one of Marlowe's plays. After all, the interval of time is not so very great. _The Castell of Perseverance_ was written probably about the middle of the fifteenth century; _Everyman_ may be assigned to the close of that century or the beginning of the next; one of the earliest surviving Interludes, _Hick Scorner_, has been dated 'about 1520-25'; and Marlowe's _Doctor Faustus_ belongs probably to the year 1588. Let us turn to _Hick Scorner_ and see the new principle of characterization at work. How much of the old is blended with it may be seen in the opening speech, which is delivered by as colourless an abstraction as ever advocated a virtuous life in the Moralities. A good old man, Pity, sits alone, describing himself to his hearers. To him comes Contemplation, and shortly afterwards Perseverance, both younger men but just as undeniably 'Virtues'. Each explains his nature to the audience before discovering the presence of Pity, but they quickly fall into a highly edifying conversation. Fortunately for us Contemplation and Perseverance have other engagements, which draw them away. Pity relapses into a corner and silence. Thereupon two men of a very different type take the boards. The first comer is Freewill, a careless, graceless youth by his own account; Imagination, who follows, is worse, being one of those hardened, ready-witted, quick-tempered rogues whom providence saves from drowning for another fate. He is sore, this second fellow, with sitting in the stocks; yet quite unrepentant, boasting, rather, of his skill in avoiding heavier penalties. That others come to the gallows is owing to their bad management. As he says, For, and they could have carried by craft as I can, In process of years each of them should be a gentleman. Yet as for me I was never thief; [i.e. _was never proved one._] If my hands were smitten off, I can steal with my teeth; For ye know well, there is craft in daubing[42]: I can look in a man's face and pick his purse, And tell new tidings that was never true, i-wis, For my hood is all lined with lesing[43]. Nevertheless once he was very nearly caught. And he narrates the incident with so much circumstantial detail that it would be a pity not to have his own words.