Without laying too much stress upon a single allusion, it is safe to assert that the discovery of the comedy of _Narcissus_, played five years earlier than the performances of which an account is given in the _Christmas Prince_, must be of considerable interest in the history of S. John's, and indeed in that of Oxford play-acting generally. The MS. containing this comedy is one of the Rawlinson collection, now in the possession of the Bodleian Library. The volume, which is 5½ × 4 inches in size, with 156 leaves, appears to have been the commonplace book of an Oxford man. It contains a variety of English poems and prose pieces, written at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century; amongst them several pages of extracts from the essays of Bacon and of his less-known contemporary Robert Johnson. Sir H. Wotton's poem, "How happy is he borne or taught," also finds a place in the collection. But the majority of the contents are of small literary value, and, so far as I am aware, have never been published. Perhaps the most interesting pieces in the volume are certain "English Epigrammes much like Buckminster's Almanacke ... calculated by John Davis of Grayes Inne ... 1594" of the character of which the following lines, occurring early in the series, may give some idea. _Of a Gull._ "Oft in my laughinge rimes I name a gull, But this new tearme will many questions breed, Therefore at first I will describe at full Who is a true & perfect gull indeede. "A gull is hee that weares a velvett gowne, And when a wench is brave dare not speake to her; A gull is hee that traverseth the towne, And is for marriage knowne a common wooer. "A gull is hee that, when he proudly weares A silver hilted rapier by his side, Endures the lye and knocks about the eares, Whilst in his sheath his sleepinge sword doth bide. "A gull is hee that hath good handsome cloaths, And stands in presence stroking vpp his haire, And fills vpp his imperfecte speech with oathes, But speaks not one wise woord throughout the yeere. But, to define a gull in tearms precise, A gull is hee that seemes, and is not, wise." That the play now under consideration is the work of some member or members of the college of S. John's there can be no doubt. It is, as the Prologue affirms, "Ovid's owne Narcissus," _i.e._, the story of Narcissus as told in the third book of the _Metamorphoses_, which forms the basis of the plot; and the resemblance to the Latin is in parts so close as necessarily to imply a knowledge of that language on the part of the writer. There is, indeed, one passage of literal and yet graceful translation (see ll. 494-505) which especially betokens a scholarly hand.