Passages from this character's speech that contain the most distinguishing words for Cluster 11 (tospot, rees, ralph, soch, tout, oundes…). Matches are highlighted.
Go too Ralph yowl still be singing love songs its your fashion. well year best leave singing and fallen to work by & by while I to buy meat for our dinner to market do High.
market do High. I'll see what yeele do, where are ye goodman Lout? where this prating Ass, this dizzardly fool. Alas that ever I was born to see this sighed, My Ralph is transformed to a wicked spright. What Ralph, Ralph, so fine you will not know your wife What a gilded sword and a silver knife? There, there Ralph put it up.
Ralph, so fine you will not know your wife What a gilded sword and a silver knife? There, there Ralph put it up. Why so? What so? Why where am I? And I come to you Ralph, I'll course you as I did a Saturday Make me mad Ralph, no faith Ralph, Though thou be a devil and a spright, Near toll the bell, I'll not be gossip, The child
to the backhouse for the boy, Bid the tankerd bring the conduit home. I'll buy no plum porridge, I'll not be made such a mome. And because thou hast a fine rod Ralph, I'll look in thy purse by and by: And if thou have any money in it, wele drink the Devil dry, Devil dry, &c. Come Ralph, lets go sleep, for thou must mend Queen
lets go sleep, for thou must mend Queen Guiniuers shoes to morrow. I have a pillow of my own, I'll neither beg nor borrow. None in the world, I never knew him I. I Ralph that will be fittest for us.
Full speech
Go too Ralph yowl still be singing love songs its your fashion. well year best leave singing and fallen to work by & by while I to buy meat for our dinner to market do High. I'll see what yeele do, where are ye goodman Lout? where this prating Ass, this dizzardly fool. Alas that ever I was born to see this sighed, My Ralph is transformed to a wicked spright. What Ralph, Ralph, so fine you will not know your wife What a gilded sword and a silver knife? There, there Ralph put it up. Why so? What so? Why where am I? And I come to you Ralph, I'll course you as I did a Saturday Make me mad Ralph, no faith Ralph, Though thou be a devil and a spright, Near toll the bell, I'll not be gossip, The child shall not be christened to night. Go to the backhouse for the boy, Bid the tankerd bring the conduit home. I'll buy no plum porridge, I'll not be made such a mome. And because thou hast a fine rod Ralph, I'll look in thy purse by and by: And if thou have any money in it, wele drink the Devil dry, Devil dry, &c. Come Ralph, lets go sleep, for thou must mend Queen Guiniuers shoes to morrow. I have a pillow of my own, I'll neither beg nor borrow. None in the world, I never knew him I. I Ralph that will be fittest for us.
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.