directly modelled on
classical examples. A notable series of plays of this kind was performed
in the hall of Christ Church, Oxford, from the first year of Edward VI.
onward, when N. Grimald's _Archipropheta_, treating in classic form the
story of St John the Baptist, but introducing the Vice and comic scenes,
was brought out.[157] Others were J. Calfhill's _Progne_ and R.
Edwardes' _Palaemon and Arcyte_ (both 1566), and, from about 1580
onwards, a succession of Latin plays by William Gager, beginning with
the tragedy _Meleager_, and including, with other tragedies,[158] a
comedy _Rivales_. Yet another comedy, acted at Christ Church, and
extolled in 1591 by Harington for "harmless mirth," was the _Bellum
grammaticale_, or Civil War between Nouns and Verbs, which may have been
a revision of a comedy written by Bale's friend, R. Radcliff, in 1538,
but of which in any case the ultimate origin was a celebrated Italian
allegorical treatise.[159] In Cambridge, as is not surprising, the
activity of the early academical friends and favourers of the drama was
even more marked. At St John's College, where Bishop Watson's Latin
tragedy called _Absolom_ was produced within the years 1534 and 1544,
plays were, according to Ascham, repeatedly performed about the middle
of the century; at Christ's a controversial drama in the Lutheran
interest called _Pammachius_, of which Gardiner complained to the privy
council, and which seems afterwards to have been translated by Bale, was
acted in 1544; and at Trinity there was a long series of performances
which began with Christopherson's _Jephtha_ about 1546, and consisted
partly of reproductions of classical works,[160] partly of plays and
"shows" unnamed; while on one occasion at all events, in 1559, "two
English plays" were produced. In 1560 was acted, doubtless in the
original Latin, and not in Palsgrave's English translation (1540) for
schoolboys, the celebrated "comedy" of _Acolastus_, by W. Gnaphaeus, on
the story of the Prodigal Son. The long series of Trinity plays
interspersed with occasional plays at King's (where Udall's _Ezechias_
was produced in English in 1564), at St John's (where T. Legge's
_Richardus III._ was first acted in 1573), and, as will be seen below,
at Christ's, continued, with few noticeable breaks, up to the time when
the Elizabethan drama was in full activity.[161] Among the "academical"
plays not traceable to any particular university source may be
mentioned, as a