Master
Patelin is lawyer, but a very poor one, as he has few clients, if any. His wife is complaining because she has to
mend her rags, and really needs a new dress.
Patelin leaves, promising to bring some new cloth home. He goes to the Draper's place, gets six (6) yards of blue wool, and promises to pay him at noon (with a dinner of roast goose and wine, to boot). He takes the cloth home and hides it, and has his wife say he hasn't left his bed for months. When the Draper comes, he pretends to be sick, and crazy, "seeing" things.
The Draper is going to have his hired
shepherd hung for stealing sheep, but the Shepherd comes to Master Patelin, who tells him to say nothing but "Baaa...aa," like a sheep.
When the Judge comes, the Draper is mixed up about the shepherd and Master Patelin, and virtually incoherent. The shepherd only Baa's. The Judge gets so mad he throws the case out. But when Patelin goes to get his money from the Shepherd, the man only Baa's at his lawyer -- the biter bit, so to speak.
This is a short, but very funny play. Much of the stage business is given in the play by notes and comments. It is supposed to reenact a real incident in a small town in France in the year 1400 A.D., and was first mad public in 1409.