were introduced as
_dramatis personae_. These personages at first only took part in the play
along with the Scriptural or legendary characters, but afterwards
entirely superseded them. They continued in fashion till the time of
Queen Elizabeth. Several allusions are given by Shakespeare to these
moral plays. Thus, in "Twelfth Night" (iv. 1), the clown sings:

"I am gone, sir,
And anon, sir,
I'll be with you again
In a trice,
Like to the old Vice,
Your need to sustain;

Who, with dagger of lath,
In his rage and his wrath,
Cries, Ah, ha! to the devil," etc.

Again, in "1 Henry IV." (ii. 4), Prince Henry speaks of "that reverend
Vice, that grey Iniquity;" and in "2 Henry IV." (iii. 2), Falstaff says,
"now is this Vice's dagger become a squire."

Again, further allusions occur in "Richard III." (iii. 1). Gloster says:

"Thus, like the formal Vice, Iniquity,
I moralize two meanings in one word."

And once more, Hamlet (iii. 4), speaks of "a Vice of kings," "a king of
shreds and patches."

According to Nares, "Vice" had the name sometimes of one vice, sometimes
of another, but most commonly of _Iniquity_, or Vice itself. He was
grotesquely dressed in a cap with ass's ears, a long coat, and a dagger
of lath. One of his chief employments was to make sport with the devil,
leaping on his back, and belaboring him with his dagger of lath, till he
made him roar. The devil, however, always carried him off in the end. He
was, in short, the buffoon of the morality, and was succeeded in his
office by the clown, whom we see in Shakespeare and others.[664]

[664] See Dyce's "Glossary," p. 482.

Again, there may be a further allusion to the moralities in "King Lear"
(ii. 2), where Kent says to Oswald, "take Vanity, the puppet's, part,
against the royalty of her father."

Then, too, there were the "pageants"--shows which were usually performed
in the highways of our towns, and assimilated in some degree to the
miracle-plays, but were of a more mixed character, being partly drawn
from profane history. According to Strutt, they were more frequent in
London, being required at stated periods, such as the setting of the
Midsummer Watch, and the Lord Mayor's Show.[665] Among the allusions to
these shows given by Shakespeare, we may quote one in "Richard III."
(iv. 4), where Queen Margaret speaks of

"The flattering index of a direful pageant"

--the pageants displayed