Roister Doister: Written, probably also represented, before 1553. Carefully edited from the unique copy, now at Eton College

By Nicholas Udall

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Good Press
• Release date: Nov 26, 2019
• ISBN: 4057664627469

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Nicholas Udall

Roister Doister

Written, probably also represented, before 1553. Carefully edited from the unique copy, now at Eton College

Published by Good Press, 2019

[e-mail]

EAN 4057664627469

Table of Contents

ROISTER DOISTER.

Roister Doister.

The Prologue.

Roister Doister.

English Reprints.

Contents (added by transcriber)

Dramatis Personæ

Life of Nicholas Udall

Introduction

Bibliography

Ralph Roister Doister

Songs

Advertising

English Reprints

Life of Nicholas Udall (simplified format)

Bibliography (simplified format)

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Dramatis Personæ.

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A brief Note of the

Life

,

Works

, and

Times

of

NICHOLAS UDALL, M.A.

Teacher, Dramatist, Translator, Preacher.

In succession Master of Eton College, Rector of Braintree, Prebend of Windsor, Rector of Calborne, and Master of Westminster School.

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* Probable or approximate dates.

There are materials extant for a good Life of Udall. Meanwhile there is Mr. Cooper’s excellent Memoir in the Shakespeare Society’s reprint of Ralph Roister Doister [see No. 5 on p. 8]; and Anthony à-Wood’s account of him, Ath. Oxon. i. 211. Ed. 1813.

1485. Aug. 22. Henry VII. becomes king.

1509. April 22. Henry VIII. begins to reign.

The Rev. Dr. Goodford, the present Provost of Eton, has most kindly afforded me interesting information obtained by him from the MS. records of the College; viz., the Audit Rolls and the Bursar’s Books, respecting Udall’s connection with Eton.

The salary of the Master at Eton was then £10 a year, or fifty shillings for each of the four terms. In addition, he received 20s. for his ‘livery,’ and other small sums, as for obits (i.e. attending masses for the dead) [e.g. Udall received for obits, 14s. 8d. in 1535, and the same in 1536]; and for candles and ink for the boys [e.g. Udall received for these purposes, 23s. 4d. in 1537, and the same in 1538.] If the assumed multiple of 13 truly express the relatively greater purchasing power of gold and silver more then than now: the salary and emoluments cannot be considered excessive.

In his Pref. to John, partly translated by Princess Mary, partly by Rev. F. Malet, D.D.; Udall gives us the following account of female education in his day: which can only, however, apply to a few women, like Elizabeth, Mary, and Lady Jane Grey. ‘But nowe in this gracious and blisseful tyme of knowledge, in whiche it hath pleased almightye God to reuele and shewe abrode the lyght of his moste holye ghospell: what a noumbre is there of noble women (especially here in this realme of Englande,) yea and howe many in the yeares of tender vyrginitiee, not only aswel seen and as familiarly trade in the Latine and Greke tounges, as in theyr owne mother language: but also both in all kindes of prophane litterature, and liberall artes, exactely studied and exercised, and in the holy Scriptures and Theologie so ripe, that they are able aptely cunnyngly, and with much grace eyther to indicte or translate into the vulgare tongue, for the publique instruccion and edifying of the vnlearned multitude. … It is nowe no newes in Englande to see young damisels in nobles houses and in the Courtes of Princes, in stede of cardes and other instrumentes of idle trifleyng, to haue continually in her handes, eyther Psalmes, Omelies, and other deuoute meditacions, or elles Paules Epistles, or some booke of holye Scripture matiers: and as familiarlye both to reade or reason thereof in Greke, Latine, Frenche, or Italian, as in Englishe.’

1547. Jan. 28. Edward VI. ascends the throne.

1553. July 6. Mary succeeds to the crown.

ROISTER DOISTER.

Table of Contents

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INTRODUCTION.

T (The) HE author and early date of the present Comedy are ascertained by a quotation in Sir Thomas Wilson’s Rule of Reason of Roister Doister’s letter to Dame Custance.

The first edition of the Rule of Reason, 1550–1, is a very scarce work; of which I have been unable to see a copy. The second edition, 1552, 8vo, ‘newely corrected by Thomas Wilson,’ has not the quotation: which apparently first appears in the third edition of 1553, 4to, the title of which runs, "The Rule of Reason, conteinyng the Arte of Logique. Sette furthe in Englishe, and newly corrected by Thomas Wilson. Anno Domini. M.D.LIII. Mense Ianuarij."

At folio 66 of this edition, Wilson, in treating of The Ambiguitie, adds to his previous examples, Roister Doister’s letter, with the following heading:

¶ An example of soche doubtful writing, whiche by reason of

poincting maie haue double sense, and contrarie

meaning, taken out of an entrelude

made by Nicolas Vdal.

The present comedy was therefore