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Dramatic Irony
Act 4, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Downright and Wellbred:
Wellbred and Downright, two half-brothers from a prominent upper class family, serve as foils to each other throughout the play. While Wellbred is charming but poorly behaved, Downright is honest but dour, aggressive, and unlikeable. The contrast between these two brothers heightens the characterization of each. In the few scenes in the play where they interact with each other directly, this contrast is more apparent:
WELLBRED
My companions?DOWNRIGHT
Yes sir, your companions, so I say, I am not afraid of you, nor them neither: your hang-bys here. You must have your poets, and your potlings, your soldados, and foolados, to follow you up and down the City, and here they must come to domineer, and swagger. Sirrah, you, ballad-singer, and slops, your fellow there, get you out: get you home; or, by this steel, I'll cut off your ears, and that presently.WELLBRED
'Slight, stay, let's see what he dare do: cut off his ears? Cut a whetstone. You are an ass, do you see?
Wellbred spends time with a large and disorganized social group including other young gentlemen of a similar class, such as Edward, and also those from lower classes. Downright criticizes his brother’s choice in friends, identifying them as “hang-bys,” who survive on the charity of others, and further, as “poets” and “ballad-singers.” His speech here reflects his generally serious and humorless personality, which stands in stark contrast to the pleasure-loving and charismatic Wellbred, who responds by referring to his brother as an “ass” or jerk.
