ABSTRACT
At the end of Eastward Ho the wayward prodigal Quicksilver has been brought by a series of trials and tribulations to repents his sins and ask forgiveness from his master Touchstone. Touchstone has doubted the possibility of his sincerity but is brought to relent by the persistence of his ‘good’ apprentice Golding. He is now prepared, as a surrogate ‘father’, to give grace to his contrite son:
I can no longer forbear to do your humility right. Arise and let me honour your ‘Repentance5 with the hearty and joyful embraces of a father and friend’s love. Quicksilver, thou hast eat into my breast with the drops of thy sorrow, and killed the desperate opinion I had of thy reclaim. (5.5.118-22)
With this speech Quicksilver is released from prison and incorporated back into the community thus providing a comic ending of reconciliation and social renewal. According to Northrop Frye’s anatomy of comic form, the escape of the rebellious ‘hero’ from the constricting confines of society is traditionally followed by a point of crisis which may involve the near death of the hero or heroine or some kind of ritually symbolic death. This is then resolved by some twist in the plot which may centre around the miraculous resurrection of the protagonist/s and the subsequent transformation of the social community.1 Quicksilver’s escape, first from the restrictions of his apprenticeship, and then from drowning, followed by his penitence and forgiveness and his subsequent return to the arms of his ‘family’ all indicate a spiritual and communal regeneration.
