[?]QUEEN HENRIETTA
FLORIMÈNE
21 December 1635
a synoptic, alphabetical character list
Note: this play is lost. The following account of the characters comes from a synopsis published in 1635, The Argument of the Pastorall of Florimene, with the Description of the Scenes and Intermedii. The play was written in French, though the Prologue, and possibly some other interludic parts, were in English. The authorship is uncertain: Alfred Harbage attributed it to Queen Henrietta Maria, but it may in fact have been written by someone else for her to perform.
Because the play was in French and the synopsis is in English, there is a little difficulty with the names. The synopsis translates the non-human characters' names (Diana, Winter, etc.) into English, and omits the accents from the human names. I have taken the translated forms in the synopsis but supplied accents (so "Aristee" in the synopsis becomes "Aristée").
ANFRIZE
A shepherd, in love with Florimène. He is finally allocated by Diana to Florelle, Florimène's friend and kinswoman.
ARISTÉE
A shepherd, brother to Florimène, who falls in love with Filène in the latter's disguise as Dorine. Eager to learn what his chances are, Aristée borrows his sister's clothes in order to have a confidential chat with his beloved en femme; his disguise makes him look so much like Florimène that the disguised Filène is misled in turn and declares "her" love for "her". Disconcerted to discover that Dorine is in fact a man, Aristée now turns to Lycinde, who has been in love with him from the start; she is by this time no longer keen, and requires to be pushed into marriage with him by Diana.
BACCHUS
Bacchus represents autumn in the last of the four little masque-like interludes. He enters singing, supported by two Sileni and followed by three "boon companions", who dance. They are briefly interrupted by four satyrs, who later ask pardon from Pan, the god who brings an end to the autumn interlude.
CERES
Ceres represents summer in the third of the four interludes. She enters singing, followed by five reapers, who dance.
CLARICE
A nymph of Diana. She is included in the Dramatis Personae but not named in the synopsis; probably she is the "one nymph" called by the goddess to follow her in the hunt.
DAMON
A shepherd of Delos, brother of Florelle and kinsman of Florimène. Having persuaded his friend Filène to leave Arcadia to come to Delos (the setting of the play), Damon brings him to the temple of Diana, where he falls in love with Florimène. He advises him to try a female disguise for his courtship.
DIANA
The goddess Diana descends twice, first to hunt, secondly to solve the love-tangles of the human characters, who have gone to her temple to ask for help.
DORINE
Dorine is the name used by Filène in his female disguise.
FAME
Fame enters at the beginning and speaks the Prologue to the King.
FILANDRE
A shepherd of Delos, friend to Anfrize. He has no interest in romance.
FILÈNE
Filène, a shepherd of Arcadia, is the hero and falls in love with the heroine, Florimène, on his visit to Delos. He disguises himself as a woman, Dorine, to woo her. After some complications with Aristée, who does not know "Dorine" is a man, and Lycoris, who does not recognize him as her brother, he is united by Diana with Florimène.
FLORELLE
A shepherdess of Delos, sister to Damon and friend to her relative Florimène. She is not involved in the romantic intrigues, but is in the end married off by Diana to Anfrize.
FLORIMÈNE
Florimène, the heroine, is a shepherdess of Delos, loved by Filène and Anfrize. At first indifferent to love, she gradually falls for Filène and is finally paired off with him by Diana.
LUCINDE
A shepherdess of Delos, in love with Aristée. She falls briefly in love with the disguised Lycoris, and loses interest in Aristée after he becomes interested in her. She is finally paired off with him anyway by Diana.
LYCORIS
A shepherdess of Arcadia. She disguises herself as a man in the course of her pursuit of Filène, not knowing that she is in fact his sister, kidnapped at an early age. The truth of her identity is revealed to her at the end by Diana, who thereupon assigns her as a wife to Anfrize.
MANTAN
Mantan does not appear. He is named as the supposed father of Lycoris.
ORCAN
Orcan is a "ghost character". He does not appear in the play but is named as the man who rescued Lycoris from a Satyr.
PAN
Pan enters at the end of the autumn interlude begun by Bacchus. He dances and receives homage from the four satyrs who had disrupted the dance of Bacchus' group.
SATYR
The Satyr does not appear. He is named as the character who stole Lycoris from her father, Tytire.
SPRING
Spring introduces the second of the four interludes. He or she sings, and is followed by three pairs of young men and women who dance.
WINTER
Winter, portrayed as an old man, introduces the first of the four interludes. He "sings some French Verses in prayse of the King", and is followed by four old men in old-fashioned clothes, who dance.