Roister Doister

Udall, Nicholas, 1505-1556Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.7

Word count: 158K words
Chapters: 16

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Roister Doister by Nicholas UdallAuthor: Udall, Nicholas, 1505-1556,Language: English, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: May 7, 2007

Editor's review

Roister Doister is generally regarded as an important early English comedy. Written in verse by Nicholas Udall, it revolves around a self-important suitor who meets repeated setbacks, with bantering characters and lively scenes that preserve the rough energy of sixteenth-century English comedy in its infancy. Its value lies not only in its place in literary history: the dialogue moves at a brisk pace and the character types are sharply drawn, giving readers a direct sense of how early modern English comedy felt its way between classical tradition and native humor. For students of English literary history, it is an early text they cannot avoid; for theater historians, it offers concrete material for observing act structure, verse dialogue, and comic convention. Note that this is a public-domain e-book whose language is Early Modern English; spelling and diction differ from modern English, and there are no modern annotations, so first-time readers will face some difficulty. Readers are advised to treat it as a historical text for close reading rather than light entertainment.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Undergraduates and graduate students of English literary history who need to engage with early comedy in the original
Specialist readers studying sixteenth-century English dramatic form and verse dialogue
Language enthusiasts interested in Early Modern English who are willing to read the original patiently and closely

Not a good fit for

Casual readers seeking light, humorous stories who are unfamiliar with early English spelling
Beginners who need modern annotations and line-by-line explanation to understand the text
Theater practitioners looking for a contemporary performance script or a Chinese translation

Reading tips

Start by learning the basic background of sixteenth-century English comedy before entering the text, to reduce difficulties with language and conventions.
When encountering unfamiliar spellings, consult a modern English edition or annotated version, proceeding scene by scene rather than skimming the whole.
Try reading the dialogue aloud by role to appreciate the verse rhythm and the staging of comic scenes.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Why does the English in this book feel so unfamiliar?

The work was written in the sixteenth century in Early Modern English, whose spelling, vocabulary, and syntax differ markedly from today's. Public-domain e-books also usually preserve the historical version without modernized spelling. Readers need patience and reference tools to understand the dialogue smoothly.

Can I understand this comedy without annotations?

Readers with a foundation in English literary history and experience reading early English can get through it on their own, but will encounter difficulties with word meanings and allusions. Reading alongside a modern scholarly edition or a literary history textbook is recommended; relying solely on this book raises both the cost of comprehension and the risk of misreading.

What is its place in English theater history?

It is often seen as one of the representative works of early English comedy, embodying a combination of classical comic tradition and native material. For specific historical evaluations and scope of influence, readers may consult authoritative literary histories; this book itself does not provide a systematic scholarly introduction.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Udall, Nicholas, 1505-1556 Author · English · 1505–1556

Nicholas Udall (1505–1556) was an English playwright and educator who served as headmaster of Eton College. His representative work is the comedy Roister Doister, often regarded as one of the earliest English comedies and an important text in the history of early English drama. Udall combined a career in education with writing; his plays are lively and close to everyday life, using colloquial speech and comic situations to shape characters, and they show features of the transition from medieval morality plays to modern comedy. Public information about the details of his life is limited, and the full extent of his works remains to be clarified, but Roister Doister alone demonstrates his influence during the formative period of English comedy and provides an important text for the study of early English drama.