uled _Gammer Gurton's Needle_.' The
authorship is uncertain, recent investigation having exalted a certain
Stevenson into rivalry with the Bishop Still to whom former scholars
were content to assign it. Possibly as the result of a perusal of
Plautus, possibly under the influence of the last play--for in subject
matter it is even more perfectly English than _Ralph Roister
Doister_--this comedy is also built on a well-arranged plan, the plot
developing regularly through five acts with subsidiary scenes. Let us
glance through it.

Gammer Gurton and her goodman Hodge lose their one and only needle, an
article not easily renewed, nor easily done without, seeing that Hodge's
garments stand in need of instant repair. Gib, the cat, is strongly
suspected of having swallowed it. Into this confusion steps Diccon, a
bedlam beggar, whose quick eye promptly detects opportunities for
mischief. After scaring Hodge with offers of magic art, he goes to Dame
Chat, an honest but somewhat jealous neighbour, unaware of what has
happened, with a tale that Gammer Gurton accuses her of stealing her
best cock. To Gammer Gurton he announces that he has seen Dame Chat pick
up the needle and make off with it. Between the two dames ensues a
meeting, the nature of which may be guessed, the whole trouble lying in
the fact that neither thinks it necessary to name the article under
dispute. No wonder that discussion under the disadvantage of so great a
misunderstanding ends in violence. Doctor Rat, the curate, is now called
in; but again Diccon is equal to the occasion. Having warned Dame Chat
that Hodge, to balance the matter of the cock, is about to creep in
through a breach in the wall and kill her chickens, he persuades Doctor
Rat that if he will creep through this same opening he will see the
needle lying on Dame Chat's table. The consequences for the curate are
severe. Master Bailey's assistance is next requisitioned, and him friend
Diccon cannot overreach. The whole truth coming out, Diccon is required
to kneel and apologize. In doing so he gives Hodge a slap which elicits
from that worthy a yell of pain. But it is a wholesome pang, for it
finds the needle no further away than in the seat of Hodge's breeches.

If we compare this play with _Ralph Roister Doister_ three ideas will
occur: first, that we have made no advance; second, that, in giving the
preference to rough country folk, the author has deliberately abandoned
the higher standard of re