ROISTER DOISTER'

BY NICHOLAS UDALL

[DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

RALPH ROYSTER DOYSTER, a braggart. MATHEWE MERYGREEKE, the fun-maker. GAWIN GOODLUCKE, a London merchant, affianced to the wealthy widow Custance. TRISTRAM TRUSTY, an old friend to Goodlucke and Custance.

HARPAX, servant to Royster.
SCRIVENER.

MUSICIANS.

SERVANTS.

CHRISTIAN CUSTANCE, a wealthy widow, affianced to Goodlucke.

DOBINET DOUGHTIE, a boy, servant to MADGE MUMBLECRUST, an old woman, Royster.

TOM TRUPENIE, a boy, servant to Cus

tance.

SYM SURESBY, loyal servant to Goodlucke.

nurse to Custance.

TIBET TALK-A-PACE maids to Custance.
ANNOT ALYFACE

The place, LONDON.]

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1 In the first quarter of the sixteenth century the scholars of England came under the influence of the great neo-classical revival of Roman plays inaugurated by the Italian academies, and English high schools and colleges began to present before school audiences (and occasionally, by invitation, before the Court and before persons of eminence) the comedies of Terence and Plautus. Though at first the students acted the original plays of the Roman dramatists, very soon they began to compose and present plays modeled after the classical masterpieces, some in Latin and some in English. The earliest of the English adaptations of Roman comedy that has come down to us is Roister Doister, written by Nicholas Udall, and, in all probability, while he was headmaster of Eton, 1534-41. The importance of the academic drama in calling attention to the technique of the classical drama (act- and scene-divisions, coherence of plot, the unities of time and place, the careful motivation of entrances and exits, etc.) is obvious. And in still another way, perhaps, the efforts of the scholars to revive the drama of the ancients exerted an influence upon the English drama. The great revival of interest in Roman plays led, especially in Italy, to a revival of interest in the classical mode of stage representation. With hints derived from Vitruvius, and under the inspiration of enthusiastic Italian scholars, the architects and painters began to develop theatres and stage-scenery for presenting plays in the manner of the ancients." The scenery devised consisted usually of canvas stretched over wooden frames (called "players' houses"), and painted in perspective to represent a street. There were entrances at either side into the houses of the chief personages, and a passage or deor at the end of the street, leading, as it were, into the town. The figure entitled "The Comicall Scene,' here reproduced from Serlio's The Second Book of Architecture, illustrates a rather elaborate setting for a comedy; in the English plays, no doubt, the setting was much simpler. The actors of Roister Doister, we may suppose, placed on one side the house of Dame Custance, on the other side the house of Roister, with a street in perspective between; and all the performers came in or went out at the doors of these two houses, or at the rear end of the street.

Only one copy of the play is extant (now preserved at Eton, and referred to hereafter as E.), and that lacks the title-bage. The play, however, was licensed to Thomas Hacket in 1566/67, and was presumably issued shortly afterwards. I have based the text on Arber's reprint, with the corrections noted by Gayley (Representitive English Comedies, 1903) as a result of his careful collation of this reprint with the unique copy at Eton. The punctuation and the bracketed stage-directions are mine.

THE PROLOGUE

What creature is in health, eyther yong or olde,

But som mirth with modestie wil be glad to vɛe

As we in thys enterlude shall now vnfolde?
Wherin all scurilitie we vtterly refuse;

Auoiding such mirth wherin is abuse;

Knowing nothing more comendable for a mans recreation
Than mirth which is vsed in an honest fashion.

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Our comedie, or enterlude, which we intende to play
Is named "Royster Doyster," in-deede,
Which against the vayne-glorious doth inuey,

Whose humour the roysting sort continually doth feede.
Thus, by your pacience, we intende to proceede
In this our enterlude, by Gods leaue and grace.
And here I take my leaue for a certaine space.

1 Persons of great and of small importance.

2 Are ranked foremost.

FINIS.

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