No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Both pen and quill I miss. er, speak out. Make shift awhile you shall have this straight way. Hold theres thy pen. Oh sisters shift we are betrayed, Another man I see. The works of famous Kings, and sacred Priests, The honourable Acts of eaders brave, The deeds of Codri, and Horatii. The love Lycurgus boar to Spartans state, The lives of ancient Sages and their saws, Their memorable works, their worthy laws. Now there is no such thing for to indite But toys, that fits Thalia for to write. Thalia now we are alone, tell us what pageant it you called for pens even now so hastily, to end? Perhaps the world will mend. Why if it should you fail in your account. Tush come lets mount the Mount. It may be well, I have done writing I, Yes diverse Princes make good laws, But most men over slip them. And diverse dying give good gifts, But their executors nip them.
Plot summary
Plot — The Cobbler's Prophecy
Security has bred social ills in Boeotia, including impiety and disrespect for age. Meanwhile Venus scandalizes heaven with her adulterous liaison with Mars. Mercury selects Ralph Cobbler at random to prophesy to both Mars and Boeotia, and strikes his wife Zelota mad. A courtier, landlord, scholar, and soldier debate the relative merits of their different estates; Sateros the soldier, who is seeking employment from Mars, is obviously the worthiest. He visits the Muses to seek directions to Mars’s court, while Ralph tries to ride there with Charon. On arrival, they are sent on to Venus’ court by a dangerous route, and find Mars engaged in sexual dalliance with Venus. Mars recommends Sateros to the Duke of Boeotia, but is ===== PAGE 168 ===== infuriated by Ralph’s prophecy and quarrels with Venus. When he learns that she has another sexual partner, Contempt, he becomes jealous and misogynistic, and returns to his proper concern with warfare. Venus bears Contempt’s illegitimate child, Ruina. She is deprived of her godhead and banished from heaven; Contempt also abandons her. The Duke hires Sateros and learns from Ralph that the courtier Emnius is plotting to assassinate him while they are out hunting. Under questioning, Emnius confesses, but pretends to repent under threat of being shot with his own pistol. Spared but determined to take revenge, he assaults Ralph and is stabbed to death by mad Zelota. Both Ralph and Zelota are imprisoned for the killing. Boeotia is invaded by foreign powers, and Sateros musters the army; prisoners, including Ralph, are released to serve as soldiers. The invasion is understood to be a punishment from the gods for disregarding Ralph’s prophecies, and in penance the Duke has Contempt’s cabin burnt. News arrives of victory, granted by the gods. Ralph returns to shoemaking, Zelota is cured and pardoned, and Sateros and the scholar unite in support of the Duke’s regime.