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Full speech
The Argives and the men of Thessaly, With mighty powers are come upon your coast, They burn, wast, spoil, kill, murder, make no spare, Of feeble age, or harmless infant youth, They vow to triumph in Booetia, And make your Highness vassal to their will, They threaten mightily, their power is mighty, The people fallen before them as the flowering grass The mower with his sith cuts in the mead, Help your poor people, and defend your state, Else you, they, it, will soon be ruinate. Rise from the humble earth my Noble Lord, Rise up ye Priests, Princes, and people rise, And hear the gladsome tidings I unfold, Of happy peace and glorious victory. When Sateros my Lord had brought your power, In view of our presuming enemies: And equal place was chosen for the field, He sent a Herald, willing them restore, The wrongs that in Booetia they had done, And leave the Country, turning to their home, Or else resolve on doubtful chance of war. They proud, ambitious, covetous of gain, Returned and answer filled with disdain. Then was the signal given, and stremar read, Menacing blood on either side advance e. Drums, Fifes, and rumpets drowned the cries of men, That each where fell before their Foemen's swords, Mars there showed ruthless rage on either partly, And murder ranged thorough every rank. Dust dimmed the suns light, and the powders smoke, Seemed Like thick Clouds in air congluminate. Thus was seven hours consumed, and doubtful chance Sometime with us, sometime with them abided: Till at the length our General gave charge To found retreat, which made the hopeful Foe, Pursue regardless our retiring bans, That being knit together in firm rank, A fresh pursued their straggling followers. Then fell their glory Like the ripened corn, Before the Cickle and the Reapers hand: In brief, some fled, most slain, and many taken Have left the honour to Booetia.
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.