§25. Distinctive character of the Moralities. III. The Early Religious Drama. Vol. 5. The Drama to 1642, Part One. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume V. The Drama to 1642, Part One.

III. The Early Religious Drama.

§ 25. Distinctive character of the Moralities.

Moralities proved more tenacious of life; in them, among the representatives of the evil principle, a new realistic and comic personage now appears with increasing distinctness. He probably descended from the merry devil Tutivillus, who, as we have seen, was taken over from the mysteries into the moralities. For this combination of clown and devil, in the course of the sixteenth century, the name “Vice” came more and more into use. His chief pleasure is to make mischief, and to set men against their neighbours; his constant attribute is a dagger of lath; and it is a stock effect to make him, after having acted his part, return to hell, riding on the back of his friend Lucifer.