“_Pug._ Why any: Fraud,
Or Covetousness, or lady Vanity,
Or old Iniquity, _I’ll call him hither_.”
“The words in italics should probably be given to the
master-devil, Satan.”—Whalley’s note.
That is, against all probability, and with a (for Jonson) impossible
violation of character. The words plainly belong to Pug, and mark at once
his simpleness and his impatience.
_Ib._ sc. 4. Fitz-dottrel’s soliloquy.
Compare this exquisite piece of sense, satire, and sound philosophy in
1616 with Sir M. Hale’s speech from the bench in a trial of a witch many
years afterwards.