[163:1] “The Renegado,” iv., 1.
[165:1] “The Mad Lover,” ii., 1.
[166:1] Ibid., iii., 2.
CHAPTER VIII.
Mad Folk in Comedy and Tragedy.
(vi.) The Pretenders.
“I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.”
(“Hamlet.”)
Last of all in the long train of madmen which has now almost passed us come the Pretenders—characters who have feigned insanity for some purpose. We need not, of course, devote much space here to pseudo-lunatics like Morose in “The Silent Woman,” Bellamont in “Northward Ho,” Malvolio and Christopher Sly. These are all sane enough and have no wish to be thought otherwise. They are victimised by the pretences of others, and shew none of the signs which were supposed to characterise insanity. Thus they have small interest for us and no place in the present section.
A somewhat different example may be taken from Day’s “Law Tricks,”[167:1] where Polymetes, son of the reigning Duke, pretends, on his father’s sudden return from a long journey, to be deeply immersed in his studies, in order to avert the Duke’s reproaches for his neglect and loose living. His page, a boy “worth his weight