Fitzdottrel is the Lady
Elizabeth
Hatton.
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
'[91]
In only one play do we know that the principal characters represent
real people. But between _Poetaster_ and _The Devil is an Ass_ there
is a vast difference of treatment. In _Poetaster_ (1) the attitude is
undisguisedly satirical. The allusions in the prologues and notices
to the reader are direct and unmistakable. (2) The character-drawing
is partly caricature, partly allegorical. This method is easily
distinguishable from the typical, which aims to satirize a class.
(3) Jonson does not draw upon historical events, but personal
idiosyncrasies. (4) The chief motive is in the spirit of Aristophanes,
the great master of personal satire. These methods are what we should
naturally expect in a composition of this sort. Of such internal
evidence we find little or nothing in _The Devil is an Ass_. Several
plausible identifications, however, have been proposed, and these we
must consider separately.
The chief characters are identified by Fleay as follows: Wittipol is
Jonson. He has returned from travel, and had seen Mrs. Fitzdottrel
before he went. Mrs.
Fitzdottrel is the Lady Elizabeth Hatton.
Fitzdottrel is her husband, Sir Edward Coke.
=Mrs. Fitzdottrel=. The identification is based upon a series of
correspondences between a passage in _The Devil is an Ass_ (2. 6.
57-113) and a number of passages scattered through Jonson's works. The
most important of these are quoted in the note to the above passage. To
them has been added an important passage from _A Challenge at Tilt_,
1613. Fleay's deductions are these: (1) _Underwoods 36_ and _Charis_
must be addressed to the same lady (cf. especially _Ch. _, part 5). (2)
Charis and Mrs. Fitzdottrel are identical. The song (2. 6.
In only one play do we know that the principal characters represent
real people. But between _Poetaster_ and _The Devil is an Ass_ there
is a vast difference of treatment. In _Poetaster_ (1) the attitude is
undisguisedly satirical. The allusions in the prologues and notices
to the reader are direct and unmistakable. (2) The character-drawing
is partly caricature, partly allegorical. This method is easily
distinguishable from the typical, which aims to satirize a class.
(3) Jonson does not draw upon historical events, but personal
idiosyncrasies. (4) The chief motive is in the spirit of Aristophanes,
the great master of personal satire. These methods are what we should
naturally expect in a composition of this sort. Of such internal
evidence we find little or nothing in _The Devil is an Ass_. Several
plausible identifications, however, have been proposed, and these we
must consider separately.
The chief characters are identified by Fleay as follows: Wittipol is
Jonson. He has returned from travel, and had seen Mrs. Fitzdottrel
before he went. Mrs.
Fitzdottrel is the Lady Elizabeth Hatton.
Fitzdottrel is her husband, Sir Edward Coke.
=Mrs. Fitzdottrel=. The identification is based upon a series of
correspondences between a passage in _The Devil is an Ass_ (2. 6.
57-113) and a number of passages scattered through Jonson's works. The
most important of these are quoted in the note to the above passage. To
them has been added an important passage from _A Challenge at Tilt_,
1613. Fleay's deductions are these: (1) _Underwoods 36_ and _Charis_
must be addressed to the same lady (cf. especially _Ch. _, part 5). (2)
Charis and Mrs. Fitzdottrel are identical. The song (2. 6.
