370 Elbert N. S. Thompson 
one, Respublica, has been preserved. In that long and serious play, 
Avarice ingratiates himself into the favor of Respublica, calling 
himself Policie, and introduces his three friends, Adulation, Oppres- 
sion, and Insolence, as Honesty, Reformation, and Authority. Together 
they oppress People, whose complaints are all in vain; for Res- 
publica is so completely deceived by her evil administrators that she 
overlooks the wasting of her revenues.1. Yet Avarice openly boasts 
of his schemes for blackmail, perjury, and the sale of benefices, 
and shows how he has long cheated the king of his customs 
duties, exported wheat and other commodities illegally, depreciated 
the currency, and wasted the public forests. Of these evil practices 
People tries to complain, but is driven off by the oppressors. 
In the fifth act Mercy comes from God with assurances of redress 
for poor Respublica. It is an easy matter for Truth, who accom- 
panies Mercy, to disclose the perfidy of the four evil administrators, 
and for Justice and Peace, the other reformers, to bring them for 
trial before Nemesis, who represents Queen Mary.? Following the 
suggestion of Mercy and Truth, Nemesis, because of the good 
service that Adulation might render, places her upon probation, 
but she commits Insolence and Oppression to custody, and orders 
that Avarice restore all that he has gained by fraud. Thus a happy 
state is prepared for Respublica. 
The above outline should show that Respublica gives very little 
attention to the theology of the Reformation; People protests only 
against injustice and oppression, and Nemesis’ reforms look only to 
honest government. In this, Respubiica owes much to Lindsay’s 
Scottish morality, Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits. Of the tedious 
prolixity of this play no mere outline can give any idea. The cen- 
tral character is King Humanity, whose intent it is to rule according 
to God’s will. But three vices, Wantonness, Placebo, and Solace, 
bring him into the power of Sensuality, and three evil counselors, 
Flattery, Deceit, and Falsehood, who pose in the guise of Devotion, 
Discretion, and Wisdom, delude and debauch the “three estates’— 
the clergy, the nobility, and the commons.? Consequently, Good 
Counsel, who hopes to reform the king, is driven into exile, and 

le 3 ara 5 25:10, aoe 
3 There is nothing originai, as some critics have supposed, in this 
idea of the disguise of the vices as virtues; the thought was common 
in medieval homiletics. Gregory the Great, for example, declared that 
the vices do not present themselves in their naked wickedness, but 
assume a fairer appearance, cruelty presenting itself as justice, anger as 
righteous zeal, fear as humility, and so on (Morals, 3. 544—46). There- 
