''Ralph Roister Doister'' is a sixteenth-century play by Nicholas Udall, which was once regarded as the first

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

to be written in the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

. The date of its composition is disputed, but the balance of opinion suggests that it was written in about 1552, when Udall was a

schoolmaster A schoolmaster, or simply master, is a male school teacher. The usage first occurred in England in the Late Middle Ages and early modern period. At that time, most schools were one-room or two-room schools and had only one or two such teacher ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, and some theorise the play was intended for public performance by his pupils—who were all male, as were most actors in that period. The work was not published until 1567, 11 years after its author's death.

Sources

Roister Doister seems to have been inspired by the works of

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus ( ; 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andro ...

and

Terence Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a playwright during the Roman Republic. He was the author of six Roman comedy, comedies based on Greek comedy, Greek originals by Menander or Apollodorus of Carystus. A ...

. The title character is a variation on the "Braggart Soldier" archetype, but with the innovation of a parasitic tempter which stems from the

morality play The morality play is a genre of medieval and early Tudor drama. The term is used by scholars of literary and dramatic history to refer to a genre of play texts from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries that feature personified concepts ( ...

tradition. By combining the structures, conventions, and styles of the ancient Greek and Roman comedies with English theatrical traditions and social types (especially the relatively new and burgeoning English middle classes), Udall was able to establish a new form of English comedy, leading directly through to

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

and beyond. The play blends the stock plot-elements and

stock character A stock character, also known as a character archetype, is a type of character in a narrative (e.g. a novel, play, television show, or film) whom audiences recognize across many narratives or as part of a storytelling tradition or convention. Th ...

s of the ancient Greek and Roman theatre with those of chivalric literature and the English mediaeval theatre.

Plot

The play is written in five acts. The plot of the play centres on a rich

widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died and has usually not remarried. The male form, "widower", is first attested in the 14th century, by the 19th century supplanting "widow" with reference to men. The adjecti ...

, Christian Custance, who is betrothed to Gawyn Goodluck, a

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in goods produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Merchants have been known for as long as humans have engaged in trade and commerce. Merchants and merchant networks operated i ...

. Ralph Roister Doister is encouraged throughout by a con-man trickster figure (Matthew Merrygreeke) to woo Christian Custance, but his pompous attempts do not succeed. Ralph then tries with his friends and servants (at Merrygreek's behest) to break in and take Christian Custance by force, but they are defeated by her maids and run away. The merchant Gawyn arrives shortly after and the play concludes happily with reconciliation, a prayer and a song.

Characters

*Ralph Roister Doister *Mathew Merygreeke *Gawyn Goodluck, affianced to Dame Custance *Tristram Trustie, his friend *Dobinet Doughtie, servant to Roister Doister *Tom Trupenie, servant to Dame Custance *Sym Suresby, servant to Goodluck *

Scrivener A scrivener (or scribe) was a person who, before the advent of compulsory education, could literacy, read and write or who wrote letters as well as court and legal documents. Scriveners were people who made their living by writing or copying w ...

*Harpax, servant to Roister Doister *Dame Christian Custance, a widow *Margerie Mumblecrust, her nurse *Tibet Talkapace, her maid *Annot Alyface, her maid

Performance history

Readings and stagings of the play have taken place throughout the 20th century, notably a 1910 production by the Philolexian Society of

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and a 1953 presentation by

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

students at the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of Arts festival, arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the ...

. Three adaptations of the play appeared in the 1930s, 1960s, and 1980s.

References

Sources

* Chislett, William, Jr. 1914. "The Sources of ''Ralph Roister Doister''." ''Modern Language Notes'' 29:6 (June): 166–167. * Hartley, Anthony. 1954. ''The Spectator'' Performing Arts section, 3 September 1954: 10. Web

* Hinton, James. 1913. "The Source of ''Ralph Roister Doister''." ''Modern Philology'' 11:2 (Oct.): 273–278. * Norland, Howard B. 1995. ''Drama in Early Tudor Britain, 1485-1558.'' Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. * O'Brien, Angela. 2004. Ralph Roister Doister'': The First Regular English Comedy.'' * Partridge, Matthew. 2015. "Review: ''Ralph Roister Doister''." Remotegoat, 25 February 2015. Web
''Review: Ralph Roister Doister ****''
* Plumstead, A. W. 1963. "Satirical Parody in ''Roister Doister'': A Reinterpretation." ''Studies in Philology'' 60:2 (April): 141–154. * Glynne Wickham, Wickham, Glynne, ed. 1976. ''English Moral Interludes.'' London: Dent. . * Wickham, Glynne. 1981. ''Early English Stages: 1300—1660.'' Vol. 3. London: Routledge. {{ISBN, 0-710-00218-1.

External links

''Ralph Roister Doister'' online (Project Gutenberg)
English Renaissance plays 1553 plays