Note 293 — Nicholas Udall ROISTER DOISTER

Cf. Warton, Hist. of English Poetry, 3, 308; Interdum etiam exbibet [sc. ludi magister] Anglico sermone contextas fabulas, si quæ babeant acumen et leporem. Eton was the only place where we know of English plays; but Radulphus Radclif at Hitchin may have performed some of his school comedies in English, as the "plebs" mentioned by Bale would not much have appreciated Latin performances, Catalogus, 8, 98, fol. 700; Herford, Literary Relations, p. 110, citing the occasional admission of English school plays at Eton, says that to "this concession we owe the Ralph Roister Doister." More likely we owe the concession to Roister Doister. Cf. Herford on Udall's De Papatu.