Passages from this character's speech that contain the most distinguishing words for Cluster 19 (piety, thalander, crimes, blessings, loathed, pretend…). Matches are highlighted.
Sweet sister, I know not how it comes to pass, but I find in my self passion more than brotherly. Our parents are poor, our love unnatural, what can then happen to make us happy? It is good counsel fair sister, if the nieces sity of love could be relieved by counsel, yet
such old hags, are but false fires to lead one out of a plain path into a deep pit. How happy is Maestius thou blessed Serena, that being neither children to poor parents, nor bro there and sister by nature, may enjoy their love by con sent of parents and nature. How shall we requite fortune, that to our loves hath added lawfulness,
Full speech
Sweet sister, I know not how it comes to pass, but I find in my self passion more than brotherly. Our parents are poor, our love unnatural, what can then happen to make us happy? It is good counsel fair sister, if the nieces sity of love could be relieved by counsel, yet this is our comfort, that these unnatural heats have stretched themselves no further than thoughts, un happy me that they should stretch so. So it is Serena, the nearer we are in blood, the further we must be from love, and the greater the kindred is, the less the kindness must be, so that be tween brother's & sisters superstition hath made of fection cold, between strangers custom hath bred love exquisite. Nor any good I think Serena, yet to satisfy thy mind we will see what she can say. who is within? She might have said the beldame, for her face and years, and attire. This is my sister, marry we cannot: our pa rends are poor and have no land to give us, each of us is a fool to come for counsel to such and old fool. Content sweet sister, and learn of me hereaf ter, that these old saws of such old hags, are but false fires to lead one out of a plain path into a deep pit. How happy is Maestius thou blessed Serena, that being neither children to poor parents, nor bro there and sister by nature, may enjoy their love by con sent of parents and nature. How shall we requite fortune, that to our loves hath added lawfulness, and to our poor estate competent living?
Plot summary
Plot — Mother Bombie
Menmiphio and Stellig each has a fool for his only child, — a son and a daughter respectively, but both have managed to conceal the fact from the neighbours. Each plans to marry his offspring to the other’s without disclosing the heir’s mental debility, and each tasks his servant to make the arrangements. Meanwhile, @amidiliis and [ivid are in love with one another, but their parents disapprove, wanting them to marry wealth instead: Candius is made to woo Stellio’s daughter Sil@mla, and Livia is intended for Memphio’s son Al@GiiS] The four fathers’ boy servants conspire to frustrate these various . marital plans, and go off to drink at the tavern. Candius meets Silena as she sneaks out to hear her fortune, and offers to read her palm. He is momentarily struck by her beauty, but quickly discovers that she is an idiot, a legitimate impediment to marriage. Mother Bomibié tells Silena’s fortune in cryptic terms: she is not the child of her parents. The fortune teller is also consulted by the siblings M@eStiiS and Sérénaj] who have developed an incestuous passion for one another; Mother Bombie tells them that they shall be married and each will displace a fool. The boys arrange for Candius and Livia to swap apparel with the two idiots, and they are married in disguise, with their own fathers as witnesses. Accius and Silena court one another in disguise, but their marriage prospects take a turn for the worse after each father identifies the other’s child as a fool. DE@Rilio is arrested for failing to feed a horse he hired; the other boys enter a bond to pay off his creditor, but then get the hackneyman, sergeant, and scrivener drunk, and pay for the wine by pawning the sergeant’s mace. Early the next morning, three fiddlers, advised of the wedding, struggle to identify the right house to serenade. Prisils and Spérantus discover that Candius ===== PAGE 465 ===== 1589 and Livia are married. The four servants confess their part in the affair, and the four fathers are content: Prisius and Sperantus accept the fait accompli, and Memphio and Stellio are willing to marry the fools to one another after all. Wi€inid intervenes to prevent an incestuous marriage: eighteen years ago, she swapped them for her own children, counterfeiting their distinctive birthmarks; the true heirs of Memphio and Stellio are Maestius and Serena. Mother Bombie has Predicted everything accurately. Nobody is to be punished or left dissatisfied: Vicinia is pardoned, the hackneyman paid, and the…