HICK SCORNER, or
HYCKE SCORNER

circa 1513–1516

a synoptic, alphabetical character list

ANN THRIFTLESS
A "ghost character." One of the "three wenches" that Hick Scorner keeps upon his brothel-ship, The Envy.

BAILIE
A "ghost character." The bailiff, or sheriff's man, who caught Imagination stealing his brother's hackney horse, a lame brown bay.

BAY, BROWN
A "ghost character." The hackney horse, lame in back, that Imagination once stole from the bailiff's brother. Imagination escaped arrest by convincing the bailiff that it was exactly like his own horse, the morning was foggy, he was nearly blind with a migraine, and he made an honest mistake.

BESSE
A "ghost character." Along with Cate, Jane, and Sibley, Free Will refers to her as his "sweet trully mully."

BROTHER, BAILIE'S
A "ghost character." Imagination stole his brown bay hackney horse but was caught by the bailie.

CATE
A "ghost character." Along with Jane, Besse, and Sibley, Free Will refers to her as his "sweet trully mully."

CHARITY
A "ghost character." A royal preacher. One among the "true religious" men and "holy women" whom Hick Scorner was glad to see drown in the Irish Sea at the Race of Ireland when their thirteen ships foundered and sank.

CONTEMPLATION
He is sent by Perseverance to seek Pity. He refers to himself as "the chief lantern of holiness," and has come to rail against vice. He meets Pity and Perseverance and goes off with them. He and Perseverance later find Pity fettered and release him. Along with Perseverance, Contemplation converts Free Will to the righteous path and then gives him a new coat. They then all three convert Imagination, and Free Will says that he will dwell with Contemplation forever.

DEATH
Only mentioned. Several characters refer to Death as a person, and both Perseverance and Contemplation employ the threat of Death coming unannounced to convert Free Will and Imagination to righteousness.

DEVOTION
A "ghost character." A true monk. One among the "true religious" men and "holy women" whom Hick Scorner was glad to see drown in the Irish Sea at the Race of Ireland when their thirteen ships foundered and sank.

DOTTYPOLL, MASTER DOCTOR
A nickname by which Free Will addresses Perseverance upon first seeing him.

FAITH
A "ghost character." A true monk. One among the "true religious" men and "holy women" whom Hick Scorner was glad to see drown in the Irish Sea at the Race of Ireland when their thirteen ships foundered and sank.

FALSE LAW
A "ghost character." One of "the devil's officers" among Hick Scorner's company on his recently returned ship. Listed among a large group of "thieves and whores" and "other good company" of "liars, backbiters, and flatterers . . . brawlers, liars [sic], getters and chiders, walkers by night [and] great murderers."

FALSEHOOD
A "ghost character." One of "the devil's officers" among Hick Scorner's company on his recently returned ship. Listed among a large group of "thieves and whores" and "other good company" of "liars, backbiters, and flatterers . . . brawlers, liars [sic], getters and chiders, walkers by night [and] great murderers."

FATHER, FREE WILL'S
A "ghost character." Free Will tells Perseverance that he was a "knight of the halter" (i.e. hanged) and that he "wore a horn" (i.e. was cuckolded) by way of suggesting that he was a gentleman.

FATHER, IMAGINATION'S
A "ghost character." Free Will suggests that his wife is cuckolding him with the rector, Sir John, and causes a fight.

FAVEL
A "ghost character." Duplicity, false flattery. One of "the devil's officers" among Hick Scorner's company on his recently returned ship. Listed among a large group of "thieves and whores" and "other good company" of "liars, backbiters, and flatterers . . . brawlers, liars [sic], getters and chiders, walkers by night [and] great murderers."

FREE WILL
He is proud of doing what he likes. He has a noble that he has won in a fight with a friar but he has lost it, he thinks, to Joan. He incites Imagination to fight by suggesting that Sir John has slept with Imagination's mother. He fetches fetters and rope to help bind Pity when Pity intervenes in the fight. He then goes with Hick Scorner and Imagination to commit robbery on Shooter's Hill. He returns, alone, and delivers a soliloquy telling of how he was arrested for theft of a wine goblet, sent to prison, but that Imagination (after enriching himself by robbing an apothecary's apprentice) managed to set him free. He is accosted by Contemplation and Perseverance and, after some saucy replies to their attempts, he is at last converted to righteousness. Contemplation gives him a new coat. He then helps them convert Imagination. He says that he will dwell now with Contemplation.

FRIAR
A "ghost character." Free Will won a noble from the friar when he "gave him a fall," probably beat him up.

FROWARD OBSTINATION
A "ghost character." One of "the devil's officers" among Hick Scorner's company on his recently returned ship. Listed among a large group of "thieves and whores" and "other good company" of "liars, backbiters, and flatterers . . . brawlers, liars [sic], getters and chiders, walkers by night [and] great murderers."

HATRED
A "ghost character." One of "the devil's officers" among Hick Scorner's company on his recently returned ship. Listed among a large group of "thieves and whores" and "other good company" of "liars, backbiters, and flatterers . . . brawlers, liars [sic], getters and chiders, walkers by night [and] great murderers."

HICK SCORNER
A ship's master. When asked what country he has returned from, he lists thirty-three places including "three miles out of hell" and "the land of women." He proceeds next to name thirteen ships he has seen sink and drown all the holy persons in the Irish Sea, which has pleased him. He has arrived home with a shipload of sinners. His ship, The Envy, is out of London, and he keeps it as a floating brothel. He encourages Imagination to bear false witness against Pity and then helps to fetter and bind Pity. He then leads Imagination and Free Will to Shooter's Hill to engage in highway robbery. He disappears from the play after that.

HORRIBLE VENGEANCE
A "ghost character." One of "the devil's officers" among Hick Scorner's company on his recently returned ship. Listed among a large group of "thieves and whores" and "other good company" of "liars, backbiters, and flatterers . . . brawlers, liars [sic], getters and chiders, walkers by night [and] great murderers."

HUMILITY
A "ghost character." A true, virginal maiden. One among the "true religious" men and "holy women" whom Hick Scorner was glad to see drown in the Irish Sea at the Race of Ireland when their thirteen ships foundered and sank.

ILL WILL
A "ghost character." Owner of Hick Scorner's ship, The Envy, and brother to Jack Poller of Shooter's Hill.

IMAGINATION
He has the lawyer's skill to "prove right wrong" and "hang a true man." In his first appearance, Imagination tells Free Will that he has come directly from the stocks. He tells of dallying with a wench until a "knave catchpoll" intervened. At Newgate he used to be shackled with Hick Scorner. When Free Will suggests that Imagination's mother has cuckolded his father with the rector Sir John, Imagination must be restrained by–and then fights with–Hick Scorner. When Pity intercedes, Imagination bears false witness that Pity cuckolded him and then stole forty pounds. He then helps to bind Pity. He goes with Hick Scorner and Free Will to commit robbery on Shooter's Hill. He later returns to find, to his horror, that Free Will has converted to righteousness. He is, in turn, converted by Free Will, Contemplation, and Perseverance. Perseverance gives him a new coat. His name is then changed to Remembrance, or Good Remembrance, and he will dwell now with Perseverance.

JACK POLLER
A "ghost character." He is from Shooter's Hill and is brother to Ill Will, who owns Hick Scorner's ship, The Envy. His name suggests a robber (or plunderer), and Shooter's Hill was notorious for highwaymen.

JANE
A "ghost character." Along with Cate, Besse, and Sibley, Free Will refers to her as his "sweet trully mully." Possibly the same character as Jane True mentioned elsewhere in the play.

JANE TRUE
A "ghost character." One of the "three wenches" that Hick Scorner keeps upon his brothel-ship, The Envy.

JOAN
A "ghost character." Conventional name for a prostitute. When Free Will cannot find the noble he took from the friar, he believes that she later stole it from him.

JUST ABSTINENCE
A "ghost character." A sin destroyer. One among the "true religious" men and "holy women" whom Hick Scorner was glad to see drown in the Irish Sea at the Race of Ireland when their thirteen ships foundered and sank.

KNAVE
A "ghost character." Imagination refers to him as a "knave catchpoll." He intervened while Imagination dallied with a wench, struck him, and took his purse.

LAMENTATION
A "ghost character." A sin destroyer. One among the "true religious" men and "holy women" whom Hick Scorner was glad to see drown in the Irish Sea at the Race of Ireland when their thirteen ships foundered and sank.

MEEKNESS
A "ghost character." A true, virginal maiden. One among the "true religious" men and "holy women" whom Hick Scorner was glad to see drown in the Irish Sea at the Race of Ireland when their thirteen ships foundered and sank.

MISCHIEVOUS GOVERNANCE
A "ghost character." One of "the devil's officers" among Hick Scorner's company on his recently returned ship. Listed among a large group of "thieves and whores" and "other good company" of "liars, backbiters, and flatterers . . . brawlers, liars [sic], getters and chiders, walkers by night [and] great murderers."

MOTHER, FREE WILL'S
A "ghost character." Free Will tells Perseverance that she "was a lady of the stews' blood born."

MOTHER, IMAGINATION'S
A "ghost character." Free Will suggests that she is sleeping with the rector, Sir John, and causes a fight.

MOURNERS
A "ghost character." A sin destroyer. One among the "true religious" men and "holy women" whom Hick Scorner was glad to see drown in the Irish Sea at the Race of Ireland when their thirteen ships foundered and sank.

OVERTHWART GUILE
A "ghost character." One of "the devil's officers" among Hick Scorner's company on his recently returned ship. Listed among a large group of "thieves and whores" and "other good company" of "liars, backbiters, and flatterers . . . brawlers, liars [sic], getters and chiders, walkers by night [and] great murderers."

PATIENCE
A "ghost character." A true, virginal maiden. One among the "true religious" men and "holy women" whom Hick Scorner was glad to see drown in the Irish Sea at the Race of Ireland when their thirteen ships foundered and sank.

PERSEVERANCE
Friend of Contemplation, whom he sends to seek Pity. He comes looking then for Contemplation. Later, he and Contemplation find Pity has been fettered by Hick Scorner, Imagination, and Free Will, and release Pity from his bondage. Along with Contemplation, he converts Free Will to the path of righteousness. They then all three convert Imagination. Perseverance gives Imagination a new coat. He delivers a benediction to the audience at the end of the play.

PITY
He opens the play by announcing that he sprung from the Holy Ghost to give fallen mankind succor. Contemplation refers to him as "our master" when speaking to Perseverance. He is concerned that Poverty is in the land. On his later reentry, Pity attempts to break up a fight between Imagination, Hick Scorner, and Free Will, but they turn their mischief upon him. Imagination accuses him falsely of lechery and theft, and his is bound in fetters and rope. While bound, he delivers a lengthy soliloquy on the sinful state of the world. Contemplation and Perseverance arrive and release him. Pity sends them in search of Free Will, Imagination, and Hick Scorner in order to redeem them.

PRENTICE, APOTHECARY'S
A "ghost character." Free Will tells of how Imagination tricked an apothecary's apprentice into going into the cellar for some quick brimstone and used the opportunity to steal a sack containing one hundred pounds.

REMEMBRANCE
After Imagination has converted from wickedness, both Free Will and Perseverance rename him Remembrance or Good Remembrance.

RIGHT CONSCIENCE
A "ghost character." A true monk. One among the "true religious" men and "holy women" whom Hick Scorner was glad to see drown in the Irish Sea at the Race of Ireland when their thirteen ships foundered and sank.

SADNESS
A "ghost character." A royal preacher. One among the "true religious" men and "holy women" whom Hick Scorner was glad to see drown in the Irish Sea at the Race of Ireland when their thirteen ships foundered and sank.

SIBLEY
A "ghost character." A sluttish woman whom Free Will and Imagination have seen in bed with the rector, Sir John. Along with Jane, Cate, and Besse, Free Will refers to Sibley as his "sweet trully mully."

SIR JOHN
A "ghost character." A priest that Free Will knows of who sleeps with one Sibley, who comes willingly to his bed. Free Will says that both he and Imagination have caught the two in bed together. Later, Free Will suggests that Sir John has also made Imagination's father a cuckold, which occasions a fight between them.

SUBTILTY
A "ghost character." One of "the devil's officers" among Hick Scorner's company on his recently returned ship. Listed among a large group of "thieves and whores" and "other good company" of "liars, backbiters, and flatterers . . . brawlers, liars [sic], getters and chiders, walkers by night [and] great murderers."

TROTH
A "ghost character." One among the "true religious" men and "holy women" whom Hick Scorner was glad to see drown in the Irish Sea at the Race of Ireland when their thirteen ships foundered and sank.

TRUE WEDLOCK
A "ghost character." A sin destroyer. One among the "true religious" men and "holy women" whom Hick Scorner was glad to see drown in the Irish Sea at the Race of Ireland when their thirteen ships foundered and sank.

WANTON SIBLEY
A "ghost character." One of the "three wenches" that Hick Scorner keeps upon his brothel-ship, The Envy. Perhaps the same character as the Sibley mentioned elsewhere in the play.

WENCH
A "ghost character." Imagination dallied with a wench until a "knave catchpoll" intervened.

WIFE, IMAGINATION'S
A "ghost character." Imagination falsely claims that Pity bedded his wife and so cuckolded him.

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