and jester at
the court of Mary, is due the credit for raising the Interlude to the
distinct dramatic form known as comedy.

Heywood's Interludes were written between 1520 and 1540. His most famous is
"The Four P's," a contest of wit between a "Pardoner, a Palmer, a Pedlar
and a Poticary." The characters here strongly suggest those of
Chaucer.[131] Another interesting Interlude is called "The Play of the
Weather." In this Jupiter and the gods assemble to listen to complaints
about the weather and to reform abuses. Naturally everybody wants his own
kind of weather. The climax is reached by a boy who announces that a boy's
pleasure consists in two things, catching birds and throwing snowballs, and
begs for the weather to be such that he can always do both. Jupiter decides
that he will do just as he pleases about the weather, and everybody goes
home satisfied.

All these early plays were written, for the most part, in a mingling of
prose and wretched doggerel, and add nothing to our literature. Their great
work was to train actors, to keep alive the dramatic spirit, and to prepare
the way for the true drama.

3. THE ARTISTIC PERIOD OF THE DRAMA. The artistic is the final stage in the
development of the English drama. It differs radically from the other two
in that its chief purpose is not to point a moral but to represent human
life as it is. The artistic drama may have purpose, no less than the
Miracle play, but the motive is always subordinate to the chief end of
representing life itself.

The first true play in English, with a regular plot, divided into acts and
scenes, is probably the comedy, "Ralph Royster Doyster." It was written by
Nicholas Udall, master of Eton, and later of Westminster school, and was
first acted by his schoolboys some time before 1556. The story is that of a
conceited fop in love with a widow, who is already engaged to another man.
The play is an adaptation of the _Miles Gloriosus_, a classic comedy by
Plautus, and the English characters are more or less artificial; but as
furnishing a model of a clear plot and natural dialogue, the influence of
this first comedy, with its mixture of classic and English elements, can
hardly be overestimated.

The next play, "Gammer Gurton's Needle" _(cir_. 1562), is a domestic
comedy, a true bit of English realism, representing the life of the peasant
class.

Gammer Gurton is patching the leather breeches of her man Hodge, when Gib,
the cat, gets into the