In favour of this theory speak further—according to Professor Hales—
2. The fact that Bale does not mention any of Udall's comedies in the 1548 edition of his Catalogus;
3. The fact that "about 1552" Udall was in high esteem as a "comic dramatist";
4. The fact that Udall quotes a number of proverbial phrases which he got from Heywood's proverbs, published first in 1546;
5. The fact that the usury statute of 37 Henry VIII. was repealed in 1552, "of some moment" as far as the "reference [in the play] to excessive usury" is concerned.
The first argument is doubtless the strongest, but I venture to argue that the quotation of 1553 does not prove that the play was written in 1552, but only that Wilson was unable to use a copy of the play before 1553; whether this copy was a manuscript copy, or a printed (and now lost) edition of the play, we cannot decide; most probably Wilson's quotation was made from an early edition of Roister, printed in 1552.
The fact that Wilson left Eton in 1541 seems to make it probable that he remembered the "ambiguous" passage from his school days.
The second argument is very slight, for Bale does not give a complete list of Udall's works either in edition 1548 or in edition 1557; nor does he mention Udall's connection with the coronation pageants of 1533; and a modest school comedy would naturally not at once become public property.
The third argument is based on a serious anachronism. We do not know anything of Udall's fame as a "comic dramatist about 1552." The warrant of December 3, 1554, is dated, and cannot be used for "about 1552." Besides, the nature of Udall's "dialogues and interludes" for the "regell disporte and recreacion," as explained on p. 93, above, excludes any possibility of connecting these "Dialogues" with the comedy.
The number of proverbial phrases which Udall uses in common with Heywood's Proverbs (the early date of which, 1546, is rather a myth) proves no dependence of Udall on Heywood. Their use proves merely that Udall, as well as Heywood, talked the London English of his time, and that both were familiar with phrases common in the early sixteenth century. Any possible number of such phrases could not prove any "dependence."