Young—William Gager's Defence of Academic Stage. 601 
Peccare si non fas sit, at certe licet 
Redimere crimen, quicquid est, Scense grauis; 
[220] Censura vestrum nulla iudicium arguat. 
Proinde, disrumpantur vt Momo ilia, 
Iterum benignus vndique applausus sonet. 
It appears, then, that among the contentions advanced by 
Momus and ridiculed in the Epilogus Responsivus are the 
following: (1) Actors were condemned by ancient statutes; 
(2) It is impious for men to dress themselves as women; 
(3) Plays in general, and Riuales in particular, contain 
lascivious matter; and (4) The acting of plays entails a waste 
of time and money. 
III. Lost correspondence between Gager and Rainolds. 
Among the contentions of Momus one readily observes 
resemblances to certain of the positions taken by Rainolds 
in his letter to Thornton. It was inevitable, therefore, that 
when he heard of the Momus epilogue, Rainolds should sus¬ 
pect a burlesque of himself. Through a direct or indirect 
channel, in written or oral form, Rainolds’ suspicion must 
have reached Gager, for when, some three months after the 
performance, 1 he sent a copy of the printed Ulgsses Redux 
and Momus to Rainolds, he accompanied it by a letter in 
which he took pains to declare that in the comic figure he 
intended “not to note any man, but onely Momus.” 2 It 
appears also that shortly after the performance of Gager’s 
plays a young Fellow of Queen’s College preached a sermon 
upon the passage in Douteronomy (xxii, 5) forbidding both 
men and women to clothe themselves in the apparel of the 
opposite sex. 3 Since this sermon met with Rainolds’ ap¬ 
proval, 4 and may have been instigated by him, we may 
regard it as part of his censure of Gager immediately after 
the performance of the plays. 
IV. The printing of Momus , and its presentation to 
Gager. 
Ulysses Redux was printed in May, 5 1592, with the fol¬ 
lowing title-page: 6 
1 See below, p. 602. 
2 See below, p. 602. 
3 See Gager’s letter of July 31, 1592, G. C. G. MS. 352, pp. 41, 63, 
printed below, pp. 605, 635. 
4 See Th* Overthrow of Stage-Playes , p. 16. 
6 The month is indicated by the ending of the prose dedication to 
Thomas Sackville: “Vale. Ex Aede Christi Oxonie sexto Idus Maij. 1592. 
