LUMEN

Lingua wants to be a sense, but feels that the five established senses are preventing her from pleading her cause with the judge Common Sense. Having failed to appeal to the senses’ various proclivities, she decides to cause discord between them. She is in possession of a crown and robe which were to have been the prize in a public-speaking competition, but which came to her, as the patroness of oratory, when the five contestants were all adjudged equal; now the inscription promising the crown to the greatest of the five will put the five senses at odds. Tactus comes upon the robe and crown: he puts them on, gets delusions of grandeur, and unsuccessfully tries to conceal his find from the other senses. When Lingua’s page Mendacio tells them that the objects were left by Mercury, they begin to quarrel over precedence and mobilize troops against one another. Lingua reports the discord to Common Sense, and Mendacio describes the various animals in the armies. Common Sense defuses the conflict by deciding to judge the senses’ relative worthiness: each sense will present his case in a show. While the shows are in preparation, he hears Lingua’s petition to become the sixth sense: she asserts her importance as a medium of communication; but the senses put in a counter-plea drawing attention to her misdeeds. The shows are performed. Visus presents Light and Colour, Heaven and Earth, while Auditus offers Comedy and Tragedy. Olfactus’ show features Odour and Tobacco, currently the most popular of scents, while Bacchus and Ceres turn out for Gustus. Tactus has problems: he had intended to present a show of women, but his performer has spent too long getting dressed and made up, and is late; he has to make do with putting his case verbally. Common Sense makes his judgement: Visus and Auditus, the senses which feed the soul, have precedence over those which only nourish the body, and Visus is awarded the crown; but Tactus is given the robe, and the others get court appointments. Lingua may not be a sense - there can be only five — but Common Sense decrees that women shall henceforth 1606 have a sixth, speaking. Newly appointed as court purveyor, Gustus invites the company to supper. Lingua chafes at the outcome — her rivals brought to amity with one another and herself made only half a sense - and plots more mischief. Mendacio fetches a bottle of drugged wine from the witch Acrasia, and induces Appetitus to serve it to the senses. This drives them out of their wits…