39:
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John's second daughter Kate, but she is going to be wed to the rich young merchant
Strange – Sir John favours him because of his wealth. Sir John's third daughter Lucida is in love with Count Frederick and vows she will marry no one else. The newly knighted and foolish Sir Abraham Ninny – son of Sir Innocent Ninny and his constantly-inebriated wife Lady Ninny – tries to win Lucida's love through terrible poetry ... and fails.
727:
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Kate is relieved she is not married, and Nevill offers her his hand, saying: "Mistress Kate, I kept you for myself". Count
Frederick says "I have so ruminated on a wife that I must have one this night" – and proposes marriage to Lucida, who loved him all along. And the gulled Sir Abraham gets his parents' approval to marry the pregnant Mistress Wagtail.
466:, York, on 27 and 28 November in a production described as the first staged since the 17th century "in the style of the original players, with a cast the same age as the originals, with the actors making lots of decisions, with the audience on three sides, with live music and song and without special lighting or any technology".
450:
in
Hampstead, London, from 18 February to 15 March. Jeremy Kingston, reviewing the play for The Times, said it was clear Field "knew how to shape a drama and weave three or four plots in a whole". Suzi Feay, writing in Time Out, said "It is an enthralling portrait of a society both savage and tender,
208:
Later in the day
Strange, disguised as a soldier, takes a letter to Captain Powts that tells him Strange has been killed at Kate's command and she is waiting for her Captain Powts to return. The Captain is fooled by this and says he regrets lying about her. On hearing confirmation that Kate has been
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in the evening
Scudmore, disguised as Nevill, dances with Bellafront and they run off together to be married by a real priest. Nevill appears and reveals that the two marriages earlier in the day were shams. The wounded Powts is carried in by Strange and admits he had lied about sleeping with Kate.
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Meanwhile, Lady Ninny's "gentlewoman" Mistress
Wagtail, who is pregnant, has been seeking a husband. She tries to woo Count Frederick's obsequious assistant Pendant – much to his horror – but he persuades her instead that Sir Abraham will be stupid enough to fall for her and accept the baby as his.
258:
Field himself is believed to have played the role of Nevill, the "puppet-master" of the play, in these performances. Though there are no contemporary records of the play's original reception, the fact that it was selected for Court performance alongside works by established playwrights suggests it
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Scudmore is in love with Sir John
Worldly's eldest daughter Bellafront but, as he is reading a love letter from her, his friend Nevill arrives to tell him Sir John has arranged for Bellafront to be married to rich Count Frederick that very day. Frederick's friend, Captain Powts, hoped to marry Sir
438:
as
Bellafront. A review in The Times on 28 April 1914 said the most effective scenes "were those in which the comedians – Pendant, the Ninny family, and the others – figured prominently". It noted that the role of Mistress Wagtail "was considered too Elizabethan altogether and had been bodily
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204:
After the "weddings", the angry
Captain Powts arrives and tells everyone he has slept with Kate "often". Kate demands that Strange rescues her honour by killing Powts and is furious when Strange refuses – he says it's not blood that's required; it's her "good name" that must be redeemed.
451:
a poke in the eye to the pompous and well-to-do, and a vindication of love", and Irving Wardle, writing in the
Independent on Sunday, said the play was "more than a collector's piece" and led "into unexpected and human directions, entirely belying the author's misogynistic reputation".
730:
324:
The printed quarto begins with an address by Field "To any Woman that hath beene no Weathercocke" in which he says that any woman who has been "constant" will see "what amendes I have made to her and all her sex" when "my next Play be printed". Field's second play
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Nevill disguises himself as a parson – unbeknown to anyone except the audience – to perform the double wedding of Bellafront to Count Frederick and Kate to Strange, thereby nullifying the marriages, and giving his friend Scudmore time still to win Bellafront.
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removed from the cast, but Mr Harry Gribble as Sir Abraham Ninny, who ought to have married her, found his way into his audience's heart". The review ends by saying: "The whole production was a piece of work well worth seeing."
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in 1612 with the title page reading: "A Woman is a Weather-cocke. A New Comedy, As it was acted before the King in White-hall. And divers times Privately at the White-friars, By the Children of her Majesty's Revels".
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was one of the first plays the company performed at Whitefriars, most probably in December 1609 before being presented at Court over Christmas 1609–10, one of five plays the boys performed before the
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a remarkable achievement for a first-time dramatist who was not yet 22 – and ascribed this to the practical experience Field had amassed performing on the stage since the age of 11 or 12.
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that was popular as a theatrical topic at the time, in fact the main female characters are found to be innocent of the accusation of inconstancy, and the play attacks the iniquity of
170:
indoor playhouse in London. It was the first play written by Field, who was aged around 22 at the time and for nearly a decade previously had been the star player of the company of
185:. A happy ending is brought about against the will of the central characters' father – and Field portrays most of the male characters in a far worse light than the women.
407:
R.F. Brinkley said Field knew instinctively how to cater to the taste of the audiences at the indoor theatres with a satire that featured much music, a
776:
363:
in 1829. An edition based on a copy of the first quarto in the Folger Shakespeare Library was published in 1950, edited by William Peery.
751:
193:
The action of the play takes place over the course of one day when a double wedding is being held in "the Neighbourhood of London".
411:, rowdy scenes, bawdiness, and quick-witted comic repartee – the type of play he had taken part in so many times as a boy actor.
252:
274:, headed "To his Loved son, Nat. Field, and his Weather-cocke Woman". Field had performed in many of Chapman's plays including
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359:
There are few records of professional performances since, though several editions of the play have been published, first by
463:
657:
419:
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668:
The Children of the Queen's Revels: A Jacobean Theatre Repertory'.' Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
598:
Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Archive Catalogue; press night record from 27 April 1914, retrieved 9 June 2014.
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slandered, the disguised Strange challenges Powts to a duel. He helps the injured Powts away after the fight.
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when the London theatres reopened in winter 1609-10 after a long period of closure because of the plague.
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in 1667 when the London theatres reopened 18 years after their closure at the start of the
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693:: The Dramatic Output and Theatre-craft of Nathan Field by Margaret Ellen Williams"
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Player, Playwright and Preacher's Kid. The Story of Nathan Field, 1587-1620
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are the productions of no ordinary poet: in comic scenes Field excels
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The printed edition included a commendatory verse by the dramatist
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was staged by professional theatre company Trampoline at the
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playing the role of Nevill, Stanley Howlitt as Scudmore and
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Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, May 1992
630:"Pocklington School performs A Woman Is A Weathercock"
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York Press, 21 November 2013, retrieved 8 June 2014
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A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 11
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177:Though the title of the play might suggest the
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344:was among the Jacobean plays revived by the
43:Title-page from the quarto published in 1612
458:was performed by an all-boys company from
37:
28:
663:4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923.
678:University of Texas Press, Austin, 1950.
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333:was printed, probably by October 1611.
610:The Times, Tuesday 28 April 1914, P.10
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414:In 1914 the play was revived by the
366:Commentators like Peery have called
162:, first performed c1609/1610 by the
645:Nathan Field, the Actor-Playwright
225:First performances and publication
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777:Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales
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337:Critical and performance history
231:Children of the Queen's Revels
164:Children of the Queen's Revels
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691:A play is not so ydle a thing
643:Brinkley, Roberta Florence.
420:Shakespeare Memorial Theatre
735:public domain audiobook at
140:The Neighbourhood of London
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688:Williams, Margaret Ellen.
650:Collier, John Payne (ed).
464:Merchant Adventurers' Hall
262:The play was published in
259:must have been a success.
752:English Renaissance plays
675:The Plays of Nathan Field
416:Royal Shakespeare Company
395:Excerpt from a review of
233:moved from their home at
155:by the English actor and
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732:A Woman Is a Weathercock
710:A Woman Is a Weathercock
652:A Woman Is a Weathercock
456:A Woman is a Weathercock
444:A Woman is a Weathercock
442:In 1992 a production of
397:A Woman Is a Weathercock
378:A Woman is a Weathercock
368:A Woman is a Weathercock
342:A Woman is a Weathercock
331:A Woman is a Weathercock
245:A Woman Is A Weathercock
148:A Woman is a Weathercock
32:A Woman is a Weathercock
18:A Woman is a Weathercock
661:The Elizabethan Stage.
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767:Plays by Nathan Field
685:. Athena Press, 2009.
672:Peery, William (ed).
426:, in a production by
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350:Lincoln's Inn Fields
681:Southern, Antonia.
448:Pentameters Theatre
424:Stratford-upon-Avon
289:The Gentleman Usher
647:. New Haven, 1928
619:Williams p.386-391
460:Pocklington School
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361:John Payne Collier
307:Sir Giles Goosecap
183:arranged marriages
77:Sir Innocent Ninny
715:Project Gutenberg
382:Amends for Ladies
354:English Civil War
313:The Widow's Tears
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119:Original language
79:Sir Abraham Ninny
16:(Redirected from
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490:Munro p.178
239:Whitefriars
235:Blackfriars
168:Whitefriars
762:1610 plays
757:1609 plays
746:Categories
638:References
580:Collier, 3
571:Peery p.37
562:Peery p.16
553:Peery p.14
544:Peery p.59
517:Munro p.23
508:Peery p.43
481:Peery p.37
172:boy actors
106:c. 1609/10
87:Lady Ninny
81:Bellafront
59:Characters
49:Written by
401:The Times
386:Massinger
283:All Fools
157:dramatist
83:Katherine
737:LibriVox
454:In 2013
189:Synopsis
179:misogyny
98:A Tailor
96:Servants
92:A Parson
69:Scudmore
462:at the
418:at the
376:said: "
374:Collier
295:May Day
166:at the
137:Setting
122:English
114:England
73:Pendant
71:Strange
409:masque
264:quarto
218:masque
153:comedy
131:Comedy
94:A Page
85:Lucida
67:Nevill
470:Notes
430:with
151:is a
127:Genre
718:(in
316:and
251:and
249:King
229:The
713:at
399:in
348:at
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298:,
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