Magnetic Lady, then, are not new; they are the types found in Jonson's earlier plays, his epigrams, and the satires of the character-books-the courtier, the doctor, the prelate, the usurer, the lawyer.

It would be interesting to consider just how much social justification there was for Jonson's satire; to make allowance for the selection and emphasis of a negative and unsympathetic temper, and for the exaggeration due to the influence of the classics and the acceptance of the role of satirist. After reading Professor Ward's Some Political and Social Aspects of the Later Elizabethan and Earlier Stewart Period, one is inclined to believe that Jonson has overemphasized the objectionable features in the life of the times; but any attempt at an exact estimate is beyond the purpose of this work. Since Jonson was satirizing the life of the court and the capital, and the court, especially during the reign of James, was notoriously corrupt, the satire may be considered a fairly accurate transcript of facts, even if a large part of the nation was morally and socially sound.

Among the characters satirized, especial mention should be made of Polish. She and the midwife are the

original creations of the play. In fact, Polish is portrayed` as an individual character rather than a type. In one of Gifford's notes 2 he makes the following observation: 'How little Jonson is known to the dramatic critics may be collected from the silence which they all observe respecting the character of Mrs. Polish, the most perfect representation of a gossiping "toad-eater " that the English stage can boast. Supple, voluble, and abounding in anecdote, she wins her way to confidence, betrays her trust, insults the agents of her guilt in the madness of security, and when discovered, in spite of the readiness

1 Cambridge History of English Literature, Vol. 5, chap. 14. 2 Wks. 6. IIO-II.

1

of her subterfuges, assumes the most frontless hardihood, and without a touch of penitence for her crime, gaily proceeds to anticipate the reward of her treachery.' Castelain 1 calls Polish the one interesting character of the play. But there is, I think, another important trait of Polish's character which has escaped the notice of the critics, her Puritanism. This may be illustrated by quoting a few passages from her speeches:

And then the Persians were our Puritanes. (1. 5. 18)
She was both witty and zealous,

And lighted all the Tinder o' the truth,

As one said, of Religion, in our Parish. (1. 5. 33-5)

When Chair, the midwife, composes the quarrel between Keepe and Polish, which the latter fears will result in the disclosure of her plot, she exclaims (4. 7. 11): 'Blest be the Peace maker.' Also, before this, when the nurse in anger threatens to divulge the secret, Polish exclaims:

To keep it secret ?
I do remember now,

Didst thou not sweare

and upon what booke?

The Practice of Piety. (4. 4. 37)

Almost as significant as evidences of the assumed religious character of Polish are the following: I. 4. 34; I. 4. 62; 2. 2. 2. This Puritanic strain in her character has probably been unnoticed because it is only one trait of several which are prominent. She is a toady, a 'stroaker,' a fawning flatterer. Her loquacity is irrepressible. Her personal ambition overrides all moral principle or respect for others. She has an active mind—is naturally clever. Moreover, she speaks the language and assumes the character of the devout Puritan of the time. Besides creating an individual character, then, Jonson is repeating his satire of the Puritans: Polish belongs in the list with Ananias and Tribulation Wholesome of The Alchemist, 1 Ben Jonson, p. 442.

b

Zeal-of-the land Busy and Dame Purecraft of Bartholomew Fair, and the surly shepherds' of The Sad Shepherd. But the Puritanism of Polish is not so pronounced as theirs; she is an individual in whom an assumed Puritanism is one of a number of co-ordinate characteristics. A type, of course, is more simple: it is a personality with one predominant trait, or with one trait especially emphasized by the fact that it motivates a series of events. Ananias, Tribulation Wholesome, Busy, and Dame Purecraft are simply obvious types of the Puritan, as Jonson saw him. Although the satire upon the Puritans, or upon religious hypocrites in general, which Jonson made in creating the character of Polish, is not so obvious as this earlier satire, it is an important element in the play; in portraying her, he re-echoed work already done, as well as produced a striking dramatic personality.

III. PROTOTYPES OF THE CHARACTERS IN JONSON'S EARLIER PLAYS

It is easy to discover likenesses between most of the characters of this play and those of Jonson's earlier comedies, but a closer comparison will detect equally striking differences. Professor Ward observed, in commenting upon Jonson's characterization 1: His characters are never more original than when they at first sight appear to resemble other characters, either created by himself or his contemporaries. If instead of pointing out where Jonson's characters . . . resemble Shakespeare's, a languid criticism would condescend to enquire where they differ from their supposed prototypes, a beginning would have been made towards an appreciation of his supreme merits. To label Jonson's characters as a mere series of types of general ideas is to shut one's eyes to 1 Hist. of Eng. Dram. Lit. II. 402.

the nicety with which they are distinguished from others to which they have a superficial likeness.'

In the following comparisons, I am merely noting typeresemblances, or isolated likenesses, and am ignoring the individuality and realism of the characters which make them vivid and interesting.

Compass recalls Macilente-Asper, of Every Man Out; Crites, of Cynthia's Revels; and Horace, of The Poetaster. In his character of expositor, he belongs to the same class as these, and also to that of Carlo Buffone, in Every Man Out; Truewit, Dauphine, and Clerimont, in The Silent Woman; Volpone, Mosca, and Sir Politic Would-be, in The Fox; and Arruntius, in Sejanus. Ironside is similar in some respects to Kastrill, of The Alchemist. He is the last of a list of captains or boys of the sword,' the literary descendants, or at least analogues, of Plautus' Miles Gloriosus ; but, unlike them, he is a humor-study not drawn satirically; he is a boisterous, but likable, character, and in the end is rewarded with the hand of the rich widow. Palate, in his character of glutton, recalls Jonson's supreme portrayal of the type in Sir Epicure Mammon, of The Alchemist. For the rest, he is the unlearned and worldly pastor, resembling Chaucer's Friar. Dr. Rut, in his character as the sensual, unprincipled, and superstitious physician, is a much more forcible representative of the type than Almanac, of The Staple of News. Silkworm belongs with Fastidious Brisk, of Every Man Out, and Hedon, of Cynthia's Revels. As a boastful but timorous duelist he reminds one of Bobadill and Master Stephen, of Every Man In; Shift, of Every Man Out; Tucca, of The Poetaster; Sir John Daw and Sir Amorous La-Foole, of The Silent Woman; and Sir Glorious Tipto, of The New Inn. Practice, as a type of the ambitious lawyer, is less objectionable

1 Reinhardstoettner, Spätere Bearbeitungen Plautinischer Lustspiele, pp. 81, 103.

than Voltore, of The Fox, Sir Paul Eitherside, of The Devil is an Ass, and Picklock, of The Staple of News. Interest, as the typical usurer, or, in a broader sense, the typical miser, belongs with Sordido, of Every Man Out, Volpone and his expectant heirs, of The Fox, and Pennyboy, the usurer, of The Staple of News. Polish, as I have already noted, has an important trait in common with Ananias and Tribulation Wholesome, of The Alchemist, and Zeal-of-the-land Busy and Dame Purecraft, of Bartholomew Fair. Pleasance belongs to the same class of pleasant, but dependent and rather characterless women as Dame Pliant, of The Alchemist, Win Littlewit, of Bartholomew Fair, and Mrs. Fitzdottrell, of The Devil is an Ass. Finally Placentia, in her character of an heiress whose wealth attracts suitors, is similar to Pecunia, of The Staple of News.

E. SOURCES

I. CHAUCER

As Ballman has pointed out, Jonson is largely indebted to Chaucer for the characterization of Parson Palate and Doctor Rut, the prototypes of these characters being the friar and the physician of The Canterbury Tales. Jonson also paraphrases a passage from The Canterbury Tales (3. 4. 22-6), and imitates Chaucer's rhyme and phrase in four other passages (I. I. 87; 1. 2. 39; I. 2. 42; and 1. 6. 14). There is also another couplet, unnoticed by Ballman, in which Jonson seems to repeat Chaucer's thought and poetic form (1. 2. 27). Of this indebtedness it is not necessary to speak further at this point, as it is considered in the explanatory notes.

1 Chaucer's Einfluss auf das Englische Drama (Strassburg, 1902), PP. 24-5.