Mankind: A Medieval Morality Play (A Retelling)

This is an easy-to-read retelling of the medieval morality play MANKIND, which was written circa 1470.
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Mercy continued:
"Don't distemper and sicken your brain with good ale nor with wine.
"Measure that is, moderation is treasure. I don't forbid you the use of alcohol. Measure yourself always, be moderate, and beware of excess.
"The superfluous guise I desire always that you refuse. When nature has enough, immediately cease.
"If a man has a horse and keeps him not too well-fed, he may then rule him at his own desire. If he the horse is fed too well, he will disobey and perhaps throw his master in the mire and mud."
Mercy was against the sin of gluttony, and he opposed also the overfeeding of horses. Of course, he was right to do so. Overfeeding a horse can result in giving the horse colic [intestinal and stomach problems], one symptom of which is lying down or rolling, which can result in the master's being in the mire and mud. An ill horse can be disinclined to obey its master.
New Guise, Nowadays, and Nought had been eavesdropping. Now New Guise spoke from a location where Mankind could not see him.
New Guise said:
"You say true, sir; you are no liar. I have fed my wife so well that she is my master. I have a great wound on my head, lo! And on it lies a plaster bandage, and another plaster bandage lies where I piss my peson."
A peson is literally a weighing instrument with a rod and balls. In the passage above, a peson is metaphorically a penis.
New Guise continued:
"If my wife were your horse, she would curse you all. You feed your horse in measure, so you are a 'wise' man. I think that if you were the king's palfreyman, aka stableman, then a good horse would be geason."
Geason means "scarce."
New Guise was criticizing Mercy's recommended feeding of horses. According to New Guise, overfeeding a wife results in a highly spirited wife. New Guise's overfed wife fights him. Mercy has said that an overfed horse will disobey the rider and may throw him in the mire and mud. New Guise is likely to consider that a spirited horse.
According to New Guise, not overfeeding a horse will result in horses without spirit and a good horse is a spirited horse, and so there will be few good horses. New Guise may even be saying that Mercy would starve horses.
Mercy, of course, would say that not overfeeding a horse will result in an obedient horse and an obedient horse is a good horse, and so there will be plentiful good horses.
Philosophers know that disputants need to define their terms. New Guise thinks that a good horse is a spirited horse; Mercy thinks that a good horse is an obedient horse.
In real life, of course, overfeeding horses is very bad. Overfeeding horses can cause colic, which can be fatal. Overfeeding a horse grain will result in a sick horse, not an spirited horse, as New Guise believes. New Guise's lack of knowledge about how to treat horses (and almost certainly his wife) well reflects his lack of knowledge about how to lead a good life.
New Guise is a bad reasoner, perhaps on purpose. When New Guise says that overfeeding results in a spirited horse (and a spirited wife), he is committing the fallacy of non causa pro causa, aka the False Cause fallacy. Overfeeding does not cause spiritedness; it causes illness.
In addition, New Guise makes a poor argument from analogy. Horses and wives are not much alike. Even if New Guise were correct that overfeeding causes spiritedness in wives (it doesn't), it does not follow that overfeeding causes spiritedness in horses.
New Guise thinks that overfeeding causes spiritedness in wives. Presumably, he would think that underfeeding would cause obedience in wives. The anonymous author of The Taming of a Shrew would agree.
In this society, a good wife is an obedient wife.

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