A Mad World, My Masters
Mad World, My Masters, A Author: Thomas Middleton
First Performance: 1604–6, London
Published: 1608
Genre: Com. in 5 acts; prose and some blank verse (some rhymed)
Setting: London, c.1600
Cast: 13m, 3f, extras
Spendthrift Richard Follywit, impatient to inherit from the rich and generous Sir Bounteous Progress (variously described as his uncle and as his grandfather), tricks Sir Bounteous. Disguised as Lord Owemuch, he enjoys Sir Bounteous's hospitality and robs him; he then poses as his uncle's courtesan Gullman and steals from him again. Follywit falls in love with a ‘modest virgin’ (in fact, the courtesan Gullman) and marries her. In a parallel plot, a country gentleman Master Penitent Brothel uses Gullman to help him to the bed of Mistress Harebrain, who is jealously guarded by her husband....
[The entire page is 328 words long]
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