Philomusus finally becomes
secretary to the palsgrave; and Philotimus a preacher of singular
commendation' in Geneva.
secretary to the palsgrave; and Philotimus a preacher of singular
commendation' in Geneva.
Cambridge History of English Literature - 1908 - v05
, vol.
II, pp.
342, 451.
? See Herford, C. H. , Literary Relations of England and Germany, p. 110 n.
3 Cf. post, vol. vi, chap. XII.
## p. 105 (#129) ############################################
Udall's Ralph Roister Doister 105
illustrate Udall's dramatic powers. The single extant copy of the
play is undated, but it probably belongs to the edition entered to
Thomas Hacket in the Stationers' register in 1566/7. The evidence
in favour of its having been written in 1553—4 is very strong!
Thomas Wilson, who had been at Eton under Udall, published in
1550/1 The Rule of Reason; a second edition appeared in 1552, and
a third in 1553 or, possibly, 1554. In the third edition only,
Wilson uses as an illustration Roister Doister's mispunctuated
love-letter in act III, sc. 4. The inference is that the play had
been performed for the first time between 1552 and 1553/4,
probably by the Westminster boys. That it is in any case later
than 1546, and, therefore, cannot have been written when Udall
was headmaster of Eton, is suggested by his frequent use of phrases
which appear in John Heywood's Proverbs, published in the above
year. Apart from its evidential value, this is an interesting link
between the two dramatists. But, though Udall could borrow
proverbial phrases from his predecessor, he has scarcely a trace, as
far as Roister Doister shows, of Heywood's genius for incisive and
pregnant expression or of his mordant wit. Nor is any figure in
his play drawn with the vitalising art which, in a few scenes, makes
of Johan Johan a being of flesh and blood. But, far inferior to
Heywood in spontaneous literary gifts, Udall, partly through his
scholastic occupations, and partly through a happy instinct, was led
to direct English comedy into the path on which, in the main,
it was to advance to its later triumphs. In imitation of Plautus
and Terence, he substituted for the loosely knit structure of the
English morality or dialogue or of French farce, an organic plot
divided into acts and scenes. Within this framework, he adjusted
figures borrowed from Roman comedy but transformed to suit
English conditions, and mingled with others of purely native
origin? Miles Gloriosus, supplemented, especially in later scenes,
from Eunuchus, suggested the theme of a love-sick braggart's
wooing of a dame whose heart is given to another suitor. But
Udall condensed into a single plot episodes connected with
the two frail beauties in the Plautine play, and lifted the whole
action into a less pagan atmosphere. Roister Doister is as vain-
glorious and credulous as Pyrgopolinices, and he covets dame
Custance's 'thousande pounde' rather than herself. So confident
See Hales, J. W. , The Date of the First English Comedy,' Englische Studien,
vol. XVIII, pp. 408—421.
2 Cf. Maullby, D. L. , “The Relation between Udall's Roister Doister and the
Comedies of Plautus and Terence,' Englische Studien, vol. XXXVIII, pp. 251–277.
2
## p. 106 (#130) ############################################
106 Early English Comedy
is he that the lady will yield at once, that he woos her at first by
deputy, sending, in turn, her old nurse with his love-letter, his
servant with a ring and his companion, Mathewe Merygreeke, to
bring back her instant assent 'to be wedded on Sunday next. '
Her refusal so overcomes him that he declares he must die; but,
after a mock requiem has been said over him, he revives at Mery-
greeke's suggestion to try the effect of a personal interview with
Custance. It does not even need Merygreeke's perverse mis-
reading of the love-letter in Roister Doister's presence to make the
widow 'fume and frette and rage. ' The braggart is again over-
come by his second repulse, and begins to blubber,' till his
companion prompts him to seek revenge. After much mock-
heroic preparation, he makes a grand assault upon Custance's
house, only to be put to shameful rout by her Amazonian legion of
maids. Throughout the play, these maids, with their high spirits,
their gay loquacity and their love of song, form one of its most
attractive and original features. They are closer studies from
life than are the semi-Plautine leading figures.
Yet, in the
person of Merygreeke, Udall succeeded, to some degree, in
anglicising a classical type or combination of types. The first
suggestion for the character comes, of course, from Artotrogos, the
parasite in Miles Gloriosus. But the parasite appears only in the
opening scene, and takes no part in the action of the play. It
is Palaestrio, the captain's servant, who cajoles and tricks him,
as Merygreeke does Roister Doister. Yet, though Merygreeke
makes of Roister Doister his 'chiefe banker both for meate and
money,' he follows and serves him less for gain than for fun. He
is a light-hearted and whimsical mischiefmaker, after the fashion
of the Vice of the later moralities, who plays, in turn, upon every
weakness of his patron, but who, unlike the Plautine plotter, bears
his victim no real illwill. It is a touch of true dramatic irony that
the person whom his foolery brings, for the moment, into serious
trouble is not Roister Doister, but the virtuous Custance, whose
loyalty to her betrothed comes under unjust suspicion. When she
lifts a prayer to the same Lord, who helped 'Susanna'and 'Hester'
in their need, to vindicate her innocence, Udall, in the true spirit
of romantic drama, lets a graver strain mingle with the sprightly
tones of the comedy. But, on his return, Goodluck is soon con-
vinced that she is still 'the pearle of perfect honestie,' and, in bluff
seafaring fashion, brings about a general reconciliation between
the former combatants—a suitably edifying close to a play written
for schoolboys.
## p. 107 (#131) ############################################
Jacke Jugeler
107
Another adaptation from Plautus for performance by boys
is Jacke Jugeler, entered for printing in 1562/3, but written,
very probably, during the reign of Mary. The author states
in the prologue that the plot is based upon Amphitruo, and it
is true that the chief characters in the Roman play have English
citizen equivalents. But the central theme of Jupiter's amour,
in her husband's shape, with Alcmena, disappears, and nothing
is retained but the successful trick of Jacke Jugeler-the Vice
who replaces Mercury-upon Jenkin Careaway, who corresponds
to Sosia, servant of Amphitryon. Disguising himself like Jenkin,
Jacke, by arguments and blows, forces the hapless lackey
to believe that he, and not himself, is the genuine Careaway.
When Jenkin tells the tale of his loss of identity to his mistress
dame Coy, and her husband Bongrace, he gets further drubbings
for his nonsensical story
That one man may have two bodies and two faces,
And that one man at on time may be in too placis.
Regarded purely as a play, Jacke Jugeler, in spite of its classical
origin, is little more than a briskly written farcical episode. But,
beneath its apparently jocular exterior, it veils an extraordinarily
dextrous attack upon the doctrine of transubstantiation and the
persecution by which it was enforced. This is hinted at in the
epilogue, where 'this trifling enterlude' is credited with some
further meaning, if it be well searched. '
Such is the fashyon of the world now a dayes,
That the symple innosaintes ar deluded . . .
And by strength, force, and violence oft tymes compelled
To belive and saye the moune is made of a grene chese
Or ells have great harme, and parcace their life lese.
It has been the fate of many dramatic forms and conventions to go
through a remarkable 'sea-change' in their transportation from
one country or epoch to another. But seldom has any device
of the comic muse been 'translated’ more nearly out of recog-
nition than the classical confusion of identity, when enlisted, as
here, in the service of protestant theology.
But it was less in the classical than in the neo-classical drama
that the earlier Tudor writers of comedy found their chief stimulus.
Probably, the first of continental humanist playwrights (as recent
research has shown') to influence the English stage was Ravisius
7
i See, especially, Holthausen, F. , Studien zum älteren englischen Drama,' in
Englische Studien, vol. XXXI, pp. 77–103.
## p. 108 (#132) ############################################
108 Early English Comedy
Textor. His dialogue Thersites, written in Latin hexameters, was
adapted into English in a version which must have been acted (as
a reference to the birth of prince Edward proves) in October 15371
Thersites is an even more burlesque type of miles gloriosus than is
Roister Doister. Arrayed by Vulcan in full armour, he boasts to
the god and afterwards to his own mother of the mighty deeds
that he will do. But at the sight of a snail2 he is terror stricken,
and calls upon his servants for help, though he plucks up courage
enough, at last, to use club and sword, and to make the snail
draw in his horns. While he is exulting over this feat, he is
challenged by a soldier; whereupon, he first takes shelter behind
his mother's back, and afterwards runs away dropping his club and
sword. The author of the English version shows remarkable
dramatic instinct in his handling of this grotesquely farcical plot.
The medley of metres that he uses is more appropriate to the
bizarre incidents of the story than are the stately hexameters of
Textor. He considerably expands the original text, vivifying the
dialogue by the addition of many details that would appeal to
an English audience. Thus, Mulciber tells Thersites not to fear
' Bevis of Hampton, Colburne and Guy,' and the braggart
challenges to combat 'King Arthur and the Knightes of the Rounde
Table, and afterwards 'Robin John and Little Hode'! These
and similarly deft touches give a curious plausibility to the piece in
its English guise. But there is loss rather than gain in the long
irrelevant episode added towards the close, wherein Telemachus
brings a letter from Ulysses, and is charmed from the worms wild'
by Thersites's mother. Some of the relics that she invokes have a
family likeness to those owned by Heywood's two Pardoners.
Heywood, indeed, may plausibly be regarded as the author of the
adaptation, which, in its verve, raciness and, it must be added,
indecency, is akin to his own work. In any case, the adapter of
Thersites, whoever he be, is almost certainly responsible for the
version of another of Textor's dialogues, Juvenis, Pater, Uxor, of
which a black letter fragment has recently been discovered and
reprinted with the title The Prodigal Sons. The fragment con-
1 G. C. Moore-Smith has recently shown (Fasciculus Joanni Willis Clark dicatus,
p. 268) from an entry in the accounts of Queens' college, Cambridge, that a dialogus
of Textor was acted at the college in 1543. A later entry, pro picto clipeo quo miles
generosus usus est in comoedia, suggests that the dialogue was Thersites, probably
performed in the original Latin.
2 Called testudo by Textor, but apparently a snail (as in the English version), since
it has horns.
3 See The Malone Society Collections, part 1, pp. 27—30, and part ir, pp. 106—7.
## p. 109 (#133) ############################################
>
a
* Prodigal Son' Plays 109
tains the episode, greatly expanded from the original, in which the
son, after his marriage against his father's wish, tries to support
himself and his wife by selling wood. In its metrical and verbal
characteristics, and in its introduction of English allusions, as to
Oxynby' and 'Cambrydge,' it bears the same impress, mutilated
though it be, as the spirited version of Thersites.
Another version of Juvenis, Pater, Uxor, which we possess in
complete form, is The Disobedient Child, by Thomas Ingelend,
‘late student of Cambridge. ' Printed about 1560, it not im-
probably dates from the reign of Henry VIII or Edward VI, for,
though it ends with a prayer for queen Elizabeth, the audience,
few lines previously, are bidden 'truly serve the King. In this
adaptation of Textor's dialogue, Ingelend shows rhetorical and
inventive gifts; but, on the whole, compared with the original, The
Disobedient Child is a heavy-handed production. The didactic
element is spun out at wearisome length, and most of the new
characters introduced, the priest, the devil and the perorator, who
speaks the epilogue, deliver themselves of superfluous monologues.
But the scene between the man-cook, Long-tongue, and the maid-
cook, Blanche blab-it-out, who prepare the marriage feast, is a lively
piece of below-stairs humour, which is supplemented by the racy
account of the guests' uproarious behaviour given by the bride-
groom's servant. And Ingelend shows a true lyric vein in the
song wherein the lover declares to his 'sweet rose' his eternal
fidelity :
Wherefore let my father spite and spurn,
My fantasy will never turn.
Though Textor's plays are neo-classic, in so far as they are written
in Latin and under humanist influences, they and the English
versions of them belong in form to the interlude type. It was
from the Dutch school of dramatists that Tudor playwrights
learnt to combine the 'prodigal son' theme with the general
framework and conventions of Roman comedy. The most popular
work produced by this school, the Acolastus of Gnaphaeus,
was issued in England with a translation by John Palsgrave in
1540. It was intended primarily to serve as a schoolbook, each
scene being immediately followed by the English rendering.
But Palsgrave also desired to move into the hearts' of his
countrymen 'some little grain of honest and virtuous envy' of the
foreign author's achievement. It was, not improbably, in emulation
1
## p. 110 (#134) ############################################
IIO
Early English Comedy
of Acolastus that a writer who cannot be identified with certainty
wrote, probably about 1560, a play, Misogonus, which enables us
to claim for England the credit of having produced one of the most
elaborate and original comedies on the prodigal son. In its general
structure and development of plot, Misogonus shows the influence
of its Latin prototype. A distracted father, Philogonus, laments
to his friend and counsellor, Eupelas, over the riotous living of his
son Misogonus. The young prodigal is introduced by Orgalus and
Oenophilus, nominally his servants but, in effect, his boon com-
panions, to the courtesan, Melissa, with whom he drinks and dices
and plays the wanton. When his fortunes fail, he is deserted
by the 'vipers' whom he has cherished. Overcome with remorse
and shame, he returns trembling into his father's presence to find
immediate welcome and pardon. All these episodes have their
counterpart in Gnaphaeus's comedy. But the author of Misogonus
was a creative dramatist, not merely an imitator. He individualised
the somewhat shadowy neo-classic types into English figures of his
own period, though the scene is nominally laid in Italy. He added
new personages of his own invention, and made the dénouement
spring out of an ingenious secondary plot. His remarkable gifts in
the way of dialogue and characterisation are displayed to the full
in the realistic gaming scene, where the revellers are joined by the
parish priest, Sir John, who is of the same kin as Heywood's
clerics—drunken and dissolute, ready, even while bell and clerk
summon him to his waiting congregation, to bandy oaths over the
dicebox, and to dance himself into a share of Melissa's favours. But
it is not merely this 'rabblement' of 'rakehells' that brings the
prodigal to ruin. He has an elder twin brother, Eugonus, who,
6
>
1 In the single matilated manuscript of the play which survives, in the duke of Devon-
shire's library, the prologue is signed •Thomas Richardes,' and the modest terms in
which he begs the muses to guide your clients silly style,' suggest that he is the author
of the play. Under the list of dramatis personae, there is a signature 'Laurentius
Bariwna, Ketteringe. Die 20 Novembris, Anno 1577. ' The signature is evidently a
disguised form of Laurence Johnson, the name of the author of a Latin treatise,
Cometographia, printed in London in 1578, and dated, with the same disguised
signature, from Kettering, 20 January 1578. Johnson, possibly, was the author, but,
more probably, was the transcriber of the play. See Brandl, Quellen, LXXV-LXXVII,
and Kittredge, G. L. , in Journ. of Germ. Philology, vol. , pp. 335-341. It is, perhaps,
worth noting that another 'prodigal son' play, Nice Wanton, printed 1560, has at the
end Finis. T. R. ' Can the initials be those of Thomas Richardes ? Nice Wanton
may, as Brandl states too confidently, have been suggested by Rebelles. But it
develops on different lines, and introduces, by the side of the human figures, such
allegorical personages as Iniquity and Worldly Shame. It is a slight and crude
production compared with Misogonus, but its most powerful episode, the dicing scene
between the prodigal son and daughter and Iniquity, is akin to the similar scene in
the greater play.
6
.
## p. 111 (#135) ############################################
Misogonus. Gammer Gurtons Nedle III
a
immediately after their birth, has been sent to his uncle in 'Polona-
land. ' Owing to the mother's death, the secret is known only to a
group of rustics, Alison a midwife, her husband, Codrus, and two
of her gossips. Codrus, threatened with ruin by the death of his
'bulchin' and the loss of his sow, hints at the truth to Philogonus
in the hope of reward, and then fetches Alison to tell the full tale.
The exasperating circumlocution with which she spins it out in a
half incomprehensible jargon; the foolish interruptions by her
husband which lead to a violent quarrel and to further delay in her
disclosures; the suspense, amazement and joy of Philogonus—these
are all portrayed in masterly fashion. Equally effective in purely
farcical vein is the scene that follows after a messenger has been
despatched to bring home the missing heir. Cacurgus, the house-
hold fool, remains faithful to Misogonus, and tries to frighten
Isabel and Madge out of supporting Alison's story. He pretends
that he is a physician, who can cure Madge of a toothache that
makes her stammer with pain, and that he is also a soothsayer, who
foresees damnation for them if they bear witness that Philogonus
had two sons. But the return of the long-lost Eugonus resolves all
doubts, and the prodigal has to confess his sins and beg for forgive-
ness. The play lacks a fifth act in the manuscript, but the action
seems virtually complete. Even in its mutilated state, it claims
recognition as the finest extant comedy that had yet appeared in
England. To the pungent satire of Johan Johan it adds the
structural breadth of Roister Doister, and the insight into rustic
types of the Cambridge farce, Gammer Gurtons Nedle. The
last-named piece, which was 'played on stage' at Christ's college,
probably not long after 1550, will be treated in another chapter,
among university plays? . But it may be pointed out here that the
triviality of its main incident—the loss of the gammer's needle-
and the coarseness of much of the dialogue should not be allowed
to obscure the fact that its author, like Udall and the writer of
Misogonus, had an eye for characterisation and had learned plot
construction from classical or other humanist models.
The Historie of Jacob and Esau, licensed for printing in 1557,
but extant only in an edition of 1568, may be grouped with the
‘prodigal son' plays, though it is a variant from the standard type.
The Biblical story is handled in humanist fashion, and, with the
addition of subsidiary characters, is skilfully worked up into a five
act comedy of orthodox pattern. Esau is the central figure, and,
in an early scene, two of Isaac's neighbours, Hanan and Zethar,
1 See post, vol. vi, chap. XII.
## p. 112 (#136) ############################################
II2 Early English Comedy
6
Scriptural by name but classical by origin, lament that the
patriarch's elder son ‘hath been naught ever since he was born,'
and predict that he will come to an ill end. ' They contrast his
‘loose and lewd living' with the exemplary conduct of Jacob, who
‘keepeth here in the tents like a quiet man. ' But Esau does not
follow the ordinary evil courses of an Acolastus or a Misogonus. In
his insatiable passion for hunting, he rises while yet it is dark,
robbing his voluble servant Ragau of his sleep, and waking the
tent-dwellers with the blowing of his horn. We are given a vivid
picture of the eager follower of the chase talking to his favourite
hounds by name, and ranging the forest from morn to night
without thought of food. Thus, the way is cleverly prepared for
the scene in which Esau, on his return from the hunt, is so
faint with hunger that he is ready to eat a 'cat' or “a shoulder
of a dog,' and catches at Jacob's offer of a mess of pottage even at
the price of his birthright. And, when his hunger has been ap-
peased, and his servant reproaches him with having bought the
meal ‘so dere,' his speech of self-justification shows the dramatist's
insight into character and his analytical power.
If I die to morow, what good would it do me?
If he die to morow, what benefite hath he ?
And for a thing hanging on such casualtie:
Better a mease of pottage than nothing pardy.
Jacob and Esau do not afford much scope for the author's inventive
power,
but Rebecca is drawn with considerable subtlety. She seeks,
in an ingenious way, to justify her schemes on behalf of her younger
son by proclaiming that she is an agent of the Divine Will, and
also by pleading that she scarcely knows whether Esau is her son
or not:
He goeth abroade so early before day light,
And returneth home again so late in the night,
And uneth I sette eye on hym in the whole weeke:
No sometime not in twaine, though I doe for hym seeke.
Well may Mido, Isaac's 'boy,' speak of her 'quick answers' to his
master. Mido, himself possessed of a ready tongue, is one of a group
of servants whom the dramatist has introduced, and who are a very
attractive feature of the play. He prides himself upon his strength,
as Abra, the little handmaid of Rebecca, does upon her cleanliness
and her culinary powers :
I trust to make such broth that, when all things are in,
God almighty selfe may wet his finger therein.
They are both eager partisans of Jacob, as is also Deborah, the
nurse of Isaacs tent,' while Esau's only adherent is Ragau, whose
6
## p. 113 (#137) ############################################
6
>
Gascoigne's The Glasse of Governement 113
fidelity differentiates him from the Vice, a type to which, otherwise,
he is related. The prominence given to servants, the frequent
introduction of songs and the general reconciliation (without
Biblical warrant) at the close, are features which Jacob and Esau
shares with Ralph Roister Doister. There can be little doubt
that it was a school play, and that “the Poet,' who speaks an
epilogue enforcing the protestant doctrine of election,' was the
headmaster who had written the work for performance by his
pupils.
With Gascoigne's The Glasse of Governement (1575), we return
to the more orthodox type of prodigal son play. It cannat be merely
a coincidence that Gascoigne had spent the two years (or there-
abouts) preceding the date of its publication as a soldier in the Low
Countries, the principal home of this dramatic type. He lays his
scene in Antwerp, and his plot shows the influence of several of the
masterpieces of the Dutch humanist cycle? The contrast between
the prodigal and the virtuous son which is exemplified in Misogonus
and Jacob and Esau appears in Gascoigne's work in duplicate
form. Two fathers are introduced, each with a pair of sons-
the younger a model of virtue and the elder a scapegrace.
The four youths are confided to the care of a schoolmaster,
Gnomaticus, who forthwith proceeds to expound to them at in-
sufferable length 'the summe of' their dutyes in foure Chapters. '
The unregenerate couple Philautus and Philosarchus soon grow
restive under this discipline, and find more congenial occupation in
the company of the courtesan Lamia and her associates, Eccho
and Dicke Droom. The revolt of the pupils against their pre-
ceptor was suggested, probably, by the Rebelles of Macropedius;
but the scenes in which Lamia and the parasites figure seem
inspired by similar episodes in Acolastus. The arrest of Lamia
by the markgrave and the sudden despatch of the scholars to the
university of 'Doway’are incidents of Gascoigne's own invention.
At ‘Doway,' the virtuous younger pair grow still more exemplary,
and have their fitting reward.
Philomusus finally becomes
secretary to the palsgrave; and Philotimus a preacher of singular
commendation' in Geneva. Meanwhile, the elder couple tread the
broad way to destruction, till Philautus is executed for a robbery
in the palsgrave's court, even in sight of his brother,' and Philo-
sarchus, for his evil courses, is whipped at Geneva 'openly three
severall dayes in the market' and 'banished the Towne with great
infamie. ' In Rebelles, the two scapegraces are put on their trial for
1 See the detailed comparison in Herford, Literary Relations, pp. 162—3.
8
a
6
E. L. V.
CH. V.
## p. 114 (#138) ############################################
114
Early English Comedy
theft, but are spared at the instance of the master whose authority
they had flouted; the harshly Calvinistic spirit that permeates
Gascoigne's play could not tolerate such a solution as this. The
Glasse of Governement, in fact, is a puritan tract disguised in the
vesture of a humanist school play. It pictures an unreal world of
saints and sinners, ranged in symmetrical groups, with no room
for struggle and compromise, penitence and forgiveness. Hence,
though Eccho and Dicke Droom are drawn with considerable
spirit, the true merits of the play lie not in characterisation but in
structure and in style. Great technical skill is shown in the last
act, where the scene continues to be laid in Antwerp, though the
chief incidents take place elsewhere. And the use, for the first
time, of vernacular prose throughout a 'prodigal son’ drama gives
a note of realism to the dialogue, which goes far to counterbalance
the artificial moral scheme of the play?
?
9
a
It is not a little singular that Gascoigne, who perverted a
type of drama imported from northern Europe by exaggerating its
didactic element, should, nine years before, have been the first to
present in English dress a characteristic Italian comedy of intrigue.
His Supposes, acted at Gray's inn in 1566 (and at Trinity college,
Oxford, in 1582), is a version of Ariosto’s Gli Suppositi, written
first in prose, and performed at Ferrara in 1509, and afterwards re-
written in verse. Ariosto's play is a masterly adaptation of the
form and types of Roman drama to the conditions of sixteenth
century Italy, and it is one of the earliest regular comedies in
a European vernacular. Gascoigne appears to have utilised both
the prose and the verse editions; but his translation is throughout
in prose. His use of this medium for dramatic purposes makes
Supposes, translation though it be, a landmark in the history of
English comedy. And, though his version, judged by Elizabethan
canons, is, in the main, an exceptionally close one, he does not
hesitate to substitute a familiar native phrase or allusion, where a
literal rendering would be obscure, or to add a pithy proverb or
quip to round off a speech. Supposes has thus a curiously
deceptive air of being an original work, and its dialogue has a
polish and lucidity which anticipate the kindred qualities of Lyly's
dramatic prose. Its enduring reputation is attested not only by
6
1 In •Euphues and The Prodigal Son,' The Library, October, 1909, Wilson, J. D. ,
suggests that Lyly's novel was largely . compiled' from a 'play belonging to the prodigal
son school which has now, probably, been lost. . . . Lyly, or the forgotten dramatist
from whom he took his material, has . . . intellectualized the prodigal son story. '
## p. 115 (#139) ############################################
.
The Bugbears
I15
the revival at Oxford in 1582, but by its adaptation about 1590,
with considerable changes and in verse form, as the underplot of
the anonymous Taming of a Shrew? When Shakespeare re-
modelled the anonymous play, he gave the underplot a closer
resemblance to its earlier shape in Supposes, though he clung to
verse instead of reverting to prose.
Another English version of a typical Italian comedy is The
Bugbears, an adaptation, first published in 1561, of La
Spiritata by the Florentine A. F. Grazzini. The Bugbears,
which is not yet conveniently accessible", was, probably, more
or less contemporary with Supposes, but, unlike Gascoigne's play,
it turned the prose of its original into verse. Įt also departed
much more widely from the Italian text, adding scenes and
characters based upon the Andria of Terence and Gl Ingannati,
and only mentioning some of the personages whom Grazzini brings
upon the stage. But, though the action in the English piece is
complicated by the introduction of an underplot, the unities of
time and place are skilfully preserved. The main plot deals with
the trick of Formosus to obtain 3000 crowns from his miserly
îather Amadeus, which he needs for the latter's consent to his
marriage with Rosimunda. Formosus has already secretly wedded
her; but Amadeus will not accept any daughter-in-law who does not
bring the above dowry. With the aid of a friend, Formosus makes
such a disturbance at night in his lather's house that Amadeus is con-
vinced that his home is haunted by spirits, the 'bugbears' of the
title. On consulting an astrologer, Nostrodamus, who, in reality, is
a disguised servant, named Trappola, in league with the con-
spirators, he is told that the spirits are angry with him for opposing
his son's marriage, and that they have carried off as a punishment
3000 crowns from his cherished hoard. The money, of course, has
been abstracted by Formosus, who is thus enabled to provide for
Rosimunda’s dowry. The mock-astrologer also predicts danger to
Cantalupo, an elderly wooer of Rosimunda, and the chief figure
in the underplot, unless he abandons his suit. To iarther it,
Cantalupo has pressed for the marriage of his daughter, Iphigenia,
furnished with the requisite dowry, to Formosus. But the girl has
resisted because she loves Manutius, whom now, at last, she is set
i See Warwick Bond's The Taming of the Shrew in the Arden edition, pp. xliii-xliv,
and the present writer's edition of The Taming of a Shrew, pp. xxi-xxii.
? It has been printed from the only MS (Lansdowne 807, ff. 55—77) by Grabau, C. ,
in Archiv für das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Litt. vols. XCVIII and xcix, with
notes on sources, etc.
8-2
## p. 116 (#140) ############################################
116
Early English Comedy
1
free to wed. There are other lesser threads in the piece, including
the humours of the servants of the chief personages; and it contains
a number of songs, both solos and choruses. The style is racy and
vigorous, and the play is in all respects a notable example of
Italianate comedy in English.
The influence of the southern stage, and the southern novel
(new and old), upon the English theatre, is attested by the state-
ment of Stephen Gosson in Playes Confuted in Five Actions (1582):
I may boldely say it because I have seene it, that the Palace of pleasure,
the Golden Asse, the Aethiopian historie, Amadis of France, the Rounde
table, baudie Comedies, in Latine, French, Italian and Spanish, have been
thoroughly ransackt to furnish the Playe houses in London.
Gosson further mentions that, in his unregenerate days, he
had himself been the author of 'a cast of Italian devises, called,
the Comedie of Captain Mario. '
In the list of plays mentioned in the revels' accounts? occur
several that are inspired by Italian themes, The three Systers
of Mantua (1578) and The Duke of Millayn and the Marques of
Mantua (1579) were acted by professional players, and Ariodante
and Genevora (1583), as already mentioned, was performed by
the Merchant Taylors' boys. Italian players, it is noticeable,
'
had, in 1574, followed the queen's progress, “and made pastyme
fyrst at Wynsor and afterwardes at Reading. ' From the list of
properties supplied for the performance at Reading, it is evident
that the foreigners acted a pastoral.
Probably, except for some school plays, the pieces performed
before the queen, even when they were on Italian, or, as
was more frequently the case, on classical and mythological,
subjects, were not cast in the mould of Ariosto or of Terence.
Written, for the most part, to be acted by professional companies
before popular audiences, they did not follow the classic or neo-
classic conventions the influence of which has been traced in the
preceding pages. They adhered instinctively to the freer lines
of native English drama, inherited from miracle and morality
plays”. A few of them, in fact, as may be inferred from their titles,
1 See Documents relating to the Office of the Revels in the time of Queen Elizabeth,
ed. Feuillerat, A. (vol. xxi of Bang's Materialien).
2 One play of this type, not mentioned, however, in the revels' accounts, has
recently been brought to light. It is The Plaie of Pacient Grissel, written by John
Phillip and printed by T. Colwell, to whom, in all probability, it was licensed for
publication in 1565/6 and 1568/9. A unique copy found in lord Mostyn's library was
sold in 1907, and from this the play has been reprinted by the Malone Society (1909).
The plot is taken from the closing tale of the Decameron, probably through an inter.
mediate source, though some of the episodes and the form of the proper names make it
9
5
2
3
1
## p. 117 (#141) ############################################
Realistic Influences. Tom Tyler 117
were belated moralities; a large number treated fabulous and
romantic themes? ; at least two, The Creweltie of a Stepmother and
Murderous mychaell, seem to be early specimens of the drama of
domestic life?
With few exceptions, these plays have perished; but, doubtless,
they were typical of the theatrical productions of the first twenty
years of Elizabeth's reign. Together with other popular pieces no
longer known even by name, they came under the lash of purist
critics, such as Whetstone in his preface to Promos and Cassandra
(1578) and Sidney in his Apologie for Poetrie (printed in 1595),
who ridiculed their extravagances of plot and style, and their
defiance of the unities. Sidney deplored the mingling in the same
piece of grave and humorous elements, ‘hornpipes and funerals,
and proclaimed that the salvation of the English drama could
only be found in strict adherence to classical rules. But it was
in vain for him to strive against the stream. Even in the plays
adapted from Roman, neo-Latin, or Italian models, Roister Doister,
Misogonus and The Bugbears, the native dramatic instinct for
breadth of design, vigour of characterisation and a realism that
often becomes coarseness, had largely transmuted, as has been
shown, the borrowed alien materials.
On the other hand, the popular drama, increasingly produced
by men with something of the culture of the universities or the
capital, tended towards a higher level of construction and of
diction. An example of early native farcical comedy is extant in
the anonymous Tom Tyler and his Wife, acted by 'pretty boys,'
which from its language and versification cannot have been written
later than the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, and probably goes
back further. Though allegorical figures, Destiny, Desire and
Patience, are introduced, the play is in effect a domestic drama
6
unlikely that this source was Chaucer's Clerk's Tale. The comedy covers the whole
lengthy history of Grissell's marriage, her sufferings, her abasement, and her restora-
tion to her husband and her dignities. The author shows some skill in grouping his
materials, but the characterisation is weak, and the fourteeners,' in which the serious
passages are mainly written, are monotonous, though the piece contains some pretty
lyrics. The most interesting feature of Pacient Grissell is that it mingles with the
personages of the Italian story a number of allegorical figures, of which the chief is
• Politicke perswasion,' the nimble-tongued Vice, who acts as the evil genius of the
marquis. Thus, more than thirty years before Chettle, Dekker and Haughton's
similarly named comedy (as to which cf. vol. vi, chap. II) was written, the story
of pacient Grissell,' always a favourite with playwrights (cf. Ward, A. W. , Eng. Dram.
Lit. vol. I, pp. 428—430 and ante, p. 15), had appeared in vernacular dramatic form.
i Similar plays, not performed before the queen, but still extant, are Common
Conditions (imperfect) and The Rare Triumphs oj Love and Fortune.
3 Cf. post, chap. XIII.
1
1
## p. 118 (#142) ############################################
I 18
Early English Comedy
of low life, showing how Tom suffers tribulation at the hands of
his shrewish wife, and how, even when a friend has tamed her by
drastic methods, he weakly surrenders the fruits of the victory
which has been won for him. The piece has a lusty swing and
vigour in its action and dialogue, and in its racy songs. It has
also a certain underlying unity in the idea that a man cannot
escape his fate, however unpleasant it may be. As Tom Tyler
ruefully exclaims :
If Fortune will it, I must fulfil it;
If Destiny say it, I cannot denay it.
But, if Tom Tyler be compared with The Taming of a Shrew
(to instance a play on a somewhat kindred theme, though it lies
slightly beyond the period dealt with in this chapter), it will be
evident how much native comedy had gained from contact with
foreign models in careful articulation of plot and in refinement
of diction and portraiture.
The fusion of classical with native elements appears very
clearly in Richard Edwards’s Damon and Pithias, a 'tragical
comedy,' as he calls it, which was almost certainly acted before
the queen in 1564! The plot is drawn from the annals of Syracuse,
and such figures as Carisophus, the parasite, Eubulus, the good
counsellor, Stephano, the slave-servant, and Dionysius, the tyrant,
are borrowed from the Roman stage. Many classical quotations
are introduced into the dialogue, which in the frequent use of
orixouvola and of rhetorical moral commonplaces shows the
influence of Seneca. Yet in spite of its debt to Latin drama
Damon and Pithias is not an academic product, but is, in form
and spirit, predominantly of native English type. It is not divided
into acts after the classical manner; and in its deliberate mixture
of pathos and farcical humour, and in its violation of the unity
of time, it runs counter not exactly to the precedents of the
classical stage, but to the current renascence perversion of them.
The Syracusan court at which the action is laid is modelled upon
the Elizabethan, and the rivalries of Aristippus and Carisophus
had their counterpart in the intrigues among the virgin queen's
1 The play was not licensed till 1567, and the earliest known edition dates from
1571. But 'Edwardes' Tragedy' is mentioned in the Revels' accounts as having been
performed by the children of the chapel at Christmas, 1564. Damon and Pithias in
the loose terminology of the day might well be called a tragedy in contrast with his
earlier • toying plays,' to which Edwards refers in his prologue. The play was
already familiar to the courtiers who saw his Palamon and Arcite at Oxford in
September 1566 (cf. post, vol. vi, chap. XII). Damon and Pithias was revived at
Oxford in January 1568 (cf. loc. cit. ).
## p. 119 (#143) ############################################
Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra 119
train, though the author protests against any topical interpreta-
tion of his 'courtly toyes':
We doo protest this flat,
Wee talke of Dionisius Courte, wee meane no Court but that.
Even more unmistakably English is the character of Grim the
collier, who hails from Croydon, though he never mentions his
birthplace, and shows remarkable familiarity with Syracusan affairs.
There is genuine, if coarse, vernacular humour in the episode of
the shaving of him by the saucy lackeys, Will and Jack, who pick
his pockets on the sly, while they chant the refrain ‘Too nidden
and toodle toodle too nidden. ' And the episode, though in itself
grotesquely irrelevant, is due to the playwright's true instinct that
comic relief is needed to temper the tragic suspense while the life of
Pitbias, who has become hostage for Damon during his two months'
respite from the block, trembles in the balance. The high-souled
mutual loyalty of the two friends and the chivalrous eagerness
with which each courts death for the other's sake are painted with
genuine emotional intensity. Though lacking in metrical charm or
verbal felicity, Damon and Pithias has merits which go some way
towards accounting for the acclaim with which, as contemporary
allusions show, it was received; and the play possesses an impor-
tance of its own in the development of romantic drama from a
combination of forces and materials new and old. As Roister
Doister and Misogonus, based on Latin or neo-Latin plays, had by
the incorporation of English elements gravitated towards a type
of comedy hitherto unknown, so Damon and Pithias, an original
work by a native playwright, showed the strong influence of classical
types and methods. Starting from opposite quarters, the forces
that produced romantic comedy are thus seen to converge.
George Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra, printed in 1578,
is another tragicomedy in direct line of succession to Damon and
Pithias. It is based on one of the tales in Giraldi Cinthio's
Hecatommithi, though the names of the leading figures are changed,
as they were to be changed yet again by Shakespeare when in his
Measure for Measure, founded on Whetstone's play, he gave to
the story its final and immortal form. Whetstone's sense of the
importance of design and structure is seen in his prefatory state-
ment, that he had divided the whole history into two commedies,
for that, Decorum used, it would not be convayed in one. ' Thus
the story of the self-righteous deputy, Promos, who seduces
Cassandra by a promise of pardon to her condemned brother,
6
毒
## p. 120 (#144) ############################################
I 20 Early English Comedy
Andrugio, is dramatised in two parts, each, after the orthodox
classical pattern, divided into five acts. Yet the necessity for
so complex and formal a scheme arises largely from the fact, not
mentioned by the playwright, that with the overmastering English
instinct for elaboration and realism, he adds a comic underplot, in
which the courtesan Lamia is the chief figure. This underplot is
much more closely linked to the main theme than is the humorous
interlude in Damon and Pithias, for it heightens the impression
of general social demoralisation and of hypocrisy in officials of
every grade. With its far from ineffective portrayal of several
characters new to English drama, and with its sustained level of
workmanlike though uninspired alexandrines and decasyllabic
lines, including some passages of blank verse, Promos and Cas-
sandra is the most typical example of an original romantic play
before the period of Shakespeare's immediate predecessors.
Edwards and Whetstone both prefaced their dramas with a
statement of their theory of the function of comedy.
In commedies the greatest skyll is this lightly to touch
All thynges to the quicke; and eke to frame eche person so,
That by his common talke, you may his nature rightly know.
The olde man is sober, the yonge man rashe, the lover triumphyng in joyes,
The matron grave, th harlat wilde, and full of wanton toyes.
Whiche all in one course they no wise doo agree;
So correspondent to their kinde their speeches ought to bee.
Thus wrote Edwards, and Whetstone, though without referring
to him, paraphrases his words :
To write a Comedie kindly, grave olde men should instruct, yonge men
should showe the imperfections of youth, Strumpets should be lascivious,
Boyes unhappy, and Clownes should speake disorderlye; entermingling all
these actions in such sorte as the grave matter may instruct and the pleasant
delight.
The playwrights who wrote thus realised the principle, which
underlies romantic art, of fidelity to Nature in all her various forms.
But they and their fellows, except Gascoigne in his derivative
productions, had not the intuition to see that the principle could
never be fully applied till comedy adopted as her chief instrument
the infinitely flexible medium of daily intercourse between man
and man-prose. It was Lyly who grasped the secret, and taught
comedy to speak in new tones. It remained for a greater than
Lyly to initiate her into the final mystery of the imaginative
transfiguration of Nature, and thus inspire her to create
Forms more real than living man,
Nurslings of immortality.
## p. 121 (#145) ############################################
CHAPTER VI
THE PLAYS OF THE UNIVERSITY WITS
Come foorth you witts, that vaunt the pompe of speach,
And strive to thunder from a Stage-man's throate:
View Menaphon a note beyond your reach;
Whose sight will make your drumming descant doate;
Players avant, you know not to delight;
Welcome sweete Shepheard; worth a Scholler's sight.
THESE lines of Thomas Brabine, prefixed to Greene's Menaphon
(1589), follow hard upon Nashe's involved and, today, obscure
preface, ‘To the Gentlemen Students. This preface is one long gibe
at the poets and the writers who, either without university education
had risen from the ranks, or, though thus educated, had chosen
ways of expression not in accordance with the standards of the
university wits. John Lyly, Thomas Lodge, George Peele, Robert
Greene and Thomas Nashe, however they may have differed among
themselves, stood shoulder to shoulder whenever they were facing
the ‘alcumists of eloquence' whose standards were not their own.
Though, in the period from 1570 to 1580, the curriculum at Oxford
and at Cambridge was still medieval, yet, as an addition to it, or in
place of it, groups of students, from year to year, received with
enthusiasm whatever returning scholars and travellers from Italy
and France had to offer them of the new renascence spirit and
its widening reflection in continental literary endeavour. A pride
in university training which amounted to arrogance, and a curious
belief, not unknown even today, that only the university-bred man
can possibly have the equipment and the sources of information
fitting him to be a proper exponent of new, and, at the same time, of
really valuable, ideas and literary methods—these were sentiments
shared by all the members of the group of 'university wits. '
John Lyly, born in 1553 or 1554, was an Oxford man. He gradu-
ated B. A. in 1573, and M. A. in 1575, and, in 1579, was incorporated
M. A. at Cambridge. By precedence in work and, probably, in actual
historical importance, he is the leader of the group. Indeed,
Lyly is typical of the university-bred man whose native common-
## p. 122 (#146) ############################################
I 22 Plays of the University Wits
sense and humour just save him from the pedantry which conceives
that the summum bonum for man lies in books, and in books only.
His remarkably receptive and retentive mind had been open at
the university to all influences for culture, both permanent and
ephemeral. Like a true son of the time, also, he could rarely
distinguish between the two kinds.
Blount, the compiler of the first collected edition of Lyly's
plays (1632), declared :
Our nation are in his debt, for a new English which hee taught them.
Euphues and His England began first that language: All our Ladies were
then his Schollers; And that Beantie in Court which could not Parley
Euphueisme, was as little regarded as shee which now there speakes not
French. These his playes Crown'd him with applause, and the Spectators
with pleasure. Thou canst not repent the Reading of them over; when Old
John Lilly is merry with thee in thy Chamber, Thou shalt say, Few (or
None) of our Poets now are such witty companions.
>
But Blount wrote after the fashion of a publisher turned biographer,
not as a man thoroughly informed. In regard to both Euphues
and the plays, Gabriel Harvey's malicious statement that 'young
Euphues hatched the egges, that his elder freends laide' comes
much nearer the truth. In the plays which Lyly wrote between
his first appearance as an author, in 1579, with his novel Euphues
and his Anatomie of Wit, and his death in 1606, he was rather
one who mingled literary and social fashions, a populariser and a
perfecter, than a creator. The composite product bears the im-
print of his personality, but he borrows more than he creates.
A brief review of material, methods and style in his comedy will
prove this true.
What, in the first place, is the material ? Usually, the slight
theme is suggested by some legend of the gods and goddesses ;
sometimes, as in Love's Metamorphosis, the source is treated simply
for its dramatic value--as Lyly understood drama, of course; some-
times for a fugitive allegory bearing on incidents in the career
of the virgin queen, or in national affairs; sometimes, as in
Endimion, Sapho and Phao and Midas, for what has been
interpreted as complicated allegory; and, rarely, as in Mother
Bombie, for mere adaptive fooling. Such material for tenuous
plots is not new. Turning the pages of the Accounts of the Revels
at Court, one finds titles of plays given by the children's com-
panies—the choirboys of St Paul's, of the Chapel Royal, or the
schoolboys of Westminster or of Merchant Taylors' under
>
1 See, as to Euphues and its influence, vol. III, chap. XVI, pp. 392 ff.
## p. 123 (#147) ############################################
Lyly's Material and Style
123
Mulcaster-very similar to the names of Lyly's plays.
? See Herford, C. H. , Literary Relations of England and Germany, p. 110 n.
3 Cf. post, vol. vi, chap. XII.
## p. 105 (#129) ############################################
Udall's Ralph Roister Doister 105
illustrate Udall's dramatic powers. The single extant copy of the
play is undated, but it probably belongs to the edition entered to
Thomas Hacket in the Stationers' register in 1566/7. The evidence
in favour of its having been written in 1553—4 is very strong!
Thomas Wilson, who had been at Eton under Udall, published in
1550/1 The Rule of Reason; a second edition appeared in 1552, and
a third in 1553 or, possibly, 1554. In the third edition only,
Wilson uses as an illustration Roister Doister's mispunctuated
love-letter in act III, sc. 4. The inference is that the play had
been performed for the first time between 1552 and 1553/4,
probably by the Westminster boys. That it is in any case later
than 1546, and, therefore, cannot have been written when Udall
was headmaster of Eton, is suggested by his frequent use of phrases
which appear in John Heywood's Proverbs, published in the above
year. Apart from its evidential value, this is an interesting link
between the two dramatists. But, though Udall could borrow
proverbial phrases from his predecessor, he has scarcely a trace, as
far as Roister Doister shows, of Heywood's genius for incisive and
pregnant expression or of his mordant wit. Nor is any figure in
his play drawn with the vitalising art which, in a few scenes, makes
of Johan Johan a being of flesh and blood. But, far inferior to
Heywood in spontaneous literary gifts, Udall, partly through his
scholastic occupations, and partly through a happy instinct, was led
to direct English comedy into the path on which, in the main,
it was to advance to its later triumphs. In imitation of Plautus
and Terence, he substituted for the loosely knit structure of the
English morality or dialogue or of French farce, an organic plot
divided into acts and scenes. Within this framework, he adjusted
figures borrowed from Roman comedy but transformed to suit
English conditions, and mingled with others of purely native
origin? Miles Gloriosus, supplemented, especially in later scenes,
from Eunuchus, suggested the theme of a love-sick braggart's
wooing of a dame whose heart is given to another suitor. But
Udall condensed into a single plot episodes connected with
the two frail beauties in the Plautine play, and lifted the whole
action into a less pagan atmosphere. Roister Doister is as vain-
glorious and credulous as Pyrgopolinices, and he covets dame
Custance's 'thousande pounde' rather than herself. So confident
See Hales, J. W. , The Date of the First English Comedy,' Englische Studien,
vol. XVIII, pp. 408—421.
2 Cf. Maullby, D. L. , “The Relation between Udall's Roister Doister and the
Comedies of Plautus and Terence,' Englische Studien, vol. XXXVIII, pp. 251–277.
2
## p. 106 (#130) ############################################
106 Early English Comedy
is he that the lady will yield at once, that he woos her at first by
deputy, sending, in turn, her old nurse with his love-letter, his
servant with a ring and his companion, Mathewe Merygreeke, to
bring back her instant assent 'to be wedded on Sunday next. '
Her refusal so overcomes him that he declares he must die; but,
after a mock requiem has been said over him, he revives at Mery-
greeke's suggestion to try the effect of a personal interview with
Custance. It does not even need Merygreeke's perverse mis-
reading of the love-letter in Roister Doister's presence to make the
widow 'fume and frette and rage. ' The braggart is again over-
come by his second repulse, and begins to blubber,' till his
companion prompts him to seek revenge. After much mock-
heroic preparation, he makes a grand assault upon Custance's
house, only to be put to shameful rout by her Amazonian legion of
maids. Throughout the play, these maids, with their high spirits,
their gay loquacity and their love of song, form one of its most
attractive and original features. They are closer studies from
life than are the semi-Plautine leading figures.
Yet, in the
person of Merygreeke, Udall succeeded, to some degree, in
anglicising a classical type or combination of types. The first
suggestion for the character comes, of course, from Artotrogos, the
parasite in Miles Gloriosus. But the parasite appears only in the
opening scene, and takes no part in the action of the play. It
is Palaestrio, the captain's servant, who cajoles and tricks him,
as Merygreeke does Roister Doister. Yet, though Merygreeke
makes of Roister Doister his 'chiefe banker both for meate and
money,' he follows and serves him less for gain than for fun. He
is a light-hearted and whimsical mischiefmaker, after the fashion
of the Vice of the later moralities, who plays, in turn, upon every
weakness of his patron, but who, unlike the Plautine plotter, bears
his victim no real illwill. It is a touch of true dramatic irony that
the person whom his foolery brings, for the moment, into serious
trouble is not Roister Doister, but the virtuous Custance, whose
loyalty to her betrothed comes under unjust suspicion. When she
lifts a prayer to the same Lord, who helped 'Susanna'and 'Hester'
in their need, to vindicate her innocence, Udall, in the true spirit
of romantic drama, lets a graver strain mingle with the sprightly
tones of the comedy. But, on his return, Goodluck is soon con-
vinced that she is still 'the pearle of perfect honestie,' and, in bluff
seafaring fashion, brings about a general reconciliation between
the former combatants—a suitably edifying close to a play written
for schoolboys.
## p. 107 (#131) ############################################
Jacke Jugeler
107
Another adaptation from Plautus for performance by boys
is Jacke Jugeler, entered for printing in 1562/3, but written,
very probably, during the reign of Mary. The author states
in the prologue that the plot is based upon Amphitruo, and it
is true that the chief characters in the Roman play have English
citizen equivalents. But the central theme of Jupiter's amour,
in her husband's shape, with Alcmena, disappears, and nothing
is retained but the successful trick of Jacke Jugeler-the Vice
who replaces Mercury-upon Jenkin Careaway, who corresponds
to Sosia, servant of Amphitryon. Disguising himself like Jenkin,
Jacke, by arguments and blows, forces the hapless lackey
to believe that he, and not himself, is the genuine Careaway.
When Jenkin tells the tale of his loss of identity to his mistress
dame Coy, and her husband Bongrace, he gets further drubbings
for his nonsensical story
That one man may have two bodies and two faces,
And that one man at on time may be in too placis.
Regarded purely as a play, Jacke Jugeler, in spite of its classical
origin, is little more than a briskly written farcical episode. But,
beneath its apparently jocular exterior, it veils an extraordinarily
dextrous attack upon the doctrine of transubstantiation and the
persecution by which it was enforced. This is hinted at in the
epilogue, where 'this trifling enterlude' is credited with some
further meaning, if it be well searched. '
Such is the fashyon of the world now a dayes,
That the symple innosaintes ar deluded . . .
And by strength, force, and violence oft tymes compelled
To belive and saye the moune is made of a grene chese
Or ells have great harme, and parcace their life lese.
It has been the fate of many dramatic forms and conventions to go
through a remarkable 'sea-change' in their transportation from
one country or epoch to another. But seldom has any device
of the comic muse been 'translated’ more nearly out of recog-
nition than the classical confusion of identity, when enlisted, as
here, in the service of protestant theology.
But it was less in the classical than in the neo-classical drama
that the earlier Tudor writers of comedy found their chief stimulus.
Probably, the first of continental humanist playwrights (as recent
research has shown') to influence the English stage was Ravisius
7
i See, especially, Holthausen, F. , Studien zum älteren englischen Drama,' in
Englische Studien, vol. XXXI, pp. 77–103.
## p. 108 (#132) ############################################
108 Early English Comedy
Textor. His dialogue Thersites, written in Latin hexameters, was
adapted into English in a version which must have been acted (as
a reference to the birth of prince Edward proves) in October 15371
Thersites is an even more burlesque type of miles gloriosus than is
Roister Doister. Arrayed by Vulcan in full armour, he boasts to
the god and afterwards to his own mother of the mighty deeds
that he will do. But at the sight of a snail2 he is terror stricken,
and calls upon his servants for help, though he plucks up courage
enough, at last, to use club and sword, and to make the snail
draw in his horns. While he is exulting over this feat, he is
challenged by a soldier; whereupon, he first takes shelter behind
his mother's back, and afterwards runs away dropping his club and
sword. The author of the English version shows remarkable
dramatic instinct in his handling of this grotesquely farcical plot.
The medley of metres that he uses is more appropriate to the
bizarre incidents of the story than are the stately hexameters of
Textor. He considerably expands the original text, vivifying the
dialogue by the addition of many details that would appeal to
an English audience. Thus, Mulciber tells Thersites not to fear
' Bevis of Hampton, Colburne and Guy,' and the braggart
challenges to combat 'King Arthur and the Knightes of the Rounde
Table, and afterwards 'Robin John and Little Hode'! These
and similarly deft touches give a curious plausibility to the piece in
its English guise. But there is loss rather than gain in the long
irrelevant episode added towards the close, wherein Telemachus
brings a letter from Ulysses, and is charmed from the worms wild'
by Thersites's mother. Some of the relics that she invokes have a
family likeness to those owned by Heywood's two Pardoners.
Heywood, indeed, may plausibly be regarded as the author of the
adaptation, which, in its verve, raciness and, it must be added,
indecency, is akin to his own work. In any case, the adapter of
Thersites, whoever he be, is almost certainly responsible for the
version of another of Textor's dialogues, Juvenis, Pater, Uxor, of
which a black letter fragment has recently been discovered and
reprinted with the title The Prodigal Sons. The fragment con-
1 G. C. Moore-Smith has recently shown (Fasciculus Joanni Willis Clark dicatus,
p. 268) from an entry in the accounts of Queens' college, Cambridge, that a dialogus
of Textor was acted at the college in 1543. A later entry, pro picto clipeo quo miles
generosus usus est in comoedia, suggests that the dialogue was Thersites, probably
performed in the original Latin.
2 Called testudo by Textor, but apparently a snail (as in the English version), since
it has horns.
3 See The Malone Society Collections, part 1, pp. 27—30, and part ir, pp. 106—7.
## p. 109 (#133) ############################################
>
a
* Prodigal Son' Plays 109
tains the episode, greatly expanded from the original, in which the
son, after his marriage against his father's wish, tries to support
himself and his wife by selling wood. In its metrical and verbal
characteristics, and in its introduction of English allusions, as to
Oxynby' and 'Cambrydge,' it bears the same impress, mutilated
though it be, as the spirited version of Thersites.
Another version of Juvenis, Pater, Uxor, which we possess in
complete form, is The Disobedient Child, by Thomas Ingelend,
‘late student of Cambridge. ' Printed about 1560, it not im-
probably dates from the reign of Henry VIII or Edward VI, for,
though it ends with a prayer for queen Elizabeth, the audience,
few lines previously, are bidden 'truly serve the King. In this
adaptation of Textor's dialogue, Ingelend shows rhetorical and
inventive gifts; but, on the whole, compared with the original, The
Disobedient Child is a heavy-handed production. The didactic
element is spun out at wearisome length, and most of the new
characters introduced, the priest, the devil and the perorator, who
speaks the epilogue, deliver themselves of superfluous monologues.
But the scene between the man-cook, Long-tongue, and the maid-
cook, Blanche blab-it-out, who prepare the marriage feast, is a lively
piece of below-stairs humour, which is supplemented by the racy
account of the guests' uproarious behaviour given by the bride-
groom's servant. And Ingelend shows a true lyric vein in the
song wherein the lover declares to his 'sweet rose' his eternal
fidelity :
Wherefore let my father spite and spurn,
My fantasy will never turn.
Though Textor's plays are neo-classic, in so far as they are written
in Latin and under humanist influences, they and the English
versions of them belong in form to the interlude type. It was
from the Dutch school of dramatists that Tudor playwrights
learnt to combine the 'prodigal son' theme with the general
framework and conventions of Roman comedy. The most popular
work produced by this school, the Acolastus of Gnaphaeus,
was issued in England with a translation by John Palsgrave in
1540. It was intended primarily to serve as a schoolbook, each
scene being immediately followed by the English rendering.
But Palsgrave also desired to move into the hearts' of his
countrymen 'some little grain of honest and virtuous envy' of the
foreign author's achievement. It was, not improbably, in emulation
1
## p. 110 (#134) ############################################
IIO
Early English Comedy
of Acolastus that a writer who cannot be identified with certainty
wrote, probably about 1560, a play, Misogonus, which enables us
to claim for England the credit of having produced one of the most
elaborate and original comedies on the prodigal son. In its general
structure and development of plot, Misogonus shows the influence
of its Latin prototype. A distracted father, Philogonus, laments
to his friend and counsellor, Eupelas, over the riotous living of his
son Misogonus. The young prodigal is introduced by Orgalus and
Oenophilus, nominally his servants but, in effect, his boon com-
panions, to the courtesan, Melissa, with whom he drinks and dices
and plays the wanton. When his fortunes fail, he is deserted
by the 'vipers' whom he has cherished. Overcome with remorse
and shame, he returns trembling into his father's presence to find
immediate welcome and pardon. All these episodes have their
counterpart in Gnaphaeus's comedy. But the author of Misogonus
was a creative dramatist, not merely an imitator. He individualised
the somewhat shadowy neo-classic types into English figures of his
own period, though the scene is nominally laid in Italy. He added
new personages of his own invention, and made the dénouement
spring out of an ingenious secondary plot. His remarkable gifts in
the way of dialogue and characterisation are displayed to the full
in the realistic gaming scene, where the revellers are joined by the
parish priest, Sir John, who is of the same kin as Heywood's
clerics—drunken and dissolute, ready, even while bell and clerk
summon him to his waiting congregation, to bandy oaths over the
dicebox, and to dance himself into a share of Melissa's favours. But
it is not merely this 'rabblement' of 'rakehells' that brings the
prodigal to ruin. He has an elder twin brother, Eugonus, who,
6
>
1 In the single matilated manuscript of the play which survives, in the duke of Devon-
shire's library, the prologue is signed •Thomas Richardes,' and the modest terms in
which he begs the muses to guide your clients silly style,' suggest that he is the author
of the play. Under the list of dramatis personae, there is a signature 'Laurentius
Bariwna, Ketteringe. Die 20 Novembris, Anno 1577. ' The signature is evidently a
disguised form of Laurence Johnson, the name of the author of a Latin treatise,
Cometographia, printed in London in 1578, and dated, with the same disguised
signature, from Kettering, 20 January 1578. Johnson, possibly, was the author, but,
more probably, was the transcriber of the play. See Brandl, Quellen, LXXV-LXXVII,
and Kittredge, G. L. , in Journ. of Germ. Philology, vol. , pp. 335-341. It is, perhaps,
worth noting that another 'prodigal son' play, Nice Wanton, printed 1560, has at the
end Finis. T. R. ' Can the initials be those of Thomas Richardes ? Nice Wanton
may, as Brandl states too confidently, have been suggested by Rebelles. But it
develops on different lines, and introduces, by the side of the human figures, such
allegorical personages as Iniquity and Worldly Shame. It is a slight and crude
production compared with Misogonus, but its most powerful episode, the dicing scene
between the prodigal son and daughter and Iniquity, is akin to the similar scene in
the greater play.
6
.
## p. 111 (#135) ############################################
Misogonus. Gammer Gurtons Nedle III
a
immediately after their birth, has been sent to his uncle in 'Polona-
land. ' Owing to the mother's death, the secret is known only to a
group of rustics, Alison a midwife, her husband, Codrus, and two
of her gossips. Codrus, threatened with ruin by the death of his
'bulchin' and the loss of his sow, hints at the truth to Philogonus
in the hope of reward, and then fetches Alison to tell the full tale.
The exasperating circumlocution with which she spins it out in a
half incomprehensible jargon; the foolish interruptions by her
husband which lead to a violent quarrel and to further delay in her
disclosures; the suspense, amazement and joy of Philogonus—these
are all portrayed in masterly fashion. Equally effective in purely
farcical vein is the scene that follows after a messenger has been
despatched to bring home the missing heir. Cacurgus, the house-
hold fool, remains faithful to Misogonus, and tries to frighten
Isabel and Madge out of supporting Alison's story. He pretends
that he is a physician, who can cure Madge of a toothache that
makes her stammer with pain, and that he is also a soothsayer, who
foresees damnation for them if they bear witness that Philogonus
had two sons. But the return of the long-lost Eugonus resolves all
doubts, and the prodigal has to confess his sins and beg for forgive-
ness. The play lacks a fifth act in the manuscript, but the action
seems virtually complete. Even in its mutilated state, it claims
recognition as the finest extant comedy that had yet appeared in
England. To the pungent satire of Johan Johan it adds the
structural breadth of Roister Doister, and the insight into rustic
types of the Cambridge farce, Gammer Gurtons Nedle. The
last-named piece, which was 'played on stage' at Christ's college,
probably not long after 1550, will be treated in another chapter,
among university plays? . But it may be pointed out here that the
triviality of its main incident—the loss of the gammer's needle-
and the coarseness of much of the dialogue should not be allowed
to obscure the fact that its author, like Udall and the writer of
Misogonus, had an eye for characterisation and had learned plot
construction from classical or other humanist models.
The Historie of Jacob and Esau, licensed for printing in 1557,
but extant only in an edition of 1568, may be grouped with the
‘prodigal son' plays, though it is a variant from the standard type.
The Biblical story is handled in humanist fashion, and, with the
addition of subsidiary characters, is skilfully worked up into a five
act comedy of orthodox pattern. Esau is the central figure, and,
in an early scene, two of Isaac's neighbours, Hanan and Zethar,
1 See post, vol. vi, chap. XII.
## p. 112 (#136) ############################################
II2 Early English Comedy
6
Scriptural by name but classical by origin, lament that the
patriarch's elder son ‘hath been naught ever since he was born,'
and predict that he will come to an ill end. ' They contrast his
‘loose and lewd living' with the exemplary conduct of Jacob, who
‘keepeth here in the tents like a quiet man. ' But Esau does not
follow the ordinary evil courses of an Acolastus or a Misogonus. In
his insatiable passion for hunting, he rises while yet it is dark,
robbing his voluble servant Ragau of his sleep, and waking the
tent-dwellers with the blowing of his horn. We are given a vivid
picture of the eager follower of the chase talking to his favourite
hounds by name, and ranging the forest from morn to night
without thought of food. Thus, the way is cleverly prepared for
the scene in which Esau, on his return from the hunt, is so
faint with hunger that he is ready to eat a 'cat' or “a shoulder
of a dog,' and catches at Jacob's offer of a mess of pottage even at
the price of his birthright. And, when his hunger has been ap-
peased, and his servant reproaches him with having bought the
meal ‘so dere,' his speech of self-justification shows the dramatist's
insight into character and his analytical power.
If I die to morow, what good would it do me?
If he die to morow, what benefite hath he ?
And for a thing hanging on such casualtie:
Better a mease of pottage than nothing pardy.
Jacob and Esau do not afford much scope for the author's inventive
power,
but Rebecca is drawn with considerable subtlety. She seeks,
in an ingenious way, to justify her schemes on behalf of her younger
son by proclaiming that she is an agent of the Divine Will, and
also by pleading that she scarcely knows whether Esau is her son
or not:
He goeth abroade so early before day light,
And returneth home again so late in the night,
And uneth I sette eye on hym in the whole weeke:
No sometime not in twaine, though I doe for hym seeke.
Well may Mido, Isaac's 'boy,' speak of her 'quick answers' to his
master. Mido, himself possessed of a ready tongue, is one of a group
of servants whom the dramatist has introduced, and who are a very
attractive feature of the play. He prides himself upon his strength,
as Abra, the little handmaid of Rebecca, does upon her cleanliness
and her culinary powers :
I trust to make such broth that, when all things are in,
God almighty selfe may wet his finger therein.
They are both eager partisans of Jacob, as is also Deborah, the
nurse of Isaacs tent,' while Esau's only adherent is Ragau, whose
6
## p. 113 (#137) ############################################
6
>
Gascoigne's The Glasse of Governement 113
fidelity differentiates him from the Vice, a type to which, otherwise,
he is related. The prominence given to servants, the frequent
introduction of songs and the general reconciliation (without
Biblical warrant) at the close, are features which Jacob and Esau
shares with Ralph Roister Doister. There can be little doubt
that it was a school play, and that “the Poet,' who speaks an
epilogue enforcing the protestant doctrine of election,' was the
headmaster who had written the work for performance by his
pupils.
With Gascoigne's The Glasse of Governement (1575), we return
to the more orthodox type of prodigal son play. It cannat be merely
a coincidence that Gascoigne had spent the two years (or there-
abouts) preceding the date of its publication as a soldier in the Low
Countries, the principal home of this dramatic type. He lays his
scene in Antwerp, and his plot shows the influence of several of the
masterpieces of the Dutch humanist cycle? The contrast between
the prodigal and the virtuous son which is exemplified in Misogonus
and Jacob and Esau appears in Gascoigne's work in duplicate
form. Two fathers are introduced, each with a pair of sons-
the younger a model of virtue and the elder a scapegrace.
The four youths are confided to the care of a schoolmaster,
Gnomaticus, who forthwith proceeds to expound to them at in-
sufferable length 'the summe of' their dutyes in foure Chapters. '
The unregenerate couple Philautus and Philosarchus soon grow
restive under this discipline, and find more congenial occupation in
the company of the courtesan Lamia and her associates, Eccho
and Dicke Droom. The revolt of the pupils against their pre-
ceptor was suggested, probably, by the Rebelles of Macropedius;
but the scenes in which Lamia and the parasites figure seem
inspired by similar episodes in Acolastus. The arrest of Lamia
by the markgrave and the sudden despatch of the scholars to the
university of 'Doway’are incidents of Gascoigne's own invention.
At ‘Doway,' the virtuous younger pair grow still more exemplary,
and have their fitting reward.
Philomusus finally becomes
secretary to the palsgrave; and Philotimus a preacher of singular
commendation' in Geneva. Meanwhile, the elder couple tread the
broad way to destruction, till Philautus is executed for a robbery
in the palsgrave's court, even in sight of his brother,' and Philo-
sarchus, for his evil courses, is whipped at Geneva 'openly three
severall dayes in the market' and 'banished the Towne with great
infamie. ' In Rebelles, the two scapegraces are put on their trial for
1 See the detailed comparison in Herford, Literary Relations, pp. 162—3.
8
a
6
E. L. V.
CH. V.
## p. 114 (#138) ############################################
114
Early English Comedy
theft, but are spared at the instance of the master whose authority
they had flouted; the harshly Calvinistic spirit that permeates
Gascoigne's play could not tolerate such a solution as this. The
Glasse of Governement, in fact, is a puritan tract disguised in the
vesture of a humanist school play. It pictures an unreal world of
saints and sinners, ranged in symmetrical groups, with no room
for struggle and compromise, penitence and forgiveness. Hence,
though Eccho and Dicke Droom are drawn with considerable
spirit, the true merits of the play lie not in characterisation but in
structure and in style. Great technical skill is shown in the last
act, where the scene continues to be laid in Antwerp, though the
chief incidents take place elsewhere. And the use, for the first
time, of vernacular prose throughout a 'prodigal son’ drama gives
a note of realism to the dialogue, which goes far to counterbalance
the artificial moral scheme of the play?
?
9
a
It is not a little singular that Gascoigne, who perverted a
type of drama imported from northern Europe by exaggerating its
didactic element, should, nine years before, have been the first to
present in English dress a characteristic Italian comedy of intrigue.
His Supposes, acted at Gray's inn in 1566 (and at Trinity college,
Oxford, in 1582), is a version of Ariosto’s Gli Suppositi, written
first in prose, and performed at Ferrara in 1509, and afterwards re-
written in verse. Ariosto's play is a masterly adaptation of the
form and types of Roman drama to the conditions of sixteenth
century Italy, and it is one of the earliest regular comedies in
a European vernacular. Gascoigne appears to have utilised both
the prose and the verse editions; but his translation is throughout
in prose. His use of this medium for dramatic purposes makes
Supposes, translation though it be, a landmark in the history of
English comedy. And, though his version, judged by Elizabethan
canons, is, in the main, an exceptionally close one, he does not
hesitate to substitute a familiar native phrase or allusion, where a
literal rendering would be obscure, or to add a pithy proverb or
quip to round off a speech. Supposes has thus a curiously
deceptive air of being an original work, and its dialogue has a
polish and lucidity which anticipate the kindred qualities of Lyly's
dramatic prose. Its enduring reputation is attested not only by
6
1 In •Euphues and The Prodigal Son,' The Library, October, 1909, Wilson, J. D. ,
suggests that Lyly's novel was largely . compiled' from a 'play belonging to the prodigal
son school which has now, probably, been lost. . . . Lyly, or the forgotten dramatist
from whom he took his material, has . . . intellectualized the prodigal son story. '
## p. 115 (#139) ############################################
.
The Bugbears
I15
the revival at Oxford in 1582, but by its adaptation about 1590,
with considerable changes and in verse form, as the underplot of
the anonymous Taming of a Shrew? When Shakespeare re-
modelled the anonymous play, he gave the underplot a closer
resemblance to its earlier shape in Supposes, though he clung to
verse instead of reverting to prose.
Another English version of a typical Italian comedy is The
Bugbears, an adaptation, first published in 1561, of La
Spiritata by the Florentine A. F. Grazzini. The Bugbears,
which is not yet conveniently accessible", was, probably, more
or less contemporary with Supposes, but, unlike Gascoigne's play,
it turned the prose of its original into verse. Įt also departed
much more widely from the Italian text, adding scenes and
characters based upon the Andria of Terence and Gl Ingannati,
and only mentioning some of the personages whom Grazzini brings
upon the stage. But, though the action in the English piece is
complicated by the introduction of an underplot, the unities of
time and place are skilfully preserved. The main plot deals with
the trick of Formosus to obtain 3000 crowns from his miserly
îather Amadeus, which he needs for the latter's consent to his
marriage with Rosimunda. Formosus has already secretly wedded
her; but Amadeus will not accept any daughter-in-law who does not
bring the above dowry. With the aid of a friend, Formosus makes
such a disturbance at night in his lather's house that Amadeus is con-
vinced that his home is haunted by spirits, the 'bugbears' of the
title. On consulting an astrologer, Nostrodamus, who, in reality, is
a disguised servant, named Trappola, in league with the con-
spirators, he is told that the spirits are angry with him for opposing
his son's marriage, and that they have carried off as a punishment
3000 crowns from his cherished hoard. The money, of course, has
been abstracted by Formosus, who is thus enabled to provide for
Rosimunda’s dowry. The mock-astrologer also predicts danger to
Cantalupo, an elderly wooer of Rosimunda, and the chief figure
in the underplot, unless he abandons his suit. To iarther it,
Cantalupo has pressed for the marriage of his daughter, Iphigenia,
furnished with the requisite dowry, to Formosus. But the girl has
resisted because she loves Manutius, whom now, at last, she is set
i See Warwick Bond's The Taming of the Shrew in the Arden edition, pp. xliii-xliv,
and the present writer's edition of The Taming of a Shrew, pp. xxi-xxii.
? It has been printed from the only MS (Lansdowne 807, ff. 55—77) by Grabau, C. ,
in Archiv für das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Litt. vols. XCVIII and xcix, with
notes on sources, etc.
8-2
## p. 116 (#140) ############################################
116
Early English Comedy
1
free to wed. There are other lesser threads in the piece, including
the humours of the servants of the chief personages; and it contains
a number of songs, both solos and choruses. The style is racy and
vigorous, and the play is in all respects a notable example of
Italianate comedy in English.
The influence of the southern stage, and the southern novel
(new and old), upon the English theatre, is attested by the state-
ment of Stephen Gosson in Playes Confuted in Five Actions (1582):
I may boldely say it because I have seene it, that the Palace of pleasure,
the Golden Asse, the Aethiopian historie, Amadis of France, the Rounde
table, baudie Comedies, in Latine, French, Italian and Spanish, have been
thoroughly ransackt to furnish the Playe houses in London.
Gosson further mentions that, in his unregenerate days, he
had himself been the author of 'a cast of Italian devises, called,
the Comedie of Captain Mario. '
In the list of plays mentioned in the revels' accounts? occur
several that are inspired by Italian themes, The three Systers
of Mantua (1578) and The Duke of Millayn and the Marques of
Mantua (1579) were acted by professional players, and Ariodante
and Genevora (1583), as already mentioned, was performed by
the Merchant Taylors' boys. Italian players, it is noticeable,
'
had, in 1574, followed the queen's progress, “and made pastyme
fyrst at Wynsor and afterwardes at Reading. ' From the list of
properties supplied for the performance at Reading, it is evident
that the foreigners acted a pastoral.
Probably, except for some school plays, the pieces performed
before the queen, even when they were on Italian, or, as
was more frequently the case, on classical and mythological,
subjects, were not cast in the mould of Ariosto or of Terence.
Written, for the most part, to be acted by professional companies
before popular audiences, they did not follow the classic or neo-
classic conventions the influence of which has been traced in the
preceding pages. They adhered instinctively to the freer lines
of native English drama, inherited from miracle and morality
plays”. A few of them, in fact, as may be inferred from their titles,
1 See Documents relating to the Office of the Revels in the time of Queen Elizabeth,
ed. Feuillerat, A. (vol. xxi of Bang's Materialien).
2 One play of this type, not mentioned, however, in the revels' accounts, has
recently been brought to light. It is The Plaie of Pacient Grissel, written by John
Phillip and printed by T. Colwell, to whom, in all probability, it was licensed for
publication in 1565/6 and 1568/9. A unique copy found in lord Mostyn's library was
sold in 1907, and from this the play has been reprinted by the Malone Society (1909).
The plot is taken from the closing tale of the Decameron, probably through an inter.
mediate source, though some of the episodes and the form of the proper names make it
9
5
2
3
1
## p. 117 (#141) ############################################
Realistic Influences. Tom Tyler 117
were belated moralities; a large number treated fabulous and
romantic themes? ; at least two, The Creweltie of a Stepmother and
Murderous mychaell, seem to be early specimens of the drama of
domestic life?
With few exceptions, these plays have perished; but, doubtless,
they were typical of the theatrical productions of the first twenty
years of Elizabeth's reign. Together with other popular pieces no
longer known even by name, they came under the lash of purist
critics, such as Whetstone in his preface to Promos and Cassandra
(1578) and Sidney in his Apologie for Poetrie (printed in 1595),
who ridiculed their extravagances of plot and style, and their
defiance of the unities. Sidney deplored the mingling in the same
piece of grave and humorous elements, ‘hornpipes and funerals,
and proclaimed that the salvation of the English drama could
only be found in strict adherence to classical rules. But it was
in vain for him to strive against the stream. Even in the plays
adapted from Roman, neo-Latin, or Italian models, Roister Doister,
Misogonus and The Bugbears, the native dramatic instinct for
breadth of design, vigour of characterisation and a realism that
often becomes coarseness, had largely transmuted, as has been
shown, the borrowed alien materials.
On the other hand, the popular drama, increasingly produced
by men with something of the culture of the universities or the
capital, tended towards a higher level of construction and of
diction. An example of early native farcical comedy is extant in
the anonymous Tom Tyler and his Wife, acted by 'pretty boys,'
which from its language and versification cannot have been written
later than the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, and probably goes
back further. Though allegorical figures, Destiny, Desire and
Patience, are introduced, the play is in effect a domestic drama
6
unlikely that this source was Chaucer's Clerk's Tale. The comedy covers the whole
lengthy history of Grissell's marriage, her sufferings, her abasement, and her restora-
tion to her husband and her dignities. The author shows some skill in grouping his
materials, but the characterisation is weak, and the fourteeners,' in which the serious
passages are mainly written, are monotonous, though the piece contains some pretty
lyrics. The most interesting feature of Pacient Grissell is that it mingles with the
personages of the Italian story a number of allegorical figures, of which the chief is
• Politicke perswasion,' the nimble-tongued Vice, who acts as the evil genius of the
marquis. Thus, more than thirty years before Chettle, Dekker and Haughton's
similarly named comedy (as to which cf. vol. vi, chap. II) was written, the story
of pacient Grissell,' always a favourite with playwrights (cf. Ward, A. W. , Eng. Dram.
Lit. vol. I, pp. 428—430 and ante, p. 15), had appeared in vernacular dramatic form.
i Similar plays, not performed before the queen, but still extant, are Common
Conditions (imperfect) and The Rare Triumphs oj Love and Fortune.
3 Cf. post, chap. XIII.
1
1
## p. 118 (#142) ############################################
I 18
Early English Comedy
of low life, showing how Tom suffers tribulation at the hands of
his shrewish wife, and how, even when a friend has tamed her by
drastic methods, he weakly surrenders the fruits of the victory
which has been won for him. The piece has a lusty swing and
vigour in its action and dialogue, and in its racy songs. It has
also a certain underlying unity in the idea that a man cannot
escape his fate, however unpleasant it may be. As Tom Tyler
ruefully exclaims :
If Fortune will it, I must fulfil it;
If Destiny say it, I cannot denay it.
But, if Tom Tyler be compared with The Taming of a Shrew
(to instance a play on a somewhat kindred theme, though it lies
slightly beyond the period dealt with in this chapter), it will be
evident how much native comedy had gained from contact with
foreign models in careful articulation of plot and in refinement
of diction and portraiture.
The fusion of classical with native elements appears very
clearly in Richard Edwards’s Damon and Pithias, a 'tragical
comedy,' as he calls it, which was almost certainly acted before
the queen in 1564! The plot is drawn from the annals of Syracuse,
and such figures as Carisophus, the parasite, Eubulus, the good
counsellor, Stephano, the slave-servant, and Dionysius, the tyrant,
are borrowed from the Roman stage. Many classical quotations
are introduced into the dialogue, which in the frequent use of
orixouvola and of rhetorical moral commonplaces shows the
influence of Seneca. Yet in spite of its debt to Latin drama
Damon and Pithias is not an academic product, but is, in form
and spirit, predominantly of native English type. It is not divided
into acts after the classical manner; and in its deliberate mixture
of pathos and farcical humour, and in its violation of the unity
of time, it runs counter not exactly to the precedents of the
classical stage, but to the current renascence perversion of them.
The Syracusan court at which the action is laid is modelled upon
the Elizabethan, and the rivalries of Aristippus and Carisophus
had their counterpart in the intrigues among the virgin queen's
1 The play was not licensed till 1567, and the earliest known edition dates from
1571. But 'Edwardes' Tragedy' is mentioned in the Revels' accounts as having been
performed by the children of the chapel at Christmas, 1564. Damon and Pithias in
the loose terminology of the day might well be called a tragedy in contrast with his
earlier • toying plays,' to which Edwards refers in his prologue. The play was
already familiar to the courtiers who saw his Palamon and Arcite at Oxford in
September 1566 (cf. post, vol. vi, chap. XII). Damon and Pithias was revived at
Oxford in January 1568 (cf. loc. cit. ).
## p. 119 (#143) ############################################
Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra 119
train, though the author protests against any topical interpreta-
tion of his 'courtly toyes':
We doo protest this flat,
Wee talke of Dionisius Courte, wee meane no Court but that.
Even more unmistakably English is the character of Grim the
collier, who hails from Croydon, though he never mentions his
birthplace, and shows remarkable familiarity with Syracusan affairs.
There is genuine, if coarse, vernacular humour in the episode of
the shaving of him by the saucy lackeys, Will and Jack, who pick
his pockets on the sly, while they chant the refrain ‘Too nidden
and toodle toodle too nidden. ' And the episode, though in itself
grotesquely irrelevant, is due to the playwright's true instinct that
comic relief is needed to temper the tragic suspense while the life of
Pitbias, who has become hostage for Damon during his two months'
respite from the block, trembles in the balance. The high-souled
mutual loyalty of the two friends and the chivalrous eagerness
with which each courts death for the other's sake are painted with
genuine emotional intensity. Though lacking in metrical charm or
verbal felicity, Damon and Pithias has merits which go some way
towards accounting for the acclaim with which, as contemporary
allusions show, it was received; and the play possesses an impor-
tance of its own in the development of romantic drama from a
combination of forces and materials new and old. As Roister
Doister and Misogonus, based on Latin or neo-Latin plays, had by
the incorporation of English elements gravitated towards a type
of comedy hitherto unknown, so Damon and Pithias, an original
work by a native playwright, showed the strong influence of classical
types and methods. Starting from opposite quarters, the forces
that produced romantic comedy are thus seen to converge.
George Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra, printed in 1578,
is another tragicomedy in direct line of succession to Damon and
Pithias. It is based on one of the tales in Giraldi Cinthio's
Hecatommithi, though the names of the leading figures are changed,
as they were to be changed yet again by Shakespeare when in his
Measure for Measure, founded on Whetstone's play, he gave to
the story its final and immortal form. Whetstone's sense of the
importance of design and structure is seen in his prefatory state-
ment, that he had divided the whole history into two commedies,
for that, Decorum used, it would not be convayed in one. ' Thus
the story of the self-righteous deputy, Promos, who seduces
Cassandra by a promise of pardon to her condemned brother,
6
毒
## p. 120 (#144) ############################################
I 20 Early English Comedy
Andrugio, is dramatised in two parts, each, after the orthodox
classical pattern, divided into five acts. Yet the necessity for
so complex and formal a scheme arises largely from the fact, not
mentioned by the playwright, that with the overmastering English
instinct for elaboration and realism, he adds a comic underplot, in
which the courtesan Lamia is the chief figure. This underplot is
much more closely linked to the main theme than is the humorous
interlude in Damon and Pithias, for it heightens the impression
of general social demoralisation and of hypocrisy in officials of
every grade. With its far from ineffective portrayal of several
characters new to English drama, and with its sustained level of
workmanlike though uninspired alexandrines and decasyllabic
lines, including some passages of blank verse, Promos and Cas-
sandra is the most typical example of an original romantic play
before the period of Shakespeare's immediate predecessors.
Edwards and Whetstone both prefaced their dramas with a
statement of their theory of the function of comedy.
In commedies the greatest skyll is this lightly to touch
All thynges to the quicke; and eke to frame eche person so,
That by his common talke, you may his nature rightly know.
The olde man is sober, the yonge man rashe, the lover triumphyng in joyes,
The matron grave, th harlat wilde, and full of wanton toyes.
Whiche all in one course they no wise doo agree;
So correspondent to their kinde their speeches ought to bee.
Thus wrote Edwards, and Whetstone, though without referring
to him, paraphrases his words :
To write a Comedie kindly, grave olde men should instruct, yonge men
should showe the imperfections of youth, Strumpets should be lascivious,
Boyes unhappy, and Clownes should speake disorderlye; entermingling all
these actions in such sorte as the grave matter may instruct and the pleasant
delight.
The playwrights who wrote thus realised the principle, which
underlies romantic art, of fidelity to Nature in all her various forms.
But they and their fellows, except Gascoigne in his derivative
productions, had not the intuition to see that the principle could
never be fully applied till comedy adopted as her chief instrument
the infinitely flexible medium of daily intercourse between man
and man-prose. It was Lyly who grasped the secret, and taught
comedy to speak in new tones. It remained for a greater than
Lyly to initiate her into the final mystery of the imaginative
transfiguration of Nature, and thus inspire her to create
Forms more real than living man,
Nurslings of immortality.
## p. 121 (#145) ############################################
CHAPTER VI
THE PLAYS OF THE UNIVERSITY WITS
Come foorth you witts, that vaunt the pompe of speach,
And strive to thunder from a Stage-man's throate:
View Menaphon a note beyond your reach;
Whose sight will make your drumming descant doate;
Players avant, you know not to delight;
Welcome sweete Shepheard; worth a Scholler's sight.
THESE lines of Thomas Brabine, prefixed to Greene's Menaphon
(1589), follow hard upon Nashe's involved and, today, obscure
preface, ‘To the Gentlemen Students. This preface is one long gibe
at the poets and the writers who, either without university education
had risen from the ranks, or, though thus educated, had chosen
ways of expression not in accordance with the standards of the
university wits. John Lyly, Thomas Lodge, George Peele, Robert
Greene and Thomas Nashe, however they may have differed among
themselves, stood shoulder to shoulder whenever they were facing
the ‘alcumists of eloquence' whose standards were not their own.
Though, in the period from 1570 to 1580, the curriculum at Oxford
and at Cambridge was still medieval, yet, as an addition to it, or in
place of it, groups of students, from year to year, received with
enthusiasm whatever returning scholars and travellers from Italy
and France had to offer them of the new renascence spirit and
its widening reflection in continental literary endeavour. A pride
in university training which amounted to arrogance, and a curious
belief, not unknown even today, that only the university-bred man
can possibly have the equipment and the sources of information
fitting him to be a proper exponent of new, and, at the same time, of
really valuable, ideas and literary methods—these were sentiments
shared by all the members of the group of 'university wits. '
John Lyly, born in 1553 or 1554, was an Oxford man. He gradu-
ated B. A. in 1573, and M. A. in 1575, and, in 1579, was incorporated
M. A. at Cambridge. By precedence in work and, probably, in actual
historical importance, he is the leader of the group. Indeed,
Lyly is typical of the university-bred man whose native common-
## p. 122 (#146) ############################################
I 22 Plays of the University Wits
sense and humour just save him from the pedantry which conceives
that the summum bonum for man lies in books, and in books only.
His remarkably receptive and retentive mind had been open at
the university to all influences for culture, both permanent and
ephemeral. Like a true son of the time, also, he could rarely
distinguish between the two kinds.
Blount, the compiler of the first collected edition of Lyly's
plays (1632), declared :
Our nation are in his debt, for a new English which hee taught them.
Euphues and His England began first that language: All our Ladies were
then his Schollers; And that Beantie in Court which could not Parley
Euphueisme, was as little regarded as shee which now there speakes not
French. These his playes Crown'd him with applause, and the Spectators
with pleasure. Thou canst not repent the Reading of them over; when Old
John Lilly is merry with thee in thy Chamber, Thou shalt say, Few (or
None) of our Poets now are such witty companions.
>
But Blount wrote after the fashion of a publisher turned biographer,
not as a man thoroughly informed. In regard to both Euphues
and the plays, Gabriel Harvey's malicious statement that 'young
Euphues hatched the egges, that his elder freends laide' comes
much nearer the truth. In the plays which Lyly wrote between
his first appearance as an author, in 1579, with his novel Euphues
and his Anatomie of Wit, and his death in 1606, he was rather
one who mingled literary and social fashions, a populariser and a
perfecter, than a creator. The composite product bears the im-
print of his personality, but he borrows more than he creates.
A brief review of material, methods and style in his comedy will
prove this true.
What, in the first place, is the material ? Usually, the slight
theme is suggested by some legend of the gods and goddesses ;
sometimes, as in Love's Metamorphosis, the source is treated simply
for its dramatic value--as Lyly understood drama, of course; some-
times for a fugitive allegory bearing on incidents in the career
of the virgin queen, or in national affairs; sometimes, as in
Endimion, Sapho and Phao and Midas, for what has been
interpreted as complicated allegory; and, rarely, as in Mother
Bombie, for mere adaptive fooling. Such material for tenuous
plots is not new. Turning the pages of the Accounts of the Revels
at Court, one finds titles of plays given by the children's com-
panies—the choirboys of St Paul's, of the Chapel Royal, or the
schoolboys of Westminster or of Merchant Taylors' under
>
1 See, as to Euphues and its influence, vol. III, chap. XVI, pp. 392 ff.
## p. 123 (#147) ############################################
Lyly's Material and Style
123
Mulcaster-very similar to the names of Lyly's plays.
