Now, the ninth story in the Jest-book, in the edition of 1526, is “Of him that said that a woman’s tongue was lightest of digestion”; and we have exactly the same notion reproduced. Conversely, the nineteenth story in the _Tales_ treats “Of the four elements, where they should soon be found”; and here very curiously an analogous notion about the qualities of the female tongue discloses itself thus: “The wind said, ‘If ye list to speak with me, ye shall be sure to have me among aspen leaves or else in a woman’s tongue.’” Water and fire were to be found in a woman’s eye and in her heart; the earth alone was stationary and steadfast. And even in the moral we are told that “by this tale ye may learn as well the property of the four elements as the properties of a woman.” These are rough indications, which must go for what they are worth. And in the same way, No. 3 of the _Tales_ relates an adventure in connection with the performance of a stage-play in Suffolk, in which the devil was a person of the drama. Theatrical exhibitions in the provinces were not of very usual or frequent occurrence in those days. This particular one is alleged to have taken place in a certain market town; but, perhaps to prevent the possibility of giving offence, the name is withheld. But the narrative strikes me, from its minuteness of detail, as emanating from somebody who was on the spot, rather than from a secondary source, and from the pains and skill with which the plot is elaborated as the composition of a professional writer. And the question arises whether the reporter of the two jests was not also the author of the stage-play in Suffolk and of the _Interlude of the Four Elements_. I submit this suggestively and experimentally, since it appears to me that, next to More, JOHN HEYWOOD is the most probable candidate for the honour of having furnished Rastell with the MS. of the _Tales_; and if he did so, we may have a sort of clue to the authorship of two dramatic productions not hitherto comprised in the list of his writings. Nor does the connection of More himself with the _Tales_, even under such circumstances, absolutely fall to the ground, as Heywood and he saw a good deal of each other; and Gabriel Harvey, Spenser’s friend, and an affectionate student of the curious literature of the period, informs us that some of his (Heywood’s) epigrams were founded on conceits and devices of More.