son, though least, yet was not worst, but more than half marred by extreme length.' On 31 March he told Carleton (Birch, i. 360) of the Oxford satires on the play, and of a possible second visit by the King, unless he could persuade the actors to visit London. And on 20 May he wrote to him (Birch, i. 363): 'On Saturday last [13 May], the King went again to Cambridge, to see the play "Ignoramus", which has so nettled the lawyers, that they are almost out of all patience.' He adds that rhymes and ballads had been written by the lawyers, and answered. Specimens of the 'flytings' to which the play gave
rise are in Hawkins, xxxvii, xlii, cvii, 259. Fuller, Church History (1655), x. 70, reports a story that the irritation caused to the lawyers also led to John Selden's demonstration of the secular origin of tithes. The authorship of Ignoramus is indicated by the entry in a notice of the royal visit printed (Hawkins, xxx) from a manuscript in the library of Sir Edward Dering: 'On Wednesday night, 2, Ignoramus, the lawyer, Latine, and part English, composed by M^r. Ruggle, Clarensis.' Ignoramus was largely based on the Trappolaria (1596) of Giambattista Porta, into which Ruggle introduced his satire of the Cambridge recorder, Francis Brackyn, who had already been the butt of 3 Parnassus.
Doubtful and Lost Plays There is no justification for ascribing to Ruggle Loiola (1648), which is by John Hacket, but Hawkins, lxxii, cites from a note made in a copy of Ignoramus by John Hayward of Clare Hall, c. 1741: 'N.B. M^r. Geo. Ruggle wrote besides two other comedies, Re vera or Verily, and Club Law, to expose the puritans, not yet printed. MS.' Club Law (cf. ch. xxiv) has since been recovered. THOMAS SACKVILLE (1536-1608). Thomas Sackville became Lord Buckhurst in 1567 and Earl of Dorset in 1604. He is famous in literature for his contributions to ed. 2 (1559) of A Mirror for Magistrates, and in statesmanship as Lord Treasurer under Elizabeth and James I.
Ferrex and Porrex, or Gorboduc. 1562
With Thomas Norton (q.v.).
GEORGE SALTERNE (> 1603).
Author of the academic Tomumbeius (cf. App. K).
JOHN SAVILE (c. 1603).
Describer of the coming of James I to England (cf. ch. xxiv, C).
ROBERT SEMPILL (c. 1530-95).
A Scottish ballad writer (D. N. B.) and a suggested author of Philotus (cf. ch. xxiv).
