Now, the tables are turned. Rash brings up the threat of sergeants, but Spendall knows he is not in danger, and it's only words coming out of Rash's mouth that have no effect on him. If the only "face of ill" is Rash teasingly trying to scare him, then he knows he has nothing to worry about, especially compared to and remembering the actual physical and psychological dangers he has faced as a neglected, imprisoned debtor who might have slowly starved on dinnertable scraps.

In fact, Spendall's insulting of Holdfast works against him; he keeps some dignity but Holdfast turns against him and asks another keepr to "use him as scuruily as thou canste."

Holdfast follows faithfully the command to "be plaine" with Spendall: if he cannot pay, he cannot stay in this more expensive ward. Again, Spendall's rhetoric has no material effect: his clever quip about not having the Philosophers' Stones is unacknowledged and Holdfast does not budge from his assertion that he must "remove into some cheaper Ward" even when Spendall insists he has no money. Later, when Spendall points out Holdfast's moralizing over the basket, Holdfastness says merely, "your mallapertnes will get you nothing," confirming that clever words mean little in the bare economic exchanges of the prison.

Spendall calls out Holdfast's hypocritical preaching, noting that for all his talk of "good men" eating alms-baskets scraps, Holdfast reacts to these scraps with physical disgust, and "[talks] contemptibly of it, and of the feeders." This points to the humiliation of being in the Hole, too, where you are forced to eat these scraps in front of smirking jailors.

Prison wardens are concerned not with prisoners' lives but their money, and in this scene we learn that in prison Spendall has indeed spent all, and needs to sell the clothes that were once his job to sell to others, and that he then owned as shopkeeper and used to fund his luxurious and generous lifestyle. If clothing is a form of identity, then Spendall is essentially forced to sell his identity here.

He enters immediately after, and I have to wonder: what is he wearing if he has sold all his clothes? Presumably nothing of value, as compared to his earlier(?) finer clothes. The line is said so close to his entrance that I would assume that it's a significant introducer of his character in prison, and it would be contradictory to have this line and then have him enter immediately in quality clothing.

When we see the keepers of the prison, we immediately see them reckoning what is owed to them. Their concern from the moment their on stage is with money, and prisoner payments; prisoner fees are their bread and butter and the stage makes that connection quite clear.

This part does not say whether or not these characters had props, but they may have had things like keyrings to indicate who and where they were. There are no stage directions saying "Counter"--it is expressed through the language and presentation rather than staging, it would seem, or at least the staging is not made so explicit here.

While she is hiding her true affection for Staines, she also makes some important social commentary here about how men treat women, particularly ones whose kindness is twisted into and interpreted as sexual availability. Perhaps this pairs well with some of the social commentary coming out of Spendall later on false friends and cruel imprisonments.

This gang of former associates further undercuts any sense that Spendall's heated speech had any effect on them, whether by inducing pity or fear. Instead, they explicitly say that people don't "[take] example by each other" and plan to use the goods they've finagled out of him, without any guilt. "Let him talke in prison," Tickleman says, knowing they won't have to listen, and that they can enjoy his goods while he rails against them, unheard and uneffective.

This seems to be a "washing of the hands"--if Spendall is the sergeants' prisoner, which they affirm, then he is out of their hands, and not "a part of them." Once prisoner, he is no longer their friend or part of their social group--he is not associated with or helped by them.

Sweatman also frames it as a "tough love" rehabilitation, where prison will "tame" him and "teach" him to lead a better life. Prisons in other plays are also framed as educative, and here it also framed as disciplinary. Even if it is not structured to punish, it ultimately does. by taming wild youths.

Lionell ceases the goods in the store, which makes Spendall more vulnerable, but he at this point already has used up--"consumed"--them. He's also already notorious for it--people know he's nearly spent all the money he has, and are preparing to arrest him for his debts.

Affects like anger, pain, fear do not evoke compassion, but money can buy it. In this case, too, the sergeants are aware that even if Spendall buys them off now, he won't have enough funds to do so later when they are called to arrest him, so it is a cynical and calculated taking of his money.

In Middleton's The Puritan, there is a similar scene, where Witgood, surprised by sergeants and desperate to stay out of prison, requests that they take him to the house of a Gentleman who, he claims, owes him money for a play plot. The difference there is that Witgood, true to name, has the wit to devise a plan that saves him from imprisonment: in an aside, he tells the Gentleman, who is really a stranger, that he has tricked the sergeants into believing the Gentleman owes him money, and pleas with him to let him escape through a backdoor. The Gentleman, impressed by the cleverness of his plan, agrees. The difference between Spendall and Witgood is not only that Witgood is clever in the moment, but that he is practiced in his cleverness: he expects these kinds of pitfalls and risks, and is therefore prepared to devise schemes in the moment that save him. Spendall seems completely unaware of this possibility, and he can be taken advantage of for this reason.

"Grip"=slang term for an officer, because they tended to "grip" an unsuspecting person's shoulder in order to arrest them. Even this suggests how suddenly a person can go from freed to confined, and how wary many people in a credit economy had to be even in the midst of celebratory social activities.

Also a sense that this one action leads to his immediate ruin. He will be "undone" if he is imprisoned, whereas before these sergeants appeared he seemed to be living contentedly (even if he did only just say there was little cash on his person, which hinted at how much he had spent).

What turns these three against Spendall is that he has become a "Banqerout"--they treat it like something catching, where his bankruptcy immediately leads to the door being shut against him. It's not just that they plan not to talk to him anymore--they literally want to close the doors and bar him out completely. Another immediate, rapidfire change in Spendall's treatment, circumstances, freedom, and agency.

These characters also show an awareness that imprisonment will not necessarily be brief and painless for Spendall. They seem to take his bankruptcy as a personal offense that means he deserves a long and rotten prison stay. Noteworthy is that if they were to step up with a few shillings, they could prevent his imprisonment, or at least delay it.

"Cashiered" is also a word Iago uses to rail against the idea of being a servant who is used and then tossed out by a master: in that context he speaks of being cashiered like an old mule. That resonance seems to apply here too, where this group of former friends utterly dismisses him. The word gives a sense of someone, in one swoop, being totally trashed, dismissed, neglected.

He is eloquent and ferocious in his curses, but his rhetoric has little material effect: Tickleman, Sweatman and Pursenet are not moved to repent or change, and the sergeants are completely indifferent. Money would move any of these characters to action, but not Spendall's anger or misery.

It undermines the potency of his cursing somewhat to have impatient officers asking him whether he's finished or not.

Another rapid-fire event is how quickly creditors fall in upon him. When Lionel seizes the shop goods, Spendall loses access to his source of wealth, and once the people he owes knows he does not have this credit behind him, they strike. It is not just one creditor but all of them at once.

Again, the scene highlights the suddenness of his arrest: one moment he makes dinner plans, the next he is under arrest

Adversity comes as soon and as suddenly as she names it, and she is soon called out on her promise, which it becomes clear is exaggerated.

The sergeants' sudden entrance also emphasizes how quickly a person can go from free in the world, flattered and making dinner plans, to confined, disowned by friends, and alone.

Comparison of bodies to clothing materials. She is desirable like desirable velvet.

Another reminder threaded in to emphasize the economic stresses characters are acutely aware of. In the love plot, too, marriageable young women need to be equipped from enough money to make them desirable, even if their father risks debt and harm to his credit.

Spendall, in this scene, also proves himself a noble and fair person, who shows up honestly to duel and fights fairly. This adds weight and tragedy to what happens to him later: he's not just a flat "unthrift," but a generous friend and fair fighter. That curries some sympathy for him.

There is some irony in this statement, as Spendall means it literally (it won't protect Staines from a sword), but it also is true that the clothing shop does not keep Spendall safe, financially; the clothing material is a limited resource that he is using as a safety net, but his own words reveal this is not a wise move.

Metatheatrical reference

Spendall earlier aspires to be lord mayor rather than lord; here he doubles down, with a firm statement that he is "a Citizen." The directness of the statement implies he is proud of this role, and that to be a citizen is equal to being a gentleman, for he will still "meete [Staines] in the field as fairely as the best Gentleman that weares a sword."

A sign of the limits of his resources. He lacks money and, true, he can receive more by pawning clothing materials, but what happens once he has pawned the whole shop?

However, for taking his youthful pleasures, he is confined in a prison. He speaks metaphorically, scoffingly, without an awareness of the potentiality of physical confinement.

Spendall is already notorious and well-known for his generosity. It's spread beyond just his associates.

The "court" here seems to be a tavern, so others are seeing him as a kind of gentleman too--and marvelling at him, his willingness to put down on gambling as much as would buy 5,000 capons. Pursenet makes it clear that this is something to be taken advantage of--"A man may winne from him that cares not for't."

Bubbles takes in Staines' advice as training in "gentleman-like behavior."

Spendall also lives by this philosophy. Here it is one shaped purposely to Bubble's ruin, but he soaks in the advice. To me it seems a kind of fantasy of being a citizen lord (in a time when even lords and gentlemen dealt with economic loss and household and land downsizing).

Once he has his uncle's wealth, he goes immediately to spending money not just on some luxurious clothing, but on several kinds of it in great amounts. He seems to associate wealth with limitless buying power, rather than the prospect of being embroiled in debt. Also highlighted a few lines later than he orders several yards of various fabrics.

Thinking of ways this love plot parallels the Spendall plot, it seems that economic languages of love pop up to describe Geraldine's wooing of Gartred. Specifically here, Joyce sees him "begging one poore penny-worth of kindnesses"--but this metaphorically love begging is paralleled with real begging, when we see the prisoners getting alms-basket scraps.

Certainly an evocative name: "whirlpit" is another word for "whirlpool" ("whirlpit," OED).

Again Spendall is dismissive of money and of having any care of it, to present himself as so moneyed that he doesn't need to be concerned about his resources. It's not just overvalued by people but is "rubbish." He's so anxious to not be scavenger or usurer that he goes the complete opposite way (ultimately, to his own harm).

Again, Rash asks him for clothing, and Spendall says not only yes, but that he will offer more, that Rash and his friends can "command [him] to the last remnant." He presents himself as unceasingly generous as if his resources, too, have no ceasing. Yet there are some dark consequences to being taken for every "last remnant," when lordly generosity does not actually come with a lordship (and when lords themselves in this period are selling off their lands and homes because of debt).

These "friends" of Spendall, while manipulative, are also, at least according to Nan Tickleman's speech, themselves in economically precarious situations; they may be squeezing Spendall for what they can get, but they are also playing a tricky game of avoiding bankruptcy and debt.

Spendall has absorbed the message to "not be covetous," trying to distance himself from any associations with usuriousness. Pursenet claims he is heroic for such claims and actions. Overall, there is a distancing in this scene from the credit economy that they are so clearly a part of, as will be seen soon enough when Spendall is arrested for debt.

Spendall, in trying to emphasize his carefree generosity, goes beyond his friends' requests--offering Pursenet a whole suit and cloak lining before he can even ask.

"By this wine"--this seems to be a more tipsy swear than that of his hand, earlier, and perhaps belies some of his projection as a dignified, lordly-citizen who bequeaths gifts upon other members of the city.

Here again his friends play into Spendall's self image to their advantage, through a false humility.

Spendall frames himself as having citizen/city sprezzatura rather than courtly. He will be a generous provider for the citizens of the city, who makes another Shrovestuesday by his resources.

When Spendall enters here, versus in the first scene, his tone is very different. In the first scene, he implores people to buy, and can barely get his distracted customer's attention; here, he makes commands. The shop and its attendant money has infused him with some confidence and sense of power--as well as a social generosity meant to show off his newfound wealth. His companions shrewdly take advantage of this, by urging to buy more wine (a pottle, not a quart) and new clothing. They manipulate him by saying "let's ne'r be couetous in our yong dayes," as if to imply if he does not give them these gifts he would be stingy with his wealth, associated with groups like usurers.

Spendall builds on these assumptions by saying "why here's my hand" and "Why, did I euer faile of my promise?" That is to say, he buys in to this image of himself as a generous, almost lordly figure providing for his friends, whose word should be taken as enough of a bond (rather than needing actual bonds or contracts). In this case he is perhaps resisting a more mercantile image of himself, and taking on a sort of courtly sprezzatura ("Ease of manner, studied carelessness; the appearance of acting or being done without effort; spec. of literary style or performance," OED)

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "A cordial drink made of wine flavoured with spices, formerly much in vogue" (labelled as obsolete).

This brief allusion to prisoners eating out of alms-baskets is later illustrated and embodied when Spendall is a prisoner, and expresses disgust over eating out of the alms-basket, while simultaneously knowing that hunger will ultimately push him to eat from it. This depiction of userers as cheap and greedy fits with other depictions from the period; however, knowing later that Spendall refers to the food from these baskets as "overlick't by dogs," there is added another association: that of usurors as animalistic and base. (B3-B3v)

Another foreshadowing here: by "not fail[ing]" his friends, and spending money on them, he does lose his freedom (through his imprisonment).

Opening line that sets the tone; repeated later by Spendall, who is also seen here asking for "fine" handkerchiefs while also selling fine clothing.

"What lack you": A common mercentile/sellers phrase, featured in A booke in Englysh metre, of the great marchaunt man called Diues Pragmaticus, very preaty for children to rede: wherby they may the better, and more readyer, rede and wryte wares and implementes, in this world contayned (1563), which can be found on EEBO. A selection from it can be found here: https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/what-lack-you-sir-what-seek-you-what-will-you-buy

This line immediately sets up the nature of Spendall and Mistress Tickleman's relationship: while she appeals to his "loue," the letter comes with an expectation of money. It hints at what will happen later, when a bankrupt Spendall is ignored and decried by Nan.