Passages from this character's speech that contain the most distinguishing words for Cluster 20 (ithimore, nat, invisible, notary, glycerie, humfrey…). Matches are highlighted.
comers. The dame of the house? Let me see your hands, and look on me stead fastly with your eyes. You shall be married to morrow hand in hand, by the laws of good nature & the land, your parents shall be glad, & give you their land, you shall each of you displace a fool, & both together must relieve a fool. If this be not true
you be found cozeners. I take no money, but good words, rail not if I tell true, if I do not revenge. Farewell. Exit Bom. Welcome sister. In studying to be ouernaturall thou art Like to be unnatural, and all about a natural: thou shalt be eased of a charge if thou thy conscience discharge, and this I commit to thy charge.
Full speech
Whose there. Farewell fair fool, little dost thou know thy hard fortune, but in the end thou shalt, & that must bewray what none can discover, in the mean season I will profess cunning for all comers. The dame of the house? Let me see your hands, and look on me stead fastly with your eyes. You shall be married to morrow hand in hand, by the laws of good nature & the land, your parents shall be glad, & give you their land, you shall each of you displace a fool, & both together must relieve a fool. If this be not true call me old fool. I say Mother Bombie never speaks but once, and yet never spoke untruth once. Why do you rap so hard at the door? If never to do harm be to do good, I dare say I am not ill. But whats the matter? Dreams my son have their weight, though they be of a troubled mind, yet are they signs of for tune. Say on. Well, take this for answer, though the dream be fantastical, they that in the morning sleep dream of eating, are in danger of sickness, or of beating, or shall hear of a wedding fresh a beating. But thy years and humours pretty child, are subject to such fancies, which the more unsensible they seem, the more fantastical they are, therefore this dream is easy. To children this is given from the Gods to dream of milk, fruit, babies and rods, they betoken nothing but that wantons must have rods. Thy spoon is not stolen but mislaid, thou art and ill huswife though a good maid, look for thy spoon where thou hadst Like to be no maid. Thy father does live because he does die, thou hast spent all thy thrist with a die, and so like a beggar thou shalt die. You shall all thrive Like cozeners, that is, to be coosned by cozeners: all shall end well, and you be found cozeners. I take no money, but good words, rail not if I tell true, if I do not revenge. Farewell. Exit Bom. Welcome sister. In studying to be ouernaturall thou art Like to be unnatural, and all about a natural: thou shalt be eased of a charge if thou thy conscience discharge, and this I commit to thy charge. Thou shalt know before this day end, farewell. They lie, I am a cunning woman. Hold up thy hand, not so high, thy fa there knows thee not, thy mother bore thee not, falsely bred, truly begotten, choice of two husbands, but never tyedin bands, because of love and nam turall bonds. If thou be not, it is impossible thou shouldst be, and a shame thou art not. What would you with me? Nay my house is no Inn. Belike thou wentest supperless to bed.
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…