EDITIONS.

_See Hazlitt's "Handbook," 1867, p. 464, and Remarks_.



MR. HALLIWELL'S PREFACE[1] TO THE FORMER EDITION.

The "Interlude of Youth" is probably the most interesting early-printed
moral play that has descended to our times, and it may therefore be
considered somewhat singular that it has hitherto escaped the notice of
the publication societies. Its great rarity may, however, account for
this circumstance, only two or three copies of any edition being known
to exist. Waley's edition appeared probably about the year 1554, and
has a woodcut on the title-page of two figures, representing Charity
and Youth, two of the characters in the interlude. Another edition was
printed by Copland, and has also a woodcut on the title-page,
representing Youth between Charity, and another figure which has no
name over its head. The colophon is: "Imprented at London, in Lothbury,
over against Sainct Margarytes church, by me, Wyllyam Copland." See
Collier's "History of Dramatic Poetry," vol. ii., p. 313. "The
'Interlude of Youth,'" observes Mr Collier, "is decidedly a Roman
Catholic production, and I have therefore little doubt that it made its
appearance during the reign of Mary;" and he adds, p. 315, "on the
whole, this piece is one of the most amusing and most humorous of the
class to which it belongs." A fragment of a black-letter copy of the
interlude is preserved at Lambeth Palace,[2] and is described by Mr
Maitland in his "List of Early Printed Books," p. 311.