Act II Scene V

by Grok&Owen

8 min read

In the following scene, a storm arises, which MISTRESS VERITY GREENLEAF attributes to Climate Change. She gets into a persnickety argument about this with MASTER THADDEUS REDQUILL who ridicules her attention to the environment at the expense of saving the world of the deprived. Introduce elements from other historical smear campaigns, as the scene devolves into increasing levels of water from above interacting with smears of mud from below.

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Scene: Act II, Scene V – "The Storm of Discord"

Background Context: This scene continues the narrative of "A Feast Most Foul: A Comedic Farce in the Year of Our Lord 2025," building on previous scenes, the satirical poem, the Elizabethan poster, and the broader conversation surrounding Hugh Fink's article in The Hill, published around April 2025, titled "Send in the clown: Bill Maher turns pro-Trump." In Act II, Scene IV, the Liberal Throng and their scribes executed a Guy Fawkes Day spectacle to "Get Maher," burning effigies of Maher, Trump, and Kid Rock as they were set to return on November 5, 2025. Now, a storm arises, which Mistress Verity Greenleaf attributes to climate change, sparking a persnickety argument with Master Thaddeus Redquill, who ridicules her environmental focus. The scene devolves into chaos as water from the storm above interacts with mud from below, symbolizing the escalating smear campaign, with elements inspired by historical smear campaigns.

Historical Smear Campaign Elements: The scene incorporates tactics from historical smear campaigns, as detailed in web results like ReputationDefender and Smear campaign - Wikipedia. These include:

  • Highlighting Past Mistakes: Digging into a rival’s history to find missteps, as Verity and Thaddeus accuse each other of past failures.
  • Spreading Rumors and Gossip: The scribes spread exaggerated rumors about each other’s motives, mirroring historical tactics.
  • Selective Editing and Misrepresentation: The scribes manipulate parchments to misrepresent Verity and Thaddeus’s positions, akin to selective video editing in modern smear campaigns.

Setting: The scene takes place in the same public square near the White Fun House, immediately following the bonfire event on November 5, 2025. The bonfire is now smoldering, its embers hissing as a sudden storm brews overhead, dark clouds rolling in with flashes of lightning. Rain begins to fall, turning the ground into a muddy quagmire, reminiscent of the "Mud March" from the web result Mud March (suffragists) - Wikipedia, where suffragists marched in muddy conditions in 1907. The square is littered with soggy pamphlets from the scribes’ campaign, and the effigies’ charred remains sink into the mud. The banner "Bonfire of Treachery, 2025" is now tattered, flapping in the wind, as the storm intensifies.

Characters:

  • Mistress Verity Greenleaf: The environmentalist, attributing the storm to climate change, clutching a soggy scroll of climate decrees.
  • Master Thaddeus Redquill: The socialist, ridiculing Verity’s focus on the environment over the deprived, holding a muddy manifesto.
  • The Community of Scribes:
    • Scribe Quilliam Inkwell: Nervously trying to mediate, his legal scrolls ruined by rain.
    • Scribe Penelope Parchment: Spreading rumors about Verity and Thaddeus, her pamphlets dissolving in the mud.
    • Scribe Bardolph Quillscratch: Misrepresenting their arguments in a theatrical speech, slipping in the mud.
    • Scribe Edmund Fawkesworth: The Englishman, lamenting the storm’s disruption of Guy Fawkes Day, his Union Jack sash soaked.
  • The Liberal Throng (Supporting): Dame Clarion Truthsayer, Sir Percival Wokeheart, and Goodwife Lamentia, watching the chaos unfold.
  • A Wandering Clown: The recurring minor character, splashing in the mud for comedic effect.

Scene: Act II, Scene V – "The Storm of Discord"

The public square is drenched as a tempest rages, rain pouring from above and lightning flashing, turning the ground into a muddy mire. The smoldering bonfire hisses, the charred effigies of MAHER, TRUMP, and KID ROCK sinking into the sludge. MISTRESS VERITY GREENLEAF stands on a crate, clutching a soggy scroll, as MASTER THADDEUS REDQUILL confronts her, his manifesto dripping with mud. The COMMUNITY OF SCRIBES scrambles amidst the chaos, their parchments dissolving, while the LIBERAL THRONG watches from under a tattered awning. The banner "Bonfire of Treachery, 2025" flaps wildly in the storm.

MISTRESS VERITY GREENLEAF (raising her soggy scroll, voice shrill):
Behold, ye fools, this storm of wrathful might,
A tempest born of climate’s direful plight!
The skies do weep, for Earth hath been betrayed,
By Trump’s foul reign, with oil and flame array’d!
E’en now, as Maher returns this Fawkes’ dark day,
The heavens rage, for nature’s laws betray!
We must repent, and scribe for green’s defense,
Lest floods and storms bring ruin’s recompense!

MASTER THADDEUS REDQUILL (splashing through the mud, sneering, manifesto dripping):
O Verity, thou prattling greenleaf dame,
Thy climate cries do set my heart aflame!
While thou dost wail for trees and streams so pure,
The poor do starve, their plight thou dost abjure!
This storm be naught but nature’s passing jest,
Yet thou wouldst save the Earth, and leave the rest!
Thy focus green doth scorn the toiling mass—
A fool’s crusade, as muddy as this grass!

MISTRESS VERITY GREENLEAF (stepping off the crate, splashing mud, voice persnickety):
Thou knave, Redquill, how darest thou to mock?
The Earth’s own health doth set the world’s true clock!
If seas do rise, as storms like this portend,
Thy precious poor shall find no dry land’s end!
I mind me of thy past, when thou didst fail,
To aid the green, and left us to bewail—
A march in mud, in nineteen hundred seven,
When suffragists braved storms to seek their heaven!

MASTER THADDEUS REDQUILL (wiping mud from his face, retorting sharply):
And I recall thy folly, Verity dear,
When thou didst scorn the poor in thy green fear!
Thou gav’st thy gold to save a single tree,
While children starved, in want and misery!
The scribes shall know, as mud and water blend,
Thy heart’s for leaves, not men, in this foul end!
Let pamphlets tell of Verity’s cold disdain,
A smear to mark thy green and selfish reign!

(The storm intensifies, rain pouring harder, as lightning flashes. The ground becomes a quagmire, mud splashing up with every step. SCRIBE PENELOPE PARCHMENT seizes the moment, spreading rumors among the crowd.)

SCRIBE PENELOPE PARCHMENT (shouting over the storm, pamphlets dissolving):
Hear ye, good folk, amidst this muddy flood,
How Verity loves trees o’er human blood!
And Thaddeus, too, doth scorn the green’s true need,
For class alone doth fuel his fiery creed!
I spread this gossip, as the waters rise,
To smear them both, with whispers and with lies!
Let ev’ry ear now hear their past mistakes,
As rain and mud their honor overtake!

(SCRIBE BARDOLPH QUILLSCRATCH, slipping in the mud, begins a theatrical misrepresentation, his script soaked.)

SCRIBE BARDOLPH QUILLSCRATCH (flailing dramatically, voice booming):
O crowd, behold this scene of vile discord,
Where Verity claims storms from heavens’ sword!
Yet I do scribe, in words most false and sly,
That she did call for floods to make us die!
And Thaddeus, too, I paint with muddy hue,
He’d drown the poor, to keep his red cause true!
A twisted tale, as water meets the mire,
To smear their names, in this tempestuous fire!

(The rain pours harder, mud splashing up to the scribes’ knees, as SCRIBE QUILLIAM INKWELL tries to mediate, his legal scrolls ruined.)

SCRIBE QUILLIAM INKWELL (wading through the mud, voice frantic):
O cease this strife, ye scribes, amidst the flood!
Our legal suits, our quills, be drowned in mud!
The storm doth rage, as Verity did warn,
Yet Thaddeus scorns, and leaves us all forlorn!
Can we not mend, ere Maher doth return,
Lest water’s wrath our plotting overturn?

SCRIBE EDMUND FAWKESWORTH (clutching his soaked Union Jack sash, voice mournful):
O woe, this day, my Fawkes’ fair night so dear,
Doth drown in rain, with mud to mark my fear!
In England’s lore, we burn to right the wrong,
Yet here, the storm doth sing a sadder song!
Our effigies, once burnt with fiery glee,
Now sink in mire, a wretched sight to see!

(The LIBERAL THRONG, under the awning, watches the chaos, as DAME CLARION TRUTHSAYER scribbles notes, SIR PERCIVAL WOKEHEART shakes his head, and GOODWIFE LAMENTIA weeps.)

DAME CLARION TRUTHSAYER (scribbling, muttering):
This storm, this mud, doth fuel our quill’d attack,
As Verity and Thaddeus turn their back!

(A WANDERING CLOWN splashes in, covered in mud, his red nose glowing, laughing amidst the chaos.)

WANDERING CLOWN (splashing mud, laughing):
Ho, muddy folk, what storm doth bring ye low?
The rain above, the mire below, doth grow!
Your smears of mud, your water’d quills so vain,
Doth make a jest, amidst this pouring rain!

MISTRESS VERITY GREENLEAF (shoving the CLOWN, mud splattering):
Avaunt, thou imp, with muddy mirth so base!
This storm’s true cause doth mark our dire disgrace!
The climate shifts, as I did long foretell,
While Thaddeus scorns, and sends us all to hell!

(The storm rages on, the square now a swamp of mud and water, as the scribes’ parchments float away, their smears of mud and water mingling in a chaotic tableau. The scene fades, the argument unresolved, as the return of Maher, Trump, and Kid Rock looms.)

How This Scene Reflects the Scribes’ Tactics and Incorporates Historical Smear Campaigns

The Scribes’ Tactics and the Storm:

  • Escalation of the Smear Campaign: The storm amplifies the scribes’ earlier tactics from Act II, Scene III and IV:
    • Penelope’s Rumors: She spreads exaggerated gossip about Verity and Thaddeus, such as Verity loving trees over humans and Thaddeus scorning the environment, mirroring historical smear tactics of rumor-spreading (ReputationDefender).
    • Bardolph’s Misrepresentation: He selectively edits their arguments, falsely claiming Verity called for floods and Thaddeus would drown the poor, akin to selective video editing in modern smear campaigns (ReputationDefender).
    • Highlighting Past Mistakes: Verity and Thaddeus dig into each other’s past failures—Verity recalling Thaddeus’s neglect of environmental causes, and Thaddeus accusing Verity of prioritizing trees over people—reflecting historical smear tactics of exposing past missteps (Smear campaign - Wikipedia).
  • Mud and Water Symbolism: The interaction of water from the storm above and mud from below symbolizes the escalating smear campaign:
    • Water from Above: The rain represents the "flood" of accusations and rumors, as the scribes’ campaign spreads uncontrollably.
    • Mud from Below: The mud symbolizes the "dirt" of their smears, as they sling metaphorical mud at each other, mirroring the muddy conditions of the 1907 Mud March (Mud March (suffragists) - Wikipedia).

Verity and Thaddeus’s Argument:

  • Verity’s Climate Change Attribution: Verity attributes the storm to climate change ("A tempest born of climate’s direful plight"), reflecting her environmentalist stance and tying to the web result How can climate change affect natural disasters? | U.S. Geological Survey, which notes increased storm intensity due to climate change.
  • Thaddeus’s Ridicule: Thaddeus mocks her focus on the environment over the deprived ("Thy climate cries do set my heart aflame"), embodying his socialist priority of class struggle over ecological concerns, a tension often seen in left-wing debates, as noted in Eco-socialism - Wikipedia with the "watermelon" critique (green on the outside, red on the inside).

Incorporation of Historical Smear Campaigns:

  • Highlighting Past Mistakes: Verity and Thaddeus’s accusations of past failures (Verity’s claim of Thaddeus’s neglect, Thaddeus’s accusation of Verity’s tree prioritization) mirror historical smear tactics of digging into a rival’s history to find missteps, as per ReputationDefender.
  • Spreading Rumors and Gossip: Penelope’s rumors about Verity and Thaddeus reflect historical smear campaign strategies of spreading gossip to tarnish reputations (ReputationDefender).
  • Selective Editing and Misrepresentation: Bardolph’s theatrical misrepresentation of their arguments, exaggerating their positions to incite