After his servant, Brainworm, delivers a message addressed to his son, Edward, Knowell decides to read the letter, reasoning that old men are naturally curious about such things. The letter, written by Edward’s friend Wellbred, is witty and clever but also disrespectful in tone. Further, it implies that Edward and Wellbred keep company with men of low reputation in parts of London associated with vice and crime. Alone, Knowell reflects upon his feelings of disappointment as a father in a soliloquy:
From the Bordello, it might come as well;
The Spittle, or Pict-hatch. Is this the man
My son hath sung so for the happiest wit,
The choicest brain, the times hath sent us forth?
I know not what he may be in the arts,
Nor what in schools; but surely, for his manners,
I judge him a profane and dissolute wretch;
Worse, by possession of such great good gifts,
Being the master of so loose a spirit.
Why, what unhallowed ruffian would have writ
In such a scurrilous manner to a friend!
In this soliloquy, Knowell states that his trust in his son is shaken by the letter, which he feels might as well have been written “From the Bordello,” or a brothel. Previously, Edward has described Wellbred to his father as “the happiest wit” and “the choicest brain,” but Knowell feels that the man who wrote this letter is unworthy of these compliments. Further, if Wellbred truly is an intelligent and well-educated young man, then it is even “worse” that he squanders “such great good gifts” on such unsavory activities. Knowell’s subsequent decision to follow his son as he meets up with Wellbred initiates the primary plot of the play.
Kitely, a London merchant, has become paranoid that his wife is having an affair with another man while he is busy at work. In a soliloquy, he reflects upon his anxieties, using the metaphor of disease to understand his own paranoia:
A new disease? I know not, new or old,
But it may well be called poor mortals' plague:
For, like a pestilence, it doth infect
The houses of the brain. First, it begins
Solely to work upon the fantasy,
Filling her seat with such pestiferous air,
As soon corrupts the judgement; and from thence
Sends like contagion to the memory,
Still each to other giving the infection.
Which, as a subtle vapour, spreads itself,
Confusedly, through every sensive part,
Till not a thought or motion in the mind,
Be free from the black poison of suspect.
He identifies his feelings of paranoia as a “new disease,” though he adds that he doesn’t know if it should be categorized as a “new or old” illness, as it is “new” to him but more characteristic of those who are “old.” In a simile, he notes that “like a pestilence,” it afflicts the brain, first working upon “the fantasy” or imagination and filing the mind with “pestiferous” or noxious “air.” The “disease” spreads, first corrupting a person’s sense of “judgment” and then “like contagion” moving to the “memory,” spreading through a person’s mind until all of their thoughts are paranoid. In this soliloquy, Kitely’s disease metaphor suggests that paranoia can become all-consuming, affecting every part of a person’s perspective.
In a soliloquy, Knowell reflects upon what he considers to be the poor conduct and behavior of the younger generation, using two closely related metaphors regarding disease and fabric dye:
Aye, it is like:
When it is gone into the bone already.
No, no: this dye goes deeper than the coat,
Or shirt, or skin. It stains, unto the liver
And heart, in some. And, rather than it should not,
Note what we fathers do! Look how we live!
What mistresses we keep! At what expense,
In our sons' eyes! Where they may handle our gifts,
Hear our lascivious courtships, see our dalliance,
Taste of the same provoking meats with us,
To ruin of our states! Nay, when our own
Portion is fled, to prey on their remainder,
We call them into fellowship of vice!
In his soliloquy, Knowell argues that his son’s generation has been corrupted by poor morals. First, he says that this corruption is like an internal infection that has “gone into the bone already,” a simile that implies that the corruption is deep and will be difficult to remove. Next, he uses a metaphor with similar implications. The corruption, he states, is a “dye” that has saturated “deeper than the coat, / Or shirt, or skin” and now affects the “liver” and the “heart.” In this “dye” metaphor, Knowell imagines that the corruption of the young is not just superficial, at the level of clothing and skin, but rather, has soaked deep into the body. At this point in the play, Knowell is deeply pessimistic regarding the attitudes and values of young people, including his son Edward.
