forty shillings for the performance by his "children" of an interlude before the Princess Mary. Now _Thersites_ is obviously intended for performance by children; it was acted a few months previously to the payment of March, 1538,[96] in honour of Jane Seymour, to whom Mary, in return for her abundant kindness, was greatly attached; and again Mary's fondness for the classics would explain the selection of a classical burlesque if, as is probable, she was present when it was acted. Given the facts that Heywood had already in the _Play of the Wether_ brought Jupiter on the stage, that _Thersites_ bears at least some slight resemblances to other plays attributed to him, that he was in the service of the Princess Mary, and was manager, whether permanently or temporarily, about this time, of a company of children, and I think we have a fairly strong case for attributing _Thersites_ to his pen. If this theory be accepted, the probability of his authorship of both the _Pardoner and the Frere_ and _Johan Johan_ is considerably increased; for if _Thersites_ is by Heywood, it is good enough to form an important link between these plays and his argumentative interludes, while if _Thersites_ be not by Heywood, there was then some other playwright of the day for whom a strong claim might be put forward to the authorship of these other anonymous plays. =Sources.=--The fact that an opportunity for writing about Heywood is not likely to recur very often must be offered as an excuse for interpolating questions of detail into this preface. For the broader view of the subject which we ought here to take it is obvious that the authorship of this or that play is not very important. What concerns us here is that we can see even in the less developed group of plays English comedy emancipating itself from the miracle-play and morality, and in the _Pardoner and the Frere_ and _Johan Johan_ becoming identical in form with the French fifteenth-century farce. Whether we ought to go beyond this and assert absolute borrowing from French originals is rather a difficult question. The _Farce nouuelle d'un Pardonneur, d'un triacleur et d'une tauerniere_ may certainly have supplied the idea both of the preaching-match between Pardoner and Friar and also of the comparison of the wares of Pardoner and Pothecary. The _Farce nouuelle tresbonne et fort ioyeuse de Pernet qui va au vin_ contains two passages[97] which must have some direct connection with _Johan Johan_. The only extant edition of Pernet qui va au vin was "nouvellement imprimé" in 1548, and the date of its prototype is unknown. The _Farce d'un Pardonneur_, in the edition which has come down to us, is certainly later than 1540, but this also was probably a reprint. Thus despite the fact that the handling of the incidents in the English plays is far more skilful than in the French, it would seem too daring to suggest that the French farces can be borrowed from the English, and in any case we may imagine that