Cupid's Whirligig is a city comedy: a play in colloquial language dealing with the everyday life of London's citizens. A knight, Sir Timothy Troublesome, suspects his wife of cheating on him and, to prove that any children she bears are not his own, decides to 'geld' himself. Meanwhile, the young Lord Nonsuch dreams of bedding the knight's wife, and in disguise enters the Troublesomes' employ as a servant. Cupid descends from the heavens to cast a love spell on the citizens of London and, by the last act, one character loves another, who loves another, and so on until the last loves the first: a "Cupid's whirligig". The knight's faithful servant, Wages, hatches a plot to match each man with his proper wife.
By : Edward Sharpham (1576 - 1608)
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Acts 1 and 2
Sir Troublesome, overcome with jealousy, suspects that his wife is cheating on him, so he devises a plan to geld (castrate) himself and see if his wife gets pregnant. Distraught Lady Troublesome claims that she is innocent. Young Lord Nonsuch is in love with Lady Troublesome and sends her a love-letter saying that he will come visit her that evening; the Lady shows her husband the letter and together they hatch a plan to catch him and save her reputation. That night, Young Nonsuch arrives disguised as a servant; Sir Troublesome does not recognize him and bribes him to stand guard alone with his wife. A happy Nonsuch takes this opportunity to try and sleep with Lady Troublesome, but she rejects him and sends him away. Sir Troublesome recognizes his signet ring too late as he leaves, and he proceeds to call his wife a bunch of names before leaving to geld himself.
Acts 3 and 4
In the next act, Nonsuch is disguised as a begging soldier named Slacke and Sir Troublesome unknowingly hires his rival as his own servant. Slacke keeps attempting to seduce the Lady while at the same time whispering to his master to divorce her saying that she is pregnant with some other man’s child. Wages notices Slacke’s devious plans and steps in to reconcile the Troublesomes by having Sir Troublesome eavesdrop on his wife as she exclaims how she wishes to be reconciled with her husband and that she is not pregnant. All is well, but then before supper, Captain Wouldlie visits Lady Troublesome and attempts to seduce her; her husband comes home to find them, and she pretends she’s protecting the Captain from a crazy man with a sword (Master Exhibition), which he believes.
Act 5
Act Five starts with Slacke telling Sir Troublesome that it was a lie, Lady Troublesome is indeed sleeping with the Captain. He convinces Sir Troublesome to get a divorce, saying he should marry Peg instead. At this point in the play, Lady Troublesome loves Sir Troublesome who loves Peg who loves Nucome who loves Nan who loves Slacke who loves Lady Troublesome: Cupid’s Whirligig. Wages comes up with a plan to have 3 simultaneous weddings where everyone is masked, having the girls swap tokens to deceive their lovers and end up with the "right" partner. The play ends with Lady Troublesome and Sir Troublesome once again married, Peg and Nucome married, Nan and Slacke (Nonsuch) married, and Wages left on his own, unable to marry Mistress Correction (since she already has a husband).
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