XXIV ANONYMOUS WORK (continued 2)

Mucedorus > 1598; 1611

1598. A most pleasant Comedie of Mucedorus, the Kings sonne of Valentia and Amadine the Kings daughter of Arragon, with the merie conceites of Mouse. Newly set foorth, as it hath bin sundrie times plaide in the honorable Cittie of London. Very delectable and full of mirth. For William Jones. [Arrangement of parts for eight actors; Induction.]

1606. For William Jones.

1610.... Amplified with new additions, as it was acted before the Kings Maiestie at Whitehall on Shroue-sunday night. By his Highness Seruants vsually playing at the Globe. Very delectable, and full of conceited Mirth. For William Jones. [Arrangement of parts for ten actors; Prologue. Collier professes to follow a print of 1609 with this altered title, otherwise unknown; cf. Greg in Jahrbuch, xl. 104.]

1611; 1613; 1615.

S. R. 1618, Sept. 17. Transfer by Sarah, widow of William Jones, to John Wright (Arber, iii. 632).

1618; 1619; 1621; 1626; N.D. [1629] fragm.; 1631; 1634; 1639; N.D. [1639 < > 63]; 1663; 1668.

Editions by J. P. Collier (1824) and with Shakespeare (1878), N. Delius (1874), in Dodsley⁴, vii (1874), Warnke-Proescholdt (1878), J. S. Farmer (1910, T. F. T.), and with Sh. Apocrypha.—Dissertations: R. Simpson, On Some Plays Attributed to Sh. (1875, N. S. S. Trans. 155); W. Wagner, Ueber und zu M. (1876, Jahrbuch, xi. 59), Neue Conjecturen zum M. (1879, Jahrbuch, xiv. 274); K. Elze, Noten und Conjecturen (1878, Jahrbuch, xiii. 45), Nachträgliche Bemerkungen zu M. (1880, Jahrbuch, xv. 339), Last Notes on M. (1883, E. S. vi. 217); E. Soffé, Ist M. ein Schauspiel Sh.’s? (1887, Brünn Progr.); W. W. Greg, On the Editions of M. (1904, Jahrbuch, xl. 95).

It is difficult to date with precision the revival for which the additions printed in the Q. of 1610 (1610/1?) were written, especially as the genuineness of the Q. of 1609, in which Collier stated that he found these additions, cannot be verified, since the accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber do not specify the exact days on which the numerous appearances of the King’s men at court during the winters of 1608–9, 1609–10, and 1610–11 took place. The conjecture of Fleay (ii. 50; Shakespeare, 303) that the additions date from 1606 was largely based on a guess that they appeared in the Q. of 1606, which he had not seen. The added or altered passages are the prologue; i. 1, 2; iv. 1; parts of v. 2; and the final lines of the induction. The prologue wishes James security

A bear is introduced in i. 2, as in W. T. iii. 3, and I venture to conjecture that both episodes were inspired by the successful bear in Jonson’s Mask of Oberon on 1 Jan. 1611, to which there is also an allusion in his Love Restored of 6 Jan. 1612. If so, the revival must have been on Shrove Sunday, 3 Feb. 1611. In I. i. 50 Anselmo says that he was a shepherd in ‘Lord Iulios Maske’. Oberon, however, had no shepherds proper, only satyrs and sylvans. The induction is altered to compliment James instead of Elizabeth, and the following dialogue between Comedie and Envie is introduced:

Fleay, with 1606 in his mind, finds here an apology for The Fox, thinking Jonson the raven and Eastward Hoe the ‘trap for Boyes’. In 1610 there had been no trouble about any London play, although one in Lincolnshire had given offence. But a careful reading of the passage will show that it is no apology at all, but a boast, and an attack upon informers against the stage.

As the play had been in print since 1598, it must not be assumed that, because the King’s revived it in 1610–11, it was originally a Chamberlain’s play. It may have belonged to the Queen’s or some other extinct company. Evidently it was a popular play, as the number of editions shows. K. B. P. ind. 91 tells us that Ralph has ‘play’d ... Musidorus before the Wardens of our Company’.

The ascription to Shakespeare is due to Archer’s list of 1656 (Greg, Masques, xci) and to the inclusion of the play with Fair Em and The Merry Devil of Edmonton in a volume in Charles II’s library, lettered ‘Shakespeare, vol. i’ (Variorum, ii. 682). It now receives little support, even as regards the added passages. Greene is preferred as the original author by Malone and Hopkinson, Peele by von Friesen, and Lodge by Fleay.

After the suppression of the theatres in 1642, Mucedorus was acted by strolling players in various parts of Oxfordshire. An accident during a performance at Witney on 3 Feb. 1654 is recorded in John Rowe, Tragi-Comoedia. Being a brieff relation of the strange and wonderful hand of God, discovered at Witney in the Comedy acted February the third, where there were some slaine, many hurt and several other remarkable passages (1653/4).

Either Mucedorus or Greene’s Alphonsus (q.v.) may have been the play on a king of Arragon given at Dresden in 1626. It has also been suggested (Herz, 95) that Mucedorus influenced Pieter Hooft’s Dutch pastoral Granida (1605).

Narcissus. 6 Jan. 1603

[MS.] Bodl. MS. 147303 (Rawl. Poet. MS. 212), f. 82^v. ‘A Twelfe Night Merriment. Anno 1602.’ [Porter’s speech ‘at the end of supper’, Wassail Song, Prologue, and Epilogue.]

Edition by M. L. Lee (1893).

The porter’s name is Francis, and from some speeches and a letter composed for him, which appear in the same manuscript, it is clear that he was Francis Clark, who became porter of St. John’s, Oxford, on 8 May 1601, at which house therefore the play was doubtless given. It has borrowings from M. N. D. and 1 Hen. IV.

New Custom. 1558 < > 73

1573. A new Enterlude No less wittie: then pleasant, entituled new Custome, deuised of late, and for diuerse causes nowe set forthe, neuer before this tyme Imprinted. William How for Abraham Veale.

Editions in Dodsley⁴ (1874, iii) and by J. S. Farmer (1908, T. F. T.).

A moral of Protestant controversy, with typical personages, bearing allegorical names, arranged for four actors.

The final prayer is for Elizabeth, and Avarice played in the days of Queen Mary. Fleay, 64; ii. 294, thinks it a revised Edward VI play, on the ground of an allusion to a ‘square caps’ controversy of 1550. But this was still vigorous in 1565 (cf. Parker’s Letters, 240). Fleay also says that the Nugize of Captain Cox’s collection (Laneham, 30) is Mankind (Med. Stage, ii. 438) in which New Gyse is a character. But Mankind was first printed in 1897, and probably this play is the one Laneham had in mind.

Nobody and Somebody > 1606

S. R. 1606, Jan. 8. ‘The picture of No bodye.’ John Trundell (Arber, iii. 308).

1606, March 12 (Wilson). ‘A Booke called no bodie and somme bodie &c.’ John Trundell (Arber, iii. 316).

N.D. No-Body, and Some-Body. With the true Chronicle Historie of Elydure, who was fortunately three seuerall times crowned King of England. The true Coppy thereof, as it hath beene acted by the Queens Maiesties Seruants. For John Trundle. [Prologue and Epilogue.]

Editions by A. Smith (1877), R. Simpson (1878, S. of S. i), J. S. Farmer (1911, T. F. T.), of the early German translation by F. Bischoff, Niemand und Jemand in Graz im Jahre 1608 (1899, Mitteilungen des historischen Vereins für Steiermark, xlvii. 127), and of Tieck’s translation by J. Bolte (1894, Jahrbuch, xxix. 4).—Dissertation: J. Bolte, Eine Hamburger Aufführung von N. a. S. (1905, Jahrbuch, xli. 188).

The play is probably Jacobean. There is a reference to the unwilling recipients of knighthood (l. 325), and the use of Essex’s nickname for Cobham, Sycophant, as the name of a courtier, must be later than Cobham’s disgrace in 1603. Simpson thought that an allusion to the misuse of the collections for rebuilding Paul’s steeple (l. 754) pointed to an original date c. 1592, when the matter caused a scandal, but the steeple was still unbuilt in James’s reign. Greg, Henslowe, ii. 230, revising a conjecture of Fleay, i. 293, suggests that Albere Galles, written by Heywood and Smith for Worcester’s in Sept. 1602, may be this play, and Henslowe’s title a mistake for Archigallo, one of the characters. The play seems to have reached Germany by 1608. A performance at Graz in that year was probably the occasion of the dedication by ‘Joannes Grün Nob. Anglus’ to the archduke Maximilian of a manuscript German translation, now in the Rein library. To it is attached a coloured drawing of a bearded man in a doublet which hides his breeches, and with a book and chain in his hands. Above is written ‘Nemo’ and ‘Neminis Virtus ubique Laudabilis.’ A version is also in the Anglo-German collection of 1620 (Herz, 66, 112).

Parnassus. 1598–1602 (?)

[MSS.] Bodl. Rawlinson MS. D. 398. ‘The Pilgrimage to Parnassus’, ‘The Returne from Parnassus’. [1 Parnassus with Prologue; 2 Parnassus with Stagekeeper’s speech for Prologue. The cover bears the name of ‘Edmunde Rishton, Lancastrensis’, who took his M.A. from St. John’s, Cambridge, in 1602.]

Halliwell-Phillipps MS. ‘The Returne from Pernassus: or The Scourge of Simony.’ [3 Parnassus, with induction for Prologue, which says, ‘The Pilgrimage to Pernassus, and the returne from Pernassus have stood the honest Stagekeepers in many a Crownes expence for linckes and vizards: ... this last is the last part of the returne from Pernassus’.]

S. R. 1605, Oct. 16 (Gwyn). ‘An Enterlude called The retourne from Pernassus or the scourge of Simony publiquely Acted by the studentes in Sainct Johns College in Cambridg.’ John Wright (Arber, iii. 304).

1606. The Returne from Pernassus: Or The Scourge of Simony. Publiquely acted by the Students in Saint Iohns Colledge in Cambridge. G. Eld, for Iohn Wright. [Two issues. 3 Parnassus only.]

Editions of 3 Parnassus by T. Hawkins (1773, O. E. D. iii), W. Scott (1810, A. B. D. i), in Dodsley⁴ (1874, ix), by E. Arber (1878) and O. Smeaton (1905, T. D.), and of 1, 2, 3 Parnassus by W. D. Macray (1886) and J. S. Farmer (S. F. T.).—Dissertations: B. Corney (1866, 3 N. Q. ix. 387); J. W. Hales, The Pilgrimage to P. (1887, Academy and Macmillan’s Magazine; 1893, Folia Litteraria, 165); W. Lühr, Die drei Cambridger Spiele vom P. in ihren litterarischen Beziehungen (1900, Kiel diss.); E. B. Reed, The College Element in Hamlet (1909, M. P. vi. 453); G. C. Moore Smith, The P. Plays (1915, M. L. R. x. 162).

There are several notes of time and authorship. At the end of 1, which was ‘three daies studie’ (l. 3), the pilgrimage has lasted ‘4 yeares’ (712). Kinsader’s, i.e. Marston’s, Satires and Bastard’s Epigrams, both of 1598, are mentioned (212). The prologue to 2, which is a ‘Christmas toy’ (18), deprecates the former courtesy of ‘our stage’:

It is now seven years since the scholars started for Parnassus (62). Gullio has been ‘verie latelie in Irelande’ and ‘scapt knightinge’ (878), obviously with Essex in 1599. The Epigrams (1599) of ‘one Weaver fellow’, i.e. John Weever, are alluded to (982). The prologue to 3, also a ‘Christenmas toy’ (30), calls it ‘an old musty show, that hath laine this twelue moneth in the bottome of a coalehouse’ (25). ‘The Authors wit’ (48) has stood ‘hammering upon ... 2 schollers some foure (1606, whole) yeare’ (37). This is the third play of a series (76):

Belvedere (1600) is published (179) and Nashe is dead (314). The Dominical letters are C, or for the Annunciation year D and C (1105), and the moon is in ‘the last quarter the 5 day, at 2 of the cloke and 38 minuts in the morning’ (1133). These indications fit Jan. 1602 (Lühr, 15, 105). The siege of Ostend, which extended from 1601 to 1604, has begun (1333). Jonson has ‘brought vp Horace giving the Poets a pill’ (1811), and Kempe is back ‘from dancing the morrice over the Alpes’ (1823). Both events took place in 1601. It is still Elizabeth’s reign (1141).

A quite clear conclusion as to date is not possible. The calendar references, the four years of hammering (in 3), and the probability that the writer would try to have his allusions to literary events up to date, suggest performances at the Christmases of 1598–9, 1599–1600, and 1601–2. This allows for a twelve-months’ delay, followed by a good deal of revision, in the performance of 3. On the other hand, the difference between four (in 1) and seven (in 2) years of pilgrimage points to 1598–9, 1601–2, and 1602–3. On the whole, I lean to the first alternative.

So far as we know, the association of Kempe with the Chamberlain’s men was out of date either in 1601 or 1602; conceivably he returned to the company for a while in 1601, but he was certainly of Worcester’s in 1602.

Moore Smith thinks that the ‘ruder quill’ of the prologue to 3 implies that the author of 2 and 3 was distinct from the author of 1. But the same prologue speaks clearly of a single author. Hales took the account of his troubles in getting his degree literally, and pointed out that foreign students at German universities were called ‘Käsebettler’ and ‘Käsejäger’. Moore Smith doubts, and thinks the degree may have been given at Cambridge by the influence of William Holland, senior fellow of St. John’s, and his name glanced at in ‘Germanie’. The absence alike of matriculation books and college admission registers for the period makes identification difficult. Corney found a copy of the print of 3 with the inscription ‘To my Lovinge Smallocke J. D.’, which he thought in the same hand as the Lansdowne MS. of John Day’s Peregrinatio Scholastica. Bullen was inclined to support Day’s authorship on internal grounds, but Day was a Caius man, whose university career closed in disgrace, and is not very likely to have written plays for St. John’s some years later. And it is but a slight connexion with Cheshire that ‘dey’ means ‘dairy’ in the dialect of that county. Cheshire ought to be our clue. Charles Chester was not, so far as I know, a writer. Hales seems to have thought that the theatrical Beestons of London may have been connected with the Cheshire family of that name. There was a Cheshire foundation at St. John’s, and Moore Smith cites a suggestion that the author may have been William Dodd, a Cheshire man, who became Scholar of St. John’s in 1597, B.A. in 1599, and Fellow in 1602. The ‘priviledge’ reminds me of the traditional jurisdiction of the Dutton family over minstrelsy in Cheshire (Mediaeval Stage, ii. 259), but I do not know whether any Dutton can be traced at St. John’s.

In i. 2 of 3 Judicio is exercising the occupation of a ‘corrector of the presse’, apparently in the employment of a particular printing-house, not of the licensing authorities. The house would be Danter’s, who is himself introduced in i. 3 bargaining with Ingenioso to give him 40s. for a pamphlet. In iv. 3 Burbage and Kempe appear, and here is the famous passage in which Kempe says:

‘Few of the vniuersity men pen plaies well, they smell too much of that writer Ouid, and that writer Metamorphosis, and talke too much of Proserpina & Iuppiter. Why heres our fellow Shakespeare puts them all downe, I and Ben Ionson too. O that Ben Ionson is a pestilent fellow, he brought vp Horace giuing the Poets a pill, but our fellow Shakespeare hath giuen him a purge that made him beray his credit.’

Fleay, Shakespeare, 221, suggests that the ‘purge’ was the description of Ajax in Troilus and Cressida, I. ii. 15, and is supported by Small, 167. If so, it was very irrelevant to its setting. The purge ought to be Satiromastix, and though there is nothing to indicate that Shakespeare had any responsibility for Satiromastix, it is just conceivable that a Cambridge man, writing before the play was assigned to Dekker in print, may have thought that he had. The allusion is clearly to Shakespeare as a writer, or one might have thought that he acted Horace-Jonson in Satiromastix.

Especially in 3, the writer is much occupied with contemporary literature, but this does not justify the slap-dash attempt of Fleay, ii. 347, to identify nearly all his characters with individual literary men. They are, of course, not individuals, but types, and types of university men. The most that can be said is that there may be something of Marston in Furor Poeticus, and a good deal of Nashe, with probably also a little of Greene, in Ingenioso, who ultimately takes flight, with Furor and Phantasma, to the Isle of Dogs (v. 3, 4):

Il Pastor Fido > 1601

S. R. 1601, Sept. 16 (Pasfield). ‘A booke called the faythfull Shepheard’. Waterson (Arber, iii. 192).

1602. Il Pastor Fido: Or The faithfull Shepheard. Translated out of Italian into English. For Simon Waterson. [Sonnets by S. Daniel and the Translator to Sir Edward Dymocke; Epistle to the same, dated 31 Dec. 1601, and signed ‘Simon Waterson’.]

1633. For John Waterson. [Epistle by John Waterson to Charles Dymock.]

1633. Augustine Matthewes for William Sheares. [Another issue.]

The preliminary matter of 1602 and 1633 is shown by Greg, Pastoral, 242, to point to a kinsman, but not the son, of Sir Edward Dymocke as the translator. He may be a John Dymmocke, to whom Archer’s play-list of 1656 (Greg, Masques, xcvi) assigns in error The Faithful Shepherdess. The translation is from G. Battista Guarini’s Il Pastor Fido (1590). For a Latin translation see App. L.

The Pedlar’s Prophecy > 1594

S. R. 1594, May 13. ‘A plea booke intituled the Pedlers Prophesie.’ Thomas Creede (Arber, ii. 649).

1595. The Pedlers Prophecie. Thomas Creede, sold by William Barley. [Prologue.]

Editions by J. S. Farmer (1911, T. F. T.) and W. W. Greg (1914, M. S. R.).

The analogies of title and date of publication to The Cobler’s Prophecy have led Fleay, ii. 283, and others to ascribe the authorship to Wilson. To me the play reads more like a belated piece of c. 1560–70.

Pericles c. 1607–8

See Shakespeare (ch. xxiii), except in relation to whose work the play can hardly be discussed.

Philotus > 1603

1603. Ane verie excellent and delectabill Treatise intitulit Philotus. Quhairin we may persaue the greit inconveniences that fallis out in the Mariage betwene age and zouth. Robert Charteris, Edinburgh. [At end are verses beginning ‘What if a day or a month or a zeere’, possibly Campion’s; cf. Bullen, Campion (1903), 270.]

1612. A verie excellent and delectable Comedie.... Andro Hart, Edinburgh.

Editions by J. Pinkerton (1792, Scottish Poems, iii) and for Bannatyne Club (1835).

This has been ascribed to Robert Sempill (1530?-95), but merely because his play before the Regent of Scotland on 17 June 1568 (Diary of Robert Birrel in Dalyell, Fragments of Scottish History, 14) is not otherwise known. R. Brotanek (1898, Festschrift zum viii allgemeinen deutschen Neuphilologentage in Wien; cf. Jahrbuch, xxxv. 302) suggests Alexander Montgomery.

The Puritan. 1606

S. R. 1607, Aug. 6 (Buck). ‘A book called the comedie of “the Puritan Widowe”.’ George Elde (Arber, iii. 358).

1607. The Puritaine Or The Widdow of Watling-streete. Acted by the Children of Paules. Written by W. S. G. Eld. [Running-title ‘The Puritaine Widdow’.]

1664; 1685. [Parts of F₃ and F₄ of Shakespeare.]

Editions in 1734 (J. Tonson), 1734 (R. Walker), by J. S. Farmer (1911, T. F. T.), and in Sh. Apocrypha.

The W. S. of the title-page was interpreted as William Shakespeare in Archer’s play-list of 1656 (Greg, Masques, c). The attribution is accepted by no modern critic, and guesses at Wentworth Smith and William Smith rest similarly on nothing but the initials. Internal evidence points to an author who was an Oxford man, and familiar with the plays of Shakespeare. Middleton is preferred by Fleay, ii. 92, Bullen (Middleton, i. lxxix), and others; Marston by Brooke, who dwells on a general resemblance to Eastward Hoe, and seems inclined to think that Jonson, whose Bartholomew Fair the play foreshadows, might also have contributed. The character George Pyeboard is clearly meant for Peele, and the play uses episodes which appear in The Merrie Conceited Jests of George Peele Gent. This, though the extant print is of 1607, was entered in S. R. on 14 Dec. 1605. The Paul’s plays seem to have terminated in 1606, and Fleay points out that an almanac allusion in III. vi. 289 is to Tuesday, 15 July, which fits 1606. The attack on the Puritan ministers was resented in W. Crashaw’s Paul’s Cross sermon of 13 Feb. 1608 (cf. App. C, no. lvi).

The Revenger’s Tragedy. 1606 < > 7

S. R. 1607, Oct. 7 (Buck). ‘Twoo plaies, thone called the revengers tragedie.’ George Eld (Arber, iii. 360).

1607. The Revengers Tragœdie. As it hath beene sundry times Acted, by the Kings Maiesties Seruants. G. Eld.

1608. G. Eld.

Editions in Dodsley^1–4 (1744–1876), and by W. Scott (1810, A. B. D. ii) and A. H. Thorndike (1912, M. E. D.).

The authorship is ascribed to ‘Tournour’ in Archer’s list of 1656 and to ‘Cyril Tourneur’ in Kirkman’s lists of 1661 and 1671 (Greg, Masques, cii). Fleay, ii. 264, is sceptical, thinking the work too good for the author of The Atheist’s Tragedy, and inclined to suggest Webster. Oliphant (M. P. viii. 427) thinks Tourneur impossible, in view of the difference of manner, and suggests, only to reject, Middleton. E. E. Stoll, John Webster, 107, 212, points out that both plays are much under the influence of Marston, and that the date may be fixed by the borrowing of the name and character of Dandolo from The Fawn (1606).

The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York > 1592

See The Contention of York and Lancaster.

1 Richard the Second c. 1592 < > 5

[MS.] Egerton MS. 1994. The play forms a separate section of this composite MS. It has no title-page and a few lines at the end are missing. The handwriting is of the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century.

Editions by J. O. Halliwell (1870) and W. Keller (1899, Jahrbuch, xxxv. 3.—Dissertations: F. I. Carpenter, Notes on the Anonymous Richard II (1899, Journ. Germ. Phil. iii. 138); F. S. Boas, A Seventeenth Century Theatrical Repertoire (Library for July 1917).

The play deals with an earlier part of the reign than that of Shakespeare’s Richard II. Keller concludes from a study of parallel passages that it was known to Shakespeare, and that the author knew Marlowe’s Edward II and 2 Henry VI. This gives a date of about 1592–5. Fleay, ii. 320, dates the play about 1591 and assigns it, for no apparent reason, to the Queen’s men. Boas accepts the date 1590–5 on internal evidence, but finds the names ‘George’ and ‘Toby’ in the stage-directions as players of servants’ parts, and supposes the MS. to belong to a seventeenth-century revival and to have been collected with others in Egerton MS. 1994 by the younger William Cartwright, who was one of a late King’s Revels company traceable during 1629–37 (Murray, i. 279). He identifies ‘George’, rather hazardously, with George Stutfield, who belonged to this company, and ‘Toby’ with an Edward Tobye, who is not known to have belonged to it, but is found in 1623 among the Children of the Revels to the late Queen Anne (Murray, i. 361; ii. 273). My difficulty about this is that the relation of 1 Rich. II to Shakespeare’s play is so close as to make it natural to regard it as having become a Chamberlain’s play, and therefore unlikely to get into the hands of either of these Revels companies. Any company might have a George. George Bryan, for example, is a possibility. Toby, no doubt, is a rarer name. Toby Mills died in 1585, but might have left a son or godson of his name.

The True Tragedy of Richard the Third > 1594

S. R. 1594, June 19. ‘An enterlude entituled, The Tragedie of Richard the Third wherein is showen the Death of Edward the FFourthe with the smotheringe of the twoo princes in the Tower, with a lamentable end of Shores wife, and the Coniunction of the twoo houses of Lancaster and Yorke.’ Thomas Creede (Arber, ii. 654).

1594. The True Tragedie of Richard the Third: Wherein is showne the death of Edward the fourth, with the smothering of the two yoong Princes in the Tower: With a lamentable ende of Shore’s wife, an example for all wicked women. And lastly the conjunction and ioyning of the two noble Houses, Lancaster and Yorke. As it was playd by the Queenes Maiesties Players. Thomas Creede, sold by William Barley. [Induction; Epilogue.]

Editions in Variorum (1821), xix. 251, and by B. Field (1844, Sh. Soc.) and W. C. Hazlitt (1875, Sh. Libr.).—Dissertation: G. B. Churchill, Richard the Third up to Shakespeare (1900, Palaestra, x).

Collier, Shakespeare, v. 342, put the play earlier than 1588 on the ground that the epilogue in praise of Elizabeth makes no mention of the Armada. But ‘She hath put proud Antichrist to flight’ may pass for such a mention. Fleay, 64, dates it about 1587: in ii. 28 he says ‘1586 or late in 1585’ as a ballad on the subject was entered on the Stationers’ Register on 15 Aug. 1586; in ii. 315 he prefers 1591, regarding the play as a continuation of The Contention between York and Lancaster. He considers a later date as excluded by the close of the court career of the Queen’s men in 1591. This, however, did not close until 1594, and the epilogue was not necessarily given at court. Churchill also thinks the play a continuation of the Contention, and finds influences, not very striking, of Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, Faustus, and Edward II. He concludes for 1590–1. There is very little trace of any use by Shakespeare of this play for his Richard III.

Boswell groundlessly took the author to be that of Locrine (q.v.). Fleay, ii. 315, tries to divide the scenes between Lodge and Peele, and suggests that they were re-writing Kyd.

Robin Hood > 1560

S. R. 1560, Oct. 30. ‘A newe playe called——.’ William Copland (Arber, i. 152).

N.D. A mery geste of Robyn Hoode and of hys lyfe, wyth a newe playe for to be played in Maye games very plesaunte and full of pastyme. [Colophon] Imprinted at London vpon the thre Crane wharfe by Wyllyam Copland.

N.D. For Edward White.

Editions in J. Ritson, Robin Hood (1795), ii. 199, F. J. Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, iii (1888) 114, 127, and Manly (1897), ii. 281.

The play, which deals with the episodes of Robin Hood and the Friar and Robin Hood and the Potter, is appended to a reprint of the narrative Geste, originally printed by Wynken de Worde. Manly assigns Copland’s edition to c. 1550, but Arber, v. 32, to ‘c. 1560, by the Printer’s address’, and Furnivall, Captain Cox, to c. 1561. Apparently Copland is not traceable at the Three Cranes before that year and had earlier addresses. If so, I think that his anonymous entry of 1560 in the Stationers’ Register may fairly be supposed to relate to Robin Hood.

Ruff, Cuff and Band c. 1615

[MS.] Add. MS. 23723.

S. R. 1615, Feb. 10 (Taverner). ‘A booke called a Diologue betwene Ruffe Cuffe and Band &c.’ Miles Patriche (Arber, iii. 563).

1615. A merrie Dialogue, Betwene Band, Cuffe, and Ruffe: Done by an excellent Wit, And Lately acted in a Shew in the famous Vniversitie of Cambridge. William Stansby for Miles Partrich.

1615. Exchange Ware at the second hand, Viz. Band, Ruffe and Cuffe, lately out, and now newly dearned vp. Or Dialogue, acted in a Shew in the famous Vniversitie of Cambridge. The second Edition. W. Stansby for Myles Partrich.

1661. [Title as in ed. 1.] For F. K.

Editions in Harleian Miscellany², x (1813), and by J. O. Halliwell (1849, Contributions to Early English Literature) and C. Hindley, Old Book Collector’s Miscellany, ii (1872).

The Second Maiden’s Tragedy. 1611

[MS.] B.M., Lansdowne MS. 807, f. 29, formerly penes John Warburton. [Greg distinguishes four contemporary hands: (a) a scribe or copyist of the original text and certain additions on inserted slips; (b) a corrector, probably the author; (c) the Master of the Revels, Buck; (d) a theatre official, who added stage-directions. The contributions of (b) and (c) are not wholly distinguishable, especially where mere deletions are in question, as the author may, besides literary corrections, have made others due to the hints, or known views, of Buck as censor. The presence of a second literary corrector is just possible. On the verso of the last leaf Buck has written: ‘This second Maydens tragedy (for it hath no name inscribed) may w^th the reformations bee acted publikely. 31 octob^r. 1611. G. Buc.’ In later hands are the title ‘The Second Maydens Tragedy’ at the beginning, and a note following Buck’s endorsed licence, which originally ran, ‘The Second Maydens Tragedy October 31^th 1611 By Thomas Goffe A Tragedy indeed’. Here Goffe’s name has been cancelled, and two successive correctors have substituted, firstly, ‘George Chapman’, and then ‘By Will Shakspear’. Warburton’s hand is not discernible, and the last correction was probably made after his time, as his list of manuscript plays (3 Library, ii. 232) includes ‘2^d. p^t. Maidens Trag̃. Geo. Chapman’.]

S. R. 1653, Sept. 9. ‘The Maid’s Tragedie, 2^d. part.’ H. Moseley (Eyre, i. 428).

Editions in 1824–5 (O. E. D. i), Chapman’s Works (1875, iii), and Dodsley⁴ (1875, x), and by W. W. Greg (1909, M. S. R.).—Dissertations: J. Phelan, Philip Massinger (1879, Anglia, ii. 47); A. S. W. Rosenbach, The Curious-Impertinent (1902, M. L. N. xvii. 179); W. Nicholson, The S. M. T. (1912, M. L. N. xxvii. 33).

The play may be assigned to the King’s men, in view of stage-directions to ll. 1724, 1928, which show that ‘M^r Goughe’ played Memphonius and ‘Rich Robinson’ the Lady. Perhaps this also explains the ascription of authorship to Thomas Goffe, which, like those to Chapman and Shakespeare, now finds no favour. Tieck, who translated the play in his Shakespeare’s Vorschule (1829, ii), argued for Massinger, whose lost Tyrant he took the play to be. No doubt the chief character is only entitled ‘Tyrant’ in the manuscript. But the Tyrant has a separate existence both in S. R. and in Warburton’s list. Fleay, ii. 331, thought that the title was originally meant to be The Usurping Tyrant, and that the play was by the author of The Revenger’s Tragedy, generally assigned to Tourneur. Rosenbach doubts Massinger, and thinks Tourneur’s hand traceable. Swinburne seems to have suggested Middleton.

Selimus. 1591 < > 94

1594. The First part of the Tragicall raigne of Selimus, sometime Emperour of the Turkes, and grandfather to him that now raigneth. Wherein is showne how hee most vnnaturally raised warres against his owne father Baiazet, and preuailing therein, in the end caused him to be poysoned: Also with the murthering of his two brethren, Corcut, and Acomat. As it was playd by the Queenes Maiesties Players. Thomas Creede. [Prologue and Conclusion.]

1638. The Tragedy of Selimus Emperour of the Turkes. Written T. G. For John Crooke and Richard Serger. [Re-issue of 1594 sheets with new t.p.]

Editions by A. B. Grosart (1898, T. D.) and W. Bang (1908, M. S. R.), and in collections of Greene (q.v.).—Dissertation: H. Gilbert, Robert Greene’s S. (1899, Kiel diss.); cf. s. Locrine.

The T. G. of the 1638 title-page is probably meant for Thomas Goffe, the author of contemporary plays on Turkish history. He, however, was only born in 1591. Six passages from the play are assigned to Greene in R[obert] A[llot’s] England’s Parnassus (1600). This is fairly strong evidence, and Greene’s authorship is supported by Grosart, Brooke (Sh. Apocrypha, xix), and Gilbert. Ward and Gayley (R. E. C. i. 420) take the opposite view. Crawford, who points out (E. P. xxxv, 407) that Allot is not impeccable, prefers Marlowe. Fleay, ii. 315, would divide the play between Greene and Lodge. The problem is bound up with that of the authorship of Locrine (q.v.), from which Selimus clearly borrows. It can therefore hardly be of earlier date than 1591. The Conclusion, or epilogue, promises a second part, of which nothing is known.

Soliman and Perseda c. 1589 < > 92

S. R. 1592, Nov. 20 (Bp. of London). ‘The tragedye of Salamon and Perceda.’ Edward White (Arber, ii. 622).

N.D. The Tragedye of Solyman and Perseda. Wherein is laide open, Loues constancy, Fortunes inconstancy, and Deaths Triumphs. Edward Allde for Edward White. [Induction.]

1599. E. Allde for E. White. [In some copies ‘newly corrected and amended’ is stamped on the t.p.]

[1815]. [A facs. reprint, with date 1599 and imprint Edward Allde for Edward White, of which two copies, C. 57. c. 15 and G. 18612, are in B.M.; cf. W. W. Greg in M. L. Q. iv. 188, and R. B. McKerrow, Bibl. Evid. 302. Some copies have ‘J. Smeeton, Printer, St. Martin’s Lane’ on the v^o. of the t.p.]

Editions by T. Hawkins (1773, O. E. D. ii), in Dodsley⁴, v (1874), and by F. S. Boas (1901, Works of Kyd) and J. S. Farmer (S. F. T.).—Dissertations: E. Sieper (1897, Z. f. vergleichende Litteraturgeschichte, N. F. x); G. Sarrazin, Die Verfasser von S. u. P. (1891, E. S. xv. 250); E. Koeppel, Beiträge zur Geschichte des elisabethanischen Dramas (1892, E. S. xvi. 357); J. E. Routh, T. Kyd’s Rime Schemes and the Authorship of S. P. and 1 Jeronimo (1905, M. L. N. xx. 49); K. Wiehl, Thomas Kyd und die Autorschaft von S. u. P. (1912, E. S. xliv. 343).

Fleay, ii. 26, Sarrazin, and Boas claim the play for Kyd, partly on grounds of style, partly because the plot is an elaboration of the ‘play within the play’ of The Spanish Tragedy (c. 1589), iv. 4; Wiehl doubts on metrical grounds. Schick (Archiv, xc) suggests Peele, who is said in the Merry Conceited Jests (Bullen, Peele, ii. 389) to have written, or pretended to have written, a play of The Knight of Rhodes, a title which would apply to Soliman and Perseda. Robertson, 109, 150, 166, thinks that Greene collaborated with Kyd.

Captain Thomas Stukeley. 1596

S. R. 1600, Aug. 11 (Vicars). ‘Ye history of the life and Deathe of Captaine Thomas Stucley, with his Mariage to Alexander Curtis his daughter, and his valiant endinge of his life at the battell of Alcazar.’ Thomas Pavier (Arber, iii. 169).

1605. The Famous Historye of the life and death of Captaine Thomas Stukeley. With his marriage to Alderman Curteis Daughter, and valiant ending of his life at the Battaile of Alcazar. As it hath beene Acted. For Thomas Pavier.

Editions by R. Simpson (1878, S. of S. i) and J. S. Farmer (1911, T. F. T.).—Dissertations: E. H. C. Oliphant (1905, 10 N. Q. iii. 301, 342, 382); J. Q. Adams, C. T. S. (1916, J. G. P. xv. 107).

‘Tom Stucley’ is named as a stage hero by Peele in his Farewell (1589); but the present play is probably the Stewtley produced by the Admiral’s on 11 Dec. 1596 (Greg, Henslowe, ii. 181). There are allusions to ‘the Theatre fields’ (611) and ‘her Majesty’ (752), which may only represent historic time. Although Sebastian of Portugal is a character, there is no reference to the legend of his survival, which was well known in England in 1598. Simpson regards the play as belonging to the Chamberlain’s, on the ground of certain political proclivities which he chose to ascribe to that company. The text is incoherent, and several theories representing it as a contamination of two distinct plays have been promulgated. Simpson supposed that part of a play on Don Antonio has been inserted into one dealing in five acts with Stukeley’s adventures in England, Ireland, Spain, Rome, and Africa respectively, and this view is elaborated by Oliphant, who attempts to disentangle several original and revising hands, including that of John Fletcher, to whom he assigns 245–335. Fleay, i. 127, thinks that Dekker made up the play for Paul’s, c. 1600, out of Stewtley and a Mahomet by Peele. Apparently he starts from Satiromastix, 980, where Horace says that Demetrius Fannius ‘cut an innocent Moore i’ the middle, to serue him in twice; & when he had done, made Poules-worke of it’. But surely there is a difference between making two plays out of one and making one play out of two.

1 Tamar Cham > 1592

[MS.] ‘The plott of The First parte of Tamar Cham.’ In the possession of Steevens, but now unknown.

The text is given by Steevens, Variorum (1803), iii. 414; Boswell, Variorum (1821), iii. 356; Greg, Henslowe Papers, 144.

The actors’ names point to a performance by the Admiral’s, near 2 Oct. 1602, when they bought the book from Alleyn (cf. ch. xiii). The play was produced as ‘n. e.’ by the same company on 6 May 1596, but probably Henslowe’s ‘n. e.’ in this case only indicates a substantial revision, as the letters are also attached to the notice of a performance of Part ii on 11 June 1596, and Part ii had already been played as ‘n. e.’ by Strange’s on 28 April 1592. Obviously a Part i must already have existed (Greg, Henslowe, ii. 155).

The Taming of A Shrew c. 1589

S. R. 1594, May 2. ‘A booke intituled A plesant Conceyted historie called “the Tayminge of a Shrowe”.’ Peter Short (Arber, ii. 648).

1594. A Pleasant Conceited Historie, called The taming of a Shrew. As it was sundry times acted by the Right honorable the Earle of Pembrook his seruants. Peter Short, sold by Cuthbert Burby. [Induction.]

1596. Peter Short, sold by Cuthbert Burby.

1607. V. S. for Nicholas Ling.

Editions by J. Nicholls (1779, Six Old Plays, i), T. Amyot (1844, Sh. Soc.), W. C. Hazlitt (1875, Sh. Libr. vi), E. W. Ashbee (1876, facs.), F. J. Furnivall (1886, Sh. Q), F. S. Boas (1908, Sh. Classics), and J. S. Farmer (S. F. T.).

The Admiral’s and Chamberlain’s revived ‘the tamynge of A shrowe’ for Henslowe on 11 June 1594, shortly after the entry in S. R. (Greg, Henslowe, ii. 164). Presumably it belonged to the Chamberlain’s, who had acquired it from Pembroke’s, and the 1594 performance may have been either of the original, or of Shakespeare’s revision, The Taming of The Shrew, for which 1594 is a plausible date. An early reference to the printed book is in Harington’s Metamorphosis of Ajax (1596), 95, ‘For the shrewd wife, read the book of Taming a Shrew, which hath made a number of us so perfect, that now every one can rule a shrew in our country, save he that hath her’. It is to be noted that, unlike Leire (q.v.) and King Lear, the two versions counted, from the copyright point of view, as one, so that the transfer of A Shrew to Smethwick made an entry of The Shrew in S. R. for the purposes of F₁ of Shakespeare unnecessary. Probably Pembroke’s in their turn got the play from the earlier Admiral’s or Strange’s. Its date has been placed in or before 1589, because certain lines of it appear to be parodied both in Greene’s Menaphon of that year, and in the prefatory epistle to Menaphon by Nashe. Some such date is confirmed by its direct imitations from Marlowe’s Tamburlaine (c. 1587) and to a less extent from Dr. Faustus (c. 1588), which are collected by Boas, 93. For author, Marlowe, Kyd, Greene, and Peele have all been suggested, but, so far as we know, Marlowe did not repeat himself, and the others did not plagiarize him, in this flagrant manner. Shakespeare also is still often credited with a hand in the old play, as well as in the revision, and the problem can best be discussed in connexion with Shakespeare. Sykes gives part to S. Rowley (q.v.).

The Thracian Wonder c. 1600

1661. Two New Playes: Viz. A Cure for a Cuckold: A Comedy. The Thracian Wonder: A Comical History. As it hath been several times Acted with great Applause. Written by John Webster and William Rowley. Tho. Johnson, sold by Francis Kirkman. [Separate t.p. The Thracian Wonder ... as above. Epistle to the Reader, signed ‘Francis Kirkman’.]

Editions by C. W. Dilke (1815, O. E. P. vi), and in collections of Webster (q.v.).—Dissertations: J. le G. Brereton, The Relation of T. W. to Greene’s Menaphon (1906, M. L. R. ii. 34); J. Q. Adams, Greene’s Menaphon and T. W. (1906, M. P. iii. 317); O. L. Hatcher, The Sources and Authorship of T. W. (1908, M. L. N. xxiii. 16).

The ascription of the title-page is rejected by Stoll, Webster, 34, and modern writers generally, although Stork, Rowley, 61, thinks that Rowley may have added comic touches. The use of Webster’s name may be due to the identity of the plot with that of William Webster’s Curan and Argentile (1617). But William Webster took it from Warner’s Albion’s England (1586), iv. xx. From the same source Greene took it, with a change of names, for Menaphon (1589), and it is Menaphon, with another change of names, that the play follows. Brereton ascribes it to Greene himself; Hatcher thinks that the direct plagiarisms from the source and the archaistic phrase ‘old Menaphon’ (iv. 2), whereas Greene’s hero is a youth, point to an early sixteenth-century admirer of Greene. Adams supports the suggestion of Fleay, i. 287, that this is the War Without Blows and Love Without Suit written by Heywood for the Admiral’s in 1598, but this is a mere guess based on Heywood’s title (Greg, Henslowe, ii. 199). Fleay then supposed that it was revised for Queen Anne’s about 1607; elsewhere (ii. 332) he supposes it a dramatization of Webster’s story for Prince Charles’s about 1617.

Timon c. 1581 < > 90 (?)

[MS.] Dyce MS. 52. [Epilogue. The MS. is a transcript in two hands.]

Editions by A. Dyce (1842, Sh. Soc.) and W. C. Hazlitt (1875, Sh. Libr. ii. 2).—Dissertation: J. Q. Adams, The Timon Plays (1910, J. G. P. ix. 506).

Greek quotations and other pedantries suggest an academic audience, but there is little indication of place or date, beyond parallels with Pedantius, which lead Moore Smith (M. L. R. iii. 143) to suggest Cambridge and c. 1581–90. Adams thinks that the piece may have been performed by London schoolboys, and known to Shakespeare.

Tom Tyler and his Wife > 1563

S. R. 1562–3. ‘These ballettes folowynge ... an other of Tom Tyler.’ Thomas Colwell (Arber, i. 210).

1661. Tom Tyler and His Wife. An Excellent Old Play, As It was Printed and Acted about a hundred Years ago. The second Impression. [Prologue and ‘concluding Song’. There is no imprint, but as most of the extant copies have a variant t.p. with the additional words ‘Together, with an exact Catalogue of all the playes that were ever yet printed’, and as Kirkman’s catalogue of 1661 is appended, he was doubtless the publisher.]

Editions by F. E. Schelling (1900, M. L. A. xv. 253), G. C. Moore Smith and W. W. Greg (1910, M. S. R.), and J. S. Farmer (1912, T. F. T.).

The S. R. entry may refer to a ballad based on the play, or may possibly be a loose description of the play itself. In any case there is no reason to doubt the existence of a print of about that date. The evidence of the 1661 title-page is confirmed by the entry of ‘Tom tyler’ in Archer’s play-list of 1656 (Greg, Masques, cxii). Chetwood, who cannot be relied on, gave the date as 1598, and an inaccurate reproduction of this seems to be responsible for the 1578 of other writers. The text of 1661 has been shown by C. P. G. Scott (in Schelling’s introduction) to be a rendering into seventeenth-century orthography of a play whose vocabulary may be put, with decreasing certainty, within the limits 1530–80, 1540–70, and 1550–60. The prologue says that the play is ‘set out by prettie boyes’, and the ‘concluding Song’ has a prayer for the preservation of the queen, ‘from perilous chance that hath been seen’. Fleay, ii. 295, somewhat arbitrarily thinks the Chapel ‘more likely’ to have presented it than Paul’s. A misinterpretation of Kirkman’s list of 1661 led E. Phillips, Theatrum Poetarum (1675), to assign the authorship to W. Wager (M. S. C. i. 325).

The Trial of Chivalry c. 1600

S. R. 1604, Dec. 4 (Pasfield). ‘A book called The life and Deathe of Cavaliero Dick Boyer.’ Nathaniel Butter (Arber, iii. 277).

1605. The History of the tryall of Cheualry, With the life and death of Caualiero Dicke Bowyer. As it hath bin lately acted by the right Honourable the Earle of Darby his seruants. Simon Stafford for Nathaniel Butter.

1605. This Gallant Caualiero Dicke Bowyer, Newly acted. [Another issue.]

Editions by A. H. Bullen (1884, O. E. P. iii) and J. S. Farmer (1912, T. F. T.).—Dissertation: C. R. Baskervill, Sidney’s Arcadia and the T. of C. (1912, M. P. x. 197).

Bullen thinks this may be Love Parts Friendship, written by Chettle and Smith for the Admiral’s in 1602; Fleay, ii. 318, that it may be the Burbon brought to the Admiral’s by Pembroke’s in 1597, as the Duke of Bourbon is a chief personage, and also the Cutting Dick to which Heywood wrote additions for Worcester’s in 1602 (Greg, Henslowe, ii. 187, 221, 231). There is, of course, no particular reason why a play by Derby’s should appear in Henslowe’s diary at all. They were in London in the winters of 1599–1600 and 1600–1. The only link between them and Henslowe is Heywood, if he was the author of their Edward IV (q.v.). Fleay, i. 289, thinks that the present play may be by the same hands. Probably the Earl of Derby himself wrote for the company.

The Trial of Treasure > 1567

1567. A new and mery Enterlude, called the Triall of Treasure, newly set foorth, and neuer before this tyme imprinted. Thomas Purfoot. [Arrangement for 5 actors; Prologue and Epilogue, headed ‘Praie for all estates’.]

Editions by J. O. Halliwell (1850, Percy Soc. xxviii), in Dodsley⁴, iii (1874), and by J. S. Farmer (1908, T. F. T.—Dissertation: W. W. Greg, The T. of T., 1567—A Study in Ghosts (1910, 3 Library, i. 28).

Greg shows that there was only one edition, not two, of 1567. The play is a non-controversial morality, and may very well date from about 1567.

1 Troilus and Cressida. 1599 (?)

[MS.] Add. MS. 10449. [A fragmentary ‘plot’ without title, probably from Dulwich.]

The text is given by Greg, Henslowe Papers, 142, who infers from the names of the characters that it may have been the Troilus and Cressida written by Chettle and Dekker for the Admiral’s in April 1599. The few names of actors are not inconsistent with this (cf. ch. xiii).

The Valiant Welshman. 1610 < > 15

S. R. 1615, Feb. 21 (Buck). ‘A play called the valiant welshman.’ Robert Lownes (Arber, iii. 564).

1615. The Valiant Welshman, Or The True Chronicle History of the life and valiant deedes of Caradoc the Great, King of Cambria, now called Wales. As it hath beene sundry times Acted by the Prince of Wales his seruants. Written by R. A. Gent. George Purslowe for Robert Lownes. [Epistle to the Reader; Induction; Epilogue.]

1663. For William Gilbertson.

Editions by V. Kreb (1902) and J. S. Farmer (1913, S. F. T.).

Borrowings from Ben Jonson’s Alchemist (1610) require a late date, and the assertion of Fleay, i. 26, that this is The Welshman revived by the Admiral’s on 29 Nov. 1595 may be disregarded (Greg, Henslowe, ii. 178). There is nothing, beyond the initials, to connect the play with Robert Armin, and Kreb would assign it to some young University man.

A Warning for Fair Women > 1599

S. R. 1599; Nov. 17. ‘A warnynge for fayre women.’ William Aspley (Arber, iii. 151).

1599. A warning for Faire Women. Containing, The most tragicall and lamentable murther of Master George Sanders of London Marchant, nigh Shooters hill. Consented vnto By his owne wife, acted by M. Browne, Mistris Drewry and Trusty Roger agents therin: with their seuerall ends. As it hath beene lately diuerse times acted by the right Honorable, the Lord Chamberlaine his Seruantes. Valentine Sims for William Aspley. [Induction.]

Editions by R. Simpson (1878, S. of S. ii) and J. S. Farmer (S. F. T.).

References to ‘this fair circuit’ and ‘this Round’ are inconclusive as to whether the play was produced before the Chamberlain’s went to the Globe in 1599, as their earlier houses were probably also round. E. Phillips, Theatrum Poetarum (1675), 113, and A. Wood, Athenae (1691), i. 676, assign the authorship, incredibly, to Lyly. Fleay, ii. 54, conjectures Lodge; Bullen, O. E. P. iv. 1, Yarington.

The Wars of Cyrus King of Persia > 1594

1594. The Warres of Cyrus King of Persia, against Antiochus King of Assyria, with the Tragicall ende of Panthæa. Played by the children of her Maiesties Chappell. E. A. for William Blackwal.

Editions by W. Keller (1901, Jahrbuch, xxxvii. 1) and J. S. Farmer (1911, T. F. T.).

The play, clearly influenced by Tamburlaine, may rest on one by Farrant (q.v.) c. 1578. There is no record of any court performance by the Chapel between 1584 and 1601. Fleay, ii. 322, guesses that an allusion in Nashe’s Summer’s Last Will and Testament (q.v.) points to a performance of this play at Croydon twelve months earlier. The text is disordered. A prologue ‘To the audience’ is inserted in Act II at 621 and refers to a chorus, but there is none. At 367 is ‘Finis Actus primi’, but ‘Actus Secundus’ is at 502.

The Weakest Goeth to the Wall > 1600

S. R. 1600, Oct. 23 (Pasfield). ‘A booke called, the Weakest goethe to the Walles.’ Richard Oliff (Arber, iii. 175).

1600. The Weakest goeth to the Wall. As it hath bene sundry times plaide by the right honourable Earle of Oxenford, Lord great Chamberlaine of England his seruants. Thomas Creede for Richard Oliue. [Dumb Show and Prologue.]

1618. G. P. for Richard Hawkins.

Editions by J. S. Farmer (1911, T. F. T.), W. W. Greg (1912, M. S. R.), and with Works of Webster (q.v.).

The ascription of the play to Dekker and Webster by E. Phillips, Theatrum Poetarum (1675), 116, was rejected by Langbaine (1691) and, so far as Webster is concerned, has nothing to recommend it (E. Stoll, Webster, 34). Ward, iii. 56, finds Dekker’s humour, and Hunt, Dekker, 42, thinks it Chettle’s, revised by Dekker. Fleay, ii. 114, gives it to Munday, as the only known writer for Oxford’s, except Oxford himself. But he is thinking of Oxford’s boy company of 1580–4, not of the later company of 1601 or earlier, to whose repertory the play probably belonged, and with whom Munday is not known to have had anything to do.

Wily Beguiled. 1596 < > 1606

S. R. 1606, Nov. 12 (Hartwell). ‘A booke called Wylie beguilde &c.’ Clement Knight (Arber, iii. 333).

1606. A Pleasant Comedie, Called Wily Beguilde. The Chiefe Actors be these: A poore Scholler, a rich Foole, and a Knaue at a shifte. H. L. for Clement Knight. [Induction, Prologue, and Epilogue.]

N.D.; 1623; 1630; 1635; 1638.

Editions by T. Hawkins (1773, O. E. D. iii), in Dodsley⁴, ix (1874), and by J. S. Farmer (1912, T. F. T.) and W. W. Greg (1912, M. S. R.).—Dissertations: J. W. Hales, Shakespearian Imitations (1875, Ath. 1875, 17 July, 4 Sept.); F. J. Furnivall, Parallels (1875, 5 N. Q. iv. 144); P. A. Daniel, On W. B. (1875, Brooke’s Romeus and Juliet, xxxv, N. S. S.); E. Landsberg, Zur Verfasserfrage des anonymen Lustspiels W. B. (1911, E. S. xliii. 189).

The register of Merton College, Oxford, has for 3 Jan. 1567 the entry, ‘Acta est Wylie Beguylie Comoedia Anglica nocte in aedibus Custodis per scolares, praesentibus Vicecustode, magistris, baccalaureis, cum omnibus domesticis et nonnullis extraneis; merito laudandi recte agendo prae se tulerunt summam spem’ (Boas, 157). No connexion is traceable between this and the extant play, which Greg and Boas regard as of Cambridge origin. But it does not seem to me markedly academic. The character Lelia does not particularly suggest the Cambridge Latin Laelia of 1595, and the epilogue was spoken in a ‘circled rounde’. The description of himself by Churms (l. 68), as ‘at Cambridge a scholler, at Cales a souldier, and now in the country a lawyer, and the next degree shal be a connicatcher’, does not go far in the way of proof. This same passage fixes the date as not earlier than the Cadiz expedition of 1596; obviously the use of the phrase ‘tricke of Wily Beguily’ in Nashe’s Have With You to Saffron Walden of 1596 (Works, iii. 107) proves nothing one way or other as to date, although Dekker naturally knew the play when he described rogues and their ‘knavish comedy of Wily-Beguily’ in his Belman of London of 1608 (Works, iii. 125). If the date is 1596, the authorship of Peele, suggested by the description of the prologue-speaker as ‘humorous George’, although he is clearly distinct from the ‘fiery Poet’, and urged by Fleay, ii. 158, and Landsberg, becomes just possible, chronologically, before his death in November of that year. But the Shakespearian imitations, although most marked of M. V. and earlier plays, seem also to extend to Hamlet, M. W., and T. N., and the right date may be c. 1602–6. If the production was in the ‘circled rounde’ of Paul’s, the quasi-academic note is explicable. Sykes suggests S. Rowley (q.v.) as part author. Fleay, Shakespeare Manual, 272, makes an amazing attempt to interpret the play as a satire on Lyly, Lodge, Marston, Chettle, Dekker, Drayton, Middleton, Chapman, Jonson, Henslowe, the Admiral’s, the Chamberlain’s, the Chapel, and Paul’s. In the Induction, a juggler finds the title Spectrum exhibited, and later, ‘Spectrum is conueied away: and Wily beguiled, stands in the place of it’ (l. 46).

The Wisdom of Doctor Dodipoll. 1599 < > 1600

S. R. 1600, Oct. 7. ‘A booke called The Wisdom of Doctor Dodepole Plaied by the Children of Paules.’ Richard Oliff (Arber, iii. 174).

1600. The Wisdome of Doctor Dodypoll. As it hath bene sundrie times Acted by the Children of Powles. Thomas Creede for Richard Oliue.

Editions by A. H. Bullen (1884, O. E. P. iii) and J. S. Farmer (1912, T. F. T.).—Dissertation: E. Koeppel, Sh.’s J. C. und die Entstehungszeit des anonymen Dramas The W. of D. D. (1907, Jahrbuch, xliii. 210).

Fleay, ii. 155, assigned the play to Peele, chiefly on the ground that a snatch of song is from his Hunting of Cupid (q.v.). But Peele died in 1596, and Koeppel points out that the phrase (Bullen, p. 129), ‘Then reason’s fled to animals, I see’, presupposes the existence of Julius Caesar (1599), III. ii. 109:

The Wit of a Woman > 1604

1604. A Pleasant Comoedie, Wherein is merily shewen: The wit of a Woman. For Edward White. [Prologue and Epilogue.]

Editions by J. S. Farmer (1912, T. F. T.) and W. W. Greg (1913, M. S. R.).

Nothing is known of the history of this prose comedy with Italian names. ‘Sweet and twenty’ (l. 753) recalls Tw. N. II. iii. 52.

Work for Cutlers c. 1615

S. R. 1615, July 4 (Taverner). ‘A little thing called Worke for Cutlers.’ Richard Meighen (Arber, iii. 569).

1615. Worke for Cutlers. Or, a merry Dialogue betweene Sword, Rapier, and Dagger. Acted in a Show in the famous universitie of Cambridge. Thomas Creede for Richard Meighen and Thomas Jones. [Epilogue.]

Editions by T. Park (1813, Harleian Miscellany², x), C. Hindley (1872, Old Book Collector’s Miscellany, ii), A. F. Sieveking (1904).

This short dialogue is described in the epilogue as ‘a Schollers Prize’. Sieveking suggests the possibility of Heywood’s authorship, but an academic author is more likely.

A Yorkshire Tragedy c. 1606

S. R. 1608, May 2 (Wilson). ‘A booke Called A Yorkshire Tragedy written by Wylliam Shakespere.’ Thomas Pavier (Arber, iii. 377).

1608. A Yorkshire Tragedy. Not so New as Lamentable and true. Acted by his Maiesties Players at the Globe. Written by W. Shakspeare. R. B. for Thomas Pauier. [Head-title: ‘All’s One, or, One of the foure plaies in one, called A Yorkshire Tragedy.’]

1619. Omits ‘Acted ... Globe’. For T. P. [See ch. xxiii.]

Editions of 1735 (J. Tonson), by W. Knight (1843, Pictorial Sh. vii), J. P. Collier (1878, Works of Sh.), J. S. Farmer (1910, T. F. T.), and in Sh. Apocrypha.—Dissertations: J. P. Collier (Ath. 1863, i. 332); P. A. Daniel, Notes on Sh.’s Y. T. 1608 (Ath. 4 Oct. 1879); S. Lee, Walter Calverley (D. N. B.); B. Dobell, The Author of A Y. T. (1906, 10 N. Q. vi. 41); H. D. Sykes, The Authorship of A Y. T. (1917, J. G. P. xvi. 437, reprinted in Sidelights on Shakespeare, 77).

This ten-scene play from a four-play bill has merit, but most modern critics are unable to regard that merit as of Shakespearian type, although Ward, ii. 231, finds Shakespeare’s hand in some passages, and Fleay, after wantonly guessing at Edmund Shakespeare (Shakespeare, 303), remained impressed (ii. 206) by the external evidence, and thought that the play must be Shakespeare’s original ending to an earlier version of The Miseries of Enforced Marriage, subsequently altered by his collaborator, George Wilkins (q.v.), to end happily. This is ingenious, but too conjectural. The play, like that of Wilkins, takes its material from the history of Walter Calverley, executed for murder on 5 Aug. 1605, which is told in Stowe’s Annales and was the subject of contemporary pamphlets. Dobell and Sykes argue a case on internal evidence for the authorship of Wilkins himself.

B. MASKS

Gesta Grayorum. 1594

[MS.] Harl. MS. 541, f. 138, contains the speeches in the Shrovetide mask, probably in the hand of Francis Davison. The opening hymn is not included, and the final hymn seems to have been added by another hand.

1688. Gesta Grayorum: or, the History Of the High and mighty Prince Henry Prince of Purpoole, Arch-Duke of Stapulia and Bernardia, Duke of High and Nether Holborn, Marquis of St. Giles and Tottenham, Count Palatine of Bloomsbury and Clerkenwell, Great Lord of the Cantons of Islington, Kentish-Town, Paddington and Knights-bridge, Knight of the most Heroical Order of the Helmet, and Sovereign of the Same. Who Reigned and Died, A.D. 1594. Together with A Masque, as it was presented (by His Highness’s Command) for the Entertainment of Q. Elizabeth; who, with the Nobles of both Courts, was present thereat. For W. Canning. [Epistle to Matthew Smyth, of the Inner Temple, signed ‘W. C.’ The publication is recorded in Trinity Term 1688 (Arber, London Term Catalogues, ii. 230).]

Editions in Nichols, Elizabeth^{1, 2}, iii. 262 (1807–23), and by W. W. Greg (1914, M. S. R.) and B. Brown (1921).

This is a narrative of the reign of a Christmas Prince, or Lord of Misrule (cf. Mediaeval Stage, i. 417), appointed at Gray’s Inn for the Christmas of 1594. The Prince was a Norfolk man, Henry Helmes, and a list of the members of the Inn who held positions at his court is given in the tract. The revels began on St. Thomas’s Eve, 20 Dec., continued until Twelfth Night, were resumed at Candlemas, and again at Shrovetide, when the Prince’s reign terminated.

On Innocents’ Day, 28 Dec., at night, the Inner Temple were entertained, and a stage set up, but the crowd was too great for the ‘inventions’ contemplated, and ‘it was thought good not to offer any thing of account, saving dancing and revelling with gentlewomen; and after such sports, a Comedy of Errors (like to Plautus his Menechmus) was played by the players. So that night was begun, and continued to the end, in nothing but confusion and errors; whereupon, it was ever afterwards called, The Night of Errors’. On 30 Dec. an indictment was preferred against a supposed sorcerer, containing a charge ‘that he had foisted a company of base and common fellows, to make up our disorders with a play of errors and confusions; and that that night had gained to us discredit, and itself a nickname of Errors’. Presumably the players of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors were the Chamberlain’s men, and the Treasurer of the Chamber’s record (App. B) of a play at court by these men, as well as the Admiral’s, on 28 Dec. is a slip for 27 Dec. (M. L. R. ii. 10).

On 3 Jan. many nobles were entertained with a show illustrating the amity of Graius and Templarius. It was followed by speeches from six ‘Councellors’, advising respectively ‘the Exercise of War’, ‘the Study of Philosophy’, ‘Eternizement and Fame, by Buildings and Foundations’, ‘Absoluteness of State and Treasure’, ‘Vertue, and a Gracious Government’, and ‘Pass-times and Sports’. These are ascribed by Spedding, i. 342, to Francis Bacon (q.v.), a view which finds some confirmation in the fact that the Alnwick MS., many of the contents of which are by Bacon, once contained a copy of some ‘Orations at Graies Inne Revells’ (Burgoyne, xii). It is amusing to note that on 5 Dec. 1594 Lady Bacon, his mother, wrote to his brother Anthony, ‘I trust they will not mum nor mask nor sinfully revel at Gray’s Inn’ (Spedding, i. 326). The speeches of three of the ‘Councellors’, with one by the Prince, are also preserved, without ascription, in Inner Temple Petyt MS. 583, 43, f. 294.

On 6 Jan. appeared six Knights of the Helmet ‘in a very stately mask, and danced a new devised measure; and after that they took to them ladies and gentlewomen, and danced with them their galliards, and so departed with musick’.

On 1 Feb. the Prince visited Greenwich, and promised to return at Shrovetide. On his way back, he was met with a Latin oration by a boy at St. Paul’s School.

At Shrovetide, the Prince took his mask to the court at Whitehall. The maskers were the Prince of Purpoole and his Seven Knights; the torchbearers eight Pigmies; the presenters Proteus, Thamesis, Amphitrite, and one of the Prince’s Esquires; the musicians two Tritons, two Nymphs, and a Tartarian Page.

The performance was upon a stage. After a hymn, the presenters made speeches setting out how the Prince and Knights were in an Adamantine Rock, to be released by Proteus, on the discovery of a Power (the Queen) of more attractive virtue. The maskers issued from the Rock, and danced ‘a new devised measure, &c.’; then took ladies, and danced ‘their galliards, courants, &c.’; then danced ‘another new measure’. The Pigmies brought in eight escutcheons, with the maskers’ impresses, which the Esquire presented to the Queen. The maskers then entered the rock, while another hymn was sung.

The maskers were Henry Helmes (Prince), William Cooke, Jarvis Tevery, John Lambert, Molineux, Grimes, Paylor, and Campnies.

After the mask, the courtiers danced a measure, and Elizabeth said, ‘What! shall we have bread and cheese after a banquet?’

The maskers were presented to the Queen ‘on the next day’ and praised by her. The narrative goes on to record that ‘the same night’ was fighting at barriers, in which the Prince took part as a defendant with the Earl of Cumberland against the Earl of Essex and other challengers, and won the prize; and concludes, ‘Thus on Shrove-Tuesday, at the Court, were our sports and revels ended’. The dating is not quite clear, but it seems probable that the mask and barriers were both on the Tuesday, and the presentation on Ash Wednesday, presumably as the Queen went to chapel. Conceivably, however, the mask was on Monday, and the presentation and barriers on Tuesday. The Gray’s Inn records (Fletcher, 107) note a disbursement on 11 Feb. 1595 to William Johnson and Edward Morrys, who served as the Prince’s Lord Chancellor and Lord Treasurer, of 100 marks for ‘the gentlemen for their sports & shewes this Shrovetyde at the court before the Queens Majestie’. There was also a levy on 8 May for the ‘shewes & desports’ of sums varying from 4s. to 10s. according to status, while the public stock of the house was to contribute £30.

The speeches in the mask were apparently by Francis Davison, one of the Prince’s Gentlemen Pensioners, who included in his Poetical Rapsody (1602), sign. D 3 v^o, amongst Sonnets, &c., ‘To his first Loue’, one ‘Vpon presenting her with the speech of Grayes-Inne Maske at the Court 1594, consisting of three partes, The Story of Proteus Transformations, the wonders of the Adamantine Rocke, and a speech to her Maiestie’. The Poetical Rapsody, sign. K 8, also contains the opening hymn of the mask, which begins ‘Of Neptune’s Empyre let us sing’, and ascribes it to Thomas Campion (q.v.). Whether ‘The Song at the ending’, which according to Dr. Greg has been inserted in Harl. MS. 541 by a later hand, is also Campion’s must remain doubtful. The MS. as originally written is just such a present as Davison may have sent to his mistress. A list of ‘Papers lent’ by Davison in Harl. MS. 298 includes ‘Grayes In Sportes under S^r Henry Helmes. Eleaz. Hogdson’.

The Twelve Months. 1608–12

[MS.] Formerly penes Collier, but not now among his papers in Egerton MS. 2623.

Editions by J. P. Collier, Five Court Masques (1848), 131, with title ‘The Masque of the Twelve Months’.

The maskers are the twelve Months; the antimaskers Pages; the presenters Madge Howlet, Pigwiggen a Fairy, Beauty, Aglaia, the Pulses, Prognostication, and Somnus; the musicians the twelve Spheres.

The locality is not given, but the presence of a king is contemplated. The text is disordered, but can easily be reconstructed, as follows: Madge Howlet, ‘going up towards the King’, and Pigwiggen speak the opening dialogue (Collier, 137). The Spheres sing the first song calling Beauty from her fort, the Heart (140). This is the scene; on it are plumes, ‘the ensignes of the darling of the yeare, delicious Aprill’. Beauty, Aglaia, and the Pulses, ‘beating before them up towardes the King’, speak a dialogue (131). The Pages dance an ‘antemasque’ (133). Beauty and Aglaia speak a dialogue (134). The maskers appear, and are presented by Beauty (134). The second ‘antemasque’ is danced (134). Beauty and Aglaia speak a dialogue (134). Prognostication enters, and prognosticates (135). The maskers descend, and Beauty describes April, a prince ‘lov’d of all, yett will not love’, with a ‘triple plume’ (135). After a second song, ‘they dance their entrie’ (141). Beauty and Aglaia speak a dialogue (136). There is a third song (141). ‘They dance their mayne dance: which done, Bewty invites them to dance with the Ladies’ (137). There is a fourth song (142). ‘They dance with the Ladies, and the whole Revells follows’ (137). Beauty calls on Somnus (140). There is a last song (142). ‘They dance their going off’ (140).

Brotanek, 346, suggests 1 Jan. 1612 as a probable date. I agree with him that ‘charming all warre from his mild monarchie’ (136) suggests James I, although I do not think that ‘our fairy King’ (137) is necessarily a reminiscence of the Mask of Oberon, especially as this fairy king is James and not Henry. In any case ‘the heart of the yeare’ (132), ‘prime of this newe yeare’ (135), ‘this winter nighte’ (141) do not require a performance on 1 Jan. In fact, April and not January leads the months in the mask. I would add to Brotanek’s notes that April is clearly danced by a Prince of Wales, and that ‘lov’d of all, yett will not love’ fits in with the uncertainty as to Henry’s matrimonial intentions which prevailed in 1612. But he is not very likely to have given two masks in the winter of 1611–12, nor is there any evidence of any mask that winter except the Love Restored of 6 Jan. Of course The Twelve Months may never have been actually performed. I have thought that it might have been the mask abandoned by Anne on account of the death of the Queen of Spain in Dec. 1611 (cf. Jonson, Love Restored). Beauty, ‘our fairy Queene’, is said to be ‘Great president of all those princely revells’ in honour of the ‘fairy King’. But the mask is danced by men, not women, which seems to put a Queen’s mask out of the question. No mask has yet been traced in the winter of 1609–10. I am afraid I must leave the date open. If Henry led the dance, his death in Nov. 1612 gives one limit. The ‘antemasque’ is more likely to have been introduced after than before 1608. The use of Pigwiggen as a fairy name recurs in Drayton’s Nymphidia, published in 1627.

Mask of Flowers. 6 Jan. 1614

S. R. 1614, Jan. 21 (Nidd). ‘The maske of flowers by the gent. of Graies Inne vppon Twelfe Night 1613.’ Robert Wilson (Arber, iii. 540).

1614. The Maske of Flowers. Presented By the Gentlemen of Graies-Inne, at the Court of Whitehall, in the Banquetting House, vpon Twelfe night, 1613. Being the last of the Solemnities and Magnificences which were performed at the marriage of the right honourable the Earle of Somerset, and the Lady Francis daughter of the Earle of Suffolke, Lord Chamberlaine. N. O. for Robert Wilson. [With Epistle to Sir Francis Bacon by I. G., W. D., T. B. These initials, presumably of Gray’s Inn men, have not been identified.]

Editions in Nichols, James (1828), ii. 735, and H. A. Evans, English Masques (1897).

The maskers, in white embroidered with carnation and silver and vizards, were thirteen transformed Flowers; the antimaskers in ‘the anticke-maske of daunce’ Pantaloon, Courtesan, Swiss and his Wife, Usurer, Midwife, Smug and his Wench, Fretelyne, Bawd, Roaring Boy, Citizen, Mountebank, Jewess of Portugal, Chimney-Sweeper and his Wench; the musicians twelve Garden Gods, also described as Priests, and in the ‘anticke-maske of the song’ Miller, Wine Cooper, Vintner’s Boy, Brewer, Skipper, Fencer, Pedlar, Barber; the presenters Invierno, Primavera, Gallus the Sun’s Post, Silenus, Kawasha, and attendants.

The locality was the Banqueting House, at the lower end of which was a ‘travers painted in perspective’, as a city wall and gate, with temples of Silenus and Kawasha on either side. The antimasks represented a challenge, directed by the Sun, between wine and tobacco. ‘The travers being drawne’ disclosed an elaborate garden sloping up to a mount and arbour (33 ft. long × 21 ft. high) with a bank of flowers before it. Upon a charm the flowers vanished to give place to the maskers, who danced their first and second measure, then took ladies, for ‘measures, corantoes, durettoes, morascoes, galliards’, and then ‘daunced their parting measure’, which was followed by compliments to the king and the bride and groom.

For general notices of the Somerset wedding masks, cf. s.v. Campion, Mask of Squires. On 23 Dec. Chamberlain wrote to Carleton (Birch, i. 282), ‘Sir Francis Bacon prepares a masque to honour this marriage, which will stand him in above £2000; and though he have been offered some help by the House, and specially by Mr. Solicitor, Sir Henry Yelverton, who would have sent him £500, yet he would not accept it, but offers them the whole charge with the honour. Marry, his obligations are such, as well to his majesty as to the great lord and to the whole house of Howards, as he can admit no partner’. On 5 Jan. (Birch, i. 288) he briefly notes, ‘Mr. Attorney’s masque is for to-morrow, and for a conclusion of Christmas and these shows together’.

The records of Gray’s Inn confirm Chamberlain’s account, by giving no signs that any expense fell on the Inn. On a letter by Bacon which may refer to this occasion, cf. s.v. Bacon.

Osborne, James, 82, a not very accurate writer, speaks of a Gray’s Inn mask at court, following an Anglo-Scottish quarrel between Mr. Hawley of Gray’s Inn and Mr. Maxwell. Probably he has this mask, which was to honour a Scot, in mind. The quarrel was in fact over in June 1612 (Birch, i. 173). I doubt whether either this mask or the joint Gray’s Inn and Inner Temple mask of 1612–13 had anything to do with it.

C. RECEPTIONS AND ENTERTAINMENTS

Coronation Triumph. 1559

S. R. 1558–9. ‘The passage of the quenes maiesties Throwoute the Cytie of London.’ Richard Tottle (Arber, i. 96).

1558[9], Jan. 23. The Passage of our most drad Soueraigne Lady Quene Elyzabeth through the citie of London to westminster the daye before her coronacion. Richard Tottill. Cum privilegio.

N.D. [1604.] The Royal Passage of her Majesty from the Tower of London to her Palace of Whitehall, with all the Speaches and Devices, both of the Pageants and otherwise, together with her Majesties severall Answers, and most pleasing Speaches to them all. S. S. for Jone Millington.

N.D. [1604.] S. S. for John Busby. [Another issue.]

Editions in Nichols, Eliz. i. 38 (1823), and A. F. Pollard, Tudor Tracts (England’s Garner²), 365.

There are also accounts in Machyn, 186, and in Holinshed (1808), iv. 158. For a list of the pageants cf. ch. iv.

Bristol Entertainment. August 1574

1575. The whole Order howe our Soveraigne Ladye Queene Elizabeth was receyved into the Citie of Bristowe, in August, and the Speeches spoken before her presens at her Entry; with the residue of Versis and Matter that might not be spoken (for distance of the place), but sent in a Book over the Waetter. Thomas Marshe. [In ‘The Firste Parte of Churchyardes Chippes, contayning Twelve seueral Labours. Devised and published, only by Thomas Churchyard, Gentilman’. Epistle to Christopher Hatton.]

1578. Thomas Marsh.

Editions in Nichols, Eliz. i. 393 (1788, 1823), and by J. P. Collier (1867).

Probably Churchyard was the deviser of the entertainment, as he calls the Chippes ‘a book of all my English verses in meter’. He says, ‘Some of these Speeches could not be spoken, by means of a Scholemaister, who envied that any stranger should set forth these Shows’. A worthie Dittie, song before the Queens Majestie at Bristow, by D. S[and], not in the Entertainment, is in The Paradise of Daynty Devises (1576). Elizabeth was at Bristol 13–21 Aug. 1574 and lay at John Young’s. Fame, a boy with a speech in English verse, met her at the High Cross. At the next gate were Salutation, Gratulation, and Obedient Good Will, with their verses. On 14 Aug. the Queen attended divine service at the College. On 15 and 16 Aug. the Forts of Peace and Feeble Policy were arrayed, and there were sham fights by land and sea, with speeches by Dissuasion, Persuasion, and John Roberts, who apparently wrote his own. Was he the envious schoolmaster?

Kenilworth Entertainment. 1575

There are two descriptions:

A. By Gascoigne

1576. The Princelye pleasures, at the Courte at Kenelwoorth. That is to saye, The Copies of all such verses Proses, or Poeticall inuentions, and other Deuices of pleasure, as were there deuised, and presented by sundry Gentle men, before the Quenes Maiestie: In the yeare 1575. Richard Jones. [The unique copy is believed to have been burnt in the Shakespeare Library at Birmingham. The printer’s Epistle is dated March 26, 1576.]

1587. [Part of Collection.]

Editions in Nichols, Eliz.² i. 486 (1823), and elsewhere (cf. Schelling, 121).

B. By Robert Laneham

1575. A letter: Whearin part of the entertainment untoo the Queez Majesty at Killingwoorth Castl, in Warwick Sheer in this Soomerz Progress, 1575, is signified: from a freend officer attendant in the Coourt untoo hiz freend a Citizen, and Merchaunt of London. [No imprint or colophon.]

Editions in Nichols, Eliz.² i. 420 (1823), by F. J. Furnivall, Captain Cox, his Ballads and Books (1871, Ballad Soc.; 1890, N. S. S.), in Sh.-Jahrbuch, xxvii, 251 (1892), and elsewhere (cf. Furnivall, ix, clxxvi).

Elizabeth was at Kenilworth 9–27 July 1575. The diary of entertainments is given in ch. iv. The contributions of specific authors were as follows:

9 July. Speeches of Sibylla, by William Hunnis; the Porter Hercules, by John Badger; the Lady of the Lake, by George Ferrers; a Poet, in Latin, by Richard Mulcaster, or Mercury (?) Paten. It is uncertain which was used; Gascoigne prints Mulcaster’s, Laneham Paten’s.

11 July. Dialogue of a Savage Man and Echo, ‘devised, penned, and pronounced’ by Gascoigne.

18 July. Device of the Delivery of the Lady of the Lake, by William Hunnis, with verses by Hunnis, Ferrers, and Henry Goldingham, who played Arion.

20 July. Device of Zabeta prepared by Gascoigne, but not shown.

27 July. Device of the Farewell of Silvanus, by Gascoigne.

Woodstock Entertainment. 1575

See ch. xxiii, s.v. Sir Henry Lee.

Suffolk and Norfolk Entertainments. August 1578

There are two contemporary descriptions:

A

S. R. 1578, Aug. 30. ‘The ioyfull Receavinge of the Quenes maiestie into Norwyche.’ Henry Bynneman (Arber, ii. 336).

N.D. The Ioyfull Receyuing of the Queenes most excellent Maiestie into her Highnesse Citie of Norwich: The things done in the time of hir abode there: and the dolor of the Citie at hir departure. Wherein are set down diuers Orations in Latine, pronounced to hir Highnesse by Sir Robert Wood Knight, now Maior of the same Citie, and others: and certain also deliuered to hir Maiestie in writing: euery of the turned into English. Henrie Bynneman. [Epistle by Ber[nard] Gar[ter] to Sir Owen Hopton.]

Edition in Nichols, Eliz. (1823), ii. 136.

B

S. R. 1578, Sept. 20. ‘The enterteignement of the Quenes Maiestie in Suffolk and Norffolk; gathered by Thomas Churchyard.’ Henry Bynneman (Arber, ii. 338).

N.D. A Discourse of the Queenes Maiesties entertainement in Suffolk and Norffolk: With a description of many things then presently seene. Deuised by Thomas Churchyarde, Gent. with diuers shewes of his own inuention sette out at Norwich: ... Henrie Bynneman. [Epistle by Churchyard to Gilbert Garrard. Adnitt (cf. s.v. Churchyard) says there were two issues with varying prefatory matter.]

Extracts in Nichols, Eliz. (1823), ii. 115, 128, 130, 133, 179.

A ballad and a sonnet, presumably from their titles based on A, were registered by J. Charlwood and R. Jones respectively on 24 and 31 March 1579 (Arber, ii. 349, 350).

Elizabeth was at Norwich 16–22 Aug. 1578. The diary is as follows:

16 Aug. 1578. Oration by Mayor at Hartford Bridge; Speech, prepared but prevented by rain, of King Gurgunt in Town Close near Blanch Flower Castle; Pageant of the Commonwealth, with representations of local loom industries, and speech by Garter in St. Stephen’s Street; Pageant of the City of Norwich, Deborah, Judith, Esther, and Queen Martia, with the City Waits and songs by Garter and Churchyard, at entry to Market-place; Speech of a Turkish Boy by Churchyard, at Mr. Peck’s door.

18 Aug. Speech of Mercury in an elaborate coach, by Churchyard.

19 Aug. Show of Chastity, with dialogue and song of Chastity, Cupid, a Philosopher, Wantonness, Riot, Modesty, Temperance, Good Exercise, and Shamefastness, by Churchyard; Oration by Minister of Dutch Church.

20 Aug. Oration by Stephen Limbert, Master of the Grammar School.

21 Aug. Shows of Water Nymphs, with speeches, and of Manhood and Desert, a contention of Manhood, Good Favour, Desert, and Good Fortune, for Lady Beauty, prepared but prevented by rain, both by Churchyard; Mask by Henry Goldingham in Privy Chamber after supper of Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Venus, Apollo, Pallas, Neptune, Diana, Mercury as presenter, Cupid, torchbearers and musicians, who marched about the chamber and made speeches and characteristic gifts, but apparently did not dance.

22 Aug. Speech and Song at St. Benet’s Gate by Garter; Show of Fairies with their Queen and seven speeches, outside the gate, by Churchyard; written Oration by Mayor at departure over City boundary.

Churchyard also mentions ‘speeches well sette out and a speciall device much commended’ in the park of the Earl of Surrey at Kenninghall on 12 Aug.; also divers ‘triumphes and devises’ in Suffolk, of which he only specifies ‘a shew representing the Phayries (as well as might be) ... in the whiche shew a rich jewell was presented to the Queenes Highnesse’ at Sir Thomas Kidson’s house, Hengrave Hall, during 28–30 Aug. In Churchyards Challenge (1593) he claims ‘The whole deuises pastimes and plaies at Norwich, before her Maistie’, and also ‘The Commedy before her Maestie at Norwich in the fielde when she went to dinner to my Lady Gerninghams’ at Costessy (19 Aug.).

Fortress of Perfect Beauty. 15–16 May 1581

S. R. 1581, July 1. ‘The Tryumphe Shewed before the Quene and the Ffrenche Embassadors.’ Robert Walgrave (Arber, ii. 396).

N.D. A brief declaratiō of the shews, deuices, speeches, and inuentions, done & performed before the Queenes Maiestie, & the French Ambassadours, at the most valiaunt and worthye Triumph, attempted and executed on the Munday and Tuesday in Whitson weeke last, Anno 1581. Collected, gathered, penned & published, by Henry Goldwel, Gen. Robert Waldegrave. [Epistle by Goldwell to Rowland Brasebridge of Great Wycombe.]

Edition in Nichols, Eliz.² (1823), ii. 310.

This was a tilt, before François of Bourbon, dauphin of Auvergne, Artus de Cossé, marshal of France, and other commissioners from France, for the treaty of marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou. The challenge was delivered by a boy in red and white, as the Queen came from Chapel on 16 April 1581. The tilt, first fixed for 24 April, was put off to 1 May, 8 May, and finally 15 May. The gallery at the end of the tilt-yard was named the Castle or Fortress of Perfect Beauty, and the challengers, the Earl of Arundel, Lord Windsor, Philip Sidney, and Fulke Greville, called themselves the Four Foster Children of Desire. They entered from the stable, with trains of followers and a Rowling Trench of printed canvas, to besiege the fortress. From this boys spoke and sang, and cannonades of perfumes were shot off, while flowers and other fancies were flung from scaling ladders. Then came twenty-one defendants, each with his ‘invention’ and speech. They were Henry Grey, Sir Thomas Perot, Anthony Cooke, Thomas Ratcliffe, Henry Knolles, William Knolles, Robert Knolles, Francis Knolles, Rafe Bowes, Thomas Kelwaie, George Goring, William Tresham, Robert Alexander, Edward Dennie, Hercules Meautus, Edward Moore, Richard Skipwith, Richard Ward, Edward Digbie, Henry Nowell, Henry Brunkerd. Perot and Cooke were ‘both in like armour, beset with apples and fruit, the one signifying Adam and the other Eve, who had haire hung all down his helmet’. Their page was an Angel. Ratcliffe was a Desolate Knight, with a page who presented his shield. The four Knolles brothers were Sons of Despair, with Mercury for a page. The speeches of the pages are given. Each defendant ran six courses with the challengers. ‘In the middest of the running came in Sir Henrie Leigh, as unknowne, and when he had broken his six staves, went out in like manner againe.’ At the end of the first day the boy who gave the challenge announced a second on the morrow.

On the second day the challengers entered in a chariot ‘forewearied and half overcome’ with a lady representing Desire, and a consort of music. A herald made a speech for them. The defendants entered, and the tournay and barriers followed. At the end a boy clad in ash colour and bearing an olive-branch made submission of the challengers to the Queen.

Foulkes, lxiii. 49, says that a set of blank cheques for this tilt are in Ashm. MS. 845, f. 166.

Tilbury Visit. 1588

There are or were three accounts:

A

S. R. 1588, Aug. 10. ‘The quenes visitinge the campe at Tilberye and her enterteynement there the 8 and 9 of August 1588, with condicon yat yt may be aucthorised hereafter.’ John Wolf (Arber, ii. 495).

N.D. The Queenes visiting of the Campe at Tilsburie with her Entertainment there. Iohn Wolfe for Edward White. [At end, ‘T. D.’, doubtless the initials of Thomas Deloney.]

Editions in A. F. Pollard, Tudor Tracts (England’s Garner²), 492, and F. O. Mann, Deloney’s Works (1912).

B

S. R. 1588, Aug. 10 (Stallard). ‘A ioyfull songe of the Roiall Receaving of the quenes maiestie into her Campe at Tilbery: the 8 and 9 of August 1588.’ John Wolf for Richard Jones (Arber, ii. 496). [It does not seem likely that this entry relates to Aske’s book.]

C

1588. Elizabetha Triumphans. By James Aske. Thomas Orwin for Thomas Gubbin and Thomas Newman.

Edition in Nichols, Eliz. ii. 545 (1823).

The two extant narratives are discussed by M. Christy in E. H. R. xxxiv. 43.

Tilt-yard Entertainment. 17 Nov. 1590

See ch. xxiii, s.v. Lee.

Cowdray Entertainment. 1591

1591. The Speeches and Honorable Entertainment giuen to the Queenes Maiestie in Progresse, at Cowdrey in Sussex, by the right Honorable the Lord Montacute. Thomas Scarlet, sold by William Wright.

1591. The Honorable Entertainment.... Thomas Scarlet, sold by William Wright. [A different text, with a fuller description, but without the words of the songs, and inaccurately dated.]

Editions by J. Nichols, Eliz.² iii. 90 (1823), and R. W. Bond, Lyly, i. 421 (1902).

The host was Anthony Browne, first Viscount Montague. Gascoigne’s mask of 1572 was also written for him. Bond assigns the present entertainment, conjecturally, to Lyly. McKerrow, 20, records that William Barley, the stationer, was brought before the High Commission for selling at Cowdray, on some date before 1598, a twopenny book relating to Her Majesty’s progress.

The diary is as follows:

14 Aug. 1591. Speech by a Porter at the bridge on arrival at night.

15 Aug. Sunday: a day of rest.

16 Aug. Hunting in Park, and delivery of bow with a ditty by a Nymph.

17 Aug. Dinner at the Priory, where Lord Montague lodged, and speeches in the walks by a Pilgrim and a Wild Man, at an oak hung with Sussex escutcheons, and a ditty before hunting.

18 Aug. Speeches and ditty by an Angler and offering of fish by a Netter at a pond in the walks before hunting.

19 Aug. Dance of country people with tabor and pipe.

20 Aug. Knighting, and departure to Chichester for dinner.

Elvetham Entertainment. 1591

S. R. 1591, Oct. 1. ‘The honorable entertaynement gyven to the quenes maiestie in progresse at Elvetham in Hampshire by the righte honorable the Erle of Hertford.’ John Wolf (Arber, ii. 596).

1591. The Honorable Entertainement gieuen to the Queenes Maiestie in Progresse, at Eluetham in Hampshire, by the right Honorable the Earle of Hertford. John Wolfe. [There appear to be two editions or issues, (a) without and (b) with a woodcut of the pond.]

1591.... Newly corrected and amended. [This has a woodcut of the pond, different from that in (1) (b).]

Editions by J. Nichols, Eliz. ii. (1788), iii. 101 (1823), and R. W. Bond, Lyly, i. 431.

Elizabeth was at Elvetham 20–23 Sept. 1591. The host was Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford. A Three Men’s Song of Phillida and Coridon, which formed part of the Entertainment, is ascribed in England’s Helicon (1600) and MSS. to Nicholas Breton. Bond ascribes the Entertainment to Lyly. An account of the amusements is in ch. iv.

Bisham, Sudeley, and Rycote Entertainments. 1592

1592. Speeches deliuered to her Maiestie this last progresse, at the Right Honorable the Lady Russels, at Bissam, the Right Honorable the Lorde Chandos at Sudley, at the Right Honorable the Lord Norris, at Ricorte. Joseph Barnes, Oxford. [There appear to be two issues, with slight variants.]

Editions by J. Nichols, Eliz.² iii. 130 (1823), Sir S. E. Brydges (1815), and R. W. Bond, Lyly, i. 471 (1902).

Bisham

The hosts were Sir Edward Hoby and his mother, Elizabeth, Dowager Lady Russell.

21 Aug. 1592. On arrival, at the top of the hill, speech by a Wild Man; at the middle of the hill, dialogue of Pan and two Virgins, Sybilla and Isabella; at the foot of the hill, ditty by Ceres and Nymphs in a harvest-cart, followed by speech and gift of crown of wheat-ears and jewel.

Sudeley

The host was Giles Brydges, third Lord Chandos.

10 Sept. 1592. Speech of old Shepherd at entry to castle.

11 Sept. Show of Apollo and Daphne, with gift of tables of verses.

12 Sept. Contemplated Presentation of High Constable of Cotswold, and Choosing of King and Queen by Shepherds, with song and dialogue of Melibœus, Nisa, and Cutter of Cotswold—prevented by weather.

Rycote

The host was Henry, Lord Norris.

28 Sept. 1592. On arrival from Oxford, speech by an Old Gentleman [Lord Norris].

2 Oct. Music in garden, with speech by Old Gentleman, and letters containing jewels by messengers as from his sons in Ireland, Flanders, and France.

3 Oct. At departure, letter with jewel as from daughter in Jersey.

Between Sudeley and Rycote, the Queen was entertained at Oxford (cf. ch. iv) and Woodstock (cf. ch. xxiii, s.v. Sir Henry Lee).

Tilt-yard Entertainment. 17 Nov. 1595

See ch. xxiii, s.v. Peele, Anglorum Feriae.

Harefield Entertainment. 1602

Elizabeth was at Harefield Place, Middlesex, the house of Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Keeper, and his wife Alice, Countess Dowager of Derby, from 31 July to 2 Aug. 1602. At the same house Milton’s Arcades was performed before Lady Derby in 1634. Seven fragments of the entertainment have been preserved, and are printed by Nichols, Eliz. iii. 570, 586, and Bond, Lyly, i. 491. Accounts of expenditure involved, and a list of the gifts in kind contributed by Egerton’s friends on this occasion are in Egerton Papers, 340, but the account in 342–4 is a forgery (vide infra).

(i) Dialogue between a Bailiff and Dairymaid, and presentation of a rake and fork to the Queen, as she entered the demesne near the dairy house.

(ii) Dialogue at the steps of the house, and presentation of a heart, by Place ‘in a partie-colored roobe, like the brick house’ and Time ‘with yeollow haire, and in a green roabe, with an hower glasse, stopped, not runninge’.

(iii) Verse petition accompanying gift of a robe of rainbows on behalf of St. Swithin by Lady Walsingham on Monday morning [2 Aug.].

(iv) Farewell of Place, ‘attyred in black mourning aparell’ on the Queen’s departure, with presentation of an anchor.

(v) Verse ‘Complaint of the Satyres against the Nymphes’.

(vi) Song and speech by a Mariner, who entered the ‘presence’ with a lottery box, ‘supposed to come from the Carricke’.

(vii) ‘The Severall Lottes’, a list of gifts and blanks, with a poesy accompanying each, and the names of the ladies who drew them. These were the Queen, the Dowager Countess of Derby, the Countesses of Derby, Worcester, and Warwick, Lady Scroope, Mistresses Nevill, Thynne, Hastinges, and Bridges, Ladies Scudamore, Francis, Knevette, and Susan Vere, Mrs. Vavissour, Ladies Southwell and Anne Clifford, Mrs. Hyde, Ladies Kildare, Howard of Effingham and Paget, Mistresses Kiddermister and Strangwidge, the Mother of the Maids, Ladies Cumberland, Walsingham, and Newton, Mrs. Wharton, Ladies Digbye and Dorothy [Hastinges] and Mrs. Anselowe. One name, ending in ‘liffe’ is illegible. It may be Ratcliffe. One MS. adds three lots assigned to ‘country wenches’. Most of these ladies were maids of honour and others who came with the court; one or two, e.g. Mrs. Kiddermister, were country neighbours of the Egerton’s.

These pieces are derived from various sources:

(a) A transcript made by R. Churton in 1803 of a contemporary MS. found at Arbury, the house of Sir Roger Newdigate, to whose family Harefield passed in 1675, contains (i)-(v) and was printed by Nichols.

(b) A Conway MS., printed by P. Cunningham in Sh. Soc. Papers, ii. 65, contains (iii), the song from (vi), and (vii), with the heading ‘The Devise to entertayne hir M^ty at Harfielde ...’ and the date 1602.

(c) The second edition (1608) of Francis Davison’s Poetical Rhapsody contains the speech from (vi) and (vii), with the incorrect indication ‘at the Lord Chancellor’s house, 1601’, which misled Nichols into supposing it to belong to some entertainment at York Place, the year before that of Harefield. The item comes between two pieces by Sir John Davies and has the initials J. D.

(d) The diary of John Manningham (Harl. MS. 5353, f. 95) contains amongst entries of Feb. 1603 some extracts from (i) and (vii), dating the latter in ‘the last Sumer at hir M^ties being with the L. Keeper’.

(e) A contemporary MS., printed as Poetical Miscellanies (Percy Soc. lv), 5, has (vii) dated 1602.

(f) Talbot MS. K, f. 43, in the College of Arms, contains (iv) as given at ‘Harville’ with the date ‘Aug. 1602’ and is printed by Lodge, ii. 560.

(g) B.M. Birch MS. 4173 contains a similar copy of (iv).

On the strength of the Poetical Rhapsody, (vii) is generally assigned to Sir John Davies, which hardly justified Dr. Grosart in assigning all the pieces to him (Works, ii, clxxii). Bond transferred the whole to Lyly, primarily as a conjecture, but was confirmed in his view by finding in Egerton Papers, 343, a payment to ‘M^r Lillyes man, which brought the lotterye boxe to Harefield’. But the document in which this is found, and which also contains the item ‘x^li to Burbidges players for Othello’, is one of Collier’s forgeries (Ingleby, 261).

John Chamberlain (Letters, 164, 169) sent Dudley Carleton ‘the Quenes entertainment at the Lord Kepers’ on 19 Nov. 1602, and on 23 Dec. wrote that, as Carleton liked the Lord Keeper’s devices so ill, he had not cared to get Sir Robert Cecil’s (cf. ch. xxiii, s.v. Cecil).

Progress from Scotland. 1603

There were several contemporary prints:

A

S. R. 1603, May 9. ‘Kinge James his entrance into England.’ Burby and Millington (Arber, iii. 234).

1603. The True Narration of the Entertainment of his Royal Majestie. Thomas Creede for Thomas Millington. [Epistle by T. M. to Reader.]