_The Notorious Impostor_ was to experience a similar acceptance as a memoir. All modern biographical accounts of its villain-hero, William Morrell,[4] are based on the two separate parts of _The Notorious Impostor_ or _The Compleat Memoirs_. On January 3, 1692, he had died, a criminal at large; and the strange circumstances of his death became the talk of London. While the event was still a sensation, the bookseller Abel Roper rushed his "last will and testament" lives into print. The first to appear was _Diego Redivivus_, reprinted here from the rare copy at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. Evidence for the publication of _Diego Redivivus_ before _The Notorious Impostor_ is fairly conclusive. _The Registers of the Worshipful Company of Stationers_ (III, 397) enters _Diego Redivivus_, on behalf of Abel Roper, for January 12, 1692, and _The Term Catalogues_ (II, 392) advertises _The Notorious Impostor_ in the quarterly issue published in February, but Anthony Wood (III, 384) states that he bought his copy of the latter "in the beginning of March." A comparison of the two texts, moreover, supports this order of the publication. Events in _Diego Redivivus_, as in a news story, have greater immediacy. Morrell's death, the title asserts, took place the third of "this instant January." The specific detail of _Diego_ (p. 2: "about a fortnight before _Christmas_") is paralleled by the general statement of _The Notorious Impostor_ (p. 30: "Some few days before _Christmas_"). Although its title-page promises a "Full Relation" of Morrell's cheats, _Diego Redivivus_ presents only the final "will" episode, whereas _The Notorious Impostor_ ranges over the whole criminal career. Both narratives have in common the long will and codicil, except that _The Notorious Impostor_ (p. 34) drastically shortens the Latin passage which, in _Diego Redivivus_ (p. 10), states that the will had been probated. Even more conclusive evidence may be found in comparing the dates of the final events in the two accounts. _Diego Redivivus_, licensed on January 12, stops short with the humble burial of Morrell on January 13. Considerably later, certainly, must be the occurrence described in the Postscript of _The Notorious Impostor_: the nurse's and assistants' recollection that Morrell was laughing to himself in his last grim cheating of the world.