The Custom of the Country

John Fletcher

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780367099299
• eBook ISBN: 9781135863456
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Performing Arts

Once famed for its obscenity, this vigorous and enjoyable play traces the fortunes of two brothers shipwrecked in a foreign land. By turns poignant and risqué, sentimental and satiraical, its beautifully crafted plot embodies the collaborative art of its authors. It was given a staged reading in 1998 as part of the Globe Education's on-going program to record with professional casts all non-Shakespearean plays of the English Renaissance.

ACTUS QUINTUS

Enter RUTILLIO and DUARTE [disguised]

Rutillio	You like the letter
Duarte	Yes, but I must tell you,
	You tempt a desperate hazard to solicit
	The mother (and the griev'd one too, tis rumour'd)
	Of him you slew so lately.
Rutillio	I have told you
	Some proofs of her affection, and I know not
	A nearer way to make her satisfaction
	For a lost son than speedily to help her
	To a good husband; one that will beget
	Both sons and daughters, if she be not barren.
	I have had a breathing now, and have recover'd
	What I lost in my late service — 'twas a hot one,
	It fir'd and fir'd me; but all thanks to you, sir,
	You have both freed and cool'd me.
Duarte	What is done, sir,
	I thought well done, and was in that rewarded,
	And therefore spare your thanks.
Rutillio	I'll no more whoring.
	This fencing 'twixt a pair of sheets more wears one
	Than all the exercise in the world besides;
	To be drunk with good canary, a mere julep
	Or like gourd-water to't; twenty surfeits
	Come short of one night's work there. If I get this lady
	(As ten to one I shall: I was ne'er denied yet),
	I will live wondrous honestly, walk before her,
	Gravely and demurely, and then instruct my family.
	You are sad. What do you muse on, sir?
Duarte	Truth, I was thinking
	What course to take for the delivery of your letter,
	And now I have it. But, faith, did this lady
	(For do not gull yourself) for certain know
	You kill'd her son?
Rutillio	Give me a book, I'll swear't:
	Denied me to the officers that pursued me;
	Brought me herself to th' door; then gave me gold
	To bear my charges; and shall I make doubt then
	But that she lov'd me? I am confident,
	Time having ta'en her grief off that I shall be
	Most welcome to her, for then to have woo'd her
	Had been unseasonable.
Duarte	Well, sir, there's more money
	To make you handsome. I'll about your business.
	You know where you must stay.
Rutillio	There you shall find me.
	[DUARTE withdraws]
	Would I could meet my brother now, to know
	Whether the J...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Preface
• A Note from the Co-ordinator
• The Custom of the Country
• Editor's Introduction
• The Custom of the Country
• Dramatis Personae
• Prologue
• Actus Primus
• Actus Secundus
• Actus Tertius
• Actus Quartus
• Actus Quintus
• Epilogue
• Another Prologue
• Another Epilogue
• Glossary
• Synopsis
• Textual Notes