The Hearing of the Duke of Newcastle’s Case Against Fortune

The Hearing of the Duke of Newcastle’s Case Against Fortune turns a domestic appeal for help into a formal but ultimately inconclusive trial of character. Requested by the Duchess of Newcastle’s soul and arranged by the Empress of the Blazing-World, the hearing brings Fortune’s account of her enmity into conflict with the Duchess’s defense of her husband and the opposing principles represented by Honesty and Prudence. Its intended judge is Truth; its decisive outcome is that Fortune refuses to hear her judgment.

Background and Arrangement

The hearing grows from the Duchess of Newcastle’s relationship with the Duke of Newcastle and her conviction that Fortune has persistently worked against him. Before leaving the Duke’s world, the Duchess asks the Empress to make an agreement between them. The Empress learns that the Duke and Fortune have been enemies for as long as he can remember, and initially considers the practical difficulties of settling the dispute: a lawyer might be bribed, while an impartial judge appears hard to find.

The Duchess proposes that each side choose a friend to argue its case. The Empress agrees that advocates could make an agreement possible, but stresses that impartial judgment remains the central problem. She considers a judge from Heaven the only truly impartial choice and cannot see how to obtain one. The Duchess nevertheless accompanies her to the Blazing-World, where the Empress can seek the help of Immaterial Spirits.

After the Duchess and the Empress return to the Blazing-World, the Empress asks the Immaterial Spirits to help settle the dispute. They warn that Fortune is so changeable that she might agree to hear the case and then refuse to be patient through it. At the Empress’s request, they persist and persuade Fortune to participate. Fortune selects Folly and Rashness as her friends; the Duke’s chosen advocates are Prudence and Honesty. The parties struggle to agree on a judge, but eventually accept Truth. The Duchess and the Empress attend the hearing as listeners and supporters; the Duke himself is absent.

The Competing Cases

Fortune opens the hearing from atop a golden globe, addressing the assembled company and directing her remarks particularly to the Empress. She objects that the Duke is not present to speak for himself, then presents the dispute as a grievance against his conduct. In her account, he has made Honesty and Prudence his preferred companions, slighted Fortune’s favors, and chosen innocence over her power. She treats his preference as an affront that justifies her hostility.

The Duchess rises to answer on her husband’s behalf. She rejects the idea that he intended to insult Fortune, describing him instead as a gentleman who served women and risked his life and estate on their behalf. The Duke could not entrust his reputation to Fortune, she argues, because Fortune did not favor the honest and honorable. Faced with the choice of which side to follow, he chose the one consistent with his conscience, nature, and upbringing. The Duchess recounts that Fortune openly opposed him, fought him in several battles, banished him, ruined his estate, and took away most of his friends. Even so, she says, he endured his misfortunes patiently, respected Fortune’s power, and asks only that she become his friend rather than continue as his enemy.

The proceedings reveal that advocacy itself is contested. Folly and Rashness rise and speak at once so rapidly that neither the assembly nor the two advocates can understand them. Fortune orders them to speak one at a time. Prudence pointedly adds that they should speak wisely as well as singly. Fortune takes offense at Prudence’s correction, allows Folly to speak, and then stops her because her contribution is nonsensical and tedious. Rashness takes the floor instead and calls the Duchess proud and ambitious for answering Fortune without permission. She warns that honoring Honesty and Prudence above Fortune would cause Fortune to lose the respect and worship due to her, and urges her to punish the Duke, Duchess, and their two advocates with as many misfortunes as she can impose.

Prudence presents her own intervention as an effort to repair harm rather than deepen it. She says she has made a long journey on the Duke’s behalf and asks for peace, not a display of rhetorical skill. Before she can finish, Honesty interrupts. Honesty says she raised the Duke from childhood, joined him in friendship with Gratitude, Charity, and Generosity, and entrusted his education to Prudence. Prudence taught him wisdom and the rules of temperance, patience, and justice; the University of Honour then formed his honorable qualities, while his travels through the World of Actions brought him experience under Observation’s guidance.

Honesty links this moral education to the Duke’s conflict with Fortune. In her account, he was prepared both for Heaven’s blessings and Fortune’s favors, but Fortune became his enemy because she hated merit and desert. Honesty says the Duke never flattered Fortune because Honesty forbade it: flattery would have forced him to follow her inconsistent ways and unjust commands. Prudence, however, advised him not to despise Fortune’s favors, since doing so would obstruct his worth and merit. He followed both counsels by neither flattering nor despising Fortune, remaining respectful so far as honor, honesty, and conscience allowed. Honesty submits the case to Truth and awaits a final sentence.

Collapse and Aftermath

Truth never delivers that sentence. Hearing Honesty’s plain account, Fortune finds it rude and refuses to wait for the judgment. She leaves in anger, bringing the attempted arbitration to an end without reconciliation or a verdict. The failure is not caused by a lack of advocates or an absence of a proposed judge: both sides have spoken, and Truth has been accepted as arbiter. The process collapses because Fortune, whose conduct is under examination, can withdraw before judgment is made.

The Duchess and the Empress are distressed that their efforts have failed. Honesty rebukes the Duchess for wanting Fortune’s favor, interpreting that desire as distrust in the gods’ blessings. The Duchess weeps and clarifies that she does not distrust divine blessing or rely on Fortune’s favor; she wants only for her husband not to have powerful enemies. The Empress then reproaches Honesty for acting without Prudence’s discretion. Prudence smiles, and Honesty is embarrassed, but the two soon become friends again.

The Duchess eventually asks leave to return to her husband, and the Empress agrees on the condition that she visit as often as she conveniently can; the Empress promises to return the visits. As the Duchess departs with Prudence and Honesty, the Immaterial Spirits courteously promise to try, in time, to make peace between Fortune and the Duke. The promise leaves open a possible future settlement, but the hearing itself has produced none.

Significance of the Hearing

The episode gives competing moral explanations for the Duke’s adversity. Fortune frames it as the consequence of his refusal to prefer her and her favors. The Duchess presents it as a history of unjust hostility endured patiently, while Honesty argues that the Duke’s principled independence from flattery explains Fortune’s malice. Prudence offers a route between those positions: respect Fortune’s power without surrendering conscience to it. The hearing thus weighs not only the Duke’s misfortunes but also the moral cost of seeking favor from an unstable power.

Its legal form sharpens that conflict. The parties select advocates, dispute the conditions of argument, and agree on Truth as judge, yet the intended adjudication cannot bind Fortune. Her abrupt departure turns a promise of impartial judgment into an unfinished proceeding. The episode’s resolution is therefore not a ruling but a revealing refusal: the dispute remains unsettled, and the Duke’s enemies remain beyond the reach of the proposed arbitration.