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Act 2, Scene 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Every Man in His Humour, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Language
Human Folly
Authenticity
Parenthood
Summary
Analysis
Cob comes by, delivering water. Kitely laments the fact that he ever let Wellbred into his house, doubling down on his worry that he is likely to be cuckolded: “Beware, / When mutual appetite doth meet to treat […] It is no slow conspiracy that follows.”
This marks the beginning of Kitely’s increasing paranoia about being cuckolded. Essentially, he fears that a “mutual” attraction between his wife and Wellbred can only lead to one thing.
Themes
Dame Kitely and Mistress Bridget Kitely (Kitely’s sister) arrive. Dame Kitely sees that Kitely looks agitated and asks him whether he is feeling okay. Kitely feigns having a fever; his wife asks him to come in out of the cold. In an aside on his way into the house, Kitely worries about his growing jealousy and resolves to try to “shake the fever off, that thus shakes me.”
