this field in The Devil is an Ass is largely prophetic of the future course of his drama. The allegory of The Staple of News is more closely woven into the texture of the play than is that of The Devil is an Ass; and the conception of Pecunia and her retinue is worked out with much elaboration. In the Second Intermean the purpose of this play is explained as a refinement of method in the use of allegory. For the old Vice with his wooden dagger to snap at everybody he met, or Iniquity, appareled 'like Hokos Pokos, in a juggler's jerkin,' he substitutes 'vices male and female,' 'attired like men and women of the time.' This of course is only a more philosophical and abstract statement of the idea which he expresses in The Devil is an Ass (1. 1. 120 f.) of a world where the vices are not distinguishable by any outward sign from the virtues: They weare the same clothes, eate the same meate, As the best men and women. The New Inn and The Magnetic Lady are also penetrated with allegory of a sporadic and trivial nature. Jonson's use of devil and Vice in the present play is threefold. It is in part earnestly allegorical, especially in Satan's long speech in the first scene; it is in part a satire upon the employment of what he regarded as barbarous devices; and it is, to no small extent, itself a resort for the sake of comic effect to the very devices which he ridiculed. Jonson's conception of the devil was naturally very far from mediæval, and he relied for the effectiveness of his portrait upon current disbelief in this conception. Yet mediævalism had not wholly died out, and remnants of the morality-play are to be found in many plays of the Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. Rev. John Upton, in his Critical Observations on Shakespeare, 1746, was the first to point out the historical connection between Jonson's Vice and devils and those of the pre-Shakespearian drama. In modern times the history of the devil and the Vice as dramatic figures has been thoroughly investigated, the latest works being those of Dr. L. W. Cushman and Dr. E. Eckhardt, at whose hands the subject has received exhaustive treatment. The connection with Machiavelli's novella of Belfagor was pointed out by Count Baudissin,1 Ben Jonson und seine Schule, Leipzig 1836, and has been worked out exhaustively by Dr. E. Hollstein in a Halle dissertation, 1901. Dr. C. H. Herford, however, had already suggested that the chief source of the devil-plot was to be found in the legend of Friar Rush. 1. The Devil in the pre-Shakespearian Drama The sources for the conception of the devil in the mediæval drama are to be sought in a large body of non-dramatic literature. In this literature the devil was conceived of as a fallen angel, the enemy of God and his hierarchy, and the champion of evil. As such he makes his appearance in the mystery-plays. The mysteries derived their subjects from Bible history, showed comparatively little pliancy, and dealt always with serious themes. In them the devil is with few exceptions a serious figure. Occasionally, however, even at this early date, comedy and satire find place. The most prominent example is the figure of Titivillus in the Towneley cycle. In the early moralities the devil is still of primary importance, and is always serious. But as the Vice became a more and more prominent figure, the devil became less and less so, and in the later drama his part is always subordinate. The play of Nature (c 1500) is the first morality without a devil. Out of fifteen moralities of later date tabulated by Cushman, only four are provided with this character. The degeneration of the devil as a dramatic figure was inevitable. His grotesque appearance, at first calculated to inspire terror, by its very exaggeration produced, when once familiar, a wholly comic effect. When the active comic parts were assumed by the Vice, he became a mere butt, and finally disappears. 1 Count Baudissin translated two of Jonson's comedies into German, The Alchemist and The Devil is an Ass (Der Dumme Teufel). One of the earliest comic figures in the religious drama is that of the clumsy or uncouth servant.1 Closely allied to him is the under-devil, who appears as early as The Harrowing of Hell, and this figure is constantly employed as a comic personage in the later drama.2 The figure of the servant later developed into that of the clown, and in this type the character of the devil finally merged." 2. Jonson's Treatment of the Devil In the present play the devil-type is represented by the arch-fiend Satan and his stupid subordinate, Pug. Of these two Satan received more of the formal conventional elements of the older drama, while Pug for the most part represents the later or clownish figure. As in the moralityplay Satan's chief function is the instruction of his emissary of evil. In no scene does he come into contact with human beings, and he is always jealously careful for the best interests of his state. In addition Jonson employs one purely conventional attribute belonging to the tradition of the church- and morality-plays. This is the cry of 'Ho, ho!,' with which Satan makes his entrance upon the stage in the first scene. Other expressions of emotion were also used, but 'Ho, ho!' came in later days to be recognized as the conventional cry of the fiend upon making his entrance.5 1 Eckhardt, p. 42 f. Ibid., p. 67 f. 'In general the devil is more closely related to the clown, and the Vice to the fool. In some cases, however, the devil is to be identified with the fool, and the Vice with the clown. *In the Digby group of miracle-plays roaring by the devil is a prominent feature. Stage directions in Paul provide for 'cryeing and rorying' and Belial enters with the cry, 'Ho, ho, behold me.' Among the moralities The Disobedient Child may be mentioned. So in Gammer Gurton's Needle, c 1562, we read: 'But Diccon, Diccon, did not the devil cry ho, ho, ho?' Cf. also the translation of Goulart's Histories, 1607 (quoted by Sharp, p. 59): 'The fellowcoming to the stove-sawe the Diuills in horrible formes, some sitting, some standing, others walking, some ramping against the walles, but al of them, assoone as they beheld him, crying Hoh, hoh, what makest thou here?' How the character of Satan was to be represented is of course impossible to determine. The devil in the preShakespearian drama was always a grotesque figure, often provided with the head of a beast and a cow's tail.1 the presentation of Jonson's play the ancient tradition was probably followed. Satan's speeches, however, are not undignified, and too great grotesqueness of costume must have resulted in considerable incongruity. In the figure of Pug few of the formal elements of the pre-Shakespearian devil are exhibited. He remains, of course, the ostensible champion of evil, but is far surpassed by his earthly associates, both in malice and in intellect. In personal appearance he is brought by the assumption of the body and dress of a human being into harmony with his environment. A single conventional episode, with a reversal of the customary proceeding, is retained from the morality-play. While Pug is languishing in prison, Iniquity appears, Pug mounts upon his back, and is carried off to hell. Iniquity comments upon it: The Diuell was wont to carry away the euill; That the practice above referred to was a regular or even a frequent feature of the morality-play has been disputed, but the evidence seems fairly conclusive that it was common in the later and more degenerate moralities. At any rate, like the cry of 'Ho, ho!' it had come to be looked upon as part of the regular stock in trade, and this was enough for Jonson's purpose. This motive of the Vice riding the 1 1 Cf. the words of Robin Goodfellow in Wily Beguiled (O. Pl., 4th ed., 9. 268): 'I'll put me on my great carnation-nose, and wrap me in a rowsing calf-skin suit and come like some hobgoblin, or some devil ascended from the grisly pit of hell.' 2 Cushman points out that it occurs in only one drama, that of Like will to Like. He attributes the currency of the notion that this mode of exit was the regular one to the famous passage in Harsnet's Declaration of Popish Impostures (p. 114, 1603): 'It was a pretty part in the old church-playes, when the nimble Vice would skip up nimbly like a jackanapes into the devil's necke, and ride the devil a devil had changed from a passive to an active comic part. Instead of the devil's prey he had become in the eyes of the spectators the devil's tormentor. Jonson may be looked upon as reverting, perhaps unconsciously, to the original and truer conception. In other respects Pug exhibits only the characteristics of the inheritor of the devil's comedy part, the butt or clown. As we have seen, one of the chief sources, as well as one of the constant modes of manifestation, of this figure was the servant or man of low social rank. Pug, too, on coming to earth immediately attaches himself to Fitzdottrel as a servant, and throughout his brief sojourn on earth he continues to exhibit the wonted stupidity and clumsy uncouthness of the clown. He appears, to be sure, in a fine suit of clothes, but he soon shows himself unfit for the position of gentleman-usher, and his stupidity appears at every turn. The important element in the clown's comedy part, of a contrast between intention and accomplishment, is of course exactly the sort of fun inspired by Pug's repeated discourse, and belabour him with his wooden dagger, till he made him roare, whereat the people would laugh to see the devil so vicehaunted.' The moralities and tragedies give no indication of hostility between Vice and devil. Cushman believes therefore that Harsnet refers either to some lost morality or to 'Punch and Judy.' It is significant, however, that in 'Punch and Judy,' which gives indications of being a debased descendant of the morality, the devil enters with the evident intention of carrying the hero off to hell. The joke consists as in the present play in a reversal of the usual proceeding. Eckhardt (p. 85 n.) points out that the Vice's cudgeling of the devil was probably a mere mirth-provoking device, and indicated no enmity between the two. Moreover the motive of the devil as an animal for riding is not infrequent. In the Castle of Perseverance the devil carries away the hero, Humanum Genus. The motive appears also in Greene's Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay and Lodge and Greene's Looking Glass for London and England, and especially in Histriomastix, where the Vice rides a roaring devil (Eckhardt, pp. 86 f.). We have also another bit of evidence from Jonson himself. In The Staple of News Mirth relates her reminiscences of the old comedy. In speaking of the devil she says: 'He would carry away the Vice on his back quick to hell in every play.' |