Synopsis
The opening scene introduces the play's senex amans: Lorenzo is in erotic pursuit of Franceschina, and composes bad poetry praising her (questionable) beauties. He solicits Angelo (servant of Aurelio, the play's young lover) to deliver his love poems; and Angelo reluctantly agrees, though only to mock the elder man's foolishness. The opening scene also introduces the wealth but repulsive Gasparo; Lorenzo wants to arrange a marriage between his daughter Aemilia and Gasparo — though Aemilia is already attracted to Aurelio, and he to her. The two young people are so bashful and self-conscious, however, that they tend to run away from rather than court each other. They desperately need a go-between; Lodovico — Lorenzo's nephew, Aemilia's cousin, and Aurelio's friend — is ready to fulfill the need. Lodovico counsels both young people to overcome their shyness, brings the two together, and even supplies a rope ladder for the climb to Aemilia's balcony.
The early scenes of the play also introduce the soldier and captain Quintiliano, the play's Miles gloriosus figure, and his followers — lieutenant Innocentio, servingman Fannio, and wife Franceschina (the same "Frank" who is the target of Lorenzo's lusty attentions). Quintiliano devotes much of his time and effort to dodging his creditors and swindling any vulnerable mark who comes within his reach. One of these is Giovenelle, a scholar visiting from Padua, who is gotten drunk, taught to swagger and swear, and relieved of his purse. The scenes featuring Quintiliano and his party allow satiric commentary on soldiering, gambling, money, drinking, and various other aspects of society, manners, and life.
A third skein of the plot involves a mysterious young woman who calls herself Lucretia; she is an apparent relative of Aurelio, staying at his father Honorio's house. Her unattached status makes her a target for the town's would-be seducers; Leonoro, accompanied by his page Lionell, works upon Lucretia's maid Temperance to gain admittance to Lucretia's private apartment.
Lodovico and Angelo join forces to play a trick on Lorenzo. Angelo convinces Lorenzo that he needs to disguise himself to gain entry to Franceschina's house, and he helps the old man dress up as Snail, the local chimney sweep, with blackened face and filthy clothes. Angelo arranges for Lorenzo to hear himself traduced and abused by other characters while in his chimney-sweep disguise. Franceschina, who is in on the joke, allows her would-be seducer into her house, but then claims that her husband has come home unexpectedly, and hides Lorenzo in the coal cellar. She locks him in the coal cellar and leaves him there.
Lodovico uses Lorenzo's absence to bring Aurelio and Aemilia together. (Their love scene is the only substantial part of the play in verse — unusually for Chapman, most of the play is written in prose.) While sneaking about in the dark on this mission, Lodovico is mistaken for Leonoro by Temperance, and is ushered into Lucretia's presence. Lucretia, however, draws a sword and drives him out; in the process, Lodovico discovers that Lucretia is a man in disguise.
Eventually, Quintiliano and his friends really do return to his house; they hear Lorenzo calling out from the coal cellar, and release him. Lorenzo has sense enough to maintain his disguise, and to claim that Franceshina had locked him, Snail the chimney-sweep, in the cellar for doing a bad job of sweeping the chimney. Lorenzo returns home and catches sight of Aurelio with Aemilia — not a good enough look to identify Aurelio, but enough to provoke the old man's outrage. Lodovico and Angelo pacify Lorenzo by dressing up Franceschina in one of Aurelio's suits, and making the old man think that it was Franceschina that he'd seen.
Quintiliano borrows the page Lionell from Leonoro, in order to play a joke upon Innocentio: the page will be dressed up as a woman for the lieutenant to court. This occurs at the party that concludes the play, which features a masque, music and dancing. In the style of the Venetian carnival, all the characters are masked and disguised, leading to the grand exposure of all the plotting and manipulation. It turns out that Lucretia is really Lucretio, a gentleman who had to flee his native Sicily for political reasons; Lionell is actually his betrothed, Theagine, who has come to search for him in the guise of a page. Lorenzo is made to realize that his embarrassments as Snail can only remain hidden if he consents to the marriage of Aurelio and Aemilia. Loving couples are united in a happy ending. (Even Temperance finds a husband, in Innocentio.)
Read more about this topic: May Day (play)