Entitled IGNORAMUS, was first enacted. It originated in a dispute on
the question of precedency, in 1611, when the Mayor, whose name was
Thomas Smart, had seated himself in a _superior_ place in the
Guildhall of the town, in the presence of the Vice-Chancellor of the
University, who asserted his right to the same; but the Mayor refused
to resign the seat, till the Vice-Chancellor's attendants forcibly
ejected him. The dispute was laid before the Privy Council, who
decided in favour of the Vice-Chancellor. But during the progress of
the affair, the Recorder of Cambridge, named Brankyn, stoutly defended
the Mayor and Corporation against the rights of the University. This
it was that induced the author of the play, Geo. Ruggle, Fellow of
Clare-Hall, to _show him up_, in the pedantic, crafty, pragmatical
character of _Ignoramus_; and if lawyer Brankyn, it is said, had not
actually set the dispute agoing, he greatly contributed to keep it
alive. At this time King James had long been expected to visit
Cambridge, who had a strong prejudice against lawyers, and a ruling
passion to be thought the patron of literature. The circumstances
suggested to Ruggle the propriety of exposing lawyer Brankyn before
his Majesty, in the above character, and to render it the more
forcible, he resolved to adopt the common-law forms, and the cant and
barbarous phraseology of lawyers in the ordinary discourse. It was,
therefore, necessary that he should make himself master of that
_dialect_, in which almost the best amongst them were accustomed to
write and even to discourse; a jargon, says Wilson, in his
_Memorabilia Cantabrigiæ_, could not but be offensive to a classical
car. He, therefore, took more than ordinary pains to acquaint himself
with the technical terms of the profession, and to mark the abuse of
them, of which he has admirably availed himself in the formation of
the character of _Ignoramus_, who not only transacts business, but
"woos in language of the Pleas and Bench." The comedy was enacted
before his Majesty by the members of the University, and he was so
much delighted with, _on dit_, either the wit or absurdity, that he
caused it to be played a second time, and once at Newmarket. During
one of these representations, says Dr. Peckard, formerly Master of
Magdalen College, in his Life of Mr. Farrer, "the King called out
aloud, 'Treason! Treason!' The gentlemen about him being anxious to
know what disturbed his Majesty, he said, 'That the writer and
performers had acted their parts so well, that he should die of
laughter.'" It was during the performance of this play, according to
Rapin and others, that James was first struck with the personal beauty
of _George Villiers_, who afterwards became Duke of Buckingham, and
supplanted _Somerset_ in his favour. Thomas Gibbons, Esq. says, in his
Collection, forming part of the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum,
(No. 980, art. 173.) that "the comedy of Ignoramus, supposed to be by
Mr. Ruggle, is but a translation of the Italian comedy of Baptista
Porta, entitled _Trapulario_, as may be seen by the comedy itself, in
Clare-hall Library, with Mr. Ruggle's notes and alterations thereof."
A literary relique that is said to have now disappeared; but it is to
be hoped, for the credit of a learned Society, that it is a _mistake_.
Dyer in his _Privileges of Cambridge_ (citing vol. ii. fol. 149 of
Hare's MSS.) gives _the judgment of the Earl Marshal of England_,
which settled this famous controversy. The original document is extant
in the Crown Office, in these words:--"I do set down, &c. that the
Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge is to be taken in commission before the
Mayor. King James, also, in the third of his raigne, by letters under
the privy signett, commandeth the Lord Ellesmere, Chancellor of
England,