William Percy
CUCKQUEANS AND CUCKOLDS ERRANTS, or
Change is No Robbery, or
The Bearing Down of the Inn, or
The Bearing Down the Inn
1601
The final notation of the MS is Finis 1601
a synoptic, alphabetical character list
Notes: The playwright introduces the comedy with the epigram
Parcite oves nimium procedere, non bene ripae
Creditur, ipse eham Aries iam vellera siccat. Virg. Ec. 3
undoubtedly suggesting Virgil’s Eclogue which in the original reads
Parcite, oves, nimium procedere, non bene ripae creditor; ipse aries etiam nunc vellera siccat.
Percy begins the MS with a note entitled ‘The Properties’, which reads as follows: Harwich, in midde of the stage Colchester with Image of Tarlton, signe and ghirlond under him also. The Raungers Lodge, Maldon. A Ladder of Roupes trussd up nere Harwich Highest and aloft the Title The Cuckqueanes and Cuckolds Errants-A long Fourme.’
Percy opens with the following stage direction: ‘Tarltons Ghost after second sounding, rather to be omitted if for Poules, and another Prologue, for him, to be brought in place. The under-signe, Beame, Image and ghirlond I except. Played a while lowe on his Tabour, then speake as followes, standing at entrance of the doore and under the Beame.’
Percy alternates spelling Cuck-queanes and Cuckqueanes with and without the hyphen, even on directly facing pages, indicating that the hyphen has little meaning to him beyond momentary fancy.
Throughout the play, Percy includes stage directions such as ‘we draws forth his writing tablets’ and ‘they enter from Colchester’, &c.
Between each act, Percy writes, ‘Here they knock up the consort.’
Sugden, and others, have asserted (without evidence) that this play was originally played in Colchester at the Tarlton Inn. Harbage and Schoenbaum conjecture that it was privately acted but do not offer a suggestion as to where.
ALCIDES
Only mentioned. Doucebella says that Alcides would be deemed a dwarf compared to Latro.
ARRIDES
Only mentioned as a king who has ‘worn Vulcans badge’ by being cuckolded.
ARVANIA
‘A gentlewoman Floradin’s wife’. Claribel refers to her as Arvanye. She fears that Claribel will return to his wife and forget all about her, so she makes him vow to return after he has gone to clear up his wife’s financial troubles. She is unable to explain to Floradin why a rope ladder is hanging under her window and is cast away as a ‘strumpet and harlot’ from her husband. Left without a groat, she determines to go by horse to London with Janekin and set up as embroiderers. Along the way, she comes upon Doucebella and, recognizing a woman in like straights, swears to be her companion in sisterhood, share but one bed, and the two turn for Colchester as dearest friends. They sing a duet. Arriving in Colchester, they meet Latro at the Tarlton tavern. He offers to give them his bed (the only one left in Colchester) in exchange for hearing their sad tales and telling them his. When all is at last revealed and resolved, she agrees to take Floradin again as her husband.
AURELIUS
Only mentioned as a king who has ‘worn Vulcans badge’ by being cuckolded.
BLACK NAG
A ‘ghost character’. This is the horse James rides to Harwich. Doucebella imagines the horse will carry him straight to Maldon.
CHRISTIAN
Pearle’s wife. She receives the ‘Bolle’ from Wright and then gives it to Nim in exchange for a hare thinking that Nim is Wright’s man. Nim tells her that he has come from Wright and will return with Pearle in disguise as a joke. Later, she mistakes Sanders for Nim in disguise and tells Pearle that she gave him the ‘Bolle’ in exchange for the hare.
CLARIBEL
‘Another gentleman his [Floradin’s] friend booted and spurred’. A note in the dramatis personae reads that both he and Floradin are ‘gentleman like both in their attires and colours; they had low perukes, lowe wyves and coloured upswept gowns both; fair blouses both and crump-shouldered. For robes of silk and perukes both.’ His first entrance is in I.iv. where the s.d. calls for him to wear black velvet. Receiving a letter from his wife, Doucebella, he must leave his love, Arvania, in Harwich and return to Maldon, but he vows to return. In Maldon, he discovers rhymes and horns at his gate informing him of Doucebella’s unfaithfulness. He upbraids her and leaves her, saying he will retire to Harwich and leave her to her ‘mighty friends’ who might ‘downpoise’ him after he makes her falsehood public. He heads for the clefts of Harwich to hide from his wife until his creditors are satisfied. He lodges for the night with Olivel, promising to remain quiet lest her jealous husband, Latro, detect him there. He and Floradin are saved from Latro only when Olivel pretends to kill herself and Latro runs away in fear. Only then does he see Floradin (as they both have been obscured in the darkness of the yard) and recognizes him as his former chamber-fellow at Broadgates, Oxford. He learns that his friend, like himself, has an unfaithful wife, and Floradin convinces him to forgo being a hermit and instead join with him as a soldier, taking Olivel with them and furnished with forest livery and weapons from Olivel’s lodge. They stop in at the Tarlton Inn on the way to the camp where they find Latro sharing his bed with Doucebella and Arvania. When Claribel bellows that ‘the other woman’ (Arvania) was his sweetheart in Harwich, Floradin tells Claribel that they have also caught Latro in bed with his wife ‘and the other woman [Doucebella] was my whore in Maldon’. The two men then accuse each of wronging the other. Claribel is persuaded by Lacy and Denham’s judgement, declares that they have all been but ‘errants’ and takes Doucebella again as his wife.
CLAUDIUS
Only mentioned as a king who has ‘worn Vulcans badge’ by being cuckolded.
CUPID
Only mentioned.
DENHAM
‘Another captain booted and spurred’. He first appears at the opening of act three with Lacy. He is headed to Tilbury with a press of men. Lacy brings him orders to divert away from the queen, however, and go to Colchester. He exits towards the Harwich side of the stage. When he meets Lacy again, he reports that ‘the Spaniards be fled all’. He then recounts the whole course of the Spanish invasion and defeat. He reports that in the action the English lost but one hundred men. He goes with Lacy to have a drink, and, at the Tarlton inn, Pearle asks that Lacy and Denham judge the cuckolds and cuckqueans. Denham’s judgement is that each should carry on and ‘feed their beasts as plentifully and in the same measure they did before’ the cuckolding occurred. When all is resolved and agreed, Denham offers to act as convoy to take them all to London.
DOUCEBELLA
‘Another gentlewoman Claribel’s wife’. She has sent for aid to her husband in Harwich because she has feted Floradin with masks, banquets and mummeries for the past year and, though she repents nothing, she has impoverished herself and must send to Harwich to have her husband save her from her creditors. She asks Floradin to return to his home in Harwich and live with his wife until she can straighten out her finances. When Claribel abandons her for her infidelity, she determines to follow him, traveling on a passport from the queen, and threaten to denounce him to the marshals as attempting to become a Capuchin in order to avoid military service in order to force either a reconciliation or at least money enough to live. Along the way, she comes upon Arvania and, recognizing a woman in like straights, swears to be her companion in sisterhood and share but one bed; the two turn for Colchester as dearest friends. They sing a duet. Arriving in Colchester, they meet Latro at the Tarlton tavern. He offers to give them his bed (the only one left in Colchester) in exchange for hearing their sad tales and telling them his. When all is at last revealed and resolved, she agrees to take Claribel again as her husband.
DRAKE, FRANCIS
A ‘ghost character’ mentioned in connection with the Spanish invasion. Denham calls him ‘the mirror of the day’.
ELIZABETH, QUEEN
A ‘ghost character’. She is at Tilbury preparing for the Spanish invasion and has sent the Lord Admiral ahead with his fleet to confront the enemy at sea. Arvania refers to her as the ‘Maid of Maids’ and the ‘Woman of Women’ and, as general of the camp in Colchester, she will guarantee that maids will always pass soldiers unmolested.
FLORADIN
‘A young gentleman, booted and spurred.’ A note in the dramatis personae reads that both he and Claribel are ‘gentleman like both in their attires and colours; they had low perukes, lowe wyves and coloured upswept gowns both; fair blouses both and crump-shouldered. For robes of silk and perukes both.’ He has lived a year with Doucebella and impoverished her but resists returning home to Harwich and his wife again. Though reluctant, he sees the necessity and agrees to leave for the summer only and then return again. Upon arriving home, he finds a rope ladder strung under Arvania’s window and realizes that she has cuckolded him. He casts her out. Suicidal, he takes Rafe’s suggestion to join the Queen’s force to repel the Spanish invasion, hoping he might be killed in the action, observing that ‘enough is as good as a feast’. On his way to the camp, he stops at Olivel’s for rest and refreshment but is made to hide from Olivel’s jealous husband, Latro, when the latter returns unexpectedly early. He and Claribel are saved from Latro only when Olivel pretends to kill herself and Latro runs away in fear. Only then does he see Claribel (as they both have been obscured in the darkness of the yard) and recognizes him as his former chamber-fellow at Broadgates, Oxford. He learns that his friend, like himself, has an unfaithful wife, and convinces Claribel to forgo his plan to become a hermit and join him as a soldier, taking Olivel with them and furnished with forest livery and weapons from Olivel’s lodge. They stop in at Tarlton’s Inn on the way to the camp where they find Latro sharing his bed with his wife. When Claribel bellows that ‘the other woman’ (Arvania) was his sweetheart in Harwich, Floradin tells Claribel that they have also caught Latro in bed with his wife ‘and the other woman [Doucebella] was my whore in Maldon’. The two men then accuse each of wronging the other. Floradin is persuaded by Lacy and Denham’s judgement, however, and swears to ‘wed anew’ Arvania.
GREX
Despite being listed in the dramatis personae, this is not a character, per se, but rather the word Percy uses for his Epilogue, delivered by Lacy and Pigot before the company sings the closing song, in which they beg the audience to remember that comedies are always coarse (or ‘broad’) and to make them otherwise would be akin to gilding a shepherd’s ‘russet’ or a Welshman’s frize, and thus they beg acceptance of the play.
HARE
Latro’s man. He helps Latro attempt to catch Claribel and Floradin, but when it seems that his mistress, Olivel, has killed herself, he agrees to flee with Latro to Colchester, pausing only to collect his cap case.
HOWARD, CHARLES, LORD ADMIRAL
A ‘ghost character’. Queen Elizabeth as sent him ahead with his fleet to confront the Spanish invasion at sea. According to Denham, Howard, Commander of the Fleet during the Spanish invasion, acquitted himself well with a bold stratagem that sunk the enemy fleet. This would have been Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham, 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham (1536 – 14 December 1624), known as Howard of Effingham, Lord High Admiral under Elizabeth I and James I. He was was chiefly responsible after Francis Drake for the victory over the Spanish Armada.
IXION
Only mentioned by Floradin as being stretched upon a wheel where ‘Tytios’ is having his guts eaten by a bird and ‘the thief’ rolls a stone to and fro.
JAMES
A ‘ghost character’. At play’s opening, he has taken his black nag to carry a letter to Harwich. Later, Doucebella refers to James saddling horses for herself and Joice as they make their ways to find Claribel’s hiding place.
JANEKIN
‘Waiting woman to Arvania’. She is heartbroken to lose Rooke when he must return to Maldon when Claribel leaves Arvania. After they are turned out of Floradin’s house, she suggests that Arvania and she go to London and beg. She takes up a whole bottle of Rosa Solis and sings a song after Arvania determines to go with her to London and embroider. Janekin and Joice become friends and interpret their dreams to one another.
JOICE
‘Waiting woman to Doucebella’. She is heartbroken to lose Rafe when he must return to Harwich when Floradin leaves Doucebella. When Doucebella is forsaken, she accompanies her mistress from the Tarlton tavern on her journey. Joice and Janekin become friends and interpret their dreams to one another.
JOVE
Only mentioned.
LACY
‘A captain booted and spurred’. He first appears at the opening of act three with Denham. He is headed to London with a press of men. He has come under orders to divert Denham to Colchester. He reports that the Spanish will despoil Colchester on their first day, London the second, and geld all the lawyers on the third day. He wishes Denham well and exits towards the Maldon side of the stage. When he meets Denham again, he learns that ‘the Spaniards be fled all’. Lacy declares that the Lord has fought on the English side this day and suggests that he and Denham repair to the Tarlton Inn for a drink. At the inn, Pearle asks that Lacy and Denham judge the cuckolds and cuckqueans. Lacy’s judgement is that each should take his own home. He tells them not to fret for even kings have ‘worn Vulcan’s badge’. He points out that each is already revenged upon the other by their acts.
LATRO
‘A ranger’ and Olivel’s jealous husband. He is in town buying arrows when Claribel and, later, Floradin arrive at his home to have Olivel invite them to stay and be refreshed. He detects them at once and, chases them until Olivel pretends to commit suicide. Frightened by her pretended death, he runs away to Colchester. There at the Tarlton tavern, he meets Doucebella and Arvania. He offers them his bed (the only one left in Colchester) in exchange for hearing their sad tales and telling them his. He is surprised by Olivel, Floradin and Claribel, who call him ‘villain’ and ‘fornicator’ when they find him sharing his bed with their wives. When all is finally resolved, he agrees to take Olivel ‘for better, not for worse’.
MERCURY
Only mentioned. When Nim arrives to steal the ‘Bolle’, he calls upon Master Mercury to help his fingers be nimble.
MINERVA
Only mentioned. Arvania refers to herself and Janekin as the very minions of Minerva when she decides to make her living through embroidery.
NEPTUNE
Only mentioned. He raised the tempest during the Spanish invasion.
NIM
‘A lift’. He welcomes Shift to Colchester by ‘clapping his two thumbs upon his fellowes lips’ saying ‘welcome to Colchester by these couple of Teasters’. When they overhear Pearle ordering the ‘Bolle’ from Wright, he promises Shift that he will ‘have such a hurl of Legerdemaine’ at it as to astonish the other thief. He eats at the Tarlton tavern with Shift and, to pay, promises Pigot that he will steal the ‘Bolle’ that Pearle has ordered. He uses the phrase ‘Rome was not built in a day.’ Pretending to be Mr. Wright’s man, he presents a hare to Christian for cooking (in the Change is No Robbery (early) version, this is a heron (Hernshawe) rather than a hare. He asks to have the ‘Bolle’ back, and gets it, earning the praise of Pigot and Shift. He stands silently by and enjoys watching as Pearle discovers that his prize has been taken. He helps encourage the sport as Pearle grows angry and threatens to beat Christian. He and Shift disguise as sergeants, approach and arrest Pearle, saying they do so in the name of Wright, the goldsmith. With Pigot’s help, they agree to let Pearle go in exchange for two Angels apiece, forty shillings, and he must buy them wine. When all is resolved between the cuckolds and cuckqueans, Pigot keeps the money they extorted and returns the ‘Bolle’ to Pearle in exchange for Pearle showing mercy to the ‘lifts’; Pearle (showing lenience) banishes Nim and Shift from Colchester with the clothes on their backs and money in their pockets and if they ever return they are to be given a firkin apiece at the town’s expense.
OEDIPUS
Only mentioned. Even Oedipus could not resolve Pearle’s riddle, or so he says.
OLIVEL
‘Latro’s wife. A woman big and mannish’. Claribel calls her ‘a forester’, and she gives him lodging for the night on the promise that he remain quiet lest her jealous husband discover him in the lodge. Immediately thereafter, Floradin and Rafe pass on their way to Elizabeth’s camp and ask to rest and be refreshed. She invites them to do so, but as Rafe is away tending to the horses Olivel’s husband, Latro, returns unexpectedly and Olivel must implore Floradin to hide as well. She must stop her bullying husband from beating the two gentlemen, and does so by pretending to plunge a knife into her breast. She is happy when Latro is deceived and escapes to Colchester, ridding her of a brutish husband. She joins up with Claribel and Floradin, furnishing them with liveries and weapons to become soldiers. They stop in at the Tarlton Inn on the way to the camp where they find Latro sharing his bed with Doucebella and Arvania. She accuses Latro of wronging her, having ‘played the thief with three’ and that he ‘will have marshal law without indicting, straight’. When all is resolved, she agrees to take Latro again as husband.
PEARLE
‘A doctor of the civil law’ given to spouting Latin phrases. He orders from Wright a ‘standing Bolle’ with ‘toungs’ upon it (that will perform miracles) and agrees to pay twenty pounds silver plus a noble for it if it can be delivered ‘tomorrow.’ Whilst preparing to show the ‘Bolle’ to Sanders and Periman, he refers to it as a ‘Hippocrene’. He is made mad, however, when he finds that his ‘standing Bolle’ has been exchanged for a hare and grows angrier still when Wright demands payment for the work. He threatens to beat Christian for her mistake. When, later, all of the cuckolds and cuckqueans are together in the Tarlton Inn, he begs the captains Durham and Lacy to hear and judge what has happened between them. He lays forth a parable of two Essex neighbors who unwittingly milked each other’s lost ewes and grew angry with one another when discovered. When all is resolved with the cuckolds and cuckqueans, Pigot returns the ‘Bolle’ to Pearle in exchange for lenience to Nim and Shift, which he gives. He also promises to pay Wright for the ‘Bolle’.
PEARLE’S MOTHER
Only mentioned.
PERIMAN
‘Another civilian’. He comes with Sanders to unravel Pearle’s ‘riddle’ and behold his ‘monster’ that Wright has made. When the ‘standing Bolle’ is found replaced by a hare, he attempts to assuage Pearle’s anger. He and Sanders run away when Pearle threatens to beat Christian.
PIGOT
‘Master of an Inn The Tarlton’. He opens the second act complaining to Nim and Shift for eating his meat and drink without having money to pay for it and intends to keep Shift’s coat in payment. He agrees to wait until Nim can steal the ‘Bolle’ and praises him when he does, joking that Nim trading a hare for the ‘Bolle’ is truly ‘coney-catching’. He sings a song of thanksgiving for it. He stands silently by and enjoys watching as Pearle discovers that his prize has been taken. He keeps the ‘Bolle’ in surety against Nim and Shift’s reckoning and promises to return it if they pay within a month and a day. Encouraging the sport, he goes to raise up the street against Pearle when Pearle threatens to beat Christian. He then helps Nim and Shift, pretended to be sergeants, extort forty shillings (two Angels apiece) and wine from Pearle to avoid arrest. He also keeps the coins from Nim and Shift against the bill they have not paid. When all is finally resolved between the cuckolds and cuckqueans, Pigot returns the ‘Bolle’ to Pearle in exchange for Pearle’s promise of lenience to Nim and Shift, but he keeps the money for himself in payment of their reckoning.
PROSERPINA
Only mentioned by Pearle in her role as queen of the underworld.
RAFE
‘Page unto Floradin’. He is heartbroken to leave Joice when his master must leave Doucebella. When Floradin discovers Arvania has been untrue to their marriage bed, Rafe tells her to be patient as Grissel. He advises Floradin, who is suicidal, to go to Tilbury and join the Queen’s forces to repel the Spanish invasion, pointing out that, if he is lucky, a Spaniard will dash out his brains for him. He and Rooke are at Olivel’s lodge when they are ambushed (offstage) by Latro and Hare, who steal their masters’ horses.
RICHARD TARLTON, GHOST of
The prologue. He enters ‘after second sounding’ and plays on his tabor whilst standing beneath an image of himself, a pub sign, decorated with a garland. He is dressed as Tarlton, drum, cap, slops, shoes, and merit as when alive, to express his gratitude that Pigot has raised a tavern in Colchester to his name. He asserts that since his ‘departure from this sink of sin, the world . . . in the year of our Lord God, my Redeemer 1588’, the tavern has been maintained in its ‘Ancient Bawdry’, which he promises the following play will make clear. He ends his prologue by asking the audience to judge the play kindly and if ever in Colchester to stop by Mr. Pigot’s tavern and partake of Tarlton’s funeral supper which Mr. Pigot will bestow upon them gratis. His final stage direction reads as follows: “He played a little then departed. Here they sounded the third” and the play begins with Doucebella, Floradin, Rafe, and Joice entering “from Maldon”. Historically, Tarlton died in Shoreditch on the 3 or 5 of September 1588, about a month after the Spanish invasion that furnishes the background to this play, making his appearance as a ghost here noteworthy.
ROOKE
‘Page unto Claribel’. He is heartbroken to leave Janekin when his master must leave Arvania. He and Rafe are at Olivel’s lodge when they are ambushed (offstage) by Latro and Hare, who steal their masters’ horses.
SANDERS
‘A civilian’. He comes with Periman to unravel Pearle’s ‘riddle’ and behold his ‘monster’ that Wright has made. When the ‘standing Bolle’ is found replaced by a hare, he attempts to assuage Pearle’s anger. Christian mistakes him for Nim in disguise and he must convince Pearle that he did not receive the ‘Bolle’ in exchange for a hare. He and Periman run away when Pearle threatens to beat Christian.
SERGEANTS, TWO
Disguises assumed by Shift and Nim when they approach and arrest Pearle, saying they do so in the name of Wright, the goldsmith. With Pigot’s help, they agree to let Pearle go in exchange for two Angels apiece, forty shillings, and he must buy them wine.
SERVING MAN
Mute. He wears ‘a blewe coat’.
SEYMOUR, LORD
A ‘ghost character’ mentioned in connection with the Spanish invasion.
SHIFT
‘Another Lift his [Nim’s] fellow’. His news from London, when Nim asks, includes the Thames being wide, Paul’s steeple steep, and the cost of seeing a new play being two pence. He sings. His doubt over Nim’s skill ‘by hook and by crook’ spurs Nim to demonstrate by stealing the ‘Bolle’ that Pearle orders from Wright. He praises Nim when he steals it. He stands silently by and enjoys watching as Pearle discovers that his prize has been taken. He helps encourage the sport as Pearle grows angry and threatens to beat Christian. He and Nim disguise as sergeants, approach and arrest Pearle, saying they do so in the name of Wright, the goldsmith. With Pigot’s help, they agree to let Pearle go in exchange for two Angels apiece, forty shillings, and he must buy them wine. When all is resolved between the cuckolds and cuckqueans, Pigot keeps the money they extorted and returns the ‘Bolle’ to Pearle in exchange for Pearle showing mercy to the ‘lifts’; Pearle (showing lenience) banishes Nim and Shift from Colchester with the clothes on their backs and money in their pockets and if they ever return they are to be given a firkin apiece at the town’s expense.
TARLTON’S WIFE
Only mentioned. She was one to join Tarlton at a wine tavern and ‘make up thirteen to the dozen’ according to the ghost of Tarlton ‘God rest her sweete soul’. Historically, this could have been the Thomasyn Dann who married a Richard Tarlton (possibly the clown) in Chelmsford, Essex, on 11 February 1577 and predeceased him in 1585.
TITYOS
Only mentioned by Floradin as having his guts eaten by a ‘heart-devouring bird’ where Ixion is tortured on a wheel and ‘the thief’ rolls a stone to and fro.
WRIGHT
A goldsmith. He takes an order from Pearle for a ‘standing Bolle’ with ‘toungs’ upon it and charges twenty pounds silver plus a noble, agreeing to deliver it ‘tomorrow.’ He arrives with the ‘Bolle’ to the Tarlton tavern, privately avouching that ‘a foolisher gawd hath never yet been devised’ and hoping it falls into the hands of a wiser man, who might ‘founder’ it into a bell to attach to the fool’s cap. He delivers it to Pearle’s wife, Christian, and says he will come again for his money. When the ‘Bolle’ goes missing, he demands his money from Pearle and threatens him with the law when he refuses to pay. When all is resolved, Pearle promises to pay for the ‘Bolle’, and Wright is content.