the earlier annals of his successor, and who died in the year 1523. Lord Vaux the poet, was probably Thomas lord Vaux, the son of Nicholas, and who was summoned to parliament in 1531,.and seems to have lived till the latter end of the reign of queen Mary. . Great numbers of Vaux's poems are extant in the "Paradise of Dainty Devises;" and, instead of the rudeness of Skelton, they have a smoothness and facility of manner, which does not belong to poetry written before the year 1523, in which lord Nicholas Vaux died an old man. --WARTON, THOMAS, 1778-81, History of English Poetry, sec. xxxix.

The compositions of Lord Vaux are uniformly of a moral and pensive cast, and breathe a spirit of religion and

resignation often truly touching, and sometimes bordering on the sublime.DRAKE, NATHAN, 1817, Shakspeare and his Times, vol. 1. p. 713

Vaux belonged to the cultured circle of the courts of Henry VIII and Edward VI, and emulated the poetic efforts of Sir Thomas Wyatt the elder and the Earl of Surrey. Such of his work as survives and has been identified consists of short lyrics. Most of it breathes an affected tone of melancholy which is unredeemed by genuine poetic feeling; but some of Vaux's poems show metrical facility and a gentle vein of commonplace reflection which caught the popular ear. LEE, SIDNEY, 1899, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. LVIII, p. 195.

The Exchequer of Eloquence; Sir Ihon Cheeke, a man of men, supernaturally traded in all tongues.-NASH, THOMAS, 1589, To the Gentlemen Students of Both Vnieursities, Nash's Works, ed. Grosart, vol. I, p. xxviii.

Sir John Cheekes stile was the honybee of Plato. HARVEY, GABRIEL, 1593, A New Letter of Notable Contents, Works, ed. Grosart, vol. 1, p. 266.

Thy age like ours, O soul of Sir John Cheek, Hated not learning worse than toad or asp, When thou taughtest Cambridge and King Edward Greek.

-MILTON, JOHN, 1645-6, Sonnets.

There had been in King Henry's time a great contest raised concerning the pronunciation of the Greek vowels. That tongue was but lately come to any perfection in England, and so no wonder the Greek was pronounced like English, with the same sound and apertures of the mouth to this, Mr. Cheek, then reader

of that tongue in Cambridge, opposed himself, and taught other rules of pronunciation. Gardiner was, it seems, so afraid of every innovation, though ever so much in the right, that he contended stiffly to have the old pronunciation retained and Cheek, persisting in his opinion, was either put from the chair, or willingly left it, to avoid the indignation of so great and so spiteful a man as Gardiner was, who was then chancellor of the university. Cheek wrote a book in vindication of his way of pronouncing Greek; of which this must be said, that it is very strange to see how he could write with so much learning and judgment on so bare a subject. Redmayn, Poinet, and other learned men, were of his side, yet more covertly but Sir Thomas Smith, now secretary of state, writ three books on the same argument, and did so evidently confirm Cheek's opinion, that the dispute was laid aside, and the true way of

now

pronouncing the Greek took place; the rather, because Gardiner was in disgrace, and Cheek and Smith were in such power and authority: so great an influence had the interests of men in supporting the most speculative and indifferent things.-BURNET, GILBERT, 1681, The History of the Reformation of the Church of England, ed. Nares, vol. II, pt. ii, bk. i, p. 192.

He happens, indeed, to be the very person who has the credit of amending the English style of writing, as well as the language; and that he contributed to the amendment of both is beyond dispute, though some of his improvements were never generally adopted.-NARES, EDWARD, 1828, Memoirs of Lord Burghley, vol. I, p. 251, note.

A refined critic of our language then was the learned Sir John Cheke, who at this early period considered that the English language was capable of preserving

PERSONAL

From Powles I went, to Aeton sent,
To learne straight wayes, the Latin phraise,
Where fiftie three stripes giuen to mee,

at once I had:

For faut but small, or none at all, It came to passe, thus beat I was, See Udall see, the mercy of thee,

to mee poore lad.

-TUSSER, THOMAS, 1573, Fiue Hundreth Points of Good Husbandrie, The Author's Life

RALPH ROISTER DOISTER

"Ralph Roister Doister" has fortunately come down to us in a printed shape, although it is now not possible to settle from whose press it issued. In 1566, Thomas Hacket had a licence to print "a play, intitled "Rauf Ruyster Duster," and a copy, perhaps from his press, but without a title-page, (so that the printer's name cannot be ascertained,) was discovered in 1818, and after a limited reprint

had been made of it by the Rev. Mr. Briggs, the original was deposited in the library of Eton College. That such a piece once had existence has been long known, and the allusions to it in later authors afford evidence of its popularity.

The scene of this comedy is laid in London, so that in no slight degree it is a representation of the manners of more polished society, exhibiting some of the peculiarities of thinking and acting in the metropolis at the period when it was written in this respect it has a decided advantage over "Gammer Gurton's Needle," which only pretends to depict the habits of coarse, rustic life. "Ralph Roister Doister" is divided into acts and scenes, and is one of the earliest productions for the stage which has reached us in a printed shape, with these distinctions: the characters are thirteen, nine male and four female, and the performance

could not have been concluded in less time than about two hours and a half, while few of the Morals we have examined would require more than about an hour for their representation. The plot of "Ralph Roister Doister" is amusing and well constructed, with an agreeable intermixture of serious and comic dialogue, and a variety of character, to which no other piece of a similar date can make any pretension. When we recollect, that it was perhaps written in the reign of Henry VIII., we ought to look upon it as a masterly production. COLLIER, JOHN PAYNE, 1831, History of English Dramatic Poetry, vol. II, pp. 448, 450, 460.

It is unquestionably superior to “Gorboduc" both in subject and language, and is not without merit, and possesses some life in the movement and action; but, as to progressive development of plot, the organic evolution of several elements out of the unity of a single leading ideawherein consists the secret of dramatic form of this it exhibits little more than the very first germ.-ULRICI, HERMANN, 1839, Shakspeare's Dramatic Art, p. 18.

The father of English Comedy. COOPER, WILLIAM DURRANT, 1847, Ralph Roister Doister, Introductory Memoirs, p. xi.

It is impossible to say what may have been the single influence of "Roister Doister" on English comedy: the probability is that its influence was inconsiderable. It was not printed till 1566, and by that time the more powerful influences of early Italian comedy were beginning to operate. Besides, with all its cleverness and delicate humour, the spirit of "Roister Doister" is essentially boyish: it was written to be acted by boys, and its

extravagant incidents are of a kind to draw shouts of delight from boys. There are shrewd touches of worldly wisdom in it; but, as a whole, it has not the robustness of comedy framed for the enjoyment of full-grown men and women. -MINTO, WILLIAM, 1874-85, Characteristics of English Poets, p. 141.

The composition of a scholar, who has studied Terence and Plautus to good purpose. The conduct of the piece

is spirited and easy. The author's art, though refined by scholarship, is homely. Between "Ralph Roister Doister" and "The Merry Wives of Windsor' there is, in point of construction and conception, no immeasurable distance, although the one play is the work of mediocrity, the other of genius. SYMONDS, JOHN ADDINGTON, 1884, Shakspere's Predecessors in the English Drama, pp. 203, 204.

Is amusing and not offensive.-SAINTSBURY, GEORGE, 1895, Social England, ed. Traill, vol. III, p. 339.

It is written in sufficiently brisk lines. of no great regularity; and there are much duller plays. Ralph's courtship of Dame Christian Custance, who will have none of him, is lively. On the whole, the play leaves the impression that Udall was more than a mere imitator of Plautus, but it is only the school exercise of a clever man. HANNAY, DAVID, 1898, The Later Renaissance, p. 231.

"Ralph Roister Doister" enjoys the distinction of being the earliest English comedy known, and, in the capacity of its author, Udall is universally recognised as one of the most notable pioneers in the history of English dramatic literature.LEE, SIDNEY, 1899, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. LVIII, p. 9.