With regard to the allusion in _Roister Doister_ to the Usury Statute, one may readily see that the reference is _not_ to a date later than the repeal, in 1552, of 37 Henry VIII., c. 9, but to a _period between 1545 and 1552_. In Act V., Scene vi., lines 21 to 30, Custance blames Roister humorously, _not_ for taking interest at all, but for taking _too much_ (fifteen to one!), and for taking it _right away_ instead of waiting until the year was up. The passage, therefore, does not refer to the law passed 5 and 6 Edward VI., c. 20 (1552), which repeals 37 Henry VIII., c. 9, and orders that "no person shall lend or forbear any sum of money for any maner of Usury or Increase to be received or hoped for above the Sum lent, upon pain to forfeit the Sum lent, and the Increase, [with] Imprisonment, and Fine at the king's pleasure." The passage refers to 37 Henry VIII., c. 20 (1545), to a law which allows ten per cent interest: "The sum of ten pound in the hundred, and so after that rate and _not above_," and which forbids the lender "to receive, accept or take in Lucre or Gain for the forbearing or giving Day of Payment _of one whole year_ of and for his or their money," for any other "Period" but the year, not "for a longer or shorter time." Cf. the technical term "gain" in line 30. If, therefore, Custance's joke can be taken as an indication of the time when the play was written, it would be an indication of the period between 1545 and 1552, or, at any rate, _before_ 1552.[315] I should, however, not be inclined on account of this reference to usury to date the play between 1545 and 1552. I would rather regard the allusion as a later insertion, which ought not to weaken the force of the internal evidence in favour of the old theory, according to which the play belongs to the Eton period of Udall's life, to the years between 1534 and 1541. =Date of the Early Edition.=--The Stationers Company's _Registers_ show (ed. Arber, 1, 331) four pence as "Recevyd of Thomas hackett for hys lycense for pryntinge of a play intituled Rauf Ruyster Duster," and the unique copy of the play which has come down to us has been regarded as the solitary relic of this edition. Title-page and colophon are lacking. Hackett, however, printed between October (November?), 1560, and July, 1589; and Arber dates the unique copy: "? 1566." This copy is now in the possession of Eton College. On the first fly-leaf are written the words: "The Gift of the Revᵈ Thoˢ Briggs to Eton Coll. Library, Decʳ 1818." As shown above, the quotation of the "ambiguous" letter in the 1553 edition of Wilson's _Logique_ speaks, however, in favour of an edition earlier than that of the unique copy; and this earlier edition might be dated "1552?".[316] =Place of Roister Doister in English Literature.=--_Roister Doister_ is the only specimen of Udall's dramatic art preserved by Fate, but it is sufficient to justify us in assigning to the author his place as father of English Comedy.