humour met
with the applause he clearly expected. We believe they did, for he was
only copying a widespread custom.

Of far more importance than Hance, however, are the two characters, the
Devil and Nichol Newfangle. They invite joint treatment by their own
declared relationship and by the close union which stage tradition
quickly gave to them. Most of us will remember Shakespeare's song from
_Twelfth Night_ bearing on these two notorious companions, their quaint
garb, and their laughter-raising antics.

I am gone, sir,
And anon, sir,
I'll be with you again,
In a trice,
Like to the old Vice,
Your need to sustain;
Who, with dagger of lath,
In his rage and his wrath,
Cries, ah, ha! to the devil:
Like a mad lad,
Pare thy nails, dad;
Adieu, goodman devil.

Newfangle is the 'Vice' of the play; 'Nichol Newfangle, the Vice,' says
the list of dramatis personae. We noticed in our consideration of _Hick
Scorner_ that one of the Vices, Imagination, was eminent for his more
detailed character and readier villany. The trick has been adopted; the
favourite has grown fast. He has become _the_ Vice. Compared with him
the rest of the Vices appear foolish fellows whom it is his delight to
plague and lead astray. So supreme is he in wickedness that he has even
been given the Devil himself as his godfather, uncle, playmate. It is
his duty to keep alive the natural wickedness in man, to set snares and
evil mischances before the feet of simpler folk, to teach youth to be
idle and young men to be quarrelsome, to lure rogues to their ruin; but,
above all, to import wit into prosy dialogues, merriment into dull
situations. Such is 'the Vice'. Hear him speak for himself:

What is he calls upon me, and would seem to lack a Vice?
Ere his words be half spoken, I am with him in a trice
Here, there, and everywhere, as the cat is with the mice:
True _Vetus Iniquitas_. Lack'st thou cards, friend, or dice?
I will teach thee to cheat, child, to cog, lie, and swagger,
And ever and anon to be drawing forth thy dagger.

(Ben Jonson's _The Devil is an Ass_.)

Then what a universal favourite, too, is the Devil, our old friend from
the Miracles! 'My husband, Timothy Tattle, God rest his poor soul!' says
good Gossip Tattle, 'was wont to say, there was no play without a fool
and a devil in 't; he was for the devil still, God bless