20 Wine, Beere, 



but never given, owing to the illness of the king. Some slight evi- 

 dence that our play was designed for presentation before James is 

 afforded by the earlier tobacco passage, which has little relation to the 

 context but would, as I have already remarked, have been well cal- 

 culated to please King James. 



Perhaps, on the other hand, the sketch appeared under less reput- 

 able auspices. The less dignified sort of entertainment had not been 

 in high favor with the academic authorities. " Common plays, public 

 shews, interludes, comedies, and tragedies in the English tongue" 

 were prohibited in the second year of James I by a royal letter. 

 But the restriction would not appear to have been rigidly enforced. 

 It takes more than a royal ordinance or college edict to prevent stu- 

 dents from indulging in the surreptitious frolics to which they are 

 attached. Unlicensed shows are said by Mullinger to have been 

 frequently performed at neighboring inns. A student was suspended 

 in 1600 for having ventured to take part in an interlude at the "Black 

 Bear," where he appeared with "deformed long locks of unseemly 

 sight, and great breeches, undecent for a graduate or scholar of ordi- 

 nary carriage." Worke for Cutlers seems from the allusion in the 

 closing line to have been performed by freshmen. Perhaps Wine, 

 Beere, and Ale was also composed for the less seasoned scholars. 

 Certainly there is nothing in the piece that would be above the acting 

 powers of undergraduates. . * 



In any case the play was evidently designed for actual representa- 

 tion.^' Small touches throughout show that the writer had visualized 

 the action and even the costimie of his characters. This would seem 

 to indicate that he had had some experience in writing for the stage. 

 If he had indeed been the author of Worke for Cutlers and its companion 

 piece a few years before, the sUghtly greater complexity of the 

 action and the superior adaptation to stage purposes in the later 

 dialogue would be amply accounted for. 



^ Evidence on this point is to be found in tlie stage direction at the close of the play. In its 

 earlier form this reads: "A Daunce, wherein the severall Natures of them all is figured and represented." 

 In the second edition the description was filled in, either by the author or by someone who was 

 familiar with the stage representation. See hues 677 S. 



