The villain is the most constant reminder of Elizabethan tragedy. He has all the traits of the stage Machiavellis of Marlowe and Kyd, and sometimes imitates Iago. He is wholly black at heart, but he is apparently frank and honest; his revenge or ambition works by most devious intrigue; he confides his schemes to the audience in long soliloquies, yet his accomplished hypocrisy long baffles the rest of the _dramatis personae_. As in late Elizabethan and Restoration plays, he is often a prime minister. A collection of these villains' speeches would illustrate the conventionalized character of eighteenth century tragedy and the tendency of stage types to perpetuate themselves in theatrical tradition. A few lines from two may be sufficient. The first is the opening soliloquy of Seyfert in "The Heroine of the Cave," a play of some popularity acted in 1774. "Revenge, thou art the deity I adore!-- From thy auspicious shrine I hope a cure For the corroding pain that rends my heart. The vain Alberti being thus preferr'd By fair Constantia, passeth all enduring! Colredo I have rouz'd--another wooer-- And in his name are such reflections dropp'd, As 'twixt the two a duel must provoke-- My purpose is, whoe'er the conqu'ror be, To reap advantage for my private views," etc. The second is the opening soliloquy of Bertrand in Miss Hannah More's "Fatal Falsehood" (1779). "What fools are serious melancholy villains! I play a surer game, and screen my heart With easy looks and undesigning smiles; And while my actions spring from sober thought, They still appear th' effect of wild caprice, And I, the thoughtless slave of giddy chance. What but this frankness has engag'd the promise Of young Orlando, to confide in me That secret grief which preys upon his heart? 'Tis dangerous, indiscreet hypocrisy To seem too good: I am the _careless_ Bertrand, The honest, undesigning, plain, blunt man:" etc.