The Interlude of Wealth and Health

Transcriber's Notes :
All typos were kept as close as possible to the original. This e-text is based on the 1907 edition which included a long list of these typos and some of their possible meanings along with the editor's note. This list had many letters typeset upside down. For this e-text they were righted.
Long s's are used as the html entity ſ and look like this: ſ. If that character does not look right, your font does not support long s's and you may want to try a more complete font.
In the original most of the stage directions were not set apart from the rest of the text. I separated the stage directions from the text and put them in italics.
Early in the craft year which began on 19 July 1557, and was the first of the chartered existence of the Stationers' Company, John Waley, or Wally, entered what was no doubt the present play on the Register along with several other works. The entry runs as follows:
That Waley printed an edition is therefore to be presumed, but it does not necessarily follow that the extant copy, which though perfect bears neither date nor printer's name, ever belonged to it. Indeed, a comparison with a number of works to which he did affix his name suggests grave doubts on the subject. Though not a high-class printer, there seems no reason to ascribe to him a piece of work which for badness alike of composition and press-work appears to be unique among the dramatic productions of the sixteenth century.
The play was among those discovered in Ireland in the spring of 1906 and sold at Sotheby's on 30 June, when it was purchased for the British Museum at the price of one hundred and ninety-five pounds. Its press-mark is C. 34. i. 25.
The extremely careless typography of the original makes the task of reprinting a difficult one. Ordinary misprints abound, and these have been scrupulously retained, a list of irregularities being added below. It has, however, proved impossible to arrive at any satisfactory method of distinguishing between 'n' and 'u.' In the first hundred lines, which are by no means the worst printed, there are thirty-two cases in which the letter is indistinguishable, eighteen cases of an apparent 'u' which should be 'n,' and seven cases of an apparent 'n' which should be 'u.' When it is further remembered that there are few cases in which it is possible to say for certain that a letter really is what it appears to be, and none in which it may not be turned, some idea of the difficulty in the way of reprinting will be obtained. To have followed the original in this matter would have been to introduce another misprint into at least every fourth line, while even so several hundred cases would have remained which could only have been decided according to the apparent sense of the passage. The only rational course was to treat the letters as indistinguishable throughout, and to print in each instance whichever the sense seemed to require. Again, as the superscript letters 'c,' 'e,' 't,' are seldom distinguishable, the printer has been given the benefit of the doubt. Another difficulty arose in connection with the speakers' names. In the original these have often dropt from their proper places, which can now only be ascertained from the sense and the not very regular indentation. With some hesitation it has been decided to restore them to the positions they should apparently occupy, noting all cases in which they are a line or more out in the original. Lastly it may be remarked that in the speeches which aim at imitating foreign languages the apparent readings of the very indistinct original have been scrupulously reproduced, and no attempt has been made, even in the subjoined list, to suggest any corrections.