V. Early English Comedy. The Drama to 1642, Part One. Columbia Encyclopedia World Factbook American Heritage Coll. The Drama to 1642, Part One. V. Early English Comedy .
Prodigal son plays.
The didactic element is spun out at wearisome length, and most of the new characters introduced, the priest, the devil and the perorator, who speaks the epilogue, deliver themselves of superfluous monologues. Though Textor's plays are neo-classic, in so far as they are written in Latin and under humanist influences, they and the English versions of them belong in form to the interlude type. The most popular work produced by this school, the Acolastus of Gnaphaeus, was issued in England with a translation by John Palsgrave in 1540. It was intended primarily to serve as a schoolbook, each scene being immediately followed by the English rendering with a marginal commentary.