The English Moral Plays 381 
Macropedius and the Studentes of Stymmelius, follow the same plan.} 
Whatever one may think of The Four Elements and Wit and Science, 
it is no far cry from the genuine morality to these that focus upon 
the particular problems of student life. 
The German school-plays were brought to England through the 
same channels that carried the controversial literature. Manuscript 
copies of the original texts, for example of the Studentes, circulated 
among the cultured; the Aco/astus was translated by Palsgrave ; 
and other plays were reproduced with necessary alterations.? These 
Latin comedies did not employ allegory, as the recognized morality 
did, but they resembled that type so closely in spirit that in 
England they customarily borrowed the allegorical method. 
This they could do without sacrificing at all the desired realism, 
for allegory was no longer confined to theological abstractions un- 
colored by human life. In The Nice Wanton, an adaptation of 
Rebelles, one sees scarcely any distinction between the two allegori- 
cal characters, Shame and Iniquity, and their fellows, who sup- 
posedly represent real persons Neither the allegorical nor the real 
at this time was all that it should be, and they met on almost 
middle ground. The English school-plays, then, are only a spec- 
ialized form of the broad morality-type. 
The Nice Wanton was written during the reign of Edward VI, 
it may be by Thomas Ingeland. Its plot is extremely simple. A 
fond mother has two sons and a daughter. The elder son, whom 
she has brought up strictly, is regular and punctual in his attend- 
ance at school, pursues his studies diligently, and quotes the Scrip- 
tures with glib, though Pharisaical, fluency. But his brother and 
sister, used to every indulgence at home, play truant habitually, 
are known in the neighborhood for idleness and profanity, and soon 
learn to gamble and riot with evil companions in the public house. 
In the latter part of the play, a considerable lapse of time being 
assumed, the girl dies a disgraceful death, the boy is hanged for theft 
and murder, and the heart-broken mother is kept from taking her 
life only by the interference of the elder son. 
Both The Nice Wanton and its model, Rebelles, were schoolmasters’ 
pieces intended to enforce the precept, “Spare the rod and spoil 
the child.” In Febelles the mother is made more directly responsible 


1 Herford, 152-58. The French play, LZ’ Enfant Prodigue, sacrifices in- 
struction for unrefined amusement. See Refertotre, 57-59. 
? Herford, 108, 158-64. Schelling (1. 64) gives an interesting account 
of Palsgrave’s edition of the Acolastus. 
