack of care for women. He does, however accept Carol's offer of her hand in marriage–he will accept the offer, he says, just to revenge her 'peevishness'. He doesn't actually admit to his love for Carol, but his long-term interest in her has been obvious. Quietly, and with satisfaction, he follows the unfolding drama as Bonavent sabotages the 'wedding day' of Lacy and Mistress Bonavent.

FOOTMAN of FAIRFIELD
He is sent from Hyde Park to a Tavern to buy alcoholic beverages.

GENTLEMAN, FIRST, SECOND and THIRD
Three Gentlemen figure in the play:

The First is one of three apparent cohorts of the Jockey. He enquires about the weights for the race.
The Second worries aloud about the Jockey's chances of beating Venture in the horse race.
The Third gives brief advice to the Jockey; orders the two riders to get on their horses.

HORSE
A "ghost character"? Ridden to victory by the Jockey in the Hyde Park horse race. When Samuel Pepys saw a performance of Hyde Park in 1668, he noted that there were real horses on stage. So, the Horse may well have figured as a 'character' onstage as well as offstage in the original performance as well.

JARVIS
A Servant. He fetches Lacy, bringing him to his mistress' (Lady Bonavent) house.

JOCKEY
The Jockey is supremely confident that he will beat Venture in the Hyde Park horse race. He is right. He wins very easily, and receives great acclaim from the gamblers who backed him.

JULIETTA
Julietta expresses her concern about the lack of forwardness shown by her suitor, Trier. She tells her brother, Fairfield, that she only favors Trier's application because he is recommended by Fairfield. Lord Bonville is foisted upon her by Trier. She receives the nobleman with courtesy, but refuses his evidently sexual flattery. Citing deference and innocence, she walks with Bonville in the Park, but continues to deflect his bawdy remarks. She later walks with Fairfield in the Park, making Carol think that she is Fairfield's lover. Julietta takes part in trivial betting on the horse race. She advises a relieved Carol that she is Fairfield's sister, not a lover. A very crude seduction attempt is made on her by Bonville. With great eloquence, she appeals to Bonville's class status, telling him that he should behave in a way appropriate to a regally-appointed Lord of the state, and that when he is older, he could look back on his life with either pride or shame. Her remarks have a genuine effect on Bonville, who now leaves her alone. She rejects Trier, because she is appalled that he was testing her chastity by exposing her to Bonville. She looks forward to sisterhood with Carol, and will have a chaste friendship with Lord Bonville. She will think only charitably about her failed suitor, Trier.

LACY
He learns about the situation with the Bonavent's interrupted marriage, but he perhaps knows anyway, because he is soon sent for by a servant of Mistress Bonavent. He is to marry Mistress Bonavent as soon as Bonavent's 'disappearance' can be timed at seven years–that time is the day of the play's setting. He bullies the disguised Bonavent into dancing for the amusement of the others. To rectify the rift, he plans a day of frivolity in Hyde Park. In revenge for the earlier incident, Bonavent violently coerces Lacy into dancing to music played by a Bagpiper. His fury is calmed by Mistress Bonavent; he promises to be civil to the 'newcomer', the disguised Bonavent. Back at the Bonavents' house, where the wedding is to take place, Lacy is perturbed when Bonavent places a willow garland on his head. He cannot understand why he is marked as single when he is due to be wedded. When Bonavent's identity is revealed, he realizes that he cannot now marry Mistress Bonavent. He takes the news with good grace, accepting the workings of 'providence'.

MARE
A "ghost character"? Ridden by Venture in the Hyde Park horse race. If Lord Bonville's account of the race is to be believed, the mare deliberately throws Venture off her. When Samuel Pepys saw a performance of Hyde Park in 1668, he noted that there were real horses on stage. So, the Mare may well have figured as a 'character' onstage as well as offstage as well.

MILKMAID
The Milkmaid delivers refreshing drinks to the company in the park, and is subject to invasive comments about her moral and sexual nature.

MUSICIANS
Play recorders (offstage) during Act Five.

NIGHTINGALE
A warbler, sings repeatedly in Hyde Park, raising hopes of good luck for characters including Carol, Lord Bonville, and Bonavent.

PAGE to LORD BONVILLE
He accompanies his Lord. Later, he makes an explicit sexual proposition to Julietta's waiting woman, reflecting his master's advances on Julietta. He passes on the message that Venture must get ready for the horse race. He tells the ladies that he is 15 years of age, and that he is resigned to being a source of amusement for them. He sings a song about the placing of willow garlands on failed lovers' heads, before Bonavent acts out such a ritual.

PARK KEEPER, FIRST and SECOND
Two Park Keepers figure in the play:

The First accepts money from Lord Bonville, praising him.
The Second is also tipped by Bonville, and also praises the nobleman.

RIDER
Rider is a rival for the hand of Carol. He actually draws his sword when he realizes that his gift-giving has been mocked by her, just as she mocked the intentions and gift-giving of Venture. He teams up with Venture, in a sort of union of the defeated. He is mocked mercilessly by a contemptuous Carol. He backs the Irish runner in the foot race. He foolishly sets up a meeting between Fairfield and Carol–he has sought to enter into her favor. He backs Venture in the horse race, but worries about the Jockey's better horsemanship. He meekly accepts that he has been an also ran in the race for Carol's hand, and meekly accepts his fate and the willow garland placed on his head by Bonavent.

SERVANT
He serves at home of the Bonavents and is possibly same character as Jarvis. Tells the disguised Bonavent about the marriage plans of Lacy and Mistress Bonavent, and facilitates Bonavent's entry into the house.

TEAGUE
An Irish runner, who defeats an Englishman in the foot race.

FRANK TRIER
'In the know', he tells Lacy (so, consequently, the audience) about the peculiar circumstances of Mistress Bonavent. He meets the young woman he is courting, Julietta, but leaves her in the company of Lord Bonville. He spies on Julietta and Bonville, seeing if she will succumb to the bawdy intentions of Bonville–he is 'trying' her character. He admits that he is in serious debt, and, through Fairfield, he manages to get a large sum of money from Carol. In the scenes set in Hyde Park, Trier is quite quiet. He speaks to Carol, only to tell her that he is not seeking more money. Later, he approaches Carol and Julietta when they are in conversation, and expresses surprise that Carol does not abuse him for his rudeness. Julietta drags him away, to allow private discourse between Carol and Fairfield. He asserts his delight that his 'trial' of Julietta has proved her moral, chaste character. But he is shocked when Julietta expresses her annoyance at his distrust. His application for Julietta's hand rebuffed, he is reduced to asking Julietta to think charitably about him. A willow is put on his head by Bonavent, symbolizing his single status.

JACK VENTURE
He declares his desire for Carol, and boasts that he has received a ring from her. But he is angered when he realizes that the ring was actually given to Carol by his rival for her hand, Rider. And he learns that the pearl necklace that he gave to Carol has been passed onto Rider. He suffers some verbal abuse from Carol. He wishes that she was a whore, so that he could prosecute her–but she is chaste. He makes a bet with Bonavent about the foot race. He loses, but does not pay up, causing a fight. He declares that he will ride his own Mare in the horse race. He worries when he hears the Cuckoo, fearing bad luck. But he gees himself up with bravado and confidence. He sings a song, celebrating great race horses of the period. His singing is praised (with possible sarcasm) by the company. He does, in fact, lose the race, ignominiously falling from his Mare (offstage). He returns crestfallen and humiliated–he may have been slightly injured, as Lord Bonville later asks him about his shoulder. He realizes that he is again a loser, when he sees that Carol and Fairfield are betrothed. A willow garland is placed on his head by Bonavent.

WAITING WOMAN, JULIETTA'S
Accompanying Julietta, she is left alone with Bonville's Page, who makes bawdy proposals to her. She claims virginity.

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