THE DEVIL IS AN ASS.
Act I. sc. 1.
'Pug'. Why any: Fraud, Or Covetousness, or lady Vanity,
Or old Iniquity, I'll call him hither.
The words in italics {between undescores} should probably be given to
the master-devil, Satan. (Whalley's note.)
That 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.
Ib. sc. 4. Fitz-dottrel's soliloquy:-
Compare this exquisite piece of sense, satire, and sound philosophy in 1616 with Sir M. Hale's speech from the bench in a trial of a witch many years afterwards. {1}
Act ii. sc. 1. Meercraft's speech:—
Sir, money's a whore, a bawd, a drudge.—
I doubt not that 'money' was the first word of the line, and has dropped out:—
Money! Sir, money's a, &c.
{Footnote 1: In 1664, at Bury St. Edmonds on the trial of Rose Cullender and Amy Duny. Ed.}