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''Ralph Roister Doister'' is a sixteenth-century play by
Nicholas Udall Nicholas Udall (or Uvedale Udal, Woodall, or other variations) (1504 – 23 December 1556) was an English playwright, cleric, schoolmaster, the author of '' Ralph Roister Doister'', generally regarded as the first comedy written in the English ...
, which was once regarded as the first comedy to be written in the English language. 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 The word schoolmaster, or simply master, refers to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British independent schools, both secondary and preparatory, and a few Indian boarding schools (such as The Doon School) that were modelled after ...
in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...
, 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 (; c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, 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 ge ...
and
Terence Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a Roman African playwright during the Roman Republic. His comedies were performed for the first time around 166–160 BC. Terentius Lucanus, a Roman senator, brought T ...
. 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 and beyond. The play blends the stock plot-elements and
stock character A stock character, also known as a character archetype, is a fictional character in a work of art such as a novel, play, or a film whom audiences recognize from frequent recurrences in a particular literary tradition. There is a wide range of s ...
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 died. Terminology The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed ''widowhood''. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word can s ...
, Christian Custance, who is betrothed to Gawyn Goodluck, a
merchant A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as industr ...
. 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 could read and write or who wrote letters to court and legal documents. Scriveners were people who made their living by writing or copying written material. This usually indicated secretarial and admin ...
*Harpax, servant to Roister Doister *Dame Christian Custance, a widow *Margerie Mumblecrust, her nurse *Tibet Talkapace, her maid *Annot Alyface, her maid


Performance history

A generally accepted theory is that Udall first wrote the play for public performance by boys at the London school where he was master, though no recorded historical afterlife for the play in performance exists. Though amateur and student groups have presented readings and edited stagings sporadically throughout the 20th century (specifically a 1910 production by the
Philolexian Society The Philolexian Society of Columbia University is one of the oldest college literary and debate societies in the United States, and the oldest student group at Columbia. Founded in 1802, the Society aims to "improve its members in Oratory, Comp ...
of Columbia University and a 1953 presentation by Oxford University students at the Edinburgh festival), and three heavily edited adaptations of the play appeared (in the 1930s, 1960s, and 1980s), it did not have a full professional revival until 2015, when Brice Stratford directed an uncut production under original performance conditions for the Owle Schreame theatre company, also playing the title character.Hartley (1954), Partridge (2015).


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