Note 11 — INTRODUCTION

See the figure of Captain Pouts in Woman is a Weathercock. He might easily have been made a mere miles gloriosus; instead he is a real man,—coarse, revengeful, dissolute, quarrelsome, hectoring—no doubt at heart a coward, but not more absurdly so in the face of his pretensions than many of his type in actual life. For characters clearly visualized in a few simple strokes, may be noted in the same play Lady Ninny, Lucida, and, apart from one speech (M. 356–7) out of character obviously for comic effect, Kate; in Amends for Ladies, Ingen. Examples of Field’s power in more idealistic work may be found in The Knight of Malta in the delineation of Montferrat’s passion (I, i) and in the scene between Miranda and Oriana (V, i). [↩]