No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Clio a pen. One Estridge pen yet in my penner is, Quickly take that and make a pen for me. Melpomine lend me a pen. Quickly a pen, would, would, found foolish men. Then you perhaps will have some work. A pen a pen in hast, That I may write this Pageant ere it be passed. A pen good Clio, fie how you make me stay. A pen a pen, it will be gone incontinent. Not so to me. Be whist a while, I'll tell thee by and by. Somewhat for want, but especially of purpose: the men which now do minister me matter to write, are never of the nam ture of the Estridge: who having the body of a bird, hath the head of a beast: she is greedy, devouring and disgesting all things, and builds his nest in sand: so are my worldlings, bodied and feathered as birds to fly to heaven, but headed as beasts to ima gine beastly things on earth: down to the which their Cam mels necks do draw their very noses: greedy are they deuou ring the Orphans right, and disgesting the widows wrongs, Foolish, forgetful and froward, building their nest on sand, which the wind of heavens wrath or water of worldly affliction does scatter and wash away. Thus art thou answered for the first, de maund the rest. It thus: You know the Gods long since sent down, Pleasure from heaven to comfort men on earth, Pleasure abuzde in country Court and town, By speeches, gestures, and dishonest mirth, Made humble suit that he to heaven might pass Again, from world where he so wronged was. His suit obtained, and ready he to climb, Sorrow comes sneaking and performs his deed, Snatches his Robe, and ever since that time, 'Tis pain that masks disguised in pleasures weed The Pageant's thus, with cost and cunning trim, That worldlings welcome Pain in steed of him. Loath was I that pend one jot of this should go, Because I smile to see for weal, how sweetly men swill woe.
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.