Passages from this character's speech that contain the most distinguishing words for Cluster 3 (numps, numpes, blastfield, wares, parson, nidden…). Matches are highlighted.
wings, and all my Hope's fly certain. Colax be bold: thou seest the Prester John. Well England, of all Countries in the World Most blind to thy own good. other Nations Woo me to take the bridle in my hands With gifts and presents; had I lived in Room Who durst with Canus stand a candidate? I might have choice of Aedile, Consul,
Full speech
I wonder that I hear no news from Court! The honourable Canus? 'Tis decreed I am a Privy Counsellor; our new honours Cannot so altar us as that we can Forget our Friends, walk with us our familiar. It's strange that I the best experienced The skilfullest and the rarest of all Carpenters, Should not be yet a Privy Counselor! Surely the State wants eyes, or has drunk opium And sleeps; but when it wakes it cannot choose But meet the glorious beams of my deserts Bright as the rising Sun, and say to England, England behold thy light! How? I a Constable? What might I be in your opinion Sir? Very well; And yet you would make me a Constable. I'll evidently demonstrate that of all men Your Carpentes are best Statesmen; of all Carpenters I being the best, am best of Statesmen too: Imagine Sir the Commonwealth a Log, Or a rude block of wood; your Statesman comes, (For by that word I mean a Carpenter) And with the saw of Policy divides it Into so many boards or several order, Of Prince, Nobility, Gentry, and the other Inferior boards called Vulgar, fit for nothing But to make styles, or planks to be trod over, Or trampled on: This adds unto the Log Called Commonwealth at least some small perfection: But afterwards he plains them, and so makes The Commonwealth, that was before a board, A pretty Wainscoat; some he carves with Titles Of Lord, or Knight, or Gentleman; Some stand plain, And serve us more for use then Ornament, We call them Yeomen; (Boards now out of fashion.) And lest the disproportion break the frame, He with the pegs of amity and concord, As with the glew-pot of good Government Joints they together, makes and absolute Edifice Of the Republic: State-skilled Machiavell Was certainly a Carpenter; yet you think A Constable a Giant Dignity. Colax what news? Heaven take his soul! When I am the Grand Sophy, as it's likely I may be, Colax thou art made for ever. And I no Bashaw yet? Sultan repent it! And can that State be so supinely negligent, As not to know whom they may choose their Duke? Then my Fortune's rise On confident wings, and all my Hope's fly certain. Colax be bold: thou seest the Prester John. Well England, of all Countries in the World Most blind to thy own good. other Nations Woo me to take the bridle in my hands With gifts and presents; had I lived in Room Who durst with Canus stand a candidate? I might have choice of Aedile, Consul, Tribune, Or the perpetual Dictators place. I could discharge they all: I know my merits Are large, and boundless: A Caesar might be hewed Out of a Carpenter, if a skilful workman But undertook it. I go, that want no worth to merit honour; It's honour that wants worth to merit me. Fortune, thou arbitress of humane things Thy credit is at stake: if I but rise The World's opinion will conceive th'hast eyes.
Plot summary
Plot — The Muses' Looking Glass
Bird and Mistress Flowerdew, Puritan residents of Blackfriars, bring their wares to the theatre, but are appalled when Roscius tells them they have been ordered for use as props in a filthy stage play. Roscius argues that they themselves make a living from the vice of vanity, and invites them to see the play before they condemn it; he will give them a running commentary on its moral import. Despite Roscius’ high claims, Comedy and Tragedy seem initially more concerned about the order of their precedence; they agree to spend a year in competition, staging examples of their respective genres, and whichever is adjudged the better will thereafter have the theatre to herself. The play is a series of episodes showing specific virtues to be the mean: an excess or a deficiency constitutes a vice. A lack of courtesy makes Dyscolus churlishly ready to pick quarrels, whereas too much of it makes Colax sycophantic, to such an extent that he hangs around for the rest of the play flattering all the other vices. Aphobus is over-confident and Deilus cowardly, afraid of his own shadow: they have respectively too much fortitude and too little. Temperance is the next example, illustrated by Acolastus the epicure and Anaisthetus the ascetic, followed by liberality, missing in Aneleutherus the miser and carried to excess in Asotus the prodigal. The over-ostentatious Banausus, full of extravagant schemes for public works, overdoes magnificence, whereas Microprepes balks at replacing a church steeple. (The Puritans in the audience 1630 approve.) Chaunus overvalues himself, and seeks inappropriate high offices, whereas Micropsychus thinks himself unsuited to even the meanest position. Meekness is quite absent from quarrelsome Orgylus, who persistently tries to provoke patient Aorgus to a fight, without success. The arrogant Alazon and the modest Eiron deviate from truth: one falsely claims personal qualities he lacks, the other denies those he does have. Philotimia is unduly fastidious about her appearance, whereas her slovenly husband Luparus would rather clothes had never been invented. The impudent bawd Anaiskyntia brings Kataplectus to visit Philotimia, but he is too bashful to speak to her in English. Philotimia appoints him her gentleman usher, and they go off together; it looks as if Luparus is going to be cuckolded, but he doesn’t care. The extremes of justice are next: Nimis is worldly and prone to accept bribes, adjudicating between litigants according to which can…