The Devil is an Ass

Transcriber's Note:

  Underscores before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_
   in the original text.
 Equal signs before and after a word or phrase indicate =bold=
   in the original text.
 Caret symbols indicate superscript text.
 Small capitals have been converted to ALL CAPITALS.
 Old or archaic spellings have been preserved.
 In the text of the actual play, lowercase “s” has been replaced by
   the “long s”, “ſ”. The capital letter “W” is often replaced with
   “VV”, the letter “v” and the letter “u” are used interchangeably,
   and the letters "i" and "j" are also used interchangeably.
 Many of the characters names in the play have various spellings,
   e.g.,    MERE-CRAFT and MERECRAFT, MEERECRAFT
              EVER-ILL and EVERILL
         FITZ-DOTTEREL and FITZDOTTEREL
               PIT_FAL and PITFALL
                 DIVEL and DIVELL.
 The footnotes in the actual play were added by the author as part of
   his thesis. The references for these footnotes are the line numbers.
   Since each scene begins the line numbers over at 1, these footnotes
   have been collected at the end of each scene, and refer to the
   appropriate line in the preceding scene.




              YALE STUDIES IN ENGLISH
               ALBERT S. COOK, EDITOR

                        XXIX

                 THE DEVIL IS AN ASS

                    BY BEN JONSON

       Edited with Introduction, Notes, and Glossary

             BY WILLIAM SAVAGE JOHNSON, Ph.D.
        _Instructor in English in Yale University_

                   A Thesis presented to
    the Faculty of the Graduate School of Yale University
               in Candidacy for the Degree of
                   Doctor of Philosophy

                    [Illustration]

                      NEW YORK
                HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
                        1905

       Copyright by William Savage Johnson, 1905

     PRESS OF THE TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR COMPANY

                     TO MY MOTHER




PREFACE


In _The Devil is an Ass_ Jonson may be studied, first, as a student;
secondly, as an observer. Separated by only two years from the
preceding play, _Bartholomew Fair_, and by nine from the following,
_The Staple of News_, the present play marks the close of an epoch in
the poet’s life, the period of his vigorous maturity. Its relations
with the plays of his earlier periods are therefore of especial
interest.

The results of the present editor’s study of these and other
literary connections are presented, partly in the Notes, and partly
in the Introduction to this book. After the discussion of the
purely technical problems in Sections A and B, the larger features
are taken up in Section C, I and II. These involve a study of the
author’s indebtedness to English, Italian, and classical sources, and
especially to the early English drama; as well as of his own dramatic
methods in previous plays. The more minute relations to contemporary
dramatists and to his own former work, especially in regard to
current words and phrases, are dealt with in the Notes.

As an observer, Jonson appears as a student of London, and a satirist
of its manners and vices; and, in a broader way, as a critic of
contemporary England. The life and aspect of London are treated, for
the most part, in the Notes; the issues of state involved in Jonson’s
satire are presented in historical discussions in Section C, III.
Personal satire is treated in the division following.

I desire to express my sincere thanks to Professor Albert S. Cook
for advice in matters of form and for inspiration in the work; to
Professor Henry A. Beers for painstaking discussion of difficult
questions; to Dr. De Winter for help and criticism; to Dr. John M.
Berdan for the privilege of consulting his copy of the Folio; to
Mr. Andrew Keogh and to Mr. Henry A. Gruener, for aid in bibliographical
matters; and to Professor George L. Burr for the loan of books from
the Cornell Library.

A portion of the expense of printing this book has been borne by the
Modern Language Club of Yale University from funds placed at its
disposal by the generosity of Mr. George E. Dimock of Elizabeth,
New Jersey, a graduate of Yale in the Class of 1874.

                                                       W. S. J.

  YALE UNIVERSITY,
        August 30, 1905.




                           CONTENTS

  INTRODUCTION                                                PAGE

  A. EDITIONS OF THE TEXT                                      xi

  B. DATE AND PRESENTATION                                   xvii

  C. THE DEVIL IS AN ASS                                      xix

     I. THE DEVIL PLOT                                         xx
        1. The Devil in the pre-Shakespearian Drama          xxii
        2. Jonson’s Treatment of the Devil                  xxiii
        3. The Influence of Robin Goodfellow
                 and of Popular Legend                       xxvi
        4.