Summary
Act IV
Scene 1
In Kitely’s house, Dame Kitely is protesting to Downright that there’s nothing she could do—these are her brother’s friends. Downright scoffs that they are not good friends at all but tempt him to bad behavior. Dame Kitely sighs that she cannot keep them all out.
Bridget, Matthew, and Bobadil enter, followed by Wellbred, Edward, Stephen, and Brainworm. Bridget is complimenting Matthew’s verses to her, and Dame Kitely asks to hear them. Downright leaves, saying he’d prefer the stocks. Matthew proceeds with some lines from Hero and Leander.
Wellbred asks how they all like it, and Stephen shakes his head. Edward jokes that he shakes his head like a bottle to see if there is anything in it. Matthew adds that he wrote some verses this morning at Bobadil’s desk. Stephen asks how Edward likes them, and when Edward says they’re the best he’s ever heard, Stephen quickly proclaims the same.
Downright returns, grumbling that the men are still here and orders all of them out of the house. Wellbred laughs and tells him he is an ass, and draws his rapier. Downright and the others do as well. Dame Kitely calls for servants and Edward tries to calm the men down. Cash and the servants come and part the men, holding them back.
Kitely enters and asks what is going on. He assumes it is his wife and sister who have caused this mayhem. Downright spits out that it was “A sort of lewd rake-hells, that care neither for / God, nor the Devil! And they must come here to read / ballads, and roguery, and trash!” (64). Bridget tries to calm him, saying he is too violent in his words and Wellbred will not tolerate such insults and reproofs. Downright scoffs that he has no desire to respect a man without manners or manhood. He exits.
After he departs, Bridget and Dame Kitely mention that there was one man who behaved himself admirably.
They depart as well, and Kitely jealously asks Cash who the man was whom they praised. He says it was Edward Knowell, “a handsome / young gentlemen, sir” (64). Kitely is upset and decides to search for him, assuming he is somewhere secreted away in the house.
Scene 2
In the lane before his house, Cob calls up to Tib. He warns her to stay inside and not let any gentlemen inside.
Scene 3
In a room at the Windmill Tavern, Edward praises Brainworm. Wellbred asks Edward if he is interested in Bridget. Edward demurs, but Wellbred proclaims he shall have her, and he only ought to say where Wellbred should bring her. Edward tells him he believes his ardor, and thanks him.
Scene 4
It is a street in the Old Jewry where Formal and Knowell converse. Formal is asking Knowell if his man was a soldier, and Brainworm, disguised as Fitz-sword, arrives. Brainworm informs Knowell his son knows everything, but he cannot say how he knows that. Knowell rues this, and asks where he found Edward and his companions.
Brainworm explains that they found him, actually, and surrounded him with their rapiers drawn and demanded he tell them where Knowell was. They locked him up but he managed to escape. Edward is planning to meet one of the wives of the rich merchants at Cob’s house.
Upon hearing this, Knowell proclaims he will go there and intercept his son. He sends Cob to Clement’s place. After Knowell is gone, Brainworm smiles to himself that he wishes he could see Knowell waiting there for hours like a fool. He cannot, though, and takes up Formal’s invitation to get a drink at the Windmill.
Scene 5
Matthew, Edward, Bobadil, and Stephen come together at Moorfields. Matthew criticizes Downright and Bobadil boasts that he taught Matthew a trick to kill him. Edward asks if Bobadil ever proved himself to people in the town, and Bobadil says yes, he invited a few people to learn from him. The men did, but now hate him because he is “excellent, and for no / other vile reason on the earth” (71). Bobadil adds that sometimes they insult him in the street and he could have slain them all, but he does not delight in murder. He likes to be a gentleman and live obscurely here, but if he could, he would tell her Majesty and the Lords how he would manage to take down an entire army of an enemy.
Edward entertains him further by asking about his plan. Bobadil says he would select nineteen men along with himself, choosing them because they have the same wonderful instinct he does. He and his men would challenge the enemy to send out their best twenty men, and the enemy could not refuse. Then Bobadil and his men would slay the twenty, then twenty more, and so on until there are no enemies left. Edward, amused, asks if he is so sure of his hand. Bobadil replies that yes, he never misses, and if Downright were here right now, he’d draw his weapon on him.
At that moment, Downright walks by. He is annoyed to see these “peevish rascals” (73) again. He curses that Bobadil ought to draw his blade. Bobadil protests that he actually has a command of the peace served on him so he cannot fight. Downright beats him and disarms him. Matthew runs away in fear. Downright lets Bobadil go, and leaves.
Edward tells Bobadil that if he were really bound to the peace, then law says he can still defend himself. Bobadil replies that it was as if he’d been struck by a planet and had no ability to touch his weapon. He leaves.
Edward rolls his eyes that “this age should bring forth such creatures! that Nature / should be at leisure to make ‘em!” (74). Stephen sees Downright’s cloak on the ground and says he will take it; if Downright challenges him, he will say he bought it.
Scene 6
At Kitely’s house, Kitely, Dame Kitely, Wellbred, and Bridget gather. Kitely is chiding Wellbred for disturbing the peace of his house, and Wellbred is acknowledging that there was, and is, no harm done. Dame Kitely asks what harm he’s talking about, and Wellbred shrugs that Kitely could have been poisoned.
Upon hearing this, Kitely becomes convinced he is feeling ill, and calls for mithridate. Bridget and Dame Kitely roll their eyes, and Dame Kitely says Wellbred should not have put “such a toy into his head” (75). Kitely insists he is sick and his wife replies that if he is, it is of his own doing.
Brainworm, disguised as Clement’s man Formal, enters. He announces Clement wishes to see Kitely. Wellbred pulls Brainworm aside and asks how he got this costume. Brainworm replies that he got Formal drunk and then took his clothes. Wellbred is impressed and asks if he could go to Edward and tell him to meet Bridget and Wellbred at the Tower. Brainworm agrees, and leaves.
Kitely is preparing to leave and tells Cash that he must be vigilant and watch for Dame Kitely showing any of the young men rooms, or speaking of their looks, or even just whispering with them. He must intervene, Kitely implores. Cash agrees.
After Kitely leaves, calling aloud for Cob, Dame Kitely muses aloud that her husband always seems to be employing Cob and ordering him about. Wellbred suggests slyly that Cob has a bawdy wife and oftentimes Kitely haunts her house. Dame Kitely is affronted and says she will go there now with Cash.
Wellbred laughs to himself at this sport he’s made. He then turns to Bridget and tells him of Edward’s affection for her, and reminds her that she is “ripe for a husband” (78). Bridget agrees to meet with Edward.
Kitely returns, angry at the false message he received. He asks where his wife is and Bridget says she went out with Thomas Cash. Kitely is convinced that he was wrong to trust Cash, and decides to go to Cob’s house to confront her.
Scene 7
Matthew and Bobadil walk together in the street. Matthew is planning on going away but first they must secure a warrant against Downright to arrest him and bring him before Clement.
Brainworm, disguised as Formal, enters. Matthew and Bobadil approach him and say they need the warrant for Downright because he abused them. Brainworm agrees, but says it costs money. The men have none, but they take off their jewelry and silk stockings eagerly. Brainworm thanks them and says he will go out now to procure the warrant, which will be served by one of the city varlets.
Scene 8
Outside of Cob’s house, Knowell calls up to know who is inside. Tib answers and wonders if he is a constable. Knowell asks if his son is there and she says she does not know him. Knowell thinks she is lying and that he must fetch the constable.
Dame Kitely and Cash arrive now, and Dame Kitely asks Tib why she will not open the door and if her husband is here. Tib says no. Knowell is confused by Dame Kitely’s presence.
Kitely himself, muffled in his cloak, arrives. Dame Kitely rushes over to him, triumphantly proclaiming that she’s found out his bad behavior. She bitterly wonders if the woman he’s meeting is prettier than herself. Kitely retorts that he has found out her behavior. He says that Knowell is her paramour, which causes Knowell to declare Kitely a lunatic. Kitely swears he will bring them all before a judge, and both Knowell and Dame Kitely huffily agree.
Cob enters, and Kitely immediately tells him he has been wronged here at Cob’s house. Cob is shocked that his wife has allowed their home to become a brothel, and grabs her and beats her. Tib and Cob also decide to go to Justice Clement’s to sort this out.
Scene 9
Brainworm is now disguised as a varlet, or city servant; he feels like this disguise is closest to who he really is. When Matthew and Bobadil enter and espy him, they approach and Brainworm says he has the warrant.
Stephen wearing Downright's cloak walks by, and Brainworm accosts him and says he is arrested. Stephen proclaims that he is not Downright, and rebukes Brainworm for scaring him. Bobadil sees Downright himself coming, though, and points out the man.
Brainworm announces to Downright that he is arrested and must go before Justice Clement. Bobadil and Matthew eagerly leave to Clement’s house.
Downright sees Stephen with his cloak and asks for it, but Stephen says it is his and he bought it. Downright calls for Stephen’s arrest so Brainworm moves to do so. All of them plan to go to Clement’s.
Analysis
Brainworm’s plots and jokes and tricks begin to accelerate in this section, and by the act’s end Cob and Tib and Kitely and Dame Kitely are estranged, swords have been drawn, warrants have been issued, and jealousy, anger, and irrationality have preponderated. Bobadil and Matthew are guided by their choler and lassitude, Stephen his choler and melancholy, Kitely his jealousy and ridiculousness, and Downright his impatience. These characters seem to be on mostly preordained paths, and it will take a Justice Clement figure to intervene and salvage their relationships and reputations.
For now, though, Brainworm gets to continue as he sees fit. He is one of Jonson’s most compelling creations, and is more than a simple servant or trickster. Rather, as Matthew Kendrick suggests, he embodies the anxieties at the time regarding the lower classes. So-called vagrants or beggars or debtors were considered problematic in society and there were numerous measures in the late 16th century to “deal” with them. Brainworm, though, does not allow himself to be oppressed by his status and instead is a protean figure who adapts, evades, and fools others in order to keep himself afloat economically. Kendrick begins his exposition of the character by explaining that if humouralism suggests the body is influenced by the outside world, then Brainworm’s “'humour of necessity’ that sanctioned his trickery and deception describes a subjectivity that corresponds to the impoverished body that, locked in a struggle against a harsh economic environment, must continually adapt in order to survive.” While some characters will be offended or consider themselves injured by Brainworm, others, including Clement, admire his skill and mutability.
The London of the play is one “thrown into chaos by the unsettling of traditional social boundaries.” Jonson puts humours into economic context as well as social, creating in Brainworm a lower-class character whose subjectivity is tied to his economic standing. It might be easy to look at Brainworm’s deeds and conclude he is a trickster, but this role is not “archetypal but rather contingent on the particular socioeconomic conditions of Elizabethan London.” He feels he has to do what he does, for example choosing to undermine Knowell because his more solid employment is with Edward.
Brainworm’s disguise as a former-soldier-now-turned beggar is an astute commentary on the complexities of begging. Kendrick sees his intentional adoption of a new identity as a way to maintain control over his circumstances. As Fitz-Sword Brainworm gets to “transvalue the status of beggar or vagrant, interpreting it as a source of agency and empowerment, a form of labor in its own right. In the disguise of a beggar, Brainworm can anticipate and attempt to prevent his decline to the status of an actual ‘motley’ beggar.”
Brainworm’s encounter with Knowell while he is in this guise also reveals common stereotypes held by those who cannot understand, or refuse to understand, why people cannot always succeed economically. Knowell articulates those as he says to Brainworm in Act Two, “Art thou a man? and sham’st thou not to beg? / To practice such a servile kind of life?”, and subsequently suggests that “a thousand fairer courses / Offer themselves to thy election” (37). He does think Brainworm and others like him “care how the metal of your minds / Is eaten with the rust of idleness” (37) and sees his “choice” to live like this as a “loose desperate” course (37). And when Brainworm says he would gladly find some other course if he could, Knowell retorts rudely, “Aye, you’d gladly find it, but you will not seek / it” (37). He makes no attempt to see how capital oppresses labor, and how most of those in straitened circumstances are not there simply because they lack will or direction. Brainworm will endeavor to prove to Knowell that he is wrong in his assumptions, and while he most likely doesn’t succeed in forever altering such assumptions, at the end of Act Five there is at least a glimmer of a shift in Knowell.
