The Changeling

Full Text and Introduction (NHB Drama Classics)

Thomas Middleton, William Rowley

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2015
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781780012667
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price

Middleton and Rowley's masterpiece, a tale of murder, lust, seduction and blackmail in the seventeenth century.

Alsemero has fallen in love with the beautiful Beatrice after a chance meeting in a church – but Beatrice has already been promised to another man. Unable to marry the man she loves, she employs the hated De Flores, her father's servant, to murder the man her father bids her marry. As payment, De Flores demands Beatrice. And then things get worse...

Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's play The Changeling was mostly likely first performed in 1622.

This edition of the play in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series is edited and introduced by Trevor Griffiths.

Set Text >> The Changeling is a set text for AQA Drama and Theatre Studies A/AS Level, AQA English Literature A/AS Level, OCR English Literature A/AS Level and WJEC English Literature A/AS Level.

ACT FIVE

[Scene i]

Enter BEATRICE. A clock strikes one.

BEATRICE. One struck, and yet she lies by’t – O my fears!

This strumpet serves her own ends, ’tis apparent now,

Devours the pleasure with a greedy appetite,

And never minds my honour or my peace,

Makes havoc of my right; but she pays dearly for’t:

No trusting of her life with such a secret,

That cannot rule her blood to keep her promise.

Beside, I have some suspicion of her faith to me

Because I was suspected of my lord,

And it must come from her. – Hark! By my horrors,

Another clock strikes two.

Strikes two.

Enter DE FLORES.

DE FLORES.

Pist, where are you?

BEATRICE. De Flores?

DE FLORES.

Ay – Is she not come from him yet?

BEATRICE. As I am a living soul, not.

DE FLORES.

Sure the Devil

Hath sow’d his itch within her; who’d trust

A waiting-woman?

BEATRICE.

I must trust somebody.

DE FLORES. Push, they are termagants,

Especially when they fall upon their masters

And have their ladies’ first-fruits; th’are mad whelps,

You cannot stave ’em off from game royal; then

You are so harsh and hardy, ask no counsel,

And I could have help’d you to an apothecary’s daughter

Would have fall’n off before eleven, and thank you too.

BEATRICE. O me, not yet? This whore forgets herself.

DE FLORES. The rascal fares so well; look, y’are undone, The day-star, by this hand! See Phosphorus plain yonder.

BEATRICE. Advise me now to fall upon some ruin, There is no counsel safe else.

DE FLORES.

Peace, I ha’t now;

For we must force a rising, there’s no remedy.

BEATRICE. How? Take heed of that.

DE FLORES.

Tush, be you quiet,

Or else give over all.

BEATRICE.

Prithee, I ha’ done then.

DE FLORES. This is my reach: I’ll set some part a-fire Of Diaphanta’s chamber.

BEATRICE.

How? Fire, sir?

That may endanger the whole house.

DE FLORES. You talk of danger when your fame’s on fire?

BEATRICE. That’s true; do what thou wilt now.

DE FLORES.

Push, I aim

At a most rich success, strikes all dead sure;

The chimney being a-fire, and some light parcels

Of the least danger in her chamber only,

If Diaphanta should be met by chance then,

Far from her lodging, which is now suspicious,

It would be thought her fears and affrights then

Drove her to seek for succour; if not seen

Or met at all, as that’s the likeliest,

For her own shame she’ll hasten towards her lodging;

I will be ready with a piece high-charg’d,

As ’twere to cleanse the chimney: there ’tis proper now,

But she shall be the mark.

BEATRICE.

I’m forc’d to love thee now,

‘Cause thou provid’st so carefully for my honour.

DE FLORES: ’Slid, it concerns the safety of us both,

Our pleasure and continuance.

BEATRICE.

One word now, prithee;

How for the servants?

DE FLORES.

I’ll dispatch them

Some one way, some another in the hurry,

For buckets, hooks, ladders. Fear not you;

The deed...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• For Further Reading
• Middleton and Rowley: Key Dates
• Dramatis Personae
• Act One
• Act Two
• Act Three
• Act Four
• Act Five
• Epilogue
• Glossary
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information