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

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or 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. The term o ...

to be written in the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

. 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 afte ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

, 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 ...

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 ...

. 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 characters 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 so ...

, Christian Custance, who is betrothed to Gawyn Goodluck, a merchant. 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 ad ...

*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, Compo ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

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