The Plot
Cooke's play can be classed with other prodigal-son plays of its era, like Eastward Ho and The Roaring Girl. It tells a double version of the story: the citizen Spendall, as his name indicates, wastes his patrimony and is reduced to poverty and prison. Bubble enjoys the reverse fortune, coming into money – yet he remains true to his master, the gentlemanly Staines, mourning the man's decline and urging him to repair his fortunes...by robbery ("if we be taken, we'll hang together at Tyburn"). The high-living Staines loses his estate to a usurer in a foreclosed debt; the usurer dies and passes his wealth to his nephew...Bubble. In a reversal of roles, Staines becomes Bubble's servant. Staines gets his revenge by making Bubble a pretentious fool, worse than the natural fool he already was. Through a series of disguises and cheats, Staines eventually manages to reverse his situation, till he is the master and Bubble the servant once again.
Greene's Tu Quoque gives a rich picture of everyday life in its era; it "uses tennis rackets, tobacco pipes, cards, dice and candles to establish a life of debauchery in visual terms...and a begging-basket with scraps of food to symbolize the natural result...." The play's stark picture of debtors' prison is noteworthy. The drama is lavish in its use of costume and the details of the mercer's trade in the London of its time.
Read more about this topic: Greene's Tu Quoque
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“After I discovered the real life of mothers bore little resemblance to the plot outlined in most of the books and articles I’d read, I started relying on the expert advice of other mothers—especially those with sons a few years older than mine. This great body of knowledge is essentially an oral history, because anyone engaged in motherhood on a daily basis has no time to write an advice book about it.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)