This is a farce by the same Nicole de la Chesnaye. It was acted in
1524, and one of his chief personages in the play depicted a doctor of
the period. The following is a short analysis of this really curious
piece:
_Grandmother Sottie_ leads to the _World_ several persons whom she
desires the latter to watch while plying their avocations; the
_shoemaker_ makes his boots _too tight_ always; the _dressmaker’s_
dresses are ever _too large_; the _priest’s_ masses are said _too long_
or _too short_. This bad showing on the part of the World’s workers
make his mundane majesty sick. He sends a specimen of his urine to the
doctor, who, after a scientific examination, declares the World’s brain
is affected, and also that his new-found client must be visited in
person. On meeting the World he interrogates him as to his health, and
asks questions which might serve to make a diagnosis. The World tells
the doctor he is no longer afraid of water on the brain, but of being
consumed in a deluge of fire. The doctor then utters the following
wise and rather satirical observations:
“World! be not troubled in thinking of fire,
Let your mind on that score be at peace.
Know that each monk, and low, rascally _friar_
Sells and buys a good, fat benefice;
Why, even the children, your subjects in arms,
Are born to be _Abbots_, _Bishops_, and _Priors_,
While church-bells keep ringing false fire alarms.
But, great World, _all the clergy_ are liars!
Their flattering’s truly their sweetest incense,
Yet the parasites fawn for your treasures;
Ah! church love for war was ever intense,
And their doctrines mar all earthly pleasures.”
The World is so impressed by the doctor’s remarks that he immediately
weds Folly. Ever since, it is needless to remark, the World has enjoyed
pleasure without as much dread of fire. It is an easy matter to seize
the apologue sought by the author.
Here we see, as early as the sixteenth century, the social reforms
begun by medicine and continued up to the eighteenth century. The
abbots, priors and other gentry of the Church, who lived in idleness
and luxury, holding sinecures for which the masses were taxed; the
flatterers of bastard princes, the agents of the rich and aristocratic,
ruled the country and made wars costing thousands of lives for the
glory of the Church—_i.e._, _themselves_. These are the parasites that
epidemically attack the _World_.