One old man. | One poor. | Another. | Another p. | Another old. | Anoth.
Words
323
Characters
1557
Typicality
0.42 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A04888
BritDrama no.
930
Cluster
Cluster 15 — Devils, vices & grotesques
Important excerpts
Passages from this character's speech that contain the most distinguishing words for Cluster 15 (ang, hunc, fleire, shillings, chil, sblood…). Matches are highlighted.
it little better than plain knave rye, for my horse is as honest a horse, as any is in this town. Nay, I pray, be more miserable to me, and I will give you forty shillings when I have it. Marry Jesus bless you: naibor, how many such good Knights have you now a days? Well neighbour, we will have the horse examined be before and officer,
Full speech
God save you sir, I pray be good to me for cham a poor man, and I cannot tell what you will do, for you say my horse hath broken into your corn, or your corn into my horse, But indeed my neighbour saw your boy driven my horse into a field But I'll stand to nothing, now I am warned with a piece of pa per, and a little wax, to prepare or proceed to London, And there I am invented, I cannot tell for what: The Bailiefe here hath arrested me ere I was weary against my will: he said it was upon your suit, & yet he laid his hands on me, Nay more, on my shoulder. Hear you sir, if you should bid your boy break down a gap, and driven in my horse, it little better than plain knave rye, for my horse is as honest a horse, as any is in this town. Nay, I pray, be more miserable to me, and I will give you forty shillings when I have it. Marry Jesus bless you: naibor, how many such good Knights have you now a days? Well neighbour, we will have the horse examined be before and officer, and my boy Jack shall write what the horse speaks and if the horse say a was driven in against his will, Then you may have the law of him, neighbour, For all the horses in the parish will be sworn for his orse. But I'll stand to nothing. My house? why 'tis my goods, my wife, my land, My horse my ass, or any thing that his his: no you Caterpillar, I will never make away my house, I will die first. And sir, and it may please you, I borrowed certain corn, and I brought you your corn again, and yet you rest me. Too few, neighbour, the more is the pity. But come lets away.
Plot summary
Plot — A Knack to Know a Knave
. . Concerned for the good order of his kingdom, King Edgar commissions Honesty to seek out and expose knaves. The dying Bailiff of Hexham advises his four sons to live by fraud and deceit in their various: professions, and to enrich themselves at the expense of the commonweal and the poor..He dies and is carried off by the devil. While Edgar deals with the case of 1592 Philarchus, a courtier who has abused his father, Honesty observes the corrupt dealings of the Bailiff’s sons: Cuthbert, a cony-catcher, who bears false witness in an attempt to take possession of a farm; Walter, a farmer, who oppresses his neighbours and exports corn to feed the enemy; John, a priest, who refuses to give to charity; and Perin, a courtier, who misuses the royal seal and sells Walter an export licence for his corn under pretext of raising revenues for the crown. Meanwhile honest members of the state, from knight to ploughman, complain of their economic decline. Edgar sends Ethenwald to woo Alfrida by proxy, but Ethenwald falls in love with her himself and marries her. The King forgives him and visits the couple (receiving a petition from the mad men of Gotham on the way), but the jealous Ethenwald is convinced that Edgar plans to cuckold him, and has Alfrida and the kitchen maid swap identities during the royal visit. An outraged Edgar sees through the subterfuge and plans to take revenge, but Bishop Dunstan, with the help of the devil, persuades him to pardon Ethenwald instead. Honesty exposes the various knaves he has observed, and, with royal permission, sentences them all to gruesome and unusual punishments.