Folly

Folly is a personified advocate on Fortune’s side in the attempted arbitration over the Duke of Newcastle’s long conflict with Fortune. Her brief appearance turns the hearing into a comic contrast between disordered speech and the virtues of clear judgment: she speaks so incoherently that Fortune silences her, and the case ends without a decision when Fortune walks away.

Role in the Hearing

The Empress proposes a hearing after the Duchess asks her to help reconcile the Duke of Newcastle and Fortune. The Duke chooses Prudence and Honesty to represent his interests; Fortune, persuaded to participate, chooses Folly and Rashness. Truth is eventually selected to judge, but the Duke himself is absent, and the Duchess attends in his place to answer Fortune’s allegations.

Folly’s role is therefore both partisan and allegorical. She represents one of the qualities Fortune relies on in defending her power, set against the Duke’s preference for Prudence and Honesty. The intended proceeding gives these abstractions public voices, turning a dispute about the Duke’s misfortunes into a contest over whether fortune’s favor or moral character deserves greater authority.

Speech and Conflict

After the Duchess defends her husband, Folly and Rashness rise and speak over one another so rapidly that neither the assembly nor the speakers themselves can understand what is being said. Fortune, embarrassed, orders them to speak one at a time or remain silent. Prudence adds that they should speak wisely as well as singly, a rebuke Fortune takes badly.

When Fortune directs Folly to make her case, Folly’s speech proves so foolish and nonsensical that no one can make sense of it. It is also so long that Fortune tells her to be silent and gives Rashness the floor instead. The moment sharply undercuts Fortune’s choice of advocates: her allies cannot offer an intelligible answer to the Duchess’s defense, and Folly’s failure leaves the argument to Rashness.

Outcome and Significance

The hearing does not reach the judgment for which it was convened. Rashness urges Fortune to retaliate against the Duke and Duchess, while Prudence asks for peace and Honesty gives an account of the Duke’s education in virtue and his respectful conduct toward Fortune. Fortune regards Honesty’s plain speech as rude, refuses to wait for Truth’s decision, and leaves in anger. Folly’s performance thus belongs to a larger failure of arbitration: the advocates’ competing moral claims are heard, but the powerful party can end the proceeding before an impartial judgment is delivered.

As a character, Folly is presented through a single defining action rather than a developed personal history. Her unintelligible, excessive speech makes her a comic foil to Prudence and Honesty, while also exposing the weakness of Fortune’s chosen defense. The episode’s humor does not settle the dispute; instead, it makes the absence of a verdict more pointed, since the hearing’s disorder and abrupt ending leave the Duke’s grievance unresolved.