MISPRISION
Negative misprision is misprision by neglect of duty, notably a duty to report information about a felony or treason.
Positive misprision is maladministration or the commission of other serious offence falling short of actual felony or treason.
1.a neglect or violation of official duty by one in office.
2. failure by one not an accessory to prevent or notify the authorities of treason or felony.
3. a contempt against the government, monarch, or courts, as sedition, lese majesty, or a contempt of court.
4. a mistake; misunderstanding
Misprision, as a comedic device meaning “to mistake one thing for another either verbally or physically, intentionally or not,” is an essential tool of comedies from Aristophanes to Shakespeare to Wilde to Stoppard to…be brief, from the past to the present to the future. “Misprision in the highest degree!” Feste says in Shakespeare’s TWELFTH NIGHT, and misprisions have been at the center of comedies since people first laughed a the doings on a stage.