With regard to the allusion in Roister Doister to the Usury Statute, one may readily see that the reference is not to a date later than the repeal, in 1552, of 37 Henry VIII., c. 9, but to a period between 1545 and 1552. In Act V., Scene vi., lines 21 to 30, Custance blames Roister humorously, not for taking interest at all, but for taking too much (fifteen to one!), and for taking it right away instead of waiting until the year was up. The passage, therefore, does not refer to the law passed 5 and 6 Edward VI., c. 20 (1552), which repeals 37 Henry VIII., c. 9, and orders that "no person shall lend or forbear any sum of money for any maner of Usury or Increase to be received or hoped for above the Sum lent, upon pain to forfeit the Sum lent, and the Increase, [with] Imprisonment, and Fine at the king's pleasure." The passage refers to 37 Henry VIII., c. 20 (1545), to a law which allows ten per cent interest: "The sum of ten pound in the hundred, and so after that rate and not above," and which forbids the lender "to receive, accept or take in Lucre or Gain for the forbearing or giving Day of Payment of one whole year of and for his or their money," for any other "Period" but the year, not "for a longer or shorter time." Cf. the technical term "gain" in line 30.
If, therefore, Custance's joke can be taken as an indication of the time when the play was written, it would be an indication of the period between 1545 and 1552, or, at any rate, before 1552.[315]
I should, however, not be inclined on account of this reference to usury to date the play between 1545 and 1552. I would rather regard the allusion as a later insertion, which ought not to weaken the force of the internal evidence in favour of the old theory, according to which the play belongs to the Eton period of Udall's life, to the years between 1534 and 1541.
Date of the Early Edition.—The Stationers Company's Registers show (ed. Arber, 1, 331) four pence as
"Recevyd of Thomas hackett for hys lycense for pryntinge of a play intituled Rauf Ruyster Duster,"
and the unique copy of the play which has come down to us has been regarded as the solitary relic of this edition. Title-page and colophon are lacking.
Hackett, however, printed between October (November?), 1560, and July, 1589; and Arber dates the unique copy: "? 1566."
This copy is now in the possession of Eton College. On the first fly-leaf are written the words: "The Gift of the Revd Thos Briggs to Eton Coll. Library, Decr 1818." As shown above, the quotation of the "ambiguous" letter in the 1553 edition of Wilson's Logique speaks, however, in favour of an edition earlier than that of the unique copy; and this earlier edition might be dated "1552?".[316]
Place of Roister Doister in English Literature.—Roister Doister is the only specimen of Udall's dramatic art preserved by Fate, but it is sufficient to justify us in assigning to the author his place as father of English Comedy.
The causes that brought a "Latinist," a schoolmaster, a theological writer to such a position are interesting to consider. Primarily, of course, it is his genius, his "Froh-natur," his way of looking at the world, and his art of representing this picture of the world, to which we owe Roister Doister, but besides this we may be certain that Udall's classical training, the condition of the Latin School-comedy of his time, and, finally, his clear insight into the character of the national play helped him to the place that he holds.