Note 593 — Chapter XXV · HUMANISM AND MEDIAEVALISM
Reading edition
Collier, ii. 196, quotes the description by Willis, Mount Tabor (1639), and refers to other notices of the play. In Sir Thomas More (†1590, ed. A. Dyce, from Harl. MS. 7368 for Shakes. Soc. 1844) ‘my lord Cardinall’s players’ visit More’s house and offer the following repertory:
‘The Cradle of Securitie, Hit nayle o’ th’ head, Impacient Pouertie, The play of Foure Pees, Diues and Lazarus, Lustie Juuentus, and the Mariage of Witt and Wisedom.’
The ascription of these plays to Wolsey’s lifetime must not be pressed too literally. Of Hit Nayle o’ th’ Head nothing is known. Radclif (p. 197) wrote a Dives and Lazarus. For the rest cf. p. 189; Texts (iv). The piece actually performed in Sir Thomas More is called Wit and Wisdom, but is really an adaptation of part of Lusty Juventus. A play of Old Custome, probably a morality, was amongst the effects of John, earl of Warwick, in 1545-50 (Hist. MSS. ii. 102).