The Devil is an Ass

by Ben Jonson

[ [42] Subtle Shift in The History of Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes.

[ [43] In Wilson’s The Three Ladies of London.

[ [44] He is so identified in Chapman’s Alphonsus, Emperor of Germany c 1590 (Wks., ed. 1873, 3. 216), and in Stubbes’ Anat., 1583. Nash speaks of the Vice as an antiquated figure as early as 1592 (Wks. 2. 203).

[ [45] Med. Stage, pp. 203-5.

[ [46] Eckhardt, p. 145.

[ [47] Sometimes he is even a virtuous character. See Eckhardt’s remarks on Archipropheta, p. 170. Merry Report in Heywood’s Weather constantly moralizes, and speaks of himself as the servant of God in contrast with the devil.

[ [48] This designation for the Vice first appears in Nice Wanton, 1547-53, then in King Darius, 1565, and Histriomastix, 1599 (printed 1610).

[ [49]Wright, Hist. of Caricature, p. 106.

[ [50] Doran, p. 182.

[ [51] Ibid., p. 210.