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Act 3, Scene 4
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
Wellbred, Edward, Brainworm, Bobadil, Matthew, and Stephen arrive. Edward and Wellbred are praising Brainworm for his skill as an “artificer.” They ask Cash for Kitely’s whereabouts; Cash, starting to panic at the men’s arrival, informs them that Kitely has gone to Justice Clement. Cash frantically calls for Cob.
Edward and Wellbred enjoy Brainworm’s antics because they speak to their general taste for mischief and, furthermore, serve Edward’s aims of evading his father.
Themes
Bobadil takes out some “Trinidado” tobacco, praising it gushingly as the most “divine” tobacco he knows. Cob arrives and complains about the “roguish tobacco,” which he says is “good for nothing but to choke a man.” Bobadil beats him with a “cudgel.” Cash drags Cob away, with Bobadil hurling insults at him.
Bobadil’s praise for the tobacco matches his own talent for self-aggrandizement. Bobadil is happy to attack Cob because the latter man seems weak and unthreatening.
Themes
Literary Devices
Bobadil and Matthew go inside, with the latter hoping to charm Mistress Bridget with his “verse.” Wellbred and Edward go inside to have the “happiness to hear some of his poetry now.”
Wellbred and Edward are delighted to have the opportunity to witness Matthew’s foolishness first hand.
Themes
