Essay Questions

What makes this play so obviously Jacobean in style or content?

There are several elements about the play that mark is as Jacobean. The first of these is the use of disguise. This is used both to entertain the audience and also to dupe other characters. For example, Shortyard disguises himself first as another fictitious character entirely, "Blastfield", so that he can enter into a business deal with Richard Easy, and then swindle him out of his money and his land. He then also disguises himself as a policeman, so that he can arrest Easy for non-payment of a debt. Finally he disguises himself as a concerned and philanthropic citizen.

Quomodo also uses disguise but this is more of an act of subterfuge than of basic swindling. He wants to find out what people think of him after they believe him to be dead and so assumes a disguise so that he can move freely among them and listen.

The use of a "Country Wench" is also typically Jacobean. Plays at the time generally included some kind of wench character who was basically a woman of slightly questionable morals, but who stops short of being a prostitute. The wench is also added to many plays to create a situation that could bring about the downfall of one of the characters.

The play's audience are asked to suspend their disbelief when it comes to the characters wearing disguises. Why is this the case?

Several of the characters wear disguises in the play, and in the case of Shortyard, he actually appears to the same person, Richard Easy, in three different guises as well as that of himself. It is quite difficult to believe that Easy, although said to be very gullible, could be quite that gullible, because he has significant dealings with Shortyard, and it is hard to believe he would not recognize some element about him that was the same as Blastfied, or even the police sergeant; the characters disguise their appearances, but not their voices.

Similarly, Quomodo goes to Thomasine whilst disguised as a Beadle, and requests payment for his services at her husband's funeral. She obliges, without showing any kind of recognition of him. It is hard to believe that a wife would not know her husband, even if he was wearing a disguise. However, the disguises add to the story being played out on the stage, and gives the audience the opportunity to feel as though they are party to a secret that some of the other characters don't know.

Does Thomasine know her husband is really alive?

There are certain elements to the plot that suggest that Thomasine is perfectly well aware that the 'Beadle" is her husband, but that it is more beneficial to her to pretend that she is unaware that he is still alive. The main evidence to suggest she has already guessed what he has done is the memorandum that she and Easy get him to sign, ostensibly to say that he has received his payment for his work. The memorandum that he signs actually states that Easy no longer owes him any money, and so this would be an incredible stroke of luck, or an incredible coincidence, if Thomasine and Easy did not already have an idea that the beadle was really Quomodo in disguise. It is a very satisfying dupe, and one that really avenges all that he has done, without actually harming anyone.