Arthur Francis Leach, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 27… (1911)
“ Though the central idea of the play—that of a braggart soldier (with an impecunious parasite to flatter him) who thinks every woman he sees falls in love with him and is finally shown to be an arrant coward—is undoubtedly taken from Plautus, yet the plot and incidents, and above all the dialogue, are absolutely original, and infinitely superior to those of Plautus. ”
Arthur Francis Leach, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 27… (1911)
“ So it is clear that the school never stopped. Udal therefore was master of Westminster for just over two years. He died at the age of 52. Roister Doister well deserves its fame as the first English comedy. It is infinitely superior to any of its predecessors in form and substance. It has sometimes been described as a mere adaptation of Plautus’s Miles Gloriosus. ”
Arthur Francis Leach, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 27… (1911)
“ But the occurrence of the quotation first in the edition of 1554, and its absence in the previous editions of 1551 and 1552, coupled with the absence of anything in the play to suggest any connexion with a school, while the scene is laid in London and among London citizens and is essentially a London play, furnish a strong argument that Roister Doister first appeared in 1553, and therefore could not have been written at Eton or for Eton boys. Nor could it have been written at Westminster School or for Westminster boys, as argued by Professor Hales in Eng. Studien (1893) xviii. 408. ”
