Workshop Discovery 4: Cockledemoy v the Mulligrubs
Discussing Freevill’s self-proclaimed role as Malheureux’s moral tutor, our discussion naturally turned towards Cockledemoy, Freevill’s counterpart in the B-plot of the play. In a series of comic scenes, Cockledemoy repeatedly dupes the Mulligrubs out of their wealth – first pretending to be a barber, putting a coxcomb over Mulligrub’s eyes under the guise of protecting them from soap, and stealing a bag of gold once Mulligrub is blinded; next tricking Mrs Mulligrub into believing he's a servant sent to fetch a goblet to be engraved before a dinner party (and then stealing the salmon dinner too), and finally, convincing a trio of constables to arrest Mulligrub for thievery – which final act gets Mulligrub, like Malheureux, sentenced to death.
In performance the Cockledemoy-Mulligrub scenes are undoubtedly hilarious. But they also raise questions about the various characters’ insider/outsider statuses within their community – who gets to break the law without consequence and who is vulnerable to violence at the hands of the law. What distinguishes Cockledemoy’s thievery from the Mulligrubs’?
Daniel Coo, as Cockledemoy, told us that he viewed the trickster as a moral instrument, citing Cockledemoy’s speech in act 5, in which he publicly denounces the Mulligrubs for diluting their wines and cheating their customers. As far as Coo was concerned, the Mulligrubs were petty criminals exploiting their own community, and Cockledemoy was giving them a taste of their own behaviour. Coo also pointed out that Cockledemoy returns everything he steals. But the group also wondered whether the Cockledemoy plot is simply thinly veiled xenophobia given that the Mulligrubs are outsiders to the main plot, and associated with foreign (Dutch) religion. Cockledemoy’s speech about the Mulligrub’s adulterated wines is suspiciously nationalized:
You have been a broacher of profane vessels; you have made us drink of the juice of the whore of Babylon, for whereas good ale, perries, braggets, ciders, and metheglins, was the true ancient British and Trojan drinks, you ha' brought in Popish wines, Spanish wines, French wines, tam Marti quam Mercurio, both muscadine and malmsey, to the subversion, staggering, and sometimes overthrow of many a good Christian. (5.3)
Just how welcome are the Mulligrubs in this London community?
In a lighter vain, Megan Adam and Alan Belerique treated us to their take on the Mulligrubs’ relationship. Adam suggested Mrs Mulligrub is the brains of the operation – she might be a bit pretentious and full of herself, but she keeps everything together when her husband loses both his money and his wits. She soothes Mulligrub about their losses by telling him ‘tis but a week’s cutting the term' (2.3). While Mulligrub is dressing himself for important, fantastical meetings in town, getting shaved, and railing about being made a fool of, she’s busy running their tavern, making the money to support his pretensions. Belerique agreed that probably Mrs Mulligrub is the real power behind the couple, but defended Mulligrub’s honour reminding us that from his point of view, it’s his wife who behaves irrationally, dressing up for exclusive dinners that will never materialize. As marriages go, the Mulligrubs are fairly dysfunctional – but they’ll probably fare better than Beatrice and Freevill.