[650] The arguments against Still's authorship of _Gammer Gurton_, and in favour of that of Bridges, are stated at length in an article by Mr. C. H. Ross in the nineteenth volume of _Anglia_ (1896), to which we are indebted for several useful references. [651] Of course it is not meant that these persons corresponded exactly to the type represented by Diccon--the ex-patient of Bethlehem Hospital, discharged as being supposed to be cured or rendered harmless, and wearing a badge indicating the possession of a licence to beg. [652] In Pikeryng's _Horestes_ (1567), which is some years earlier than the first known publication of _Gammer Gurton_, the country characters (one of whom is named Hodge) speak a strongly marked southwestern dialect. A Ryght Pithy, Pleasaunt and merie Comedie: Intytuled _Gammer gurtons Nedle_: Played on Stage, not longe ago in Christes _Colledge in Cambridge_ _Made by Mr. S. Mr. of Art._ Imprynted at London in Fleete street beneth the Conduit at the ligne of S. John Evangelist by _Thomas Colwell_. The Names of the Speakers in this Comedie DICCON,[653] _the Bedlem_. HODGE,[654] _Gammer Gurtons servante_. TYB, _Gammer Gurtons mayde_. GAMMER GURTON. COCKE,[655] _Gammer Gurtons boye_. DAME CHATTE. DOCTOR RAT, _the Curate_. MAYSTER BAYLYE. DOLL, _Dame Chattes mayde_. SCAPETHRYFT,[656] _Mayst. Beylies servante_. _Mutes._ God Save the Queene. P. 205 represents the title-page, but without the border to which I refer on p. 199. Mr. W. J. Lewis points out to me that this woodcut title page had been used previously by William Copland, in 1553, for his editions of Douglas _Æneis_ and _Palice of Honour_. FOOTNOTES: [653] The older form of Dick, nickname for Richard. [654] Nickname for Roger. [655] Misprinted _Docke_. [656] Professor Manly gives _scapetbryk_ as the reading of the edition of 1575; but in the copies in the Bodleian Library and in the British Museum the name is printed correctly. Gammer Gurtons Nedle The Prologue. A ii