Representative English Comedies, v. 1. From the beginnings to Shakespeare

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[313] See above, p. [90], and notes.

[314] The Date of the First English Comedy, in Englische Studien, 18, 408-421.

[315] Professor Hales, in his essay on the date of Roister (Englische Studien, 18, 419) quotes for these usury laws the incomplete account of them in Craik's History of British Commerce, 1, 22, 231.

The law of 1545 (so dated by Ruffhead; and not 1546) is far more important on account of its clause about the "yearly interest" than of that about the ten per cent.

[316] To Collier has been given the credit of first ("soon after 1820") connecting Udall's name with Roister Doister, the unique copy of which had been published by the finder, the Rev^d. Tho^s. Briggs, in 1818. But, in the first place, Collier could not have identified the "ambiguous" letter in "Wilson's Art of Logic, printed by Richard Grafton, 1551," as he says he did, since "The rule of Reason, contei || nyng the Arte of || Logique, set forth || in Englishe, || by Thomas || Vuilson. || An. M. D. LI. does not contain the quotation from Roister Doister (copy in the Bodleian kindly examined for me by Professor Gayley), neither does the edition of 1552 (cf. Arber). On folio 66 of the third edition (1553) appears for the first time: "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." And, in the second place, Collier had been anticipated, in part, for as early as 1748 reference had been made to the passage from Wilson by Tanner, who writes (Bibliotheca, 8. n.): In Thos. Wilson's Logica, p. 69 [it is leaf 67 of edition 1567 in my possession] sunt quidem versus ambigui sensus ex Comœdia quadam huius Nic. Udalli desumpti.

[317] With this opinion, and that of p. 90, n. 4, contrast Fleay's argument, Hist. Stage, pp. 59, 60. Gen. Ed.

[318] Ward in Dict. Nat. Biog. 26, 332. Ward says that in Heywood's Plays the "bridge had been built" to English Comedy. I think rather that this bridge was a temporary structure, waiting to be replaced by the more solidly planned work of a higher architect.

[319] These traits as well as the practical jokes would, of course, be especially enjoyed by the Eton players and their youthful audience.

[320] Ward, Hist. Dram. Lit., 1, 157 (Lond.: 1899).

[321] Cf. the splendid essay on the Roman Colax and Parasite in O. Ribbeck's Hist. of Roman Lit. (Stuttgart, 1887), 1, 83 sqq.