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"THAT REVEREND VICE" A Study of the Comic-Demonic Figure in English Drama and Fiction by GERALDINE BONNIE LEVENSON B.A., University of British Columbia, 1968 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Department of English We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA September, 1976 (c) Geraldine Bonnie Levenson, 1976 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of English The University of British Columbia 2075 Wesbrook Place Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5 ABSTRACT One of the most puzzling thematic patterns prevalent in the liter• ature of almost every culture is the recurrent association of the devil and clown; both in myth and art, there is a discernible relationship be• tween the spirit of comedy and the dark, destructive forces of the demonic realm. It is the purpose of the dissertation to examine the comic and demonic forces which are interfused in the literary representations of a number of clown-demons, to explain the nature of what may be termed "dia• bolical humour," and to demonstrate why, in the words of Baudelaire, "the comic is one of the clearest tokens of the Satanic in man." This inves• tigation is approached from the vantage point of a figure widely popular in English medieval and Tudor drama, namely the jesting Vice of the morality and interlude, in whom the elements of the comic and demonic converge. While the first half of the dissertation examines the relation• ship between comedy and evil in light of the origins and dramatic charac• teristics of the Vice, the second half attempts to demonstrate that this figure can serve as a kind of prototype for a number of similarly morally ambiguous characters in both drama and fiction, characters whose double- visaged natures would otherwise appear somewhat inexplicable. The first three chapters are mainly historical, concentrating on the development of the comic-demonic figure in early English drama and establishing a sociological foundation upon which further discussion of the relationship between evil and comedy can be based. The following chapters are largely analytical in nature, focusing upon five problematical figures in English i i iii 1iterature--Falstaff in Henry IV, Volpone in Jonson's play by that name, Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair, Fagin in Oliver Twist and Quilp in The Old Curiosity Shop--and using the comic-demonic attributes of these figures as a threshold through which to enter the dramatic or fictional worlds of Shakespeare, Jonson, Thackeray, and Dickens. In each of the works dis• cussed, not only are the forces of comedy and evil intrinsically related to the major strands of imagery and thematic motifs, but also each writer emphasizes a different aspect of the comic-demonic prototype whose com• posite features are identified in the first half of the dissertation. In Henry IV, Falstaff's comic diablerie considerably elucidates the intermediary position within the socio-political framework which Shakespeare is delineating--the amoral, median position between virtue and vice, order and disorder, court and tavern. In Volpone, Jonson employs the magnifico as a kind of infernal priest whose idolatrous wor• ship of his gold and licentious indulgence of his baser passions take the form of a comic profanation of the sacred, resulting in the temporary ascendency of a demonic, saturnalian world. The discussion of Vanity Fair examines a female representation of this figure. In this novel, Becky Sharp emerges as a demonic comic-heroine whose womanhood defines the quality of both the comedy and the evil she perpetrates. And finally, in 01iver Twist and The Old Curiosity Shop, Fagin and Quilp fulfill the traditional Vice-role, acting as aged corrupters of youthful innocence. Both men function thematically as surrogate father-figures whose comic- demonic attributes make them at the same time menacing and attractive to the children with whom they each interact. The conclusion looks at the central question of the moral ambi• guity of this figure, his or her simultaneous attractiveness and repre- hensibility, from the wider perspective of the interaction between the comic and demonic domains. The study closes with the assertion that the forces of comedy and evil function in a complementary manner as both instruments of engagement and distancing devices, and that the comic- demonic figure will be represented in literature as long as there con• tinues to be a relationship between the spirit of comedy and the dark, hidden impulses of mankind. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page . INTRODUCTION 1 I. THE COMIC AND DEMONIC DOMAINS 4 II. FORERUNNERS OF THE VICE—THE COMIC-DEMONIC CHARACTER IN THE ENGLISH RELIGIOUS DRAMA OF THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD 23 III. THE TWO FACES OF THE VICE 57 IV. A CONGENIAL SOIL FOR TRANSPLANTATION 107 V. A "GENTLEMAN OF THE SHADE"—FALSTAFF AS VICE IN HENRY J_V 120 VI. THE BLACK SATURNALIA—THE COMIC-DEMONIC REALM OF VOLPONE 146 VII. "FLEXIBLE IN THE JOINTS AND LIVELY ON THE WIRE"—THE DEMONIC COMIC-HEROINE IN VANITY FAIR . 173 VIII. THE CHILD AND THE CLOWN-DEMON—FATHERS AND CHILDREN IN OLIVER TWIST AND THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP 201 CONCLUSION: BETWEEN ENGAGEMENT AND DETACHMENT .... 245 LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED 252 v O "THAT REVEREND VICE" A Study of the Comic-Demonic Fig in English Drama and Fiction INTRODUCTION One of the most puzzling thematic patterns prevalent in the literature of almost every culture is the recurrent association of the representations of the devil and the clown; both in myth and art, there is a discernible relationship between the spirit of comedy and the dark, destructive forces of the demonic realm. For example, Joseph Campbell in The Hero With A Thousand Faces affirms that inherent in every myth, there is a conception of the pre-existence of evil. "Universal too is the casting of the antagonist, the representative of evil, in the role of the clown. Devils--both the lusty thick-heads and the sharp clever deceivers--are always clowns."^ Similarly, Ernst Kris in his section on the comic in Psychoanalytic Explorations in Art makes the following comment: We are familiar with the great company of comic figures which are to be found in the art and literature of all civilized peoples. We can often discover their genealogy and trace it right back to the antique satyr play, or even further. It is a fact that as a general rule, we can perceive behind them another more sinister shape once feared or dreaded. Satyrs who were at first goat demons, the pulcinella of South-Italian comedy, descendant of the cock dancers, the comic devils of the mystery plays, even the lovable Mephisto in Goethe's Faust, are the best known examples of such ci-devant demons now travestied as fools.2 It will be the purpose of my dissertation to examine the comic and demonic forces which are interfused in the literary representations of a number of such clown-demons, to explain the nature of what may be termed "diabolical humour," and to demonstrate why, in the words of Baudelaire, "the comic is one of the clearest tokens of the Satanic in 3 man." I intend to approach this question from the vantage point of a 1 2 figure widely popular in English medieval and Tudor drama, namely the jesting Vice of the morality and interlude, in whom the elements of the comic and demonic converge. Having examined the origins and dramatic characteristics of this figure, I shall then attempt to demonstrate that the Vice can serve as a prototype for a number of similarly ambivalent characters in both drama and fiction, characters whose double-visaged natures would otherwise appear somewhat inexplicable. The emphasis of the first half of the dissertation will, conse• quently, be mainly historical, concentrating on the development of the comic-demonic figure in early English drama and establishing a socio• logical foundation upon which further discussion of the relationship be• tween evil and comedy can be based. The second half will be largely analytical in nature, focusing upon five problematical figures—two dramatic and three fictional--whose comic-demonic features are intrinsi• cally related to the thematic patterns and imagery of each of the liter• ary works in which they operate. 3 Notes for Introduction 1 The Hero With a Thousand Faces (Cleveland and New York: Meridian Books, 1956J7 p. 294. Psychoanalytic Explorations in Art (New York: Shocken Books, 1964), p. 213. 3 "On the Essence of Laughter, and, in General, on the Comic in the Plastic Arts [1855]," in Comedy: Meaning and Form, ed. Robert W. Corrigan (San Francisco: Chandler Publishing Co., 1965), p. 453. Chapter I THE COMIC AND DEMONIC DOMAINS The perplexing nature of the Vice's incorporation of the two forces of comic and demonic, of the roles of both devil and clown, is well outlined in a series of questions posed by William Willeford during his discussion of the development of the fool character in his recent work, The Fool and His Scepter: [0]n the medieval stage . the Devil and the fool interacted with each other, and the Devil himself was often clownish, as were Herod, Pilate, and other "bad" characters.
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