Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/517

 ii s. vin. DEC. 27, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

511

authority for suggesting that it was written by another hand in praise of Mary's successor.

MB. MCELWAINE doubts whether a divine with such Protestant leanings as are attri- . buted to Nicholas Udall could have prayed that Queen Mary notwithstanding that he was not in disfavour with her should defend the faith, and adds that the lines are quite in keeping with Elizabethan eulogy. MB. BAYLEY (p. 413) considers that this prayer must have been added by the un- known hand who prepared the play for the press under Elizabeth, and cites Mr. F. S. Boas in the ' Camb. Hist, of Eng. Lit.' (vol. v. p. 105) as saying that " the inference is that the play had been performed for the first time between 1552 and 1554, probably by the Westminster boys. ' ' This probability does not seem to me, however, to be a sound one, as Udall was not h^ad master of West- minster School until he went there under Mary's appointment in 1555. He vacated it again upon the re-establishment of the monastery there by her towards the end of the following year, and. dying soon afterwards, was buried at St. Margaret's on 23 Dec., 1556. The entry of his burial sets all doubt at rest as to when he died, and affords an interesting illustration of the variations in which the name has been spelt. This is how I have transcribed it, though I cannot give here the quaint handwriting of the period.

1556

23 dec. Nicolas Yevedall.

Your correspondent W. S. S. (p. 454) is of opinion that the suggestion that the prayer for the Queen had been written by another hand at a later date has not been previously made, and questions its pro- bability. He thinks that there would have been no difficulty in Udall adding a few lines even later than 1553, and that the queen could hardly have been any one but Mary, and believes that Udall, moved by a spirit of loyalty, may well in 1554 have added to his play to do honour to the Queen.

Your last correspondent, MB. HILL of New York (p. 496), sees no difficulty in believing that Udall wrote the concluding prayer on behalf of Queen Mary, by whom he had been aided in his translation of Erasmus's ' Paraphrase upon the New Testa- ment,' a work undertaken by him at the instance of Queen Catherine Parr. He mentions the suggestion that it had been Avritten by another and later hand after Udall's death in 1556, in eulogy of Eliza- beth, and refers us to the article on Nicholas Udall in the ' D.N.B.'

This article scarcely helps us, I think, to solve the doubt for which sovereign the prayer in question is intended, as it states that the concluding verses plainly refer to Queen Mary or Queen Elizabeth, and were doubtless interpolated at a date subsequent to the composition of the play.

Prof. Arber, in his admirable reprint of ' Roister Doister ' in 1869, gives a biblio- graphy of the various editions that had been published, of which his own forms the sixth. They are as follows :

1: [? 1556.] 1 vol. 4to. ? First edition of a revised text. The copy now at Eton College* consists of 33 folios. The title-page is wanting.

2. 1818. Lond., 1 vol. 8vo. 'Ralph Royster Doyster' a Comedy. London. Reprinted in 1818. Edited and privately printed by T. Briggs. 30 copies only were struck off.f The printer was James Comptori', Middle Street, Cloth Fair, London. This edition is printed from the one at Eton College, and in the Advertisement it states that " the book unfortunately wants the title-page, and the author's name is unknown. It is now in the library of Eton College."

It is interesting to note here that Mr. Briggs should have been unaware when, he presented his find to his old school that it was the work of an old Informator, or Head Master, of the College.

3. 1821. Lond., 1 vol. 8vo. ' Ralph Royster Doyster ' : a Comedy, entered on the books of the Stationers' Company, 1566. London. Printed by F. Marshall, Kenton Street, Brunswick Square, 1821.

Prof. Arber states that the editor is not known, and that R. Southey's copy, bearing his autograph, and dated 1 Feb., 1837, is in the B.M. ; he adds that neither of the above knew that Udall was the author, and that it remained for Mr. J. P. Collier to discover the fact, and refers to the Preface of his ' Bibl. Account of Early Eng. Lit.,' ed. 1865, as to how he came to do so.

4. 1830. Lond., 3 vols. 18mo. ' The Old English Drama.' A series of plays at 6r7. each, printed and published by Thomas White. ' Royster Doyster ' is the first.

5. 1847. Lond., 1 vol. 8vo. Shakespeare Society. ' Ralph Roister Doister.' Edited, with introductory Memoir, by W. D. Cooper, F.S.A. The text collated with the original by J. P. Collier, F.S.A.

6. 1869. Lond., 1 vol. 8vo. English Reprints. ' Roister Doister.' Written and probably also represented before 1553. Carefully edited from the unique copy now at Eton College by Edward Arber, F.S.A.

more than thirty years ago.
 * I saw and examined it there in the library

t Of which I am fortunate to possess one bearing the autograph of " Frances Margaret Briggs. Sep: 20th 1818."