Note 28 — XI. “THE VERY DEVIL INCARNATION.”

See Knight’s Shakspeare, notes to the Merchant of Venice.—Blanco White, in his Letters from Spain (1806), speaking of the Passion Week shows, says: “The dress of the Apostle John is green, that of Judas yellow; and so intimately associated is this circumstance with the idea of the traitor, that it has brought that colour into universal discredit.... The Inquisition has adopted it for the Sambeníto, a coat of infamy, which persons convicted of heresy are compelled to wear. The red hair of Judas, like Peter’s baldness, seems to be agreed upon by all the painters and sculptors of Europe. Judas’ hair is a usual name in Spain; and a similar appellation, it should seem, was used in England in Shakspeare’s time. ‘His hair’ says Rosalind, ‘is of the dissembling colour.’ To which Celia answers ‘Something browner than Judas’s.’”