Note 316 — Nicholas Udall ROISTER DOISTER

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