Early Modern Drama · Character Archetypes

SATAN

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 heer Sathan.
Words402
Characters2058
Typicality0.37 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP idA14627
BritDrama no.468
ClusterCluster 15 — Devils, vices & grotesques

Important excerpts

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

Full speech

O, o, o, o, all is mine, all his mine, My kingdom increases every hour and day: O, how they seek my magestie divine, To come to me they labour all that they may. The worldly man (quoth he) nay the devilish man than, For more wickedness and mischief then he did use: I my self indeed never devise can, O at his jolly wisdom I must needs muse. How cunningly put he his money to usury? Yea, and that without offence of any law: He was not to learn any kind of bribery, Whereby wicked gains to him he might draw. And abominable drunkard, a stinking Lecherer, A filthy Sodomit, a corrupt canscience within: A privy slanderer, and a subtle murderer, To be short, a very dunghill and sink of sin. O my boy Covetous, I may thank thee of all this Thou nousledst him in all mischief and vice: Therefore shalt thou be sure to have my bliss: For above all other thou indeed art most wise. Thou teachest the worldly man, a leacemonger to be, To oppress the poor and of his riches him to defraud: Wickedly to use the laws he learned of thee, Therefore indeed thou art worthy of much lawed. All you worldly men, that in your riches do trust, Be merry and jocund, build Palaces and make lusty cheer: Put your money to Usury, let it not lie and rust, Occupy your selves in my laws while you be her. Spare not, nor care not, what mischief you frequent, Use drunkenness, deceit, take other men's wives: Pass of nothing; one hour is enough to repent, Of all the wickedness you have done in your lives. O if you will thus after my Laws behave, You shall have all things as this worldly man had: Be bold of me, what you will to crave, And doubt you not but with you I will play the loouing lad. Yea, and after death I will provide a place, For you in my kingdom for ever to reign: You shall tear no worse then doth mine own grace, That is to lie burning for ever in pain. Come on mine own Boy, go thou with me, Thou hast served me duly, and hatest me never: Therefore now for thy pains rewarded shalt thou be: In ever lasting fire that burns for ever. Bear him out up on his back.

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.