HE DEVIL IS AN ASS.] Jonson's own title for the play is THE DIVELL IS AN ASSs, and I regret it was not retained. It appears to me much more in accordance with the spirit of playful satire which pervades the piece, than the grim hard name which the modern editors have substituted. The letter misprinted by Gifford at p. cxxxviii. of the Memoirs establishes the fact that the 1631 edition of this play was printed under the author's auspices. It must be admitted, however, that the marginal directions are not given with Jonson's customary brevity and perspicacity, and that for the most part they may very well be spared. The motto is from the Ars Poetica, and was thus translated by Jonson himself: "Let what thou feign'st for pleasure's sake be near The truth." In speaking of the piece to Drummond (vol. ix. p. 400), he told him that he had been "accused" about it, which is not to be wondered at, as there are many hard and clever hits at some of the projects which tended so much to lower the court in the eyes of the country. With regard to the literary conduct of the play itself, he says that "according to Comadia Vetus, in England the Divell was brought in either with one Vice or other: the Play done, the Divell carried away the Vice." Jonson's improvement upon this was to represent "the Divell so overcome with the wickedness of this age, that he thought himself an ass. Пapepyovc is discoursed of the Duke of Drounland: the King desired him to conceal it." P. 4. Or were Muscovy glass.] Muscovy glass is talc. So in Marston's Malcontent, 1604: "She were an excellent lady but that her face pealeth like Muscovy glass." P. 5. If this play do not like, the Devil is in't.] Dekker's play is entitled: If it be not good, the Divel is in it. Gifford's note is calculated to make a reader search for it under the name of Belphegor, whereas it is only built upon a plot taken from Machiavelli's novel of the "Marriage of Belphegor." Dekker's Epilogue commences: "If't be not good, the Divell is in't (they say), The Divell was in't, this then 's no good play." Nares points out that like in the sense of please is preserved in the old court phrase, "And like your majesty," which has been corrupted from "An it like your majesty." P. 7. Hoh, hoh, hoh, &c.] I cannot join in Gifford's condemnation of Whalley's note. Jonson tells us himself that he had the English Vetus Comadia in his eye, and this was the mode in which, in the old Moralities, the Divell introduced himself. In Dekker's play, above referred to, the "Divell" generally comes on with Oooh, oooh!" "Ooooh." It may be that Jonson's "Hoh" was shouted in a tone of sarcastic merriment, but it was derived from the custom Whalley refers to. P. 9. Stay in your place, know your own strength, and put not Beyond the sphere of your activity.] By changing the strengths of Jonson into strength, Gifford has sadly damaged the meaning of this passage. Strengths were strong places, strong-holds, and Satan sagaciously advises Pug to " 'put not beyond" ground that he's sure of. In Sejanus the word is used metaphorically: "Make mine own strengths by giving suits and places, Sat. I'll call him hither.] In the folio the words "I'll call him hither," are Pug's, and it is perfectly plain, from Iniquity's opening speech, that he understood them to be so. Since writing the above, I have found that Coleridge, who was not aware of the folio reading, had arrived at the same conclusion. "That [the uttering of the words by Satan] is against all probability, and with a (for Jonson) impossible violation of character. The words plainly belong to Pug, and mark at once his simpleness and his impatience." P. 12. To spend it in pies at the Dagger.] For notices of the Dagger and its pies, see vol. iv. pp. 24, 165. In Satiromastix, Dekker makes Tucca say to Horace (i. e. Jonson), "Out bench whistler, out, ile not take thy word for a Dagger pye." P. 13. Where Vennor comes.] Gifford tells us afterwards in a note, vol. vii. p. 414, that when he wrote this he was ignorant of the true history of Vennor or Fenner. In Richard Brome's Covent Garden Weeded (circ. 1638), we have: "Sure 'tis Fenner or his ghost. He was a riming souldier." (p. 42.) P. 13. And take his Almain-leap into a custard.] An Almain leap was a dancing leap. "Allemands," says Nares, who was born in 1753, "" were danced here a few years back;" and Mr. Dyce, I find, has a MS. note in his copy: "Rabelais tells us that Gargantua 'wrestled, ran, jumped, not at three steps and a leap, called the hops, nor at clokepied, called the hare's leap, nor yet at the Almane's, for, said Gymnast, these jumps are for the wars altogether unprofitable and of no use.' Rabelais, book i. c. xxiii.” Meath and Obarni.] Gifford afterwards discovered (see his note vol. vii. p. 226) that Obarni was a preparation of meath, not of usquebagh, and he also adds a better definition of Hum, from Heywood's Drunkard. At post, p. 258, we read of a "distance of hum," which Gifford is unable to explain. It was evidently a potent liquor. P. 16. There is a handsome cut-purse hang'd at Tyburn.] On this Mr. Dyce has noted in his copy: "It would seem as if the highwaymen of Jonson's days, as well as those of the last century, prided themselves on riding to Tyburn in grand costume. Rogues die now in dishabille." P. 16. Franklin, and Fiske, and Savory.] Fiske has also been fortunate enough to obtain a niche in Hudibras, part ii. c. iii. v. 403 : "And high an ancient obelisk Was rais'd by him, found out by Fisk." The lines from Beaumont and Fletcher ought to be quoted: "Oh I shall bring you wonders! There's a friar De Bube, a gentleman; and then La Fiske, P. 17. Pentacles with characters.] Pentacle (from low Latin pentaculum) was the name given to three triangles intersecting each other, and made up of five lines. It was considered a charm against demons, and, when delineated upon the body of a man, was supposed to point out the five wounds of the Saviour. Its |