Lowlife character Quotes Flashcards
(39 cards)
Lucio calls Madam Overdone
‘Madam…
Mitigation.’
Madam as a prostitute and she helps to mitigate the pangs of desire. A mock title
Lucio about Madam Overdon
‘I have purchased many …
diseases under her roof’
STI’s a big problem at this time, spread though prostitutes
Madam Overdone and Pompey having a conversation about Claudio
MO: Well what has he done?
P: A woman.
MO: But what’s his offence
P: Groping for trouts in a peculiar river
MO: What is there a maid with child by him?
P: No, but there’s a woman with maid by him.
Pompey- sexual jokes
Pompey
‘All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be …
plucked down.’
This mimics a law James 1 put out but that was to stop plague not prostitution
How does Lucio greet Isabella?
‘Hail, virgin, if you be_ as those cheek-roses proclaim you are no less’
inappropriate to a nun, sexual Lucio
When Lucio how does he assure her he is not messing around? (lapwings and saints)
’ ‘tis my familiar sin to seem the lapwing and to jest, tongue far from heart, play with all virgins so. I hold you as a thing enskied and sainted, By your renouncement an immortal spirit, And to be talked with in sincerity, As with a saint.’
lapwings and proverbial for deceit and hypocrisy as they can deceive predators
what lewd joke does Lucio make about Claudio impregnating Julietta?
‘her plenteous womb expresses his full tilth and husbandry’
using farming metaphors, tilth means ploughing (sexual connotations. husbandry is a play on words, means both cultivation of soil and behaviour of a husband
What does Lucio say about Liberty with mice and lions?
‘liberty, which have for long run by the hideous law as mice by lions.;
What does Lucio say about Angelo making Claudio an example?
Angelo ‘follows close the rigour of the statute to make him an example’
What does Lucio say to convince Isabella to go to Angelo?
’ when maidens sue Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel All their petitions are freely theirs.’
What Elbow quote is a good example of misplacing?
Elbow: I bring in here before your honour two notorious benefactors.
Angelo: Benefactors? Well, what benefactors are they? Are they not malefactors?
What joke does Pompey make about stewed prunes?
says Elbow’s wife is ‘longing’ for ‘stewed prunes’
stewed prunes were recommended to those who suffered venerial disease and were often served at brothels. This joke suggests Madam Overdone’s hot house is a brothel but also jokes that Elbows wife uses brothels or is a prostitute.
How does Elbow misplace using the word suspect?
mixes it for respect
‘the house is a respected house; next. this is a respected fellow, and his mistress is a respected woman.’
What does Pompey accuse Elbow of?
What does Elbow call him in response?
pre-nuptial fornication
‘she was respected with him, before he married her.’
‘caitiff’ and ‘wicked Hannibal’ (mistaken for cannibal.)
Why is Madam Overdone called her name?
overdone could mean sexually exhausted
overdone also means ‘carried to excess’ so could refer to her many marriages
What does Pompey say to Escalus about the new strict laws against fornication?
‘Does your worship mean to geld and splay all the youth of the city?’
- suggests ending fornication is impossible unless everyone is castrated
'’If this law hold in Vienna ten year, I’ll rent the fairest house in it after three pence a bay.’
-suggests everyone will leave the city if these laws hold. and thus renting the houses is going to be ridiculously cheap.
What does Pompey say to Escalus about the lawfulness of being a bawd?
Escalus: ‘What do you think of the trade Pompey? Is a lawful trade?’
Pompey: ‘If the law would allow it, sir.’
sees the law as something flexible and bending
What is Elbow’s mistake about Pompey’s ‘strange picklock
Elbow naively assumes that Pomey is a thief due to this picklock but in fact it is a lock to pick chastity belts intended to prevent women from being unfaithful
What does the Friar say Pomepy is and what does he tell him to do?
‘A bawd, a wicked bawd!’
‘Go mend, go med.’ - reform himself
What joke does Pompey make about Madam Overdone becoming a prostitute again?
‘she hath eaten up all her beef, and she is herself in the tub.’
beef- meat, referring to prostitutes, all the other prostitutes in her establishment are used up or worn out
tub is the barrel in which beef is stored but also refers to a tub used to treat venereal disease
How does Lucio describe Pompey’s bawd activities?
’ Bawd he is doubtless and of antiquity too.’
What joke does Lucio make about Pompey being imprisoned?
‘I will pray, Pompey, to increase your bondage; if you take it not patiently, why, your mettle is the more.’
play of the Elizabethan mettle/metal ambiguity. a) you will show your courage more clearly b) you will receive more metal in the form of shackles
What does Lucio say about the Duke leaving? to the Friar
Lucio: ‘It was a mad fantastical trick of him to steal from the state, and usurp the beggary he was never born to. Lord Angelo dukes it well in his absence, he puts transgression to’t’ (He sees the way the Duke left Vienna as unfitting for his high birth, despises the Duke for this)
Friar: He does well in’t
Lucio: ‘A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm in him. Something too crabbed in that way, Friar’ (too harsh and severe)
Friar: It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it.(The Duke sees severity as the only way
What is the prostitute called that Lucio gets pregnant, promises to marry, but doesn’t?
Kate Keepdown
this is a pun, she keeps on lying down
