Fabula Rustici, or, THE BUMPKIN PLAY: A Metaphysical Dialogue on Truth and Being

What is truth and what is fiction? In this optimistic play, of uncertain origin, Goobet enquires into the nature of truth, encountering a range of philosophical characters who happen to be passing by the village green. The play is upbuilding for Goobet, an unlettered bumpkin, but also for us in our own day. It turns out that a "walkynge-trewth" is one that is lived and performed in real time, rather than statically mirrored, which means that our work of reading is implicated in the general afflatus with which the play concludes. In this troubling epoch of "slydyrnesse" and "(f)flottys-fact," in which we stumble in the shadow of blind gods, Goobet's guileless uncovering of the vanity of human claims to certainty, at the same time as revealing a higher or vertical truth which we cannot but inhabit, is an encouragement to us all.