The general
domestic
fool.
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
It is
also mentioned in _Like Will to Like_, _Hickescorner_, _King Darius_,
etc. The wooden dagger was borrowed, however, from the fool's costume,
and is an indication of the growing identification of the Vice with
the house-fool. That Jonson recognized it as such is evident from his
_Expostulation with Inigo Jones_:
No velvet suit you wear will alter kind;
A wooden dagger is a dagger of wood.
The long cloak, twice mentioned (1. 1. 51 and 85), is another
property borrowed from the fool. The natural fool usually wore a
long gown-like dress,[50] and this was later adopted as a dress for
the artificial fool. Muckle John, the court fool of Charles I. , was
provided with 'a long coat and suit of scarlet-colour serge'. [51]
Satan's reply to Pug's request for a Vice is, however, the most
important passage on this subject. He begins by saying that the Vice,
whom he identifies with the house fool, is fifty years out of date.
Only trivial and absurd parts are left for Iniquity to play, the
mountebank tricks of the city and the tavern fools. Douce (pp. 499
f. ) mentions nine kinds of fools, among which the following appear:
1.
The general domestic fool. 4. The city or corporation fool. 5.
Tavern fools. Satan compares Iniquity with each of these in turn. The
day has gone by, he says:
When euery great man had his _Vice_ stand by him,
In his long coat, shaking his wooden dagger.
Then he intimates that Iniquity may be able to play the
tavern fool:
Where canst thou carry him? except to Tauernes?
To mount vp ona joynt-stoole, with a _Iewes_-trumpe,
To put downe _Cokeley_, and that must be to Citizens?
And finally he compares him with the city fool:
Hee may perchance, in taile of a Sheriffes dinner,
Skip with a rime o' the table, from _New-nothing_,
And take his _Almaine_-leape into a custard.
Thus not only does Jonson identify the Vice with the fool, but with the
fool in his senility. The characteristic functions of the jester in the
Shakespearian drama, with his abundant store of improvised jests, witty
retorts, and irresistible impudence, have no part in this character. He
is merely the mountebank who climbs upon a tavern stool, skips over the
table, and leaps into corporation custards.
Iniquity, then, plays no real part in the drama. His introduction is
merely for the purpose of satire.
also mentioned in _Like Will to Like_, _Hickescorner_, _King Darius_,
etc. The wooden dagger was borrowed, however, from the fool's costume,
and is an indication of the growing identification of the Vice with
the house-fool. That Jonson recognized it as such is evident from his
_Expostulation with Inigo Jones_:
No velvet suit you wear will alter kind;
A wooden dagger is a dagger of wood.
The long cloak, twice mentioned (1. 1. 51 and 85), is another
property borrowed from the fool. The natural fool usually wore a
long gown-like dress,[50] and this was later adopted as a dress for
the artificial fool. Muckle John, the court fool of Charles I. , was
provided with 'a long coat and suit of scarlet-colour serge'. [51]
Satan's reply to Pug's request for a Vice is, however, the most
important passage on this subject. He begins by saying that the Vice,
whom he identifies with the house fool, is fifty years out of date.
Only trivial and absurd parts are left for Iniquity to play, the
mountebank tricks of the city and the tavern fools. Douce (pp. 499
f. ) mentions nine kinds of fools, among which the following appear:
1.
The general domestic fool. 4. The city or corporation fool. 5.
Tavern fools. Satan compares Iniquity with each of these in turn. The
day has gone by, he says:
When euery great man had his _Vice_ stand by him,
In his long coat, shaking his wooden dagger.
Then he intimates that Iniquity may be able to play the
tavern fool:
Where canst thou carry him? except to Tauernes?
To mount vp ona joynt-stoole, with a _Iewes_-trumpe,
To put downe _Cokeley_, and that must be to Citizens?
And finally he compares him with the city fool:
Hee may perchance, in taile of a Sheriffes dinner,
Skip with a rime o' the table, from _New-nothing_,
And take his _Almaine_-leape into a custard.
Thus not only does Jonson identify the Vice with the fool, but with the
fool in his senility. The characteristic functions of the jester in the
Shakespearian drama, with his abundant store of improvised jests, witty
retorts, and irresistible impudence, have no part in this character. He
is merely the mountebank who climbs upon a tavern stool, skips over the
table, and leaps into corporation custards.
Iniquity, then, plays no real part in the drama. His introduction is
merely for the purpose of satire.
