Jacke Jugeler

This 1914 scholarly edition of the mid-sixteenth-century play Jacke Jugeler contains an informative introduction and detailed notes. Little-known today, the play represents a pre-Shakespearean example of classical ‘borrowing’ - a Roman play by Plautus is adapted to an English domestic situation - and it is one of the first instances of confused identity and ‘doubles’ in English comedy. The text of this edition is taken from the unique original, probably published around 1562, in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire. In his Introduction, W. H. Williams proposes the likely identity of the play’s author, and provides an analysis of the play’s language to support his claim. He examines the connections in method, characters and language between Jacke Jugeler and Ralph Roister Doister, a play written and performed around the same time.