Young—William Gager's Defence of Academic Stage. 595 
II. The epilogue of Momus. * 1 
Gager’s three plays were performed as follows: on Sun¬ 
day, February 5, Ulysses Redux ; 2 on Monday, February 6, 
Riuales ; 3 on Tuesday, February 7, Seneca’s Hippolytus , to 
which Gager had added two scenes of his own. 4 At the close 
of Hippolytus Gager introduced upon the stage, by way of 
epilogue, the figure of Momus , who not only passed Gager’s 
three plays in review, roguishly censuring each in detail, but 
also inveighed against acting and plays in general. In the 
form in which it was eventually published 5 the epilogue of 
As for your late letter to owre goode frende, he never shewde it me, or 
towlde me the contents therof to this daye, I never hearde of it, till longe 
after, nay talkinge with hym of you, touchinge suche thinges, he towlde 
me, that he had invyted you to the Playes, but you most gently answered, 
that you never used to cumm to suche thinges, and therfor nowe would also 
abstayne. [C. C. G. MS. 342, p. 42.] See below, p. 605. 
1 The text of Momus is printed among the appendices in Gager’s 
Ulysses Redux , Oxford, 1592, sig. F 3 verso-F6 verso, and is reprinted 
below. 
2 That this play was performed on Sunday is proved by the following 
passage in Gager’s letter of July 31, 1592, printed in full below: 
Wheras I sayde that there was no more tyme spent vpon owre Playes 
then was convenient, you replye that It may be there was, evne some tyme 
that shoulde have byn spent in heeringe Sermons, the very day that my Ulysses 
Redux came vpon the Stage. It may be there was not; and for any thinge 
that can be proved, or for any thinge that any man needed to be hindred 
from Sermons that daye for my Ulysses, it was not so in deede. sure I 
ame, that the gentelman that playde Ulysses, was at Sermon .... 
that accusation touchethe my poore vfortunate Ulysses only, not the 
other twoe. [C. C. C. MS. 352, p. 59.] See below, p. 629. 
3 This play was never printed, and no manuscript of it has been pre¬ 
served. Some notion of its content, however, may be formed from refer¬ 
ences to the play in Gager’s letter of July 31, 1592 (C. G. C. MS. 352, 
p. 57; see below p. 627) and in Rainolds’ Th’ Overthrow of Stage-Playes, 
[Middleburgh], 1599, pp. 115, 122, and from the Prologus in Riuales 
Comaediam printed in Gager’s Ulysses Redux, Oxford, 1592, sig. F 2 recto. 
That Riuales was presented on Monday, February 6, 1592, is proved by 
the fact that Momus, speaking on Tuesday, February 7, introduces his 
strictures upon Riuales with the question, Hesterna qualis exijt Comaedia ? 
See the complete text of Momus below, line 50. The play had been 
performed on June 11, 1582, before Albertus Alasco, Prince Palatine of 
Siradia in Poland, and it was revived in September, 1593, in a performance 
before Queen Elizabeth. See Boas, pp. 179-183. 
4 These two scenes are printed, under the title Panniculus Hippolyto 
Senecse Tragoedise assutus 1591, among the appendices to Gager’s Meleager, 
Oxford, 1592, sig. E 8 recto—F 5 verso. 
5 That the printed version of the Epilogus Responsivus differs somewhat 
from the version acted on February 7, 1592, appears from the following 
passage in Rainold’s letter of July 10, 1592: 
I am much to thank you, Maister D. Gager , for both your letters, 
and your Tragedie: the more, for that you haue enlarged the answer to 
