Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/347

 j 2s. viii. Ann. 9, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 281 LONDON, APRIL 9, 1921. CONTE NTS. No. 156. NOTES: 'Ralph Roister Doister ' : Nicholas Udall. 281 Among the Shakespeare Archives : The Death of John Bretchgirdle, 284 -Robert Whatley, 286 -The Beginning of .-Esthetic Criiicism in Italy, 28S The Travellers' Club depicted by an Old French Member. 291 Some Ulster Rhymes " Spilt Himself " Alstonfield, co. Staffs., 292. "QUERIES:- Julie Bonaparte's Letters Marbury Ander- son, Gamekeeper to Marquess of Tweeddale, 292 St. Leger Philpots and Goldsmith B. A. and T. Fawcet Christopher George Barlow, D.D. Peter Tillemans, Artist, 16S4-1734 Income Tax Exemption : Brighton The Royal Horse Guards Hunger Strike in the Four- teenth Century Lord Herbert of Cherbury's 'De Veri- tate,' 293 Spanish Horsehair Armour Grays ' Elegy' Liverpool Half-penny H. Z. H. Queen Elizabeth's Statue, St. Dunstan's-in-tbe-West Author of Quotation Wanted Author Wanted, 294. "(REPLIES : -Double Firsts at Oxford, 294 Rose-Coloured Vestments on Mothering Sunday Book Borrowers, 298 The Lord's Prayer in the Gipsy or Romany Language- Funeral CakeThe Qualities of Female Beauty" Sing- ing Bread " Capt. Cook : Memorials, 297 Monthly Periodical: 'Penny Post' 'Hinchbridge Haunted: a Country Ghost Story 'Churches of St. Michael Capt. Charles Morris Dr. Johnson: Portrait in Hill's Edition of Boswell, 298 Tavern Sign : Castle and Wheelbarrow- Leg of Mutton Clubs Turner Family James Peake "Loke"-Old Song Wanted Cowper : Pronunciation of Name The Honourable Mr. Emerson's ' English Traits,' 299. NOTKS ON BOOKS : ' Repertory of British Archives,' Parti. 'England ' OBITUARY : William Blyth Gerish. Notices to Correspondents. ' RALPH ROISTER DOISTER ' : NICHOLAS UDALL. (See 11 S. viii. 510.) I HOPE that the very successful revival of the old English comedy, / Ralph Roister Doister,' by Nicholas Udall, supposed to be the earliest in the language which took place in the old Abbot's dining-hall at Westminster School last January will not be allowed to go unrecorded in ' N. & Q.' in these days of revivals, in more or less suitable surroundings, of many an old masque or interlude. And of these ' Ralph Roister Doister ' is by no means the least interesting, or its sot-ting the least successful. Produced bv Mr. Christopher Hussey in aid of the fund now being subscribed for the restoration of Westminster Abbey, Miss Kitty Ashton made a most admirable pre- sentation of it, assisted by four other ladies and six members of the Oxford University Dramatic Society, to all of whom must be awarded unstinted praise for the great success that attended their efforts in the presence of an audience largely drawn from literary artel dramatic as well as from antiquarian circles. The fine oak screen at the end of the hall, with its pair of doorways and open case- ment frames overhead, was all the staging that was required for the play. Of this a capital drawing from the pencil of Mr. D. Macpherson, shewing Dame distance (Miss Ashton), Ralph Roister Doister (Mr. Eric Bush), and his impish sycophant Mery- greeke (Mr. Ledyard) in the scene (Act III. sc. iv.) of the reading of the famous love- letter, or " ambiguitie," which was the means, centuries later, of tracing the authorship of the plays appeared in the Sphere of Jan. 15. The whole thing was a delightful presentation, and, throughout, the atmosphere of the Tudor rose hung lightly over it all. Notices of the performance have appeared in many of the leading daily and weekly papers; whilst most of these journals, in reviewing the revival of the play, gave some slight notices of the author and of the circumstances in which it was written. One and all seemed to think it most fitting that this revival should have taken place in the very hall in which, quite possibly, it had been originally acted by Westminster scholars some three hundred and fifty years ago, and under the supervision of its author, their ovn head master. In 'N. & Q.', too, the subject of Nicholas Udall and his play of ' Ralph Roister Doister ' has from time to time come up for discussion with respect to one or other of the aspects that have presented themselves to your correspondents ; but it seems to me that there are other aspects from which this play and its author may be considered now that public interest in the subject has been so pleasantly quickened by the recent revival at Westminster. And first as to the circumstances that led to the discovery of the play and its author. These have been already alluded to in ' N. & Q.', but I hope that I may be allowed again to state the facts, so far as they can with any cer- tainty be ascertained. This happy revival has, of course, arisen all through the lucky chance by which the Rev. Thomas Briggs, himself an old Etonian,