1

FRANKFORD

Ay, saucy!

[FRANKFORD strikes him]

NICK

Strike, strike, do strike, yet hear me. I am no fool,

I know a villain when I see him act

Deeds of a villain. Master, master, that base slave

Enjoys my mistress and dishonours you.

FRANKFORD

Thou hast killed me with a weapon whose sharpened point

Hath pricked quite through and through my shivering heart

Drops of cold sweat sit dangling on my hairs

Like mornings dew upon the golden flowers,

And I am plunged into a strange agony.

What didst thou say? If any word that touched

His credit or her reputation,

It is as hard to enter my belief

As Dives into heaven.

NICK

I can gain nothing. They are two

That never wronged me. I knew before

'Twas but a thankless office, and perhaps

As much as my service or my life is worth.

All this I know, but this and more,

More by a thousand dangers could not hire me

To smother such a heinous wrong from you.

I saw, and I have said.

(viii.54-75)

FRANKFORD

This is the key that opes my outward gate;

This is the hall door; this my withdrawing chamber.

But this, that door that's bawd unto my shame,

Fountain and spring of all my bleeding thoughts.

Where the most hallowed order and true knot

Of nuptial sanctity hath been profaned.

It leads to my polluted bed-chamber,

Once my terrestial heaven, now my earth's hell,

The place where sins in all their ripeness dwell.

But I forget myself; now to my gate.

(xiii.8-17)

FRANKFORD

Stay; let me pause awhile. O God, O God, that it were possible

To undo things done, to call back yesterday;

That Time could turn up his swift sandy glass

To untell the days, and to redeem these hours.

Or that the sun

Could, rising from the west, draw his coach backward,

Take from the acount of Time so many minutes,

Till he had all these seasons called again,

Those minutes and those actions done in them,

Even from her first offence, that I might take her

As spotless as an ángel in my arms.

But O! I talk of things impossible,

And cast beyond the moon. God give me patience,

For I will in to wake them.

Exit FRANKFORD

NICK

Here's patience perforce!

He needs must trot afoot that tires his horse.

Enter WENDOLL running over the stage in a nightgown, [FRANKFORD] after him with his sword drawn; the maid in her smock stays his hand and clasps hold on him; he pauses awhile

FRANKFORD

I thank thee, maid. Thou like the angel's hand

Hath stayed me from a bloody sacrifice.

Go, villain, and my wrongs sit on thy soul

As heavy as this grief doth upon mine.

When thou recordest my many courtesies

And shalt compare them with thy treacherous heart,

Lay them together, weigh them equally.

'Twill be revenge enough. Go, to thy friend

A Judas. Pray, pray, lest I live to see

Thee Judas-like hanged on an elder tree.

(xiii.52-78)

FRANKFORD

[]

[Exit MAID. Enter MAID again with TWO CHILDREN]

O Nan, O Nan

If neither fear or shame, regard of honour,

The blemish of my house, nor my dear love

Could have withheld thee from so lewd a fact,

Yet for these infants, these young harmless souls,

On whose white brows the shame is charactered,

And grows in greatness as they wax in years,

Look but on them, and melt away in tears.

Away with them, lest as her spotted body

Hath stained their names with stripe of bastardy,

So her adulterous breath may blast their spirits

With her infectious thoughts. Away with them!

(xiii.117-128)

FRANKFORD

My words are registered in heaven already;

With patience hear me. Ill no martyr thee,

Nor mark thee for a strumpet, but with usage

Of more humility torment thy soul,

And kill thee, even with kindness.

CRANWELL

Master Frankford

FRANKFORD

Good Master Cranwellwoman, hear thy judgement:

[]

(xiii.153-158)

[Another interesting subject is that Frankford dishonour is openly known and repaired, sharing the knowledge of it even with the servants. Everybody feels sorry for Anne in the end and nobody does even mention the dishonour of their master or friend Frankford..See below in Honour internalized by women: xiii.127-152. Also pardon is public, see xvii, since it is requested by the community xvii.43-52]

SCENE XIV

Enter SIR CHARLES, gentlemanlike, and [SUSAN] his sister, gentlewomanlike

SUSAN

Brother, why have you tricked me like a bride?

Bought me this gay attire, these ornaments?

Foget you our state, our poverty?

SIR CHARLES

Call me not brother, but imagine me

Some barbarous outlaw, or uncivil kerne

For if thou shuttst thy eye, and only kearest

The word that I shall utter, thous shalt jege me

Some staring ruffian, not thy brother Charles.

O Susan!

SUSAN

O brother, what doth this strange language mean?

SIR CHARLES

Dost love me, sister? Wouldst thou see me live

A bankrupt beggar in the worlds disgrace,

And die indebted to my enemies?

Wouldst thou behold me stand like a huge beam

In the worlds eye, a byword and scorn?

It lies in thee of these to acquit me free,

And all my debt I may outstrip by thee.

SUSAN

By me? Why I have nothing, nothing lefet;

I owe even for the clothes upon my back

l am not worth

SIR CHARLES O sister, say not so.

It lies in you my downcast state to raise,

To make me stand on even points with the world.

Come, sister, you are rich! Indeed you are!

And in your power you have, without delay,

Acton's five hundred pound back to repay.

SUSAN

Till now I had thought you loved me, by mine honour,

Which I had kept as spotless as the moon.

I ne'er was mistress of that single doit

Which I reserved not to supply your wants,

And do you think that I would hoard from you?

Now, by my hopes in heaven, knew I the means

To buy you from the slavery of your debts,

Especially from Acton, whom I hate,

I would redeem it with my life or blood.

SIR CHARLES

I challenge it, and, kindred set apart,

Thus ruffianlike I lay seige to your heart:

What do I owe to Acton?

SUSAN

Why, some five hundred pounds, toward which

I swear In alí the world I have not one denier.

SIR CHARLES

It will not prove so, sister. Now resolverme:

What do you thinkand speak your conscience

Would Acton give might he enjoy your bed?

SUSAN

He would not shrink to spend a thousand pound

To give the Mountford's ñame so deep a wound.

SIR CHARLES

A thousand pound! I but five hundred owe;

Grant him your bed, he's paid with interest so.

SUSAN

O brother!

SIR CHARLES O sister! Only this one way,

With that rich jewel, you my debts may pay.

In speaking this my cold heart shakes with shame,

Ñor do I woo you in a brother's ñame,

But in a stranger's. Shall I die in debt

To Acton, my grand foe, and you still wear

The precious jewel that he holds so dear?

SUSAN

My honour I esteem as dear and precious

As my redemption.

SIR CHARLES I esteem you, sister,

As dear for so dear prizing it.

SUSAN Will Charles '

Have me cut off my hands, and send them Acton?

Rip up my breast, and with my bleeding heart

Present him as a token.

SIR CHARLES Neither, sister.

But hear me in my strange assertion:

Thy honour and my soul are equal in my regard,

Nor will thy brother Charles survive thy shame.

His kindness like a burden hath surcharged me.

And under his good deeds I stooping go.

Not with an upright soul. Had I remained

In prison still, there doubtless I had died.

Then unto him that freed me from that prison.

Still do I owe that life. What moved my foe

To enfranchise me? 'Twas, sister, for your love

With full five hundred pounds he bought you:

And shall he not enjoy it? Shall the weight

Of all this heavy burden lean on me,

And will not you bear part? You did partake

The joy of my release; will you not stand

In joint bond bound to satisfy the debt?

Shall I be only charged?

SUSAN But that I know

These arguments come from an honoured mind,

As in your most extremity of need,

Scorning to stand in debt to one you hate.

Nay, rather would engage your unstained her.

Than to be held ingrate, I should condemn you.

I see your resolution and assent;

So Charles will have me, and I am content

SIR CHARLES

For this I tricked you up.

SUSAN But here's a knife.

To save mine honour, shall slice out my life.

SIR CHARLES

I know thou pleasest me a thousand times

The house/property as origin of gentlemanliness and honour

SHAFTON

I would fain buy it of you, I will give you

SIR CHARLES

O pardon me, this house successively

Hath longed to me and my progenitors

Three hundreds year. My great-great-grandfather,

He in whom first our gentle style began,

Dwelt here, and in this ground increased this mole-hill

Unto that mountain which my father left me.

Where he ther first of all our house began,

I know the last will end and keep this house,

This virgin title never yet deflowered

By any . unthrift of the Mountfords line

[]

(vii.14-24)

SHAFTON

Sell me the land and Ill acquit you straight.

SIR CHARLES

Alas, alas! Tis all trouble hath left me

To cherish me and my poor sisters life.

If this were sold, our names should then be quite

Razed from the bead-roll of gentility.

You see what hard shift we have made to keep it

Allied still to our own name. []

(vii.34-39)

OLD MOUNTFORD

Money I cannot spare. Men should take heed.

He lost my kindred when he fell to need.

[Exit OLD MOUNTFORD]

(ix.16-18)

SANDY

I knew you, Lady, when the old man lived;

I knew you ere your brother sold his land.

Then you were Mistress Sue, tricked up in jewels;

Then you sung well, played sweetly on the flute;

But now I neither know you nor your suit

[Exit SANDY]

(IX.21-25)

TYDY

[]

Call me no cousin; each man for himself.

Some men are born to mirth and some to sorrow.

I am no cousin unto them that borrow.

[Exit TYDY]

(IX.31-36)

SIR CHARLES

Why, by my uncle,

My cousins, and my frindes, who else, I pray,

Would take upon them all my debts to pay.

SUSAN

O brother, they are men all of flint,

Pictures of marble, and as void of pity

As chased bears. I begged, I sued, I kneeled

Laid open all your griefs and miseries,

Which they derided. More than that, denied us

A part in their alliance, but in pride

Said that our kindred with our plenty died.

SIR CHARLES

Drudges too much! What , did they? O known evil,

Rich fly the poor, as good men shun the Devil.

Whence should my freedom come; of whom alive,

Saving of those, have I deserved so well?

Guess, sister, call to mind, remember me.

These I have raised, these follow the worlds guise,

Whom, rich in honour, they they in woe despise.

(x.62-77)

The true honour:

SIR CHARLES

[]

Bounteous and free. The noble Mountfords' race

Ne'er bred a covetous thought or humour base.

(X.41-42)

SUSAN

I can no longer stay from visiting

Identification of house with marriage, earthly happiness and all that is most valued, the domestic Eden:

FRANKFORD

But this, the door thats a bawd unto my shame,

Fountain and spring of all my bleeding thoughts,

Where the most hallowed order and true knot

Of nuptials sanctity hath been profaned.

It leads to my polluted bedchamber,

Once my terrestrial heaven, now my earths hell,

The place where sins in all their ripeness dwell

(xiii.8-16).

Manual labour

SIR CHARLES

[]

Allied still to our own name. This palm you see

Labour hath glowed within; her silver brow,

That never tasted a rough winters blast

Without a mask or fan, doth with a grace

Defy cold winter and his storms outface.

SUSAN

Sir, we feed sparing and we labour hard,

We lie uneasy, to reserve to us

And our succession this small plot of ground.

SIR CHARLES

I have so bent my thoughts to husbandry

That I protest I scarcely can remember

What a new fashion is, how silk or satin

Feels in my hand. Why, pride is grown to us

A mere, mere stranger. I have quite forgot

The names of all that ever waited on me;

I cannot name ye any of my hounds,

Once from whose echoing mouths I heard all the music

That eer my heart desired. What should I say

To keep this place I have changed myself away.

(viii.39-56)

SIR CHARLES

Sister, you see we are driven to hard shift

To keep this poor house we have left unsold.

I am now enforced to follow husbandry,

And you to milk. And do we not live well?

(viii.1-4)

The pathetic and the homiletic (H.H. Adams: The English Domestic or homiletic tragedy, 1943). Melodrama:

WEINDOLL

I thanks him for his love.

[Aside] Give me a name, you whose infectious tongues

Are tipped with gall and poison; as you would

Think on a man that had your father slain,

Murdered thy children, made your wives base strumpets,

So call me. Call me so? Print in my face

The most stigmatic title of a villain,

For hatching treason to so true friend.

(vi.79-86)

ANNE

My fault so heinous is

That if you in this world forgive it not,

Heaven will not clear it in the world to come

(xviii.86-88)

The pathetic. Anne clearly is a good wife, only umpremeditatedly does she commit adultery the words and the sequence of actions seems to indicate:

FRANKFORD

O sir, disparage not your worth too much

You are full of qualities and fair desert.

Choose of my men which shall attend on you,

And he is yours. I will allow you, sir,

Your man, your gelding, and your table,

All at my own charge. Be my companion.

(iv.67-72)

WENDOLL

[]

FRANKFORD

There needs no protestation, for I know you

Virtuous, and therefore grateful. Prithee Nan,

Use him with all thy lovingst courtesy.

ANNE

As far as modesty may well extend,

It is my duty to receive your friend

(iv.78-82)

ANNE Amen, amen.

Out of my zeal to heaven, whither I am now bound,

I was so impudent to wish you here,

And once more beg your pardon. O good man

And father to my children, pardon me.

Pardon, O pardon me! My fault so heinous is

That if you in this world forgive it not,

Heaven will not clear it in the world to come.

Faintness hath so usurped upon my knees

That kneel I cannot; bul on my heart's knees

My prostrate soul lies thrown down at your feet

To beg your gracious pardon. Pardon, O pardon me!

FRANKFORD

As freely from the low depth of my soul

As my Redeemer hath forgiven his death,

I pardon thee. I will shed tears for thee

Pray with thee,a nd in mere pitty

Of thy weak state Ill wish to die with thee.

(xvii.82-97)

SIR CHARLES Then comfort, Mistress Frankford;

You see your husband hath forgiven your fall;

Then rouse your spirits and cheer your fainting soul.

SUSAN

How is it with you?

SIR CHARLES How do you feel yourself?

ANNE

Not of this world.

FRANKFORD

I see you are not, and I weep to see it.

My wife, the mother to my pretty babes,

Both tiiose lost ñames I do restore thee back,

And with this kiss I wed thee once again. . ,

Though thou art wounded in thy honoured ñame,

And with that grief upon they deathbed liest,

Honest in heart, upon my soul thou diest.

ANNE

Pardoned on earth, soul, thou in heaven art free.

Once more thy wife dies thus embracing thee.

[ANNE dies]

FRANKFORD

New married, and new widowed; O she's dead,

And a cold grave must be our nuptial bed.

SIR CHARLES

Sir, be of good comfort, and your heavy sorrow

Part equally amongst us; storms divided

Abate their force, and with less rage are guided.

CRANWELL

Do, Master Frankford; he that hath least part

Will find enough to drown one troubled heart.

SIR FRANCIS

Peace be with thee, Nan. Brothers and gentlemen,

All we that can plead interest in her grief,

Bestow upon her body funeral tears.

Brother, had you with threats and usage bad

Punished her sin, the grief of her offence

Had not with such true sorrow touched her heart.

FRANKFORD

I see it had not; therefore on her grave

I will bestow this funeral epitaph,

Which on her marble tomb shall be engraved

In golden letters shall these words be filled:

Here lies she whom her husband's kindness killed.

(xvii.109-140. End)

Is Frankford unconsciously leading Anne and Wendoll to adultery? (see Bryan 1974)[1]. In a parallel way as Sir Charles offer his siter to Acton. Though this is a far-fetched non-literal interpretation, this would be completely unthought of in the Spanish drama:

FRANKFORD

Entreat him in. About it instantly, [Exit NICK]

This Wendoll I have noted, and his carriage

Hath pleased me much. By observation

I have noted many good deserts in him:

Hes affable, and seen in many things,

Discourses well, a good companion,

And though of small means, yet a gentleman

Of a good house, somewhat pressed by want.

I have preferred him to a second place

In my opinion, and my best regard.

(iv.26-35)

Enter ANNE

ANNE

You are well met, sir. Now in troth my husband

Before he took horse had a great desire

To speak with you. We sought about the house,

Hallowed into the fields, sent every way,

But could not meet you. Therefore he enjoined me

To do unto you his most kind commends.

Nay, more; he wills you as you prize his love,

Or hold in estimation his kind friendship,

To make bold in his absence and command

Even as himself were present in the house,

For you must keep his table, use his servants,

And be a present Frankford in his absence.

[vi.67-78]

Metafiction:

SISLY

Come, come, make haste, that you may wash your hands again, and help to serve in dinner.

JENKINS

[To audience] You may see, my masters, though it be afternoon with you, tis early days with us, for we have not dined yet. Stay but a little, Ill but go in and help to bear up the first course and come to you again presently.

Exeunt JENKIN and SISLY.

(iv.103-109)

FRANKFORD

[]

Content ye,

It much concerns me. Gentle Master Cranwell

And Master Wendoll, in my absence use

The very ripest pleasures of my house.

(xi.62-65)

[Anne suggests that Wendoll goes along with Frankford in his alledged journey, and Wendoll shows himself ready to accompany his guest (74-80)]

Falling in love:

SIR FRANCIS

[]

My very soul the name of Mountford hates.

But stay, my heart, O what a look did fly

To strike my soul through with thy piercing eye.

I am enchanted, all my spirits are fled,

And with one glance my envious spleen struck dead

(vii.90-95)

[1] Bryan, M. B. 1974. Food Symbolism in A Woman Killed with Kindness. Renaissance Papers (Duke University), pp. 9-17.

FRANKFORD

FRANKFORD

DUQUE

The house/property as origin of gentlemanliness and honour

Manual labour

The pathetic and the homiletic (H.H. Adams: The English Domestic or homiletic tragedy, 1943). Melodrama: