The notions of virtue and vice are vital components of the Western ethical tradition. But in early modern France they were called into question, as writers such

Some of the most problematic human behaviors involve vices of the mind such as arrogance, closed-mindedness, dogmatism, gullibility, and intellectual cowardice,

Disguise devices figure in many early modern English plays and an examination of them clearly affords an important reflection on the growth of early theatre as