Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

GOD'S PLAGUE

in Enough Is as Good as a Feast — Wager, William

Metadata

PlayEnough Is as Good as a Feast
AuthorWager, William
Year (catalogued)1570
First performance1560
Decade1570s
GenreMoral
Play typeInterlude
Speech prefix(es)Enter Gods plague and ſtand behinde him a while before he ſpeak.
Words237
Characters1313
Typicality0.48 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA14627
BritDrama no.468
ClusterCluster 22 — Ghosts, curses & horror voices

Important excerpts

No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).

Full speech

It is even I that upon thee doth blow, Filling thee with plagues and sundry disease: What I am, indeed I will learn Thee to know, For I am not afraid Thee to displease. Thou shalt depart from thy house and land, Thy wife and Children beggars thou shalt leave: Thy life thou shalt lose even out of hand, And after death thy joust reward receive. Thy ill got goods shall not Thee deliver. Thine costly buildings shall nothing prevail, Thy odours, thy sweet smells and thou shalt perish together, Thy rings, thy bracelets, and Gold chains shall fallen. Strangers and those whom thou didst never know, Shall possess that, which by frawd thou hast God: Thy seed from of thy ground God will overthrown, Because at his Prophets preaching thou amenddest not. Thou sleepest in death as the Prophet David doth say, Out of which sleep when thou shalt awake: Thou shalt perceive thou must needs away, And that on Thee God will no mercy take. I am the plague of God properly called, Which comes on the wicked suddenly: I go through all towns and Cities strongly walled, Striking to death and that without all mercy. Her thou wicked covetous person I do strike, Which once on the plow hadst taken hold: But willingly again thou rannest in the Dike: Therefore thy plague shall be doubled seven fold. Go out and stand at the door

Plot summary

Plot — Enough Is as Good as a Feast
Remembering his father’s bankruptcy, the Worldly Man hoards treasure for the future, seeing such behaviour as provident thrift, whereas the Heavenly Man relies on God to look after him and regards wealth as a distraction from spiritual things. He and Contentation persuade the Worldly Man to change to a godly lifestyle, but the vices, using innocuous aliases to inveigle their way into his confidence, cause him to backslide into covetous materialism. He becomes a miser and maltreats his tenants, servants, and hirelings: he raises rents, fails to pay the wages he owes, and seizes property adjacent to his own. After a bad dream about God’s punishment, he falls ill and dies. Satan carries him to hell on his back, advising the audience to live their lives in the same way. The virtues advise the contrary.