[644] The alternative possibility is that _Gammer Gurton_ was a sequel
to _Dyccon_. In that case the two plays would most probably be by the
same author, so that the value of the argument in the next paragraph
would hardly be affected.
[645] Partly because the title-page of 1575 contains no indication that
the play had been printed before, and partly because (as will be shown)
there is some evidence that the publication was delayed after the title
had been changed. It would be interesting to know whether a second
licence was obtained for printing the play under its later name; but
there happens to be a gap in the detailed accounts of the Stationers
Company extending from 1571 to 1576.
[646] If the Stevenson of 1559-61 was not identical with his namesake,
some record of his graduations and matriculation ought to exist. But
Dr. Peile, who has taken the trouble to search through the university
registers for several years prior to 1559, informs me that no such
record can be found.
[647] The reference to the king, moreover, in Act V. ii, 236 would
strengthen the probability that the play of 1575 (and 1559-60) was
originally composed during Stevenson's first fellowship; at any rate
before the death of Edward VI. It might therefore be identical with the
play acted in 1553-4.--_Gen. Ed._
[648] Too much importance must not, however, be attached to this, as
the same thing is found in the title-page of _The Disobedient Child_,
above referred to. The date of 1575 for our comedy is given in the
colophon at the end of the book. See also p. 206 _n_.
[649] This title was given by Reed; Baker's original work of 1762 was
called _A Dictionary of the Stage_.
[650] The arguments against Still's authorship of _Gammer Gurton_, and
in favour of that of Bridges, are stated at length in an article by Mr.
C. H. Ross in the nineteenth volume of _Anglia_ (1896), to which we are
indebted for several useful references.
[651] Of course it is not meant that these persons corresponded
exactly to the type represented by Diccon--the ex-patient of Bethlehem
Hospital, discharged as being supposed to be cured or rendered
harmless, and wearing a badge indicating the possession of a licence to
beg.
[652] In Pikeryng's _Horestes_ (1567), which is some years earlier than
the first known publication of _Gammer Gurton_, the country characters
(one of whom is named Hodge) speak a strongly marked southwestern
dialect.
A Ryght
Pithy, Pleasaunt and merie
Comedie: Intytuled
_Gammer gurtons
Nedle_: Played on
Stage, not longe
ago in Christes
_Colledge in Cambridge_
_Made by Mr. S. Mr. of Art._
Imprynted at London in
Fleete street beneth the Conduit
at the ligne of S. John
Evangelist by _Thomas
Colwell_.