Holland's Leaguer
Encyclopedia
Holland's Leaguer is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy
written by Shackerley Marmion
. It premiered onstage in 1631 and was first published in 1632. The play was a popular success and a scandal in its own day — scandalous because it dealt with a well-known London brothel.
uses the word in this original sense in All's Well That Ends Well
, Act III, scene 6, line 26: "the leaguer of the adversaries." By the 1630s the word had become a slang term for a whorehouse, as here in this play, or in the 1640 play The Knave in Grain.
at the Salisbury Court Theatre
. It ran for six straight performances — which was highly unusual in the repertory system in which playing companies
then operated, with a different play every day. The greatest theatrical success of the era, A Game at Chess
, ran for nine straight performances in 1624; The Late Lancashire Witches
ran for three straight days in 1634.
(It has been suggested, however, that the six-day run of this play may have been due in part to the thinness of the Princes's Men's repertory, as well as to the genuine popularity of the play.)
The same company would stage Marmion's next play, A Fine Companion
, a year or so after his first.
on 26 January 1632, and was published in quarto
later that year by the bookseller John Grove. The title page of the first edition states that the drama was acted by "the high and mighty Prince Charles's Men." This was ironic: the company was newly established, under the formal patronage of the then Prince Charles, later King Charles II
— who was all of eighteen months old at the time. (An earlier version of the troupe had operated in the 1612–25 period under the same name, when it referred to the baby Charles's father, Charles I
.)
Their theatre also was new, first built in 1629 by Richard Gunnell
and William Blagrave; the play's Prologue refers to the theatre's location, between the Blackfriars
to its east and the Cockpit
to its west.
in 1623, with others following in The Roman Actor
(printed 1629), and The Picture and The Renegado
( both printed 1630).
The cast list for Holland's Leaguer gives this information:
In addition to being a popular comic actor, Andrew Cane was a working goldsmith who brought his goldsmith apprentices into the theatre, as boy player
s filling female roles. In this production, both Arthur Savill and John Wright were such apprentice goldsmith/actors. (Wright and Samuel Mannery would be in Beeston's Boys
in 1639.)
William Browne, who played the protagonist Philautus, was the son of Robert Browne
and Susan Baskervile
. Thomas Bond, who played Miscellanio, was William Browne's brother-in-law.
's Hyde Park
(1632) and Thomas Nabbes's Covent Garden (1633) and Tottenham Court (1634) participated this trend, as did several of the dramas of Richard Brome
.
Earlier playwrights had also experimented with place realism, as in Lording Barry
's Ram Alley (c. 1607) and Ben Jonson
's Bartholomew Fair (1614). Indeed, the publication of Jonson's play in 1631 may have been important in initiating the Caroline fashion. Marmion was one of the Sons of Ben, self-professed followers of Jonson; and Holland's Leaguer bears resemblances to several Jonson plays, most notably The Alchemist
.
, on the southern shore of the River Thames
across from London. It was situated in the liberty
of Paris Garden, in a street that is still known as Holland Street. The building had formerly been the Paris Garden manor house, and was equipped with a moat, portcullis
, and drawbridge. Brothels were commonly located on the Bankside, to be outside the control of the London civil authorities — just as the theatres were. Henry VIII
had suppressed the Bankside whorehouses in the 1540s; but his measures were only temporarily effective.
Holland was reportedly the name of the woman who ran the establishment — though a popular rumor also linked the house specifically with Dutch prostitutes.
The brothel was a topical subject in 1631, because it had been attacked and damaged during the annual Shrove Tuesday
tumult by the London apprentices. Shrove Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday
) was the 'prentices' holiday, and they often celebrated by running wild and causing destruction. (The Cockpit Theatre was damaged in their Shrove Tuesday rioting on 4 March 1617.) Brothels were a regular target of the 'prentices. The play refers directly to this riotous habit, in Act IV scene 3:
(The 'prentices' Shrove Tuesday riots were sometimes severe. On 24 March 1668, they attacked the London brothels — including the house of Damaris Page, favored by King Charles's brother the Duke of York, later King James II
. The action was so violent that troops had to be called up in response. In the aftermath, eight 'prentices were executed, including four who were hanged, drawn and quartered
. Two of their severed heads were set up on London Bridge, to convey a cautionary message to the public.)
by Lawrence Price called News from Holland's Leader, and a pamphlet from bookseller Richard Barnes. Authored by a Nicholas Goodman, the pamphlet is titled Holland's Leaguer: or a Historical Discourse of the Life and Actions of Dona Britanica Hollandia, the Arch-Mistress of the wicked women of Eutopis. Wherein is detected the notorious Sin of Panderism, and the Execrable Life of the luxurious impudent. Goodman's essay shows how the subject was perceived (and exploited) at the time, though it offers little dependable information.
(Goodman's pamphlet does contain an interesting fact: the turret on the building's roof provided a view of the three Bankside theatres then standing, the Globe
, the Hope
, and the decrepit Swan
.)
For his woman of virtue, Fidelio plans to employ his own fiancé, Faustina. They have been contracted for the past six years; Faustina's father, cool to the match, gained his daughter's promise to live in seclusion for seven years before marrying. Though the father is dead, Faustina loyally maintains her commitment to the seven-year vow. Initially suspicious of the plan, Faustina is won over by Fidelio's arguments. She plays her part in the scheme — which is a success: her rejection shocks Philautus into abandoning his butterfly life. He goes off to the wars in the Netherlands, and returns with honor.
The trick of the matter is that Philautus and Faustina are brother and sister. When he first meets her, Philautus remarks that he has a sister with the same name; but he is no smarter than many other protagonists in English Renaissance comedy, and does not realize that the two Faustinas are one until the final Act of the drama. The six-year separation is supposed to have made them relative strangers. In the realization scene, Philautus says, "Let me look upon her" — which suggests that she was veiled or masked earlier, making his failure to recognize her perhaps more plausible (somewhat).
The play's subplot deals with a group of would-be gallants, including Triphoena's bashful brother Capritio, his tutor Miscellanio, and the flamboyant Trimalchio. They fall victim to the manipulations of two tricksters, Agurtes and his confederate Autolicus. The subplot is a negative mirror-image of the main plot; as Philautus is tricked out of his vices through his attraction to Faustina, so Capritio and Trimalchio are tricked out of a diamond and a pocket watch by Argutes' daughter Millicent. In pursuit of the gallant's lifestyle, the play's four gulls (Ardelio, Trimalchio, Capritio, and Miscellanio) end up at Holland's Leaguer in Act IV, where they are more abused than satisfied by the denizens of Mistress Holland's house. They think they are arrested by the constables and the night watch — though these are actually Argutes and Autolicus and their henchmen, disguised.
In the end, Ardelio is dismissed by Philautus, and the other gulls are reformed, at least to the point of entering into the marriages that normally end a comedy. Trimalchio marries Millicent, under the illusion that she is a duke's daughter; Capritio marries her maid Margery, while Miscellanio weds Quartilla, Triphoena's gentlewoman.
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
written by Shackerley Marmion
Shackerley Marmion
Shackerley Marmion , also Shakerley, Shakerly, Schackerley, Marmyon, Marmyun, or Mermion, was an early 17th-century dramatist, often classed among the Sons of Ben, the followers of Ben Jonson who continued his style of comedy...
. It premiered onstage in 1631 and was first published in 1632. The play was a popular success and a scandal in its own day — scandalous because it dealt with a well-known London brothel.
"Leaguer"
In its literal sense, the term "leaguer" refers to a military encampment; ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
uses the word in this original sense in All's Well That Ends Well
All's Well That Ends Well
All's Well That Ends Well is a play by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1604 and 1605, and was originally published in the First Folio in 1623....
, Act III, scene 6, line 26: "the leaguer of the adversaries." By the 1630s the word had become a slang term for a whorehouse, as here in this play, or in the 1640 play The Knave in Grain.
Performance
Holland's Leaguer was acted in December 1631 by Prince Charles's MenPrince Charles's Men
Prince Charles's Men was a playing company or troupe of actors in Jacobean and Caroline England.-The Jacobean era troupe:...
at the Salisbury Court Theatre
Salisbury Court Theatre
The Salisbury Court Theatre was a theatre in 17th-century London. It was located in the neighbourhood of Salisbury Court, which was formerly the London residence of the Bishops of Salisbury. Salibury Court was acquired by Richard Sackville in 1564; when Thomas Sackville was created Earl of Dorset...
. It ran for six straight performances — which was highly unusual in the repertory system in which playing companies
Playing company
In Renaissance London, playing company was the usual term for a company of actors. These companies were organized around a group of ten or so shareholders , who performed in the plays but were also responsible for management. The sharers employed "hired men" — that is, the minor actors and...
then operated, with a different play every day. The greatest theatrical success of the era, A Game at Chess
A Game at Chess
A Game at Chess is a comic satirical play by Thomas Middleton, first staged in August 1624 by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre, notable for its political content.-The play:...
, ran for nine straight performances in 1624; The Late Lancashire Witches
The Late Lancashire Witches
The Late Lancashire Witches is a Caroline era stage play, written by Thomas Heywood and Richard Brome, published in 1634. The play is a topical melodrama on the subject of the witchcraft controversy that arose in Lancashire in 1633.-Performance:...
ran for three straight days in 1634.
(It has been suggested, however, that the six-day run of this play may have been due in part to the thinness of the Princes's Men's repertory, as well as to the genuine popularity of the play.)
The same company would stage Marmion's next play, A Fine Companion
A Fine Companion
A Fine Companion is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by Shackerley Marmion that was first printed in 1633. It is one of only three surviving plays by Marmion....
, a year or so after his first.
Publication
The play was entered into the Stationers' RegisterStationers' Register
The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including printers, bookbinders, booksellers, and publishers in England...
on 26 January 1632, and was published in quarto
Book size
The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from "folio" , to "quarto" and "octavo"...
later that year by the bookseller John Grove. The title page of the first edition states that the drama was acted by "the high and mighty Prince Charles's Men." This was ironic: the company was newly established, under the formal patronage of the then Prince Charles, later King Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
— who was all of eighteen months old at the time. (An earlier version of the troupe had operated in the 1612–25 period under the same name, when it referred to the baby Charles's father, Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
.)
Their theatre also was new, first built in 1629 by Richard Gunnell
Richard Gunnell
Richard Gunnell was an actor, playwright, and theatre manager in Jacobean and Caroline era London. He is best remembered for his role in the founding of the Salisbury Court Theatre.-Actor and playwright:...
and William Blagrave; the play's Prologue refers to the theatre's location, between the Blackfriars
Blackfriars Theatre
Blackfriars Theatre was the name of a theatre in the Blackfriars district of the City of London during the Renaissance. The theatre began as a venue for child actors associated with the Queen's chapel choirs; in this function, the theatre hosted some of the most innovative drama of Elizabeth and...
to its east and the Cockpit
Cockpit Theatre
The Cockpit was a theatre in London, operating from 1616 to around 1665. It was the first theatre to be located near Drury Lane. After damage in 1617, it was christened The Phoenix....
to its west.
The cast
The first edition also includes a cast list of the original production. This was a new feature in printed playbooks of the time; the earliest had appeared in the first edition of The Duchess of MalfiThe Duchess of Malfi
The Duchess of Malfi is a macabre, tragic play written by the English dramatist John Webster in 1612–13. It was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theatre, then before a more general audience at The Globe, in 1613-14...
in 1623, with others following in The Roman Actor
The Roman Actor
The Roman Actor is a Caroline era stage play, a tragedy written by Philip Massinger; it was first performed in 1626, and first published in 1629...
(printed 1629), and The Picture and The Renegado
The Renegado
The Renegado, or The Gentleman of Venice is a late Jacobean stage play, a tragicomedy written by Philip Massinger and first published in 1630...
( both printed 1630).
The cast list for Holland's Leaguer gives this information:
| Role | Actor |
|---|---|
| Philautus, a lord enamored of himself | William Browne |
| Ardelio, his parasite | Ellis Worth Ellis Worth Ellis Worth , or Woorth, was a noted English actor in the Jacobean and Caroline eras. He was a leading member of two important companies, Queen Anne's Men and Prince Charles's Men.... |
| Trimalchio, a humorous gallant | Andrew Cane Andrew Cane Andrew Cane — also Kayne, Kene, Keine, and other variants — was a comic actor in late Jacobean and Caroline era London... |
| Argutes, an impostor | Matthew Smith |
| Autolicus, his disciple | James Sneller |
| Capritio, a young novice | Henry Gradwell |
| Miscellanio, his tutor | Thomas Bond |
| Snarl, friend to Philautus | Richard Fowler |
| Fidelio, friend to Philautus | Edward May |
| Jeffey, tenant to Philautus | Robert Hunt |
| Triphoena, wife to Philautus | Robert Stratford |
| Faustina, sister to Philautus | Richard Godwin |
| Millicent, daughter to Agurtes | John Wright |
| Margery, her maid | Richard Fouch |
| Quartilla, gentlewoman Gentlewoman A gentlewoman in the original and strict sense is a woman of good family, analogous to the Latin generosus and generosa... to Triphoena |
Arthur Savill |
| Bawd | Samuel Mannery |
| 2 Whores. Pander. Officers | |
In addition to being a popular comic actor, Andrew Cane was a working goldsmith who brought his goldsmith apprentices into the theatre, as boy player
Boy player
Boy player is a common term for the adolescent males employed by Medieval and English Renaissance playing companies. Some boy players worked for the mainstream companies and performed the female roles, as women did not perform on the English stage in this period...
s filling female roles. In this production, both Arthur Savill and John Wright were such apprentice goldsmith/actors. (Wright and Samuel Mannery would be in Beeston's Boys
Beeston's Boys
Beeston's Boys was the popular and colloquial name of The King and Queen's Young Company, a troupe of boy actors of the Caroline period, active mainly in the years 1637–1642.-Origin:...
in 1639.)
William Browne, who played the protagonist Philautus, was the son of Robert Browne
Robert Browne (Elizabethan actor)
Robert Browne was an English actor of the Elizabethan era, and the owner and manager of the Boar's Head Theatre. He was also part of an enduring confusion in the study of English Renaissance theatre.-Two Robert Brownes:...
and Susan Baskervile
Susan Baskervile
Susan Shore Browne Greene Baskervile , or Baskerville, was one of the most influential and significant women involved in English Renaissance theatre, as theatre investor, litigant, and wife, widow, and mother of actors....
. Thomas Bond, who played Miscellanio, was William Browne's brother-in-law.
Place realism
Marmion's play is an exercise in "place realism," in which dramatists exploited actual locales around London for their works — something that became fashionable in the drama of the early 1630s. James ShirleyJames Shirley
James Shirley was an English dramatist.He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so much for any transcendent genius in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of whom spoke nearly...
's Hyde Park
Hyde Park (play)
Hyde Park is a Caroline era comedy of manners written by James Shirley, and first published in 1637.Hyde Park was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on April 20, 1632, and acted at the Cockpit Theatre by Queen Henrietta's Men...
(1632) and Thomas Nabbes's Covent Garden (1633) and Tottenham Court (1634) participated this trend, as did several of the dramas of Richard Brome
Richard Brome
Richard Brome was an English dramatist of the Caroline era.-Life:Virtually nothing is known about Brome's private life. Repeated allusions in contemporary works, like Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, indicate that Brome started out as a servant of Jonson, in some capacity...
.
Earlier playwrights had also experimented with place realism, as in Lording Barry
Lording Barry
-Works:Barry is known as the author of one comedy, ‘Ram Alley, or Merry Tricks,’, 1611 and 1636, which was included in the second and subsequent editions of Robert Dodsley's ‘Old Plays.’ Anthony Wood says it was acted by the Children of the King's Revels before 1611....
's Ram Alley (c. 1607) and Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
's Bartholomew Fair (1614). Indeed, the publication of Jonson's play in 1631 may have been important in initiating the Caroline fashion. Marmion was one of the Sons of Ben, self-professed followers of Jonson; and Holland's Leaguer bears resemblances to several Jonson plays, most notably The Alchemist
The Alchemist (play)
The Alchemist is a comedy by English playwright Ben Jonson. First performed in 1610 by the King's Men, it is generally considered Jonson's best and most characteristic comedy; Samuel Taylor Coleridge claimed that it had one of the three most perfect plots in literature...
.
The brothel
The actual brothel called Holland's Leaguer was located on the BanksideBankside
Bankside is a district of London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. Bankside is located on the southern bank of the River Thames, east of Charing Cross, running from a little west of Blackfriars Bridge to just a short distance before London Bridge at St Mary Overie Dock to...
, on the southern shore of the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
across from London. It was situated in the liberty
Liberty (division)
Originating in the Middle Ages, a liberty was traditionally defined as an area in which regalian rights were revoked and where land was held by a mesne lord...
of Paris Garden, in a street that is still known as Holland Street. The building had formerly been the Paris Garden manor house, and was equipped with a moat, portcullis
Portcullis
A portcullis is a latticed grille made of wood, metal, fibreglass or a combination of the three. Portcullises fortified the entrances to many medieval castles, acting as a last line of defence during time of attack or siege...
, and drawbridge. Brothels were commonly located on the Bankside, to be outside the control of the London civil authorities — just as the theatres were. Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
had suppressed the Bankside whorehouses in the 1540s; but his measures were only temporarily effective.
Holland was reportedly the name of the woman who ran the establishment — though a popular rumor also linked the house specifically with Dutch prostitutes.
The brothel was a topical subject in 1631, because it had been attacked and damaged during the annual Shrove Tuesday
Shrove Tuesday
Shrove Tuesday is a term used in English-speaking countries, especially in Ireland, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Germany, and parts of the United States for the day preceding Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of fasting and prayer called Lent.The...
tumult by the London apprentices. Shrove Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday, in the calendar of Western Christianity, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days before Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter...
) was the 'prentices' holiday, and they often celebrated by running wild and causing destruction. (The Cockpit Theatre was damaged in their Shrove Tuesday rioting on 4 March 1617.) Brothels were a regular target of the 'prentices. The play refers directly to this riotous habit, in Act IV scene 3:
-
- Good Sir, let's think on some revenge; call up
- The gentleman 'prentices, and make a Shrove Tuesday.
(The 'prentices' Shrove Tuesday riots were sometimes severe. On 24 March 1668, they attacked the London brothels — including the house of Damaris Page, favored by King Charles's brother the Duke of York, later King James II
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
. The action was so violent that troops had to be called up in response. In the aftermath, eight 'prentices were executed, including four who were hanged, drawn and quartered
Hanged, drawn and quartered
To be hanged, drawn and quartered was from 1351 a penalty in England for men convicted of high treason, although the ritual was first recorded during the reigns of King Henry III and his successor, Edward I...
. Two of their severed heads were set up on London Bridge, to convey a cautionary message to the public.)
Pamphlet and ballad
Marmion was not the only writer to take advantage of the brothel's notoriety. Also in 1632, two other works on the subject appeared: a balladBallad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
by Lawrence Price called News from Holland's Leader, and a pamphlet from bookseller Richard Barnes. Authored by a Nicholas Goodman, the pamphlet is titled Holland's Leaguer: or a Historical Discourse of the Life and Actions of Dona Britanica Hollandia, the Arch-Mistress of the wicked women of Eutopis. Wherein is detected the notorious Sin of Panderism, and the Execrable Life of the luxurious impudent. Goodman's essay shows how the subject was perceived (and exploited) at the time, though it offers little dependable information.
(Goodman's pamphlet does contain an interesting fact: the turret on the building's roof provided a view of the three Bankside theatres then standing, the Globe
Globe Theatre
The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613...
, the Hope
Hope Theatre
The Hope Theatre was one of the theatres built in and around London for the presentation of plays in English Renaissance theatre, comparable to the Globe, the Curtain, the Swan, and other famous theatres of the era....
, and the decrepit Swan
The Swan (theatre)
The Swan was a theatre in Southwark, London, England, built in 1595 on top of a previously standing structure, during the first half of William Shakespeare's career...
.)
Synopsis
The play's main plot centers upon Philautus, a fashionable young lord; abetted by hangers-on like Ardelio, he has become devoted to vanity and self-absorption — to the displeasure of his wife, Triphoena. Philautus also considers himself a ladies' man (though he is more oriented toward flirting and ego-gratification than actual adultery). His loyal friend Fidelio concocts a scheme to cure Philautus of his follies and restore him to virtue and self-respect. Fidelio wants Philautus to fall in love with a beautiful young woman who will reject him over his shallowness. Fidelio intends it as a therapeutic shock.For his woman of virtue, Fidelio plans to employ his own fiancé, Faustina. They have been contracted for the past six years; Faustina's father, cool to the match, gained his daughter's promise to live in seclusion for seven years before marrying. Though the father is dead, Faustina loyally maintains her commitment to the seven-year vow. Initially suspicious of the plan, Faustina is won over by Fidelio's arguments. She plays her part in the scheme — which is a success: her rejection shocks Philautus into abandoning his butterfly life. He goes off to the wars in the Netherlands, and returns with honor.
The trick of the matter is that Philautus and Faustina are brother and sister. When he first meets her, Philautus remarks that he has a sister with the same name; but he is no smarter than many other protagonists in English Renaissance comedy, and does not realize that the two Faustinas are one until the final Act of the drama. The six-year separation is supposed to have made them relative strangers. In the realization scene, Philautus says, "Let me look upon her" — which suggests that she was veiled or masked earlier, making his failure to recognize her perhaps more plausible (somewhat).
The play's subplot deals with a group of would-be gallants, including Triphoena's bashful brother Capritio, his tutor Miscellanio, and the flamboyant Trimalchio. They fall victim to the manipulations of two tricksters, Agurtes and his confederate Autolicus. The subplot is a negative mirror-image of the main plot; as Philautus is tricked out of his vices through his attraction to Faustina, so Capritio and Trimalchio are tricked out of a diamond and a pocket watch by Argutes' daughter Millicent. In pursuit of the gallant's lifestyle, the play's four gulls (Ardelio, Trimalchio, Capritio, and Miscellanio) end up at Holland's Leaguer in Act IV, where they are more abused than satisfied by the denizens of Mistress Holland's house. They think they are arrested by the constables and the night watch — though these are actually Argutes and Autolicus and their henchmen, disguised.
In the end, Ardelio is dismissed by Philautus, and the other gulls are reformed, at least to the point of entering into the marriages that normally end a comedy. Trimalchio marries Millicent, under the illusion that she is a duke's daughter; Capritio marries her maid Margery, while Miscellanio weds Quartilla, Triphoena's gentlewoman.