Note 36 — Chapter Four THE ACTING

The display of wit as an individualizing element is usually limited to the following types: ladies, pages or boys, satirists such as Jaques and Thersites, clowns, gulls, braggarts, and occasional generic figures such as gentlemen and citizens. The only characters outside of these types who engage in wit play in Shakespeare’s Globe plays are Paris (Troilus and Cressida, III, i), Lafew, Abhorson, Shallow, and Evans (Merry Wives of Windsor, I, i), also in the same play, Pistol and Nym (I, iii) and the Host (II, iii; III, i). Also Iago (who may be considered a satirist) and Polonius (II, ii).