53 pages • 1 hour read
AnonymousArden of Faversham
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1592A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Scenes 14-EpilogueScene Summaries & Analyses
Scene 14 Summary
Content Warning: This scene contains a fictionalized on-stage depiction of a real-life spousal murder.
Greene tells Shakebag and Will that he thinks they should abandon their murder plot, though Shakebag immediately protests. Will lists his previous crimes, wondering why this murder is proving so difficult. Alice enters, asking Michael if Arden has apologized to Mosby. Michael confirms this, saying that Arden told Mosby everything was Franklin’s fault. He says that Arden has invited Mosby and various others to Faversham for dinner.
Alice invites Will and Shakebag to dinner and asks them to recount how Arden escaped. Will describes the fight in detail and promises Alice that they will kill Arden that day. Mosby enters and goes over the new murder plan: Greene will monopolize Franklin with a long story; Mosby will play several friendly games with Arden; Will and Shakebag will hide until they hear the code phrase “now I take you” and then will rush and kill Arden (14.98). Will tells Alice where to position Mosby and Arden, and Alice gives him the keys to the counting house so he can hide.
Michael enters and says Arden is on his way. Alice tells him that Will is waiting and that the murder will happen tonight in their home. Arden enters with Mosby. Alice feigns surprise. Arden instructs her to welcome Mosby, but she continually refuses. In an aside, Mosby comments that Alice can cleverly disassemble. Alice and Mosby continue their bickering, with Arden attempting to mediate, while Michael brings wine and a game of tables.
Mosby and Arden sit down for several games to pass the time before dinner. Will and Shakebag enter from the counting house, crouching behind Michael’s legs to hide until Mosby gives the signal. Once Mosby speaks the code phrase, Will pulls Arden down with a towel. Mosby, Shakebag, and Alice stab Arden. Money in hand, Will and Shakebag move Arden’s body to the counting house and then leave.
Susan enters, saying their dinner guests are at the door. Alice tells Mosby to keep the guests company and tells Susan to clean up Arden’s blood. Susan cannot get the blood stains up, nor can Alice; the more they scrub, the more blood appears. Mosby enters, and Alice says that they should not have killed Arden. She is tormented by guilt. Mosby says to forget about Arden because he is her husband now.
The guests enter, and Bradshaw asks Alice why she is crying. Mosby says it is because Alice is worried about Arden being out so late since ruffians had threatened him the night before. Greene enters, and Alice asks if he has seen Arden. Greene says he recently saw Arden walking behind the Abbey. Alice asks the same of Franklin when he enters; he has not seen Arden since that morning. She seats the guests, telling Mosby to take Arden’s seat.
Susan tells Michael she’s afraid they’ll be betrayed, so he says he will buy ratsbane to poison their betrayer, who he fears will be Alice. Mosby calls for a toast to Alice’s husband, which makes her cry again, drawing Franklin’s attention. Alice says her heart is tormented and she knows something is amiss with Arden. Greene tries to calm Alice, but she tells Franklin to search until he finds him. Franklin is suspicious but he, Mosby, and Greene leave to find Arden while Bradshaw and Adam leave on account of the time.
Alice is distraught, first telling Susan to find her brother and then begging her to stay. She and Susan drag Arden’s body from the counting house. Greene and Mosby come upon them and say Franklin thinks they’ve killed Arden. Michael enters, saying the Mayor and the parish night watch are coming to their house. They move Arden’s body to a field. Greene and Mosby go to spend the night at an inn. Susan is worried that their footsteps leading to the field will be detected in the snow, but Alice calls her worries foolish.
The Mayor enters with a warrant for Will’s arrest and wants to search the house. Franklin enters with news that Arden is dead, as well as a bloody hand towel and knife that Michael thought he threw in a well. Franklin says that he found footprints in the snow between the house and the field and that he found Arden wearing house slippers, indicating he was killed inside. The Mayor points out Arden’s lingering bloodstains. Franklin orders Michael and Susan arrested and tells someone to seek Mosby at the nearby inn.
Scene 15 Summary
The old lover Shakebag sought refuge with turned him away. He pushed her down the stairs, breaking her neck, and cut her throat. He plans to throw her body into the Thames and seek refuge across the river.
Scene 16 Summary
The Mayor leads Alice to Arden’s body, where he tells her to confess. Alice laments her crime and expresses remorse. Mosby names the other conspirators whom he hired.
Scene 17 Summary
Will says that while Shakebag has found sanctuary, he is being pursued. He must flee England for the Netherlands.
Scene 18 Summary
Bradshaw is condemned to death for carrying the letter from Greene to Alice, though Alice attests that he did not know the letter’s contents. Mosby and Alice express disgust with one another. Susan laments that she has to die when she did not know of the plot until it was complete. Michael says he only took part for Susan’s sake. The Mayor passes down his sentence: Susan and Mosby will be executed in London; Alice will be burned at Canterbury; and Bradshaw and Michael will be executed in Faversham. Alice hopes her death will make up for her sins. Mosby’s last words condemn women. Susan says her last hope is in heaven. Michael says that at least he is dying with Susan, and Bradshaw says that his blood is on the men who condemned him.
Epilogue Summary
Franklin addresses the audience directly with news that Shakebag was murdered in Southwark, Will burned in the Netherlands, Greene hanged near Faversham, and the painter Clarke has fled. He notes that Arden was murdered on the land he held by force and violence from Reede and that no grass grew where his body was found for two years. Franklin appeals to the audience to pardon the unadorned nature of this tragedy. This true story needs no poetic or literary adornment.
Scenes 14-Epilogue Analysis
These scenes portray the murder of Arden and its aftermath, including the characters’ heightened paranoia and mental deterioration and their final words before death. After the many bungled attempts on Arden’s life, his murder is no cleaner. Will drags Arden to the floor, where Shakebag, Mosby, and Alice stab him until he dies, each listing their motivation for murder. Mosby kills Arden for the “pressing-iron” that Arden taunted Mosby with in Scene 1, while Alice kills Arden “for hind’ring Mosby’s love and mine” (14.232). This juxtaposition of motivations reveals that ultimately, Alice cares for Mosby more than he cares for her. Mosby’s primary concern is reflected in the theme of Class Tension and Social Mobility. As he confessed in Scene 8, since he has climbed the social ladder, he fears falling. Arden’s taunts in Scene 1—which highlighted the tools of Mosby’s former trade —hold the most weight in his mind. Alice, on the other hand, is most concerned with love. While this could indicate a selfless love for Mosby, it more likely indicates the relationship between Female Sexuality and Autonomy. Exercising her sexuality outside the bonds of marriage is a way that Alice, as a woman in early modern England, can exercise autonomy. Shakebag stabs Arden “for the ten pound in my sleeve” (14.230). Shakebag’s primary motivation is expressed in the theme of Immorality for Individual Gain. He cares only about money and will commit any immoral act if he is paid for it.
After Arden is murdered, Michael and Alice experience heightened paranoia. Michael has long felt doubt about the murder and feared retribution by Will and Shakebag. The stress of this makes him a liability: both Will and the more sympathetic Susan think Michael will betray them. Michael suspects Alice will betray them and tells Susan he will buy ratsbane to poison her. Alice sobs at any mention of Arden during the dinner party, which catches Franklin’s attention and makes him suspicious. In an aside, Mosby says, “She will undo us through her foolishness” (14.302). While he has long been suspicious of Alice for her inconstancy, her last-minute guilt and postmortem devotion to Arden endanger the conspirators.
Will notes that Arden is “preserved by miracle” (14.25), indicating that supernatural providence oversees his life. This providence continues in death, as several supernatural scenes heighten Alice’s guilt and repentance. Early modern belief held that miraculous circumstances could help identify someone’s murderer: two such miracles feature in the play. The first is Arden’s indelible bloodstains. The harder that Susan and Alice attempt to clean them, the more blood appears. These unremovable stains indicate foul play when the Mayor spots them later in the scene. The Mayor declares the blood “is too manifest” (14.398)—it has manifested to declare Alice’s guilt. Similarly, Arden’s body begins to bleed anew when Alice goes to see it. Early modern English belief held that the bodies of murdered people would bleed anew in the presence of their murderers. The phenomenon was sometimes admissible in court, and so as Alice notes, the blood condemns her in the eyes of the law.
The conspirators’ final words reveal their mental states at the end of the play. The most paranoid characters in the play, Michael and Mosby, welcome death: Michael says, “I care not” (18.37) while Mosby says, “I have lived too long” (18.35). Mosby also uses his last words to condemn womankind, saying, “Fie upon women: this shall be my song” (18.34). Previously, Mosby expressed suspicion over Female Sexuality and Autonomy, and his true thoughts about women are revealed in his final moments. Alice is the only repentant character; she regrets her actions and hopes that her death will make up for them. Alice’s repentance re-establishes the patriarchal order she defies.
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