The legend of Friar Rush had already twice been used in the drama before it was adopted by Jonson. The play by Day and Haughton to which Henslowe refers[33] is not extant; Dekker’s drama, _If this be not a good Play, the Diuell is in it_, appeared in 1612. Jonson in roundabout fashion acknowledged his indebtedness to this play by the closing line of his prologue. If this Play doe not like, the Diuell is in’t. Dekker’s play adds few new elements to the story. The first scene is in the infernal regions; not, however, the Christian hell, as in the prose history, but the classical Hades. This change seems to have been adopted from Machiavelli. Three devils are sent to earth with the object of corrupting men and replenishing hell. They return, on the whole, successful, though the corrupted king of Naples is finally redeemed. In certain respects, however, the play stands closer to Jonson’s drama than the history. In the first place, the doctrine that hell’s vices are both old-fashioned and outdone by men, upon which Satan lays so much stress in his instructions to Pug in the first scene, receives a like emphasis in Dekker: ... ’tis thought That men to find hell, now, new waies have sought, As Spaniards did to the Indies. and again: ... aboue vs dwell, Diuells brauer, and more subtill then in Hell.[34] and finally: They scorne thy hell, hauing better of their owne. In the second place Lurchall, unlike Rush, but in the same way as Pug, finds himself inferior to his earthly associates. He acknowledges himself overreached by Bartervile, and confesses: I came to teach, but now (me thinkes) must learne. A single correspondence of lesser importance may be added. Both devils, when asked whence they come, obscurely intimate their hellish origin. Pug says that he comes from the Devil’s Cavern in Derbyshire. Rufman asserts that his home is Helvetia.[35] [28] _Discovery_, p. 522. [29] _O. Pl._, 4th ed., 3. 213. [30] _Early Eng. Prose Romances_, London 1858. [31] See Herford’s discussion, _Studies_, p. 305; also _Quarterly Rev._ 22. 358. The frequently quoted passage from Harsnet’s _Declaration_ (ch. 20, p. 134), is as follows: ‘And if that the bowle of curds and cream were not duly set out for Robin Goodfellow, the Friar, and Sisse the dairy-maide, why then either the pottage was burnt the next day, or the cheese would not curdle’, etc. Cf. also Scot, _Discovery_, p. 67: ‘Robin could both eate and drinke, as being a cousening idle frier, or some such roge, that wanted nothing either belonging to lecherie or knaverie, &c’. [32] Cf. Pug’s words, 1. 3. 1 f. [33] See Herford, p. 308. [34] A similar passage is found in Dekker, _Whore of Babylon_, _Wks._ 2. 355. The sentiment is not original with Dekker. Cf. Middleton, _Black Book_, 1604: . . . And were it number’d well, There are more devils on earth than are in hell.