And forst, poore soule, to become vices bawde;
Like the old morall of the comedie,
Where Conscience favours Lucar's harlotry."

These lines are contained in the first satire of this very curious and
interesting work, and the readers of the drama will at once be aware of
their application.[13]

"The three Ladies of London" recommended itself to our notice for the
present volume, on account of the peculiarity of its construction:
Guilpin, we see, speaks of it as "the old moral of the comedy," and
this, in truth, is the exact description of it. It is neither entirely a
"moral," nor entirely a "comedy," but a mixture of both, differing from
the drama that stands first in our volume, because the real characters
introduced are not known or historical personages. Most of the _dramatis
personae_ are indisputably allegorical or representative, the
embodiments of certain virtues and vices; but individuals are also
employed, such as Gerontus a Jew, and Mercadore a merchant, besides a
Judge who is called upon to determine a dispute between them. This
portion of the piece may be said to belong to a more advanced period of
our stage, and distinguishes it, as far as we are aware, from anything
of the kind known anterior to the date when the production first came
from the press. The name Gerontus can hardly fail to bring to mind that
of the hero of the old ballad of "Gernutus, the Jew of Venice;"[14] but
there is a remarkable difference between the two persons: in the play
before us Gerontus is represented in a very favourable light, as an
upright Jew, only anxious to obtain his own property by fair means,
while his antagonist, a Christian merchant, endeavours to defeat the
claim by fraud, perjury, and apostacy. So far the drama of "The three
Ladies of London" contradicts the position, founded mainly upon