53 pages • 1 hour read
AnonymousArden of Faversham
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1592A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Scenes 9-13Scene Summaries & Analyses
Scene 9 Summary
While waiting for Arden, Will and Shakebag quarrel and brawl about who has had more success in villainy. Greene separates them, saying they’ll miss Arden’s arrival. As he has for every murder attempt, Greene leaves when Arden appears.
Michael tells Arden and Franklin that his horse has thrown a shoe, and he must go to Rochester to get a replacement. Arden excuses Michael, telling him to catch up with them in Rainham Down. In an aside, Michael confesses he orchestrated the horse’s malady to avoid witnessing Arden’s murder.
While they travel, Franklin tells Arden a story of an adulterous wife. Will and Shakebag wait close, disguised, as Lord Cheyne arrives and greets Arden and Franklin. Lord Cheyne asks the men to join him for supper; Arden says that he already has plans but accepts the invitation for the next night.
Lord Cheyne spots Will and declares his belief that the man will face execution one day. He orders one of his men to give him a crown and advises Will to leave his life of crime. Will curses Cheyne for intervening at such a critical moment, and Shakebag comments on Arden’s uncanny luck. Greene returns and learns what has happened. Will says that they shall now kill Arden as he goes to Lord Cheyne’s house tomorrow.
Scene 10 Summary
Arden and Franklin prepare to dine with Lord Cheyne at his house on the Isle of Sheppey. Alice laments Arden’s going, saying that not “honour’s title nor Lord’s command / Could once have drawn you from these arms of mine” (10.15-16). Franklin suggests that Arden take Alice, but Alice refuses, saying the house will fall to disorder without her. Michael says the two men’s horses are ready but his own is not, as he has lost his purse and must look for It. Arden gives him leave to stay behind. In an aside, Michael says that Will and Shakebag lie in wait ahead; this is the second time Michael has made an excuse to Arden to avoid witnessing his murder.
The painter Clarke arrives and quarrels with Michael, first verbally and then physically as Alice, Mosby, and Greene enter. Alice scolds Michael, asking if this is the reason he has stayed behind. She asks Clarke if he has the poisoned painting that she and Mosby commissioned in Scene 1, and he hands it over. Alice and Mosby reiterate their plans.
Scene 11 Summary
Arden and Franklin meet with the ferryman that will take them to the Isle of Sheppey. The ferryman remarks upon the thickness of the mist, and Franklin asks what he makes of such weather. The ferryman replies obliquely, comparing the mist to a fickle woman, and then discussing the moon’s monthly influence on his wife’s menstrual cycle. This leads the three to engage in bawdy jokes.
Scene 12 Summary
Will and Shakebag enter at opposite ends of the stage. It is so misty that they can only find each other by voice. Shakebag says he heard horses pass, and while Will worries this means they’ve lost Arden, Shakebag supposes Arden is also lost. Shakebag falls in a ditch and the ferryman approaches, hearing his cries for help. The ferryman says he ferried a couple of gentlemen earlier that evening, confirming Will’s fears. He dismisses the ferryman rudely, and the ferryman says he wishes to see Will hanging on a hill someday.
The sun clears the mist. Alice, Greene, and Mosby arrive and are told Arden is still alive. Shakebag vows that they will catch him on the way back, and remarks on how hard it has been to complete a single task. Alice gives the two hired murderers money to rest at a nearby inn; they and Greene leave.
Mosby despairs of Will and Shakebag ever completing their task. Alice has an idea to arrange for Arden to catch her and Mosby walking arm in arm, which will make him so angry and distracted that Will and Shakebag will be able to kill him.
Scene 13 Summary
Dick Reede, the previous tenant of Faversham, plans to catch Arden on his way back from Lord Cheyne’s. He believes that Arden has done him wrong by taking the lands of Faversham from him and pleads that Arden returns what he believes is rightfully his for the sake of his poor family. Arden threatens to imprison Reede for his accusations, and Reede sets a curse on Arden: “That plot of land which thou detains from me [...] Be ruinous and fatal unto thee!” (13.32, 34).
Arden comments on how changed Alice’s spirits have been, and how he thinks she’s seeking to mend her ways. Just then, Alice and Mosby walk near, arm in arm. Arden, angered, tells them to separate. Instead, Alice kisses Mosby. Arden calls Mosby a perjurer, and Mosby tells Arden he has cuckold's horns. (Animal horns were a symbol of a cuckold, the husband of an adulterous wife.) Arden, Franklin, and Mosby all draw their swords and begin to fight. Alice calls out to summon Shakebag and Will, who join the fight. Mosby and Shakebag are injured. Will, Mosby, and Shakebag all leave, with Mosby telling Alice she’s to blame for his wounds.
Alice scolds Arden, telling him he overreacted to what was supposed to be a joke. She concludes that he will always misconstrue any way she conducts herself. Arden asks how he can do penance for this, to which Alice replies that he must go after Mosby, see to the dressing of his wounds, and apologize to him. Arden agrees and invites Alice along to mediate. Franklin does not believe Alice and interrupts, though he has no proof to show that she has been false. Alice accuses him of sowing discord between her and Arden. Arden tells Franklin to hold his peace, and he and Alice leave. Alone, Franklin confesses that he knows Arden is bewitched, but since it is his wife who bewitches him, his friends must hold their tongues.
Scenes 9-13 Analysis
These final scenes before Arden’s murder serve to complicate the characters’ morality and set up their final mental state before committing the crime.
These scenes introduce new aspects to the relationship between Arden’s morality and his views relating to the theme of Class Tension and Social Mobility. When he interacts with Lord Cheyne, Arden is exceedingly polite, even though Cheyne does not directly address him. Instead, Cheyne addresses Franklin, whom he identifies correctly as the “Lord Protector’s man” (9.104). He only acknowledges Arden obliquely as “your friend,” identifying him via his proximity to Franklin. This stresses the idea that Arden relies heavily on Franklin for his social status, despite his relatively high class within the realm of the play. Simultaneously, Arden is hostile to lower-class characters who seek to better their station. Reede, the former owner of Faversham Abbey, approaches Arden in Scene 13, intending to persuade him first with “prayers and fair entreaties” about his right to the land (13.7), and if that does not work, with curses. Arden reacts hostilely to Reede’s measured entreaty, threatening him with physical violence. While Arden appears kind and measured, his social maneuvering is cruel and violent.
Alice and Mosby grow increasingly desperate. Though they formerly decided that the poisoned painting was too dangerous to pursue, Alice decides to commission one in case “all the rest do fail” (10.80). Alice and Mosby constantly reiterate their plans to one another, perhaps to soothe themselves. Alice insists that she cannot imagine life without love: “love shall last as long as life remains / And life shall end before my love depart” (10.89-90). These lines are imbued with dramatic irony: though Alice’s life will end, her love for Mosby will end first. Mosby’s answer to Alice is also draped in dramatic irony. He tells Alice that there is no love without “true constancy” (10.91). The audience is aware that in Scene 8, Mosby resolved to kill Alice, fearing her inconstancy.
This desperation, combined with increasing paranoia, produces another bungled attempt on Arden’s life. Alice creates a risky plan to walk arm-in-arm with Mosby and goad Arden into violence. Mosby further taunts Arden with the cuckold’s horns. It is clear from previous scenes that Arden resents the public nature of Alice and Mosby’s offenses, which results in him appearing cuckolded. Since a man’s duty in this patriarchal society was to have control over his family, having an errant wife was emasculating and humiliating. In the scuffle that follows, Mosby and Shakebag are wounded by Arden and Franklin respectively. As he leaves, Mosby says, “I may thank you, Mistress Arden, for this wound” (13.87). Though Alice quickly spins this into a false tale about their attempt to make “jest” with Arden, Mosby probably means this genuinely, as he has grown suspicious of her.
Scene 13 also cements Franklin’s distrust in Alice, which will later become relevant when he is the first to suspect her of murder. He does not believe Alice’s story and is in disbelief that Arden would not only trust her but apologize to Mosby for the offense. Franklin asks, “Why, Master Arden, know you what you do? / Will you follow him that hath dishonored you?” (13.135-146). In an aside at the end of the scene, Franklin bemoans how his friend is “bewitched,” but as Arden’s friend, he does not believe he’s at liberty to speak, since the “devil” that bewitches him is his wife. As always, Franklin is one of the most level-headed and logical characters in the play.
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