II. THE SATIRICAL DRAMA xli 1. General Treatment of the Plot xli 2. Chief Sources of the Plot xlv 3. Prototypes of the leading Characters lii 4. Minor Sources liii III. SPECIFIC OBJECTS OF SATIRE liv 1. The Duello liv 2. The Monopoly System lviii 3. Witchcraft lxii IV. PERSONAL SATIRE lxv Mrs. Fitzdottrel lxvi Fitzdottrel lxx Wittipol lxxi Justice Eitherside lxxi Merecraft lxxii Plutarchus Guilthead lxxiii The Noble House lxxiv D. AFTER-INFLUENCE OF THE DEVIL IS AN ASS lxxiv APPENDIX--EXTRACTS FROM THE CRITICS lxxvi TEXT 1 NOTES 123 GLOSSARY 213 BIBILIOGRAPHY 237 INDEX 243 INTRODUCTION A. EDITIONS OF THE TEXT _The Devil is an Ass_ was first printed in 1631, and was probably put into circulation at that time, either as a separate pamphlet or bound with _Bartholomew Fair_ and _The Staple of News_. Copies of this original edition were, in 1640-1, bound into the second volume of the First Folio of Jonson’s collected works.[1] In 1641 a variant reprint edition of _The Devil is an Ass_, apparently small, was issued in pamphlet form. The play reappears in all subsequent collected editions. These are: (1) the ‘Third Folio’, 1692; (2) a bookseller’s edition, 1716 [1717]; (3) Whalley’s edition, 1756; (4) John Stockdale’s reprint of Whalley’s edition (together with the works of Beaumont and Fletcher), 1811; (5) Gifford’s edition, 1816; (6) Barry Cornwall’s one-volume edition, 1838; (7) Lieut. Col. Francis Cunningham’s three-volume reissue (with some minor variations) of Gifford’s edition, 1871; (8) another reissue by Cunningham, in nine volumes (with additional notes), 1875. The _Catalogue_ of the British Museum shows that Jonson’s works were printed in two volumes at Dublin in 1729. Of these editions only the first two call for detailed description, and of the others only the first, second, third, fifth, and eighth will be discussed.