As to the nature of Udall's "Dialogues," "Enterludes," and "devises," we are not entirely without information. The very date of the warrant would indicate the occasion for Udall's services (December 3, 1554), if we had not a more definite statement. He was commissioned to get up the Christmas shows before Mary and Philip. Udall was in a dangerous position, since any reference to the Protestant sympathies of the nation might have cost his life, but he realized the situation, and with good tact presented "divers plaies," the "incydents" of which were very innocent:[309] "A mask of patrons of gallies like Venetian senators, with galley-slaves for their torche-bearers; a mask of 6 Venuses or amorous ladies with 6 Cupids and 6 torche-bearers to them," and some "Turkes archers,"[310] "Turkes magistrates," and "Turkie women," "6 lions' hedds of paste and cement," and a few other harmless paraphernalia. How long Udall served the queen in this capacity we do not know. In 1555, towards the end of his career, we find him at his old calling as master of Westminster School.[311] When in November of the following year the old monastery was again opened, naturally Udall's services became superfluous, and he was doubtless discharged; and so indeed the darkness enshrouding the last months of his life may cover a period of great distress. He died in December, 1556, and found his last resting place in St. Margaret's, Westminster; where almost thirty years before Skelton had found first a sanctuary and then a grave. It seems that the queen did not erect a monument over the ashes of her old friend, at least none is registered by the industrious Weever;[312] but Udall does not need a monument from Queen Mary, he has erected it himself--_ære perennius_--in the annals of English literature. =Date of the Play.=--_Roister Doister_ was formerly assigned to the time of Udall's mastership at Eton (1534-41).[313] In more recent years, however, this date has been rejected, and Professor J. W. Hales has tried to show that "this play was in fact written in 1552, and more probably written for Westminster school."[314] The arguments of Professor Hales, as far as I can see, might be summarized thus: 1. The fact that Wilson--an old Eton boy himself, who left the school in 1541, and ought to have known of the play if it had ever been performed there--does _not_ insert the "ambiguous letter" in his first and second editions of the _Rule of Reason_ (1551, 1552), whereas he inserts it in the edition of 1553, "_suggests_ that this _comedy was written between the appearances of the second and the third editions_." In favour of this theory speak further--according to Professor Hales-- 2. The fact that Bale does not mention any of Udall's comedies in the 1548 edition of his _Catalogus_; 3. The fact that "about 1552" Udall was in high esteem as a "comic dramatist";