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Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Kitely and Dame Kitely:
In the final two acts of the play, the various sub-plots converge in comedic scenes rife with misidentification and confusion. In a scene that exemplifies dramatic irony, Dame Kitely and Knowell meet outside of Cob’s house, each convinced that the other is there to indulge in an affair:
DAME KITELY
Oh, sir, have I forestalled your honest market?
Found your close walks? You stand amazed, now, do you?
I' faith, I am glad, I have smoked you yet at last!
What is your jewel, trow? In; come, let's see her
(Fetch forth your huswife, dame) […]
Your wife, an honest woman,
Is meat twice sod to you, sir? Oh, you treacher!KNOWELL
She cannot counterfeit thus palpably.KITELY
Out on thy more-than-strumpet's impudence!
Steal'st thou thus to thy haunts? And have I taken
Thy bawd, and thee, and thy companion.
Dame Kitely is irate when she sees her husband, Kitely, at Cob’s house, as it confirms her suspicions that he is having an affair with Tib, Cob’s wife. Kitely, in turn, sees his wife at Cob’s house and reaches the same conclusion: she is having an affair with Cob or—alternatively—is using Tib to meet up with lovers. The audience knows that neither assumption is correct and that both have been manipulated by Wellbred for his own amusement.
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