_Old English Plays_ (1901–2). _Sh.’s Doubtful Works_ (1910–11).
[Under the above collective titles were issued some, but not
all, of a series of plays bearing separate dates as follows:
_Thomas Lord Cromwell_ (1891, 1899), _Yorkshire Tragedy_ (1891,
1910), _Edward III_ (1891, 1911), _Merry Devil of Edmonton_
(1891, 1914), _Warning for Fair Women_ (1891, 1904), _Locrine_
(1892), _Birth of Merlin_ (1892, 1901), _London Prodigal_
(1893), _Mucedorus_ (1893), _Sir John Oldcastle_ (1894),
_Puritan_ (1894), _T. N. K._ (1894), _Fair Em_ (1895), _Famous
Victories of Henry V_ (1896), _Contention of York and Lancaster_
(1897), _Arden of Feversham_ (1898, 1907), _True Tragedy of
Richard III_ (1901), _Sir Thomas More_ (1902). My list may not
be complete.]
1908. C. F. T. Brooke, _The Sh. Apocrypha_. [The 7 Plays except
_Pericles_, _Arden of Feversham_, _Edward III_, _Mucedorus_,
_Merry Devil of Edmonton_, _Fair Em_, _T. N. K._, _Birth of
Merlin_, _Sir Thomas More_.]
(_b_) _General Collections_
1744. _A Select Collection of Old Plays._ 12 vols. (Dodsley).
[Cited as _Dodsley_^1.]
1750. [W. R. Chetwood], _A Select Collection of Old Plays_
(Dublin).
1773. T. Hawkins, _The Origin of the English Drama_. 3 vols.
1779. [J. Nichols], _Six Old Plays_. 2 vols.
1780. _A Select Collection of Old Plays._ The Second Edition ...
by I. Reed. 12 vols. (Dodsley). [Cited as Dodsley^2.]
1810. [Sir W. Scott], _The Ancient British Drama_. 3 vols.
(W. Miller). [Cited as _A. B. D._]
1811. [Sir W. Scott], _The Modern British Drama_. 5 vols.
(W. Miller). [Cited as _M. B. D._]
1814–15. [C. W. Dilke], _Old English Plays_. 6 vols. [Cited
as _O. E. P._]
1825. _The Old English Drama._ 2 vols. (Hurst, Robinson, & Co.,
and A. Constable). [Most of the plays have the separate imprint
of C. Baldwyn, 1824.]
1825–7. _Select Collection of Old Plays._ A new edition ... by
I. Reed, O. Gilchrist and [J. P. Collier]. 12 vols. [Cited as
Dodsley^3.]
1830. _The Old English Drama._ 3 vols. (Thomas White).
1833. J. P. Collier, _Five Old Plays_ (W. Pickering).
[Half-title has ‘Old Plays, vol. xiii’, as a supplement to
Dodsley.]
1841–53. _Publications of the Shakespeare Society._ [Include,
besides several plays of T. Heywood (q.v.), Dekker, Chettle,
and Haughton’s _Patient Grissell_, Munday’s _John a Kent
and John a Cumber_, Legge’s _Richardus Tertius_, Norton and
Sackville’s _Gorboduc_, Merbury’s _Marriage between Wit and
Wisdom_, and _Sir Thomas More_, _True Tragedy of Richard III_,
_1 Contention_, _True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York_, _Taming
of A Shrew_, _Timon_, by various editors. Some copies of these
plays, not including Heywood’s, were bound up in 4 vols., with
the general date 1853, as a _Supplement_ to Dodsley.]
1848. F. J. Child, _Four Old Plays_.
1851. J. P. Collier, _Five Old Plays_ (Roxburghe Club).
1870. J. S. Keltie, _The Works of the British Dramatists_.
[Many of the collections enumerated above are obsolete, and I
have not usually thought it worth while to record here the plays
included in them. Lists of the contents of most of them are
given in Hazlitt; _Manual_, 267.]
1874–6. _A Select Collection of Old English Plays_: Fourth
Edition, now first Chronologically Arranged, Revised and
Enlarged; with the notes of all the Commentators, and New Notes,
by W. C. Hazlitt. Vols. i-ix (1874), x-xiv (1875), xv (1876).
[Cited as Dodsley, or Dodsley^4; incorporates with Collier’s
edition of Dodsley the collections of 1833, 1848, 1851, and
1853.]
1875. W. C. Hazlitt, _Shakespeare’s Library_. Second Edition.
Part i, 4 vols.; Part ii, 2 vols. [Part i is based on
Collier’s _Shakespeare’s Library_ (1844). Part ii, based
on the collections of 1779 and 1841–53, adds the dramatic
sources, Warner’s _Menaechmi_, _True Tragedie of Richard
III_, Legge’s _Richardus Tertius_, _Troublesome Raigne of
John_, _Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth_, _1 Contention of
York and Lancaster_, _True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York_,
Shakespeare’s _Merry Wives of Windsor_ (Q_{1}), Whetstone’s
_Promos and Cassandra_, _King Leire_, _Timon_, _Taming of A
Shrew_.]
1878. R. Simpson, _The School of Shakspere_. 2 vols. [_Captain
Thomas Stukeley_, _Nobody and Somebody_, _Histriomastix_, _Jack
Drum’s Entertainment_, _Warning for Fair Women_, _Fair Em_, with
_A Larum for London_ (1872) separately printed.]
1882–5. A. H. Bullen, _A Collection of Old English Plays_. 4
vols. [Cited as Bullen, _O. E. P. Maid’s Metamorphosis_,
_Noble Soldier_, _Sir Giles Goosecap_, _Wisdom of Doctor
Dodipoll_, _Charlemagne or The Distracted Emperor_, _Trial of
Chivalry_, Yarington’s _Two Lamentable Tragedies_, _Costly
Whore_, _Every Woman in her Humour_, with later plays.]
[1885]-91. _43 Shakspere Quarto Facsimiles._ Issued under the
superintendence of F. J. Furnivall. [Photographic facsimiles
by W. Griggs and C. Praetorius, with introductions by various
editors, including, besides accepted Shakespearian plays,
_Pericles_ (Q_{1}, Q_{2}), _1 Contention_ (Q_{1}), _True Tragedy
of Richard Duke of York_ (Q_{1}), _Whole Contention_ (Q_{3}),
_Famous Victories of Henry V_ (Q_{1}), _Troublesome Raigne of
John_ (Q_{1}), _Taming of A Shrew_ (Q_{1}).]
1888. _Nero and other Plays_ (Mermaid Series). [_Nero_ (1624),
Porter’s _Two Angry Women of Abingdon_, Day’s _Parliament
of Bees_ and _Humour Out of Breath_, Field’s _Woman is a
Weathercock_ and _Amends for Ladies_, by various editors.]
1896–1905. _The Temple Dramatists._ [Cited as _T. D._ Single
plays by various editors, including, besides plays of Beaumont
and Fletcher, Dekker, Heywood, Jonson, Kyd, Marlowe, Peele,
Udall, Webster (q.v.), _Arden of Feversham_, _Edward III_,
_Merry Devil of Edmonton_, _Selimus_, _T. N. K._, _Return from
Parnassus_.]
1897. J. M. Manly, _Specimens of the Pre-Shakspearean Drama_.
2 vols. issued. [Udall’s _Roister Doister_, _Gammer Gurton’s
Needle_, Preston’s _Cambyses_, Norton and Sackville’s
_Gorboduc_, Lyly’s _Campaspe_, Greene’s _James IV_, Peele’s
_David and Bethsabe_, Kyd’s _Spanish Tragedy_ in vol. ii;
earlier plays in vol. i.]
1897. H. A. Evans, _English Masques_ (Warwick Library). [Ten
masks by Jonson (q.v.), Daniel’s _Twelve Goddesses_, Campion’s
_Lords’ Mask_, Beaumont’s _Inner Temple Mask_, _Mask of
Flowers_, and later masks.]
1897–1912. _Jahrbuch der deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft_,
vols. xxxiii-xlviii. [Wilson’s _Cobbler’s Prophecy_ (1897), _1
Richard II_ (1899), Wager’s _The Longer Thou Livest, the More
Fool Thou Art_ (1900), _The Wars of Cyrus_ (1901), Jonson’s
_E. M. I._ (1902), Lupton’s _All for Money_ (1904), Wapull’s
_The Tide Tarrieth No Man_ (1907), Lumley’s translation of
_Iphigenia_ (1910), _Caesar and Pompey_, or _Caesar’s Revenge_
(1911, 1912), by various editors.]
1898. A. Brandl, _Quellen des weltlichen Dramas in England vor
Shakespeare_. Ein Ergänzungsband zu Dodsley’s Old English Plays.
(_Quellen und Forschungen_, lxxx.) [_King Darius_, _Misogonus_,
_Horestes_, Wilmot’s _Gismond of Salern_, _Common Conditions_,
and earlier plays.]
1902–8. _The Belles Lettres Series._ Section iii. _The English
Drama._ General Editor, G. P. Baker. [Cited as _B. L._ Plays
of Beaumont and Fletcher, Chapman, Dekker, Gascoigne, Jonson,
Webster (q.v.), in separate volumes by various editors.]
1902–14. _Materialien zur Kunde des älteren englischen Dramas_
... begründet und herausgegeben von W. Bang. 44 vols. issued.
(A. Uystpruyst, Louvain.) [Includes, with other ‘material’, text
facsimile reprints of plays, &c., of Barnes, Brewer, Daniel,
Chettle and Day, Dekker, Heywood, Jonson, Mason, Sharpham
(q.v.), with _How a Man may Choose a Good Wife from a Bad_,
_Sir Giles Goosecap_, the Latin _Victoria_ of A. Fraunce and
_Pedantius_, and translations from Seneca.]
1903, 1913, 1914. C. M. Gayley, _Representative English
Comedies_. 3 vols. [Plays of Udall, Lyly, Peele, Greene, Porter,
Jonson, and Dekker, with _Gammer Gurton’s Needle_, _Eastward
Ho!_, _Merry Devil of Edmonton_, and later plays, by various
editors.]
1905–8. J. S. Farmer, _Publications of the Early English Drama
Society_. [Modernized texts, mainly of little value, but
including a volume of _Recently Recovered Plays_, from the
quartos in the Irish sale of 1906.]
1907–20. _Malone Society Reprints._ 46 vols. issued. [In
progress; text-facsimile reprints of separate plays, by various
editors, under general editorship of W. W. Greg; cited as _M. S.
R._]
1907–14. J. S. Farmer, _The Tudor Facsimile Texts_, with a Hand
List (1914). [Photographic facsimiles, mostly by R. B. Fleming;
cited as _T. F. T._ The Hand List states that 184 vols. are
included in the collection, but I believe that some were not
actually issued before the editor’s death. Some or all of these,
with reissues of others, appear in _Old English Plays, Student’s
Facsimile Edition_; cited as _S. F. T._]
1908–14. _The Shakespeare Classics._ General Editor, I.
Gollancz. (_The Shakespeare Library_). [Includes Warner’s
_Menaechmi_ and _Leire_, _Taming of A Shrew_, and _Troublesome
Reign of King John_.]
1911. W. A. Neilson, _The Chief Elizabethan Dramatists excluding
Shakespeare_. [Plays by Lyly, Peele, Greene, Marlowe, Kyd,
Chapman, Jonson, Dekker, Marston, Heywood, Beaumont, Fletcher,
Webster, Middleton, and later writers; cited as _C. E. D._]
1911. R. W. Bond, _Early Plays from the Italian_. [Gascoigne’s
_Supposes_, _Bugbears_, _Misogonus_.]
1912. J. W. Cunliffe, _Early English Classical Tragedies_.
[Norton and Sackville’s _Gorboduc_, Gascoigne and Kinwelmersh’s
_Jocasta_, Wilmot’s _Gismond of Salerne_, Hughes’s _Misfortunes
of Arthur_.]
1912. _Masterpieces of the English Drama._ General Editor, F.
E. Schelling, [Cited as _M. E. D._ Plays of Marlowe, Beaumont
and Fletcher, Webster and Tourneur (q.v.), with Massinger and
Congreve, in separate volumes by various editors.]
1915. C. B. Wheeler, _Six Plays by Contemporaries of
Shakespeare_ (_World’s Classics_). [Dekker’s _Shoemaker’s
Holiday_, Beaumont and Fletcher’s _K. B. P._ and _Philaster_,
Webster’s _White Devil_ and _Duchess of Malfi_, Massinger’s _New
Way to Pay Old Debts_.]
* * * * *
[In this chapter I give under the head of each playwright (_a_) a
brief sketch of his life in relation to the stage, (_b_) a list of
contemporary and later collections of his dramatic works, (_c_) a list
of dissertations (books, pamphlets, articles in journals) bearing
generally upon his life and works. Then I take each play, mask, &c., up
to 1616 and give (_a_) the MSS. if any; (_b_) the essential parts of
the entry, if any, on the Stationers’ Register, including in brackets
the name of any licenser other than an official of the Company, and
occasionally adding a note of any transfer of copyright which seems
of exceptional interest; (_c_) the essential parts of the title-page
of the first known print; (_d_) a note of its prologues, epilogues,
epistles, and other introductory matter; (_e_) the dates and imprints
of later prints before the end of the seventeenth century with any new
matter from their t.ps. bearing on stage history; (_f_) lists of all
important 18th-20th century editions and dissertations, not of the
collective or general type already dealt with; (_g_) such notes as may
seem desirable on authorship, date, stage history and the like. Some
of these notes are little more than compilations; others contain the
results of such work as I have myself been able to do on the plays
concerned. Similarly, I have in some cases recorded, on the authority
of others, editions and dissertations which I have not personally
examined. The section devoted to each playwright concludes with lists
of work not extant and of work of which his authorship has, often
foolishly, been conjectured. I ought to make it clear that many of my
title-pages are borrowed from Dr. Greg, and that, while I have tried to
give what is useful for the history of the stage, I have no competence
in matters of minute bibliographical accuracy.]
WILLIAM ALABASTER (1567–1640)
Alabaster, or Alablaster, was born at Hadleigh, Suffolk, in 1567 and
entered Trinity College, Cambridge, from Westminster in 1583. His Latin
poem _Eliseis_ is mentioned by Spenser in _Colin Clout’s Come Home
Again_ (1591). He was incorporated M.A. of Oxford in 1592, and went as
chaplain to Essex in the Cadiz expedition of 1596. On 22 Sept. 1597
Richard Percival wrote to Sir Robert Cecil (_Hatfield MSS._ vii. 394),
‘Alabaster has made a tragedy against the Church of England’. Perhaps
this is not to be taken literally, but only refers to his conversion
to Catholicism. Chamberlain, 7, 64, records that he was ‘clapt up for
poperie’, had escaped from the Clink by 4 May 1598, but was recaptured
at Rochelle. This was about the beginning of Aug. 1599 (_Hatfield
MSS._ ix. 282). Later he was reconverted and at his death in 1640 held
the living of Therfield, Herts. He wrote on mystical theology, and a
manuscript collection of 43 sonnets, mostly unprinted, is described by
B. Dobell in _Athenaeum_ (1903), ii. 856.
_Roxana. c. 1592_
[_MSS._] _T. C. C. MS._ (‘Authore Domino Alabaster’); _Camb. Univ. MS._
Ff. ii. 9; _Lambeth MS._ 838 (‘finis Roxanae Alabastricae’).
_S. R._ 1632, May 9 (Herbert). ‘A Tragedy in Latyn called Roxana &c.’
_Andrew Crooke_ (Arber, iv. 277).
1632. Roxana Tragædia olim Cantabrigiae, Acta in Col. Trin. Nunc
primum in lucem edita, summaque cum diligentia ad castigatissimum
exemplar comparata. _R. Badger for Andrew Crook._ [At end is Herbert’s
imprimatur, dated ‘1 March, 1632’.]
1632. Roxana Tragædia a plagiarii unguibus vindicata, aucta, & agnita
ab Authore Gulielmo Alabastro. _William Jones._ [Epistle by Gulielmus
Alabaster to Sir Ralph Freeman; commendatory verses by Hugo Hollandius
and Tho. Farnabius; engraved title-page, with representation of a stage
(cf. ch. xviii, _Bibl. Note_).]
The Epistle has ‘Ante quadraginta plus minus annos, morticinum
hoc edidi duarum hebdomadarum abortum, et unius noctis spectaculo
destinatum, non aevi integri’. The play is a Latin version of Luigi
Groto’s _La Dalida_ (1567).
SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER, EARL OF STIRLING (_c._ 1568–1640).
William Alexander of Menstrie, after an education at Glasgow and Leyden
and travel in France, Spain, and Italy, was tutor to Prince Henry
before the accession of James, and afterwards Gentleman extraordinary
of the Privy Chamber both to Henry and to Charles. He was knighted
about 1609, appointed a Master of Requests in 1614 and Secretary for
Scotland in 1626. He was created Earl of Stirling in 1633. He formed
literary friendships with Michael Drayton and William Drummond of
Hawthornden, but Jonson complained (Laing, 11) that ‘Sir W. Alexander
was not half kinde unto him, and neglected him, because a friend to
Drayton’. His four tragedies read like closet plays, and his only
connexion with the stage appears to be in some verses to Alleyn after
the foundation of Dulwich in 1619 (Collier, _Memoirs of Alleyn_, 178).
_Collections_
_S. R._ 1604, April 30 (by order of Court). ‘A booke Called The Woorkes
of William Alexander of Menstrie Conteyninge The Monarchicke Tragedies,
Paranethis to the Prince and Aurora.’ _Edward Blunt_ (Arber, iii. 260).
1604. The Monarchicke Tragedies. By William Alexander of Menstrie. _V.
S. for Edward Blount._ [_Croesus_ and _Darius_ (with a separate t.p.).]
1607. The Monarchick Tragedies; Croesus, Darius, The Alexandraean,
Iulius Caesar, Newly enlarged. By William Alexander, Gentleman of the
Princes priuie Chamber. _Valentine Simmes for Ed. Blount._ [New issue,
with additions. _Julius Caesar_ has separate t.p. Commendatory verses,
signed ‘Robert Ayton’.]
1616. The Monarchicke Tragedies. The third Edition. By S^r. W.
Alexander Knight. _William Stansby._ [_Croesus_, _Darius_, _The
Alexandraean Tragedy_, _Julius Caesar_, in revised texts, the last
three with separate t.ps.]
1637. Recreations with the Muses. By William Earle of Sterline. _Tho.
Harper._ [_Croesus_, _Darius_, _The Alexandraean Tragedy_, _Julius
Caesar_.]
1870–2. _Poetical Works._ 3 vols.
1921. L. E. Kastner and H. B. Charlton, _The Poetical Works of
Sir William Alexander, Earl of Stirling_. Vol. i. The Dramatic
Works.--_Dissertations_: C. Rogers, _Memorials of the Earl of S. and
the House of A._ (1877); H. Beumelburg, _Sir W. A. Graf von S., als
dramatischer Dichter_ (1880, Halle _diss._).
_Darius > 1603_
1603. _The Tragedie of Darius._ By William Alexander of Menstrie.
_Robert Waldegrave. Edinburgh._ [Verses to James VI; Epistle to
Reader; Commendatory verses by ‘Io Murray’ and ‘W. Quin’.]
1604. _G. Elde for Edward Blount._ [Part of _Coll._ 1604, with separate
t.p.; also in later _Colls._ Two sets of verses to King at end.]
_Croesus > 1604_
1604. [Part of _Coll._ 1604; also in later _Colls._ Argument; Verses to
King at end.]
_The Alexandraean Tragedy > 1607_
1605? [Hazlitt, _Manual_, 7, and others cite a print of this date,
which is not confirmed by Greg, _Plays_, 1.]
1607. (_Running Title_). The Alexandraean Tragedie. [Part of _Coll._
1607; also in later _Colls._ Argument.]
_Julius Caesar > 1607_
1607. The Tragedie of Iulius Caesar. By William Alexander, Gentleman of
the Princes priuie Chamber. _Valentine Simmes for Ed. Blount._ [Part of
_Coll._ 1607, with separate t.p.; also in later _Colls._ Argument.]
_Edition_ in H. H. Furness, _Julius Caesar_ (1913, _New Variorum
Shakespeare_, xvii).
WILLIAM ALLEY (_c._ 1510–70).
Alley’s Πτωχὸμυσεῖον. _The Poore Mans Librarie_ (1565) contains three
and a half pages of dialogue between Larymos and Phronimos, described
as from ‘a certaine interlude or plaie intituled _Aegio_. In the which
playe ij persons interlocutorie do dispute, the one alledging for the
defence of destenie and fatall necessitie, and the other confuting the
same’. P. Simpson (_9 N. Q._ iii. 205) suggests that Alley was probably
himself the author. The book consists of _praelectiones_ delivered in
1561 at St. Paul’s, of which Alley had been a Prebendary. He became
Bishop of Exeter in 1560. On his attitude to the public stage, cf. App.
C. No. viii. It is therefore odd to find the Lord Bishop’s players at
Barnstaple and Plymouth in 1560–1 (Murray, ii. 78).
ROBERT AMERIE (_c._ 1610).
The deviser of the show of _Chester’s Triumph_ (1610). See ch. xxiv (C).
ROBERT ARMIN (> 1588–1610 <). For biography see Actors (ch. xv).
_The Two Maids of Moreclacke. 1607–8_ (?)
1609. The History of the two Maids of Moreclacke, With the life and
simple maner of Iohn in the Hospitall. Played by the Children of the
Kings Maiesties Reuels. Written by Robert Armin, seruant to the Kings
most excellent Maiestie. _N. O. for Thomas Archer._ [Epistle to Reader,
signed ‘Robert Armin’.]
_Editions_ in A. B. Grosart, _Works of R. A. Actor_ (1880, _Choice
Rarities of Ancient English Poetry_, ii), 63, and J. S. Farmer (1913,
_S. F. T._). The epistle says that the play was ‘acted by the boyes of
the Reuels, which perchaunce in part was sometime acted more naturally
in the Citty, if not in the hole’, that the writer ‘would haue againe
inacted Iohn my selfe but ... I cannot do as I would’, and that he had
been ‘requested both of Court and Citty, to show him in priuate’. John
is figured in a woodcut on the title-page, which is perhaps meant for
a portrait of Armin. As a King’s man, and no boy, he can hardly have
played with the King’s Revels; perhaps we should infer that the play
was not originally written for them. All their productions seem to date
from 1607–8.
_Doubtful Play_
Armin has been guessed at as the R. A. of _The Valiant Welshman_.
THOMAS ASHTON (_ob._ 1578).
Ashton took his B.A. in 1559–60, and became Fellow of Trinity,
Cambridge. He was appointed Head Master of Shrewsbury School from 24
June 1561 (G. W. Fisher, _Annals of Shrewsbury School_, 4). To the
same year a local record, Robert Owen’s _Arms of the Bailiffs_ (17th
c.), assigns ‘M^r Astons first playe upon the Passion of Christ’,
and this is confirmed by an entry in the town accounts (Owen and
Blakeway, _Hist. of Shrewsbury_, i. 353) of 20s. ‘spent upon M^r Aston
and a other gentellmane of Cambridge over pareadijs’ on 25 May 1561.
Whitsuntide plays had long been traditional at Shrewsbury (_Mediaeval
Stage_, ii. 250, 394, where the dates require correction). A local
chronicle (_Shropshire Arch. Soc. Trans._ xxxvii. 54) has ‘Elizabeth
1565 [i. e. 1566; cf. App. A], The Queen came to Coventry intending
for Salop to see M^r Astons Play, but it was ended. The Play was
performed in the Quarry, and lasted the Whitson [June 2] hollydays’.
This play is given in _Mediaeval Stage_, from local historians, as
_Julian the Apostate_, but the same chronicle assigns that to 1556.
Another chronicle (_Taylor MS._ of 16th-17th c.) records for 1568–9
(_Shropshire Arch. Soc. Trans._ iii. 268), ‘This yeare at Whytsoontyde
[29 May] was a notable stage playe playeed in Shrosberie in a place
there callyd the quarrell which lastid all the hollydayes unto the
which cam greate number of people of noblemen and others the which
was praysed greatlye and the chyff aucter therof was one Master Astoon
beinge the head scoolemaster of the freescole there a godly and lernyd
man who tooke marvelous greate paynes therin’. Robert Owen, who calls
this Aston’s ‘great playe’ of the _Passion of Christ_, assigns it
to 1568, but it is clear from the town accounts that 1569 is right
(Fisher, 18). This is presumably the play referred to by Thomas
Churchyard (q.v.) in _The Worthiness of Wales_ (1587, ed. Spenser Soc.
85), where after describing ‘behind the walles ... a ground, newe
made Theator wise’, able to seat 10,000, and used for plays, baiting,
cockfights, and wrestling, he adds:
At Astons Play, who had beheld this then,
Might well have seene there twentie thousand men.
In the margin he comments, ‘Maister Aston was a good and godly
Preacher’. A ‘ludus in quarell’ is noted in 1495, and this was ‘where
the plases [? playes] have bine accustomyd to be usyd’ in 1570
(_Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 251, 255). Ashton resigned his Mastership
about 1571 and was in the service of the Earl of Essex at Chartley in
1573. But he continued to work on the Statutes of the school, which as
settled in 1578, the year of his death, provide that ‘Everie Thursdaie
the Schollers of the first forme before they goo to plaie shall for
exercise declame and plaie one acte of a comedie’ (Fisher, 17, 23; E.
Calvert, _Shrewsbury School Register_). It is interesting to note that
among Ashton’s pupils were Sir Philip Sidney and Fulke Greville, Lord
Brooke, who entered the school together on 16 Nov. 1564.
JAMES ASKE (_c._ 1588).
Author of _Elizabetha Triumphans_ (1588), an account of Elizabeth’s
visit to Tilbury. See ch. xxiv (C).
THOMAS ATCHELOW (_c._ 1589).
The reference to him in Nashe’s _Menaphon_ epistle (App. C, No. xlii)
rather suggests that he may have written plays.
FRANCIS BACON (1561–1626).
Bacon was son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, by Anne, daughter
of Sir Anthony Cooke. He was at Trinity, Cambridge, from April 1573
to March 1575, and entered Gray’s Inn in June 1576. He sat in the
Parliaments of 1584 and 1586, and about 1591 attached himself to the
rising fortunes of the Earl of Essex, who in 1595 gave him an estate
at Twickenham. His public employment began as a Queen’s Counsel about
1596. He was knighted on 23 July 1603, became Solicitor-General on 25
June 1607, Attorney-General on 27 Oct. 1613, Lord Keeper on 7 March
1617, and Lord Chancellor on 7 Jan. 1618. He was created Lord Verulam
on 12 July 1618, and Viscount St. Albans on 27 Jan. 1621. Later in the
same year he was disgraced for bribery. The edition of his _Works_
(with his _Letters and Life_) by J. Spedding, R. L. Ellis, and D. D.
Heath (1857–74) is exhaustive. Many papers of his brother Anthony
are at Lambeth, and are drawn on by T. Birch, _Memoirs of the Reign
of Elizabeth_ (1754). F. J. Burgoyne, _Facsimile of a Manuscript at
Alnwick_ (1904), reproduces the _Northumberland MS._ which contains
some of his writings, with others that may be his, and seems once to
have contained more. Apart from philosophy, his chief literary work was
_The Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall_, of which 10 appeared in
1597, and were increased to 38 in 1612 and 58 in 1625. Essay xxxvii,
added in 1625, is _Of Masks and Triumphs_, and, although Bacon was not
a writer for the public stage, he had a hand, as deviser or patron, in
several courtly shows.
(i) He helped to devise dumb-shows for Thomas Hughes’s _Misfortunes
of Arthur_ (q.v.) given by Gray’s Inn at Greenwich on 28 Feb. 1588.
(ii) The list of contents of the _Northumberland MS._ (Burgoyne, xii)
includes an item, now missing from the MS., ‘Orations at Graies Inne
Revells’, and Spedding, viii. 342, conjectures that Bacon wrote the
speeches of the six councillors delivered on 3 Jan. 1595 as part of the
_Gesta Grayorum_ (q.v.).
(iii) Rowland Whyte (_Sydney Papers_, i. 362) describes a device on
the Queen’s day (17 Nov.), 1595, in which the speeches turned on the
Earl of Essex’s love for Elizabeth, who said that, ‘if she had thought
there had been so much said of her, she would not have been there that
night’. A draft list of tilters, of whom the challengers were led
by the Earl of Cumberland and the defendants by the Earl of Essex,
is in _Various MSS._ iv. 163, and a final one, with descriptions of
their appearance, in the _Anglorum Feriae_ of Peele (q.v.). They were
Cumberland, Knight of the Crown, Essex, Sussex, Southampton, as Sir
Bevis, Bedford, Compton, Carew, the three brothers Knollys, Dudley,
William Howard, Drury, Nowell, John Needham, Skydmore, Ratcliffe,
Reynolds, Charles Blount, Carey. The device took place partly in the
tiltyard, partly after supper. Before the entry of the tilters a page
made a speech and secured the Queen’s glove. A dialogue followed
between a Squire on one hand, and a Hermit, a Secretary, and a Soldier,
who on the entry of Essex tried to beguile him from love. A postboy
brought letters, which the Secretary gave to Essex. After supper,
the argument between the Squire and the three tempters was resumed.
Whyte adds, ‘The old man [the Hermit] was he that in Cambridg played
Giraldy; Morley played the Secretary; and he that plaid Pedantiq was
the soldior; and Toby Matthew acted the Squires part. The world makes
many untrue constructions of these speaches, comparing the Hermitt and
the Secretary to two of the Lords [Burghley and Robert Cecil?]; and the
soldier to Sir Roger Williams.’ The Cambridge reference is apparently
to _Laelia_ (q.v.) and the performers of the Hermit and Soldier were
therefore George Meriton and George Mountaine, of Queen’s. Morley might
perhaps be Thomas Morley, the musician, a Gentleman of the Chapel.
Several speeches, apparently belonging to this device, are preserved.
Peele speaks of the balancing of Essex between war and statecraft as
indicated in the tiltyard by ‘His mute approach and action of his
mutes’, but they may have presented a written speech.
(_a_) _Lambeth MS._ v. 118 (copied by Birch in _Sloane MS._ 4457, f.
32) has, in Bacon’s hand, a speech by the Squire in the tiltyard, and
four speeches by the Hermit, Soldier, Secretary, and Squire ‘in the
Presence’. These are printed by Birch (1763), Nichols, _Eliz._ iii.
372, and Spedding, viii. 378.
(_b_) _Lambeth MS._ viii. 274 (copied by Birch in _Addl. MS._ 4164, f.
167) has, in Bacon’s hand, the beginning of a speech by the Secretary
to the Squire, which mentions Philautia and Erophilus, and a letter
from Philautia to the Queen. These are printed in Spedding, viii. 376.
(_c_) The _Northumberland MS._ ff. 47–53 (Burgoyne, 55) has ‘Speeches
for my Lord of Essex at the tylt’. These deal with the attempts of
Philautia to beguile Erophilus. Four of them are identical with the
four speeches ‘in the Presence’ of (_a_); the fifth is a speech by the
Hermit in the tiltyard. They were printed by Spedding, separately, in
1870, as _A Conference of Pleasure composed for some festive occasion
about the year 1592 by Francis Bacon_; but 1592 is merely a guess which
Whyte’s letter corrects.
(_d_) _S. P. D. Eliz._ ccliv. 67, 68, docketed ‘A Device made by the
Earl of Essex for the Entertainment of her Majesty’, has a speech
by the Squire, distinct from any in the other MSS., a speech by the
Attendant on an Indian Prince, which mentions Philautia, and a draft by
Edward Reynolds, servant to Essex, of a French speech by Philautia. The
two first of these are printed by Spedding, viii. 388, and Devereux,
_Lives of the Earls of Essex_, ii. 501. The references to Philautia are
rather against Spedding’s view that these belong to some occasion other
than that of 1595.
Sir Henry Wotton says of Essex (_Reliquiae Wottonianae_, 21), ‘For his
Writings, they are beyond example, especially in his ... things of
delight at Court ... as may be yet seen in his Impresses and Inventions
of entertainment; and above all in his darling piece of love, and self
love’. This, for what it is worth--and Wotton was secretary to Essex
in 1595, suggests that the Earl himself, rather than Bacon, was the
author of the speeches, which in fact none of the MSS. directly ascribe
to Bacon. But it is hard to distinguish the literary productions of a
public man from those of his staff.
(iv) The _Northumberland MS._ (Burgoyne, 65) has a speech of apology
for absence, headed ‘ffor the Earle of Sussex at y^e tilt an: 96’,
which might be Bacon’s, especially as he wrote from Gray’s Inn to the
Earl of Shrewsbury on 15 Oct. 1596, ‘to borrow a horse and armour for
some public show’ (Lodge, _App._ 79).
(v) Beaumont (q.v.) acknowledges his encouragement of the Inner Temple
and Gray’s Inn mask on 20 Feb. 1613, for the Princess Elizabeth’s
wedding.
(vi) He bore the expenses of the Gray’s Inn _Mask of Flowers_ (q.v.)
on 6 Jan. 1614 for the Earl of Somerset’s wedding. To this occasion
probably belongs an undated letter signed ‘Fr. Bacon’, and addressed
to an unknown lord (_M. S. C._ i. 214 from _Lansdowne MS._ 107, f.
13; Spedding, ii. 370; iv. 394), in which he expresses regret that
‘the joynt maske from the fowr Innes of Cowrt faileth’, and offers a
mask for ‘this occasion’ by a dozen gentlemen of Gray’s Inn, ‘owt of
the honor which they bear to your lordship, and my lord Chamberlayne,
to whome at theyr last maske they were so much bownde’. The last
mask would be (v) above, and the then Lord Chamberlain was Suffolk,
prospective father-in-law of Somerset, to whom the letter may be
supposed to be addressed. But it is odd that the letter is endorsed
‘M^r’ Fr. Bacon, and bound up with papers of Burghley, and it is just
possible, although not, I think, likely, that the reference may be to
some forgotten Elizabethan mask.
(vii) A recent attempt has been made to assign to Bacon the academic
_Pedantius_ (cf. App. K).
JOHN BADGER (_c._ 1575).
A contributor to the Kenilworth entertainment (cf. ch. xxiv, C).
Gascoigne calls him ‘Master Badger of Oxenforde, Maister of Arte, and
Bedle in the same Universitie’. A John Badger of Ch. Ch. took his M.A.
in 1555, and a superior bedel of divinity of the same name made his
will on 15 July 1577 (Foster, _Alumni Oxonienses_, i. 54).
WILLIAM BARKSTED.
For biography, cf. ch. xv (Actors), and for his share in _The Insatiate
Countess_, s.v. Marston.
There is no reason to regard him as the ‘William Buckstead, Comedian’,
whose name is at the end of a _Prologue to a playe to the cuntry
people_ in _Bodl. Ashm. MS._ 38 (198).
BARNABE BARNES (_c._ 1569–1609).
Barnes was born in Yorkshire, the son of Richard Barnes, bishop of
Durham. He entered Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1586, but took no
degree, accompanied Essex to France in 1591, and dedicated his poems
_Parthenophil and Parthenophe_ (1593) to William Percy (q.v.). He was
a friend of Gabriel Harvey and abused by Nashe and Campion. In 1598
he was charged with an attempt at poison, but escaped from prison
(_Athenaeum_, 1904, ii. 240). His _Poems_ were edited by A. B. Grosart
in _Occasional Issues_ (1875). Hazlitt, _Manual_, 23, states that a
manuscript of a play by him with the title _The Battle of Hexham_ was
sold with Isaac Reed’s books in 1807, but this, which some writers call
_The Battle of Evesham_, has not been traced. As Barnes was buried
at Durham in Dec. 1609, it is probable that _The Madcap_ ‘written by
Barnes’, which Herbert licensed for Prince Charles’s men on 3 May 1624,
was by another of the name.
_The Devil’s Charter. 2 Feb. 1607_
_S. R._ 1607, Oct. 16 (Buck). ‘The Tragedie of Pope Alexander the Sixt
as it was played before his Maiestie.’ _John Wright_ (Arber, iii. 361).
1607. The Divils Charter: A Tragedie Conteining the Life and Death of
Pope Alexander the sixt. As it was plaide before the Kings Maiestie,
vpon Candlemasse night last: by his Maiesties Seruants. But more
exactly reuewed, corrected and augmented since by the Author, for the
more pleasure and profit of the Reader. _G. E. for John Wright._
[Dedication by Barnabe Barnes to Sir William Herbert and Sir William
Pope; Prologue with dumb-show and Epilogue.]
_Extracts_ by A. B. Grosart in Barnes’s _Poems_ (1875), and editions by
_R. B. McKerrow_ (1904, _Materialien_, vi) and J. S. Farmer (1913, _S.
F. T._)--_Dissertation_: A. E. H. Swaen, G. C. Moore Smith, and R. B.
McKerrow, _Notes on the D. C. by B. B._ (1906, _M. L. R._ i. 122).
DAVID, LORD BARRY (1585–1610).
David Barry was the eldest son of the ninth Viscount Buttevant, and
the ‘Lo:’ on his title-page represents a courtesy title of ‘Lord’,
or ‘Lording’ as it is given in the lawsuit of _Androwes v. Slater_,
which arose out of the interest acquired by him in 1608 in the
Whitefriars theatre (q.v.). Kirkman’s play-lists (Greg, _Masques_,
ci) and Wood, _Athenae Oxon._ ii. 655, have him as ‘Lord’ Barrey,
which did not prevent Langbaine (1691) and others from turning him
into ‘Lodowick’.--_Dissertations_: J. Q. Adams, _Lordinge (alias
Lodowick) Barry_ (1912, _M. P._ ix. 567); W. J. Lawrence, _The Mystery
of Lodowick Barry_ (1917, _University of North Carolina Studies in
Philology_, xiv. 52).
_Ram Alley. 1607–8_
_S. R._ 1610, Nov. 9 (Buck). ‘A booke called, Ramme Alley, or merry
trickes. _Robert Wilson_ (Arber, iii. 448).
1611. Ram-Alley: Or Merrie-Trickes. A Comedy Diuers times heretofore
acted. By the Children of the Kings Reuels. Written by Lo: Barrey. _G.
Eld for Robert Wilson._ [Prologue and Epilogue.]
1636; 1639.
_Editions_ in Dodsley^4 (1875, x) and by W. Scott (1810, _A. B. D._ ii)
and J. S. Farmer (1913, _S. F. T._).
Fleay, i. 31, attempts to place the play at the Christmas of 1609, but
it is improbable that the King’s Revels ever played outside 1607–8.
Archer’s play-list of 1656 gives it to Massinger. There are references
(ed. Dodsley, pp. 280, 348, 369) to the baboons, which apparently
amused London about 1603–5 (cf. s.v. _Sir Giles Goosecap_), and to the
Jacobean knightings (p. 272).
FRANCIS BEAUMONT (_c._ 1584–1616).
Beaumont was third son of Francis Beaumont, Justice of Common Pleas,
sprung from a gentle Leicestershire family, settled at Grace Dieu
priory in Charnwood Forest. He was born in 1584 or 1585 and had a
brother, Sir John, also known as a poet. He entered Broadgates Hall,
Oxford, in 1597, but took no degree, and the Inner Temple in 1600. In
1614 or 1615 he had a daughter by his marriage, probably recent, to
Ursula Isley of Sundridge Hall, Kent, and another daughter was born
after his death on 6 March 1616. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Beaumont contributed a humorous grammar lecture (preserved in _Sloane
MS._ 1709, f. 13; cf. E. J. L. Scott in _Athenaeum_ for 27 Jan. 1894)
to some Inner Temple Christmas revels of uncertain date. This has
allusions to ‘the most plodderly plotted shew of Lady Amity’ given
‘in this ill-instructed hall the last Christmas’, and to seeing a play
at the Bankside for sixpence. His poetical career probably begins with
the anonymous _Salmacis and Hermaphroditus_ of 1602. His non-dramatic
poems, of which the most important is an epistle to Elizabeth Countess
of Rutland in 1612, appeared after his death in volumes of 1618,
1640, and 1653, which certainly ascribe to him much that is not
his. His connexion with the stage seems to have begun about 1606,
possibly through Michael Drayton, a family friend, in whose _Eglogs_
of that year he appears as ‘sweet Palmeo’. But his first play, _The
Woman Hater_, written independently for Paul’s, shows him under the
influence of Ben Jonson, who wrote him an affectionate epigram (lv),
told Drummond in 1619 that ‘Francis Beaumont loved too much himself
and his own verses’ (Laing, 10), and according to Dryden (_Essay on
Dramatick Poesie_) ‘submitted all his writings to his censure, and,
’tis thought, used his judgment in correcting, if not contriving, all
his plots’. To Jonson’s _Volpone_ (1607) commendatory verses were
contributed both by Beaumont, whose own _Knight of the Burning Pestle_
was produced in the same year, and by John Fletcher, whose names are
thus first combined. Jonson and Beaumont, in their turn, wrote verses
for Fletcher’s _The Faithful Shepherdess_, probably written in 1608 or
1609 and published in 1609 or 1610. About 1608 or 1609 it may also be
supposed that the famous literary collaboration began. This, although
it can only be proved to have covered some half-dozen plays, left the
two names so closely associated that when, in 1647 and 1679, the actors
and publishers issued collections of fifty-three pieces, in all or most
of which Fletcher had had, or was supposed to have had, a hand, they
described them all as ‘by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher’, and thus
left to modern scholarship a task with which it is still grappling.
A contemporary protest by Sir Aston Cockaine pointed out the small
share of Beaumont and the large share of Massinger in the 1647 volume;
and the process of metrical analysis initiated by Fleay and Boyle
may be regarded as fairly successful in fixing the characteristics
of the very marked style of Fletcher, although it certainly raises
more questions than it solves as to the possible shares not only of
Massinger, but of Jonson, Field, Tourneur, Daborne, Middleton, Rowley,
and Shirley, as collaborators or revisers, in the plays as they have
come down to us. Since Fletcher wrote up to his death in 1625, much of
this investigation lies outside my limits, and it is fortunate that
the task of selecting the plays which may, certainly or possibly,
fall before Beaumont’s death in 1616 is one in which a fair number of
definite data are available to eke out the slippery metrical evidence.
It would seem that the collaboration began about 1608 and lasted in
full swing for about four or five years, that in it Beaumont was the
ruling spirit, and that it covered plays, not only for the Queen’s
Revels, for whom both poets had already written independently, and for
their successors the Lady Elizabeth’s, but also, and concurrently,
for the King’s. According to Dryden, two or three plays were written
‘very unsuccessfully’ before the triumph of _Philaster_, but these may
include the independent plays, of which we know that the _Knight of
the Burning Pestle_ and the _Faithful Shepherdess_ failed. The Folios
contain a copy of verses written by Beaumont to Jonson (ed. Waller,
x. 199) ‘before he and M^r. Fletcher came to _London_, with two of
the precedent Comedies then not finish’d, which deferr’d their merry
meetings at the _Mermaid_’, but this probably relates to a temporary
_villeggiatura_ and cannot be precisely dated. It is no doubt to this
period of 1608–13 that we may refer the gossip of Aubrey, i. 96, who
learnt from Sir James Hales and others that Beaumont and Fletcher
‘lived together on the Banke-Side, not far from the Play-house, both
batchelors; lay together; had one wench in the house between them,
which they did so admire; the same cloathes and cloake, &c., betweene
them’. Obviously these conditions ended when Beaumont married an
heiress about 1613, and it seems probable that from this date onwards
he ceased to be an active playwright, although he contributed a mask to
the Princess Elizabeth’s wedding at Shrovetide of that year, and his
hand can be traced, perhaps later still, in _The Scornful Lady_. At any
rate, about 1613 Fletcher was not merely writing independent plays--a
practice which, unlike Beaumont, he may never have wholly dropped--but
also looking about for other contributors. There is some converging
evidence of his collaboration about this date with Shakespeare; and
Henslowe’s correspondence (_Henslowe Papers_, 66) shows him quite
clearly as engaged on a play, possibly _The Honest Man’s Fortune_, with
no less than three others, Daborne, Field, and Massinger. It is not
probable that, from 1616 onwards, Fletcher wrote for any company but
the King’s men. Of the fifty-two plays included in the Ff., forty-four
can be shown from title-pages, actor-lists, licences by the Master
of the Revels, and a Lord Chamberlain’s order of 1641 (_M. S. C._ i.
364) to have belonged to the King’s, six by title-pages and another
Lord Chamberlain’s order (_Variorum_, iii. 159) to have belonged to
the Cockpit theatre, and two, _Wit at Several Weapons_ and _Four
Plays in One_, together with _The Faithful Friends_, which does not
appear in the Ff., cannot be assigned to any company. But some of the
King’s men’s plays and some or all of the Cockpit plays had originally
belonged to Paul’s, the Queen’s Revels, or the Lady Elizabeth’s, and
it is probable that all these formed part of the Lady Elizabeth’s
repertory in 1616, and that upon the reorganization of the company
which then took place they were divided into two groups, of which one
passed with Field to the King’s, while the other remained with his late
fellows and was ultimately left with Christopher Beeston when their
occupation of the Cockpit ended in 1625.
I classify the plays dealt with in these notes as follows: (_a_)
Plays wholly or substantially by Beaumont--_The Woman Hater_, _The
Knight of the Burning Pestle_; (_b_) Plays of the Beaumont-Fletcher
collaboration--_Philaster_, _A Maid’s Tragedy_, _A King and No King_,
_Four Plays in One_, _Cupid’s Revenge_, _The Coxcomb_, _The Scornful
Lady_; (_c_) Plays wholly or substantially by Fletcher--_The Woman’s
Prize_, _The Faithful Shepherdess_, _Monsieur Thomas_, _Valentinian_,
_Bonduca_, _Wit Without Money_; (_d_) Plays of doubtful authorship
and, in some cases, period--_The Captain_, _The Honest Man’s
Fortune_, _The Two Noble Kinsmen_, _The Faithful Friends_, _Thierry
and Theodoret_, _Wit at Several Weapons_, _Love’s Cure_, _The Night
Walker_. Full treatment of _The Two Noble Kinsmen_, as of _Henry VIII_,
in which Fletcher certainly had a hand, is only possible in relation
to Shakespeare. I have not thought it necessary to include every play
which, or a hypothetical version of which, an unsupported conjecture,
generally from Mr. Oliphant, puts earlier than 1616. _The Queen of
Corinth_, _The Noble Gentleman_, _The Little French Lawyer_, _The Laws
of Candy_, _The Knight of Malta_, _The Fair Maid of the Inn_, _The
Chances_, _Beggar’s Bush_, _The Bloody Brother_, _Love’s Pilgrimage_,
_Nice Valour_, and _Rule a Wife and Have a Wife_ are omitted on
this principle, and I believe I might safely have extended the same
treatment to some of those in my class (_d_).
_Collections_
_S. R._ 1646, Sept. 4 (Langley). ‘These severall Tragedies & Comedies
hereunder mencioned (viz^t.) ... [thirty plays named] ... by M^r.
Beamont and M^r. Flesher.’ _H. Robinson and H. Moseley_ (Eyre, i. 244).
1660, June 29. ‘The severall Plays following, vizt.... [names] ... all
six copies written by Fra: Beamont & John Fletcher.’ _H. Robinson and
H. Moseley_ (Eyre, ii. 268).
F_{1}, 1647. Comedies and Tragedies Written by Francis Beaumont and
Iohn Fletcher Gentlemen. Never printed before, And now published by
the Authours Originall Copies. _For H. Robinson and H. Moseley._
[Twenty-nine plays of the 1646 entry, excluding _The Wildgoose Chase_,
and the five plays and one mask of the 1660 entry, none but the mask
previously printed; Portrait of Fletcher by W. Marshall; Epistle to
Philip Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, signed ‘John Lowin, Richard
Robinson, Eylaerd Swanston, Hugh Clearke, Stephen Hammerton, Joseph
Taylor, Robert Benfield, Thomas Pollard, William Allen, Theophilus
Bird’; Epistle to the Reader, signed ‘Ja. Shirley’; The Stationer to
the Readers, signed ‘Humphrey Moseley’ and dated ‘Feb. 14^{th} 1646’;
Thirty-seven sets of Commendatory verses, variously signed; Postscript;
cf. W. W. Greg in _4 Library_, ii. 109.]
F_{2}, 1679. Fifty Comedies and Tragedies. Written by Francis Beaumont
and John Fletcher, Gentlemen. All in one Volume. Published by the
Authors Original Copies, the Songs to each Play being added. _J.
Macock, for John Martyn, Henry Herringman, Richard Marriot._ [The
thirty-four plays and one mask of F_{1}, with eighteen other plays,
all previously printed; Epistle by the Stationers to the Reader; Actor
Lists prefixed to many of the plays.]
1711. The Works of B. and F. 7 vols. _Jacob Tonson._
_Editions_ by Theobald, Seward and Sympson (1750, 10 vols.), G. Colman
(1778, 10 vols.; 1811, 3 vols.), H. Weber (1812, 14 vols., adding _The
Faithful Friends_), G. Darley (1839, 2 vols.; 1862–6, 2 vols.), A. Dyce
(1843–6, 11 vols.; 1852, 2 vols.).
1905–12. A. Glover and A. R. Waller. _The Works of F. B. and J. F._ 10
vols. (_C. E. C._). [Text of F_{2}, with collations of F_{1} and Q_{q}.]
1904–12 (in progress). A. H. Bullen, _The Works of F. B. and J. F.
Variorum Edition._ 4 vols. issued. [Text based on Dyce; editions of
separate plays by P. A. Daniel, R. W. Bond, W. W. Greg, R. B. McKerrow,
J. Masefield, M. Luce, C. Brett, R. G. Martin, E. K. Chambers.]
_Selections_
1887. J. S. L. Strachey, _The Best Plays of B. and F._ 2 vols. (Mermaid
Series). [_Maid’s Tragedy_, _Philaster_, _Thierry and Theodoret_,
_K. B. P._, _King and No King_, _Bonduca_, _Faithful Shepherdess_,
_Valentinian_, and later plays.]
1912. F. E. Schelling, _Beaumont and Fletcher_ (_M. E. D._).
[_Philaster_, _Maid’s Tragedy_, _Faithful Shepherdess_, _Bonduca_.]
_Dissertations_: A. C. Swinburne, _B. and F._ (1875–94, _Studies in
Prose and Poetry_), _The Earlier Plays of B. and F._ (1910, _English
Review_); F. G. Fleay, _On Metrical Tests as applied to Dramatic
Poetry: Part ii, B., F., Massinger_ (1874, _N. S. S. Trans._ 51, 23*,
61*, reprinted, 1876–8, with alterations in _Shakespeare Manual_, 151),
_On the Chronology of the Plays of F. and Massinger_ (1886, _E. S._ ix.
12), and in _B. C._ (1891), i. 164; R. Boyle, _B., F., and Massinger_
(1882–7, _E. S._ v. 74, vii. 66, viii. 39, ix. 209, x. 383), _B., F.,
and Massinger_ (1886, _N. S. S. Trans._ 579), _Mr. Oliphant on B. and
F._ (1892–3, _E. S._ xvii. 171, xviii. 292), _Daborne’s Share in the
B. and F. Plays_ (1899, _E. S._ xxvi. 352); G. C. Macaulay, _F. B.: a
Critical Study_ (1883), _B. and F._ (1910, _C. H._ vi. 107); E. H. C.
Oliphant, _The Works of B. and F._ (1890–2, _E. S._ xiv. 53, xv. 321,
xvi. 180); E. Koeppel, _Quellen-Studien zu den Dramen Ben Jonson’s,
John Marston’s und B. und F.’s_ (1895, _Münchener Beiträge_, xi); C.
E. Norton, _F. B.’s Letter to Ben Jonson_ (1896, _Harvard Studies
and Notes_, v. 19); A. H. Thorndike, _The Influence of B. and F. on
Shakspere_ (1901); O. L. Hatcher, _J. F.: a Study in Dramatic Method_
(1905); R. M. Alden, _Introduction to B.’s Plays_ (1910, _B. L._);
C. M. Gayley, _F. B.: Dramatist_ (1914); W. E. Farnham, _Colloquial
Contractions in B., F., Massinger and Shakespeare as a Test of
Authorship_ (1916, _M. L. A._ xxxi. 326).
_Bibliographies_: A. C. Potter, _A Bibl. of B. and F._ (1890, _Harvard
Bibl. Contributions_, 39); B. Leonhardt, _Litteratur über B. und F._
(1896, _Anglia_, xix. 36, 542).
_The Woman Hater, c. 1606_
_S. R._ 1607, May 20 (Buck). ‘A booke called “The Woman Hater” as it
hath ben lately acted by the Children of Powles.’ _Eleazar Edgar and
Robert Jackson_ (Arber, iii. 349). [A note ‘Sir George Buckes hand
alsoe to it’.]
1607. The Woman Hater. As it hath beene lately Acted by the Children of
Paules. _Sold by John Hodgets._ [Prologue in prose.]
1607. _R. R. sold by John Hodgets._ [A reissue.]
S. R. 1613, April 19. Transfer of Edgar’s share to John Hodgettes
(Arber, iii. 521).
1648.... As it hath beene Acted by his Majesties Servants with great
Applause. Written by John Fletcher Gent. _For Humphrey Moseley._
1649. The Woman Hater, or the Hungry Courtier. A Comedy ... Written by
Francis Beamont and John Fletcher, Gent. _For Humphrey Moseley._ [A
reissue. Prologue in verse, said by Fleay, i. 177, to be Davenant’s,
and Epilogue, used also for _The Noble Gentleman_.]
Fleay, i. 177, and Gayley, 73, put the date in the spring of 1607,
finding a reference in ‘a favourite on the sudden’ (I. iii) to the
success of Robert Carr in taking the fancy of James at the tilt of 24
March 1607, to which Fleay adds that ‘another inundation’ (III. i)
recalls a flood of 20 Jan. 1607. Neither argument is convincing, and
it is not known that the Paul’s boys went on into 1607; they are last
heard of in July 1606. The prologue expresses the author’s intention
not to lose his ears, perhaps an allusion to Jonson’s and Chapman’s
peril after _Eastward Ho!_ in 1605. Gayley notes in II. iii what
certainly looks like a reminiscence of _Antony and Cleopatra_, IV. xiv.
51 and xv. 87, but it is no easier to be precise about the date of
_Antony and Cleopatra_ than about that of _The Woman Hater_. The play
is universally regarded as substantially Beaumont’s and the original
prologue only speaks of a single author, but Davenant in 1649 evidently
supposed it to be Fletcher’s, saying ‘full twenty yeares, he wore the
bayes’. Boyle, Oliphant, Alden, and Gayley suggest among them III.
i, ii; IV. ii; V. i, ii, v as scenes to which Fletcher or some other
collaborator may have given touches.
_The Knight of the Burning Pestle. 1607_
1613. The Knight of the Burning Pestle. _For Walter Burre._ [Epistle to
Robert Keysar, signed ‘W. B.’, Induction with Prologue, Epilogue.]
1635.... Full of Mirth and Delight. Written by Francis Beaumont and
Iohn Fletcher, Gent. As it is now Acted by Her Maiesties Servants at
the Private house in Drury Lane. _N. O. for I. S._ [Epistle to Readers,
Prologue (from Lyly’s _Sapho and Phaon_).]
1635.... Francis Beamont....
_Editions_ by F. W. Moorman (1898, _T. D._), H. S. Murch (1908, _Yale
Studies_, xxxiii), R. M. Alden (1910, _B. L._), W. A. Neilson (1911,
_C. E. D._).--_Dissertations_: R. Boyle, _B. and F.’s K. B. P._ (1889,
_E. S._ xiii. 156); B. Leonhardt, _Ueber B. und F.’s K. B. P._ (1885,
_Annaberg programme_), _Die Text-Varianten von B. und F.’s K. B. P._
(1896, _Anglia_, xix. 509).
The Epistle tells us that the play was ‘in eight daies ... begot and
borne’, ‘exposed to the wide world, who ... utterly reiected it’,
preserved by Keysar and sent to Burre, who had ‘fostred it priuately
in my bosome these two yeares’. The play ‘hopes his father will beget
him a yonger brother’. Burre adds, ‘Perhaps it will be thought to bee
of the race of Don Quixote: we both may confidently sweare, it is his
elder aboue a yeare’. The references to the actors in the induction
as boys and the known connexion of Keysar with the Queen’s Revels
fix the company. The date is more difficult. It cannot be earlier
than 1607, since the reference to a play at the Red Bull in which the
Sophy of Persia christens a child (IV. i. 46) is to Day’s _Travels of
Three English Brothers_ of that year. With other allusions, not in
themselves conclusive, 1607 would agree well enough, notably with Ind.
8, ‘This seuen yeares there hath beene playes at this house’, for it
was just seven years in the autumn of 1607 since Evans set up plays
at the Blackfriars. The trouble is IV. i. 73, ‘Read the play of the
_Foure Prentices of London_, where they tosse their pikes so’, for this
implies that the _Four Prentices_ was not merely produced but in print,
and the earliest extant edition is of 1615. It is, however, quite
possible that the play may have been in print, even as far back as
1594 (cf. s.v. Heywood). Others put it, and with it the _K. B. P._, in
1610, in which case the production would have been at the Whitefriars,
the history of which can only be traced back two or three years and
not seven years before 1610. On the whole, I think the reference to
_Don Quixote_ in the Epistle is in favour of 1607 rather than 1610.
It is, of course, conceivable that Burre only meant to claim that the
_K. B. P._ was a year older than Thomas Shelton’s translation of _Don
Quixote_, which was entered in _S. R._ on 19 Jan. 1611 and published
in 1612. Even this brings us back to the very beginning of 1610, and
the boast would have been a fairly idle one, as Shelton states in his
preface that the translation was actually made ‘some five or six yeares
agoe’. Shelton’s editor, Mr. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, has shown that it was
based on the Brussels edition of 1607. If we put it in 1608 and the _K.
B. P._ in 1607 the year’s priority of the latter is preserved. Most
certainly the _K. B. P._ was not prior to the Spanish _Don Quixote_ of
1605. Its dependence on Cervantes is not such as necessarily to imply
that Beaumont had read the romance, but he had certainly heard of its
general drift and of the particular episodes of the inn taken for a
castle and the barber’s basin. Fleay, Boyle, Moorman, Murch, and Alden
are inclined to assign to Fletcher some or all of the scenes in which
Jasper and Luce and Humphrey take part; but Macaulay, Oliphant and
Gayley regard the play, except perhaps for a touch or two, as wholly
Beaumont’s. Certainly the Epistle suggests that the play had but one
‘father’.
_The Faithful Shepherdess. 1608–9_
N.D. The Faithfull Shepherdesse. By John Fletcher. _For R. Bonian and
H. Walley._ [Commendatory verses by N. F. (‘Nath. Field’, Q_{2}), Fr.
Beaumont, Ben Jonson, G. Chapman; Dedicatory verses to Sir Walter
Aston, Sir William Skipwith, Sir Robert Townsend, all signed ‘John
Fletcher’; Epistle to Reader, signed ‘John Fletcher’.]
_S. R._ 1628, Dec. 8. Transfer from Walley to R. Meighen (Arber, iv.
206).
1629.... newly corrected ... _T. C. for R. Meighen_.
1634.... Acted at Somerset House before the King and Queene on Twelfe
night last, 1633. And divers times since with great applause at the
Private House in Blacke-Friers, by his Majesties Servants.... _A. M.
for Meighen._ [Verses to Joseph Taylor, signed ‘Shakerley Marmion’,
and Prologue, both for the performance of 6 Jan. 1634.]
1656; 1665.
_Editions_ by F. W. Moorman (1897, _T. D._), W. W. Greg (1908, Bullen,
iii), W. A. Neilson (1911, _C. E. D._).
Jonson told Drummond in the winter of 1618–19 (Laing, 17) that
‘Flesher and Beaumont, ten yeers since, hath written the Faithfull
Shipheardesse, a Tragicomedie, well done’. This gives us the date
1608–9, which there is nothing to contradict. The undated Q_{1} may
be put in 1609 or 1610, as Skipwith died on 3 May 1610 and the short
partnership of the publishers is traceable from 22 Dec. 1608 to 14 Jan.
1610. It is, moreover, in Sir John Harington’s catalogue of his plays,
which was made up in 1609 or 1610 (cf. ch. xxii). The presence of
Field, Chapman, and Jonson amongst the verse-writers and the mentions
in Beaumont’s verses of ‘the waxlights’ and of a boy dancing between
the acts point to the Queen’s Revels as the producers. It is clear also
from the verses that the play was damned, and that Fletcher alone, in
spite of Drummond’s report, was the author. This is not doubted on
internal grounds.
_The Woman’s Prize, or, The Tamer Tamed. 1604 <_
1647. The Womans Prize, or The Tamer Tam’d. A Comedy. [Part of F_{1}.
Prologue and Epilogue.]
1679. [Part of F_{2}.]
Fleay, i. 198, Oliphant, and Thorndike, 70, accumulate inconclusive
evidence bearing on the date, of which the most that can be said is
that an answer to _The Taming of the Shrew_ would have more point the
nearer it came to the date of the original, and that the references to
the siege of Ostend in I. iii would be topical during or not long after
that siege, which ended on 8 Sept. 1604. On the other hand, Gayley
(_R. E. C._ iii, lxvi) calls attention to possible reminiscences of
_Epicoene_ (_1609_) and _Alchemist_ (_1610_). I see no justification
for supposing that a play written in 1605 would undergo revision,
as has been suggested, in 1610–14. A revival by the King’s in 1633
got them into some trouble with Sir Henry Herbert, who claimed the
right to purge even an old play of ‘oaths, prophaness, and ribaldrye’
(_Variorum_, iii. 208). Possibly the play is also _The Woman is too
Hard for Him_, which the King’s took to Court on 26 Nov. 1621 (Murray,
ii. 193). But the original writing was not necessarily for this
company. There is general agreement in assigning the play to Fletcher
alone.
_Philaster > 1610_
_S. R._ 1620, Jan. 10 (Taverner). ‘A Play Called Philaster.’ _Thomas
Walkley_ (Arber, iii. 662).
1620. Phylaster, Or Loue lyes a Bleeding. Acted at the Globe by his
Maiesties Seruants. Written by Francis Baymont and Iohn Fletcher. Gent.
_For Thomas Walkley._
1622.... As it hath beene diuerse times Acted, at the Globe, and
Blacke-friers, by his Maiesties Seruants.... The Second Impression,
corrected, and amended. _For Thomas Walkley._ [Epistle to the Reader by
Walkley. Different text of I. i; V. iv, v.]
1628. _A. M. for Richard Hawkins._ [Epistle by the Stationer to the
Understanding Gentry.]
1634; 1639; 1652; N.D. [1663]; 1687.
_Editions_ by J. S. L. Strachey (1887, _Mermaid_, i), F. S. Boas (1898,
_T. D._), P. A. Daniel (1904, _Variorum_, i), A. H. Thorndike (1906,
_B. L._), W. A. Neilson (1911, _C. E. D._).--_Dissertations_: B.
Leonhardt, _Über die Beziehungen von B. und F.’s P. zu Shakespeare’s
Hamlet und Cymbeline_ (1885, _Anglia_, viii. 424) and _Die
Text-Varianten von B. und F.’s P._ (1896, _Anglia_, xix. 34).
The play is apparently referred to in John Davies of Hereford, _Scourge
of Folly_ (_S. R._ 8 Oct. 1610), ep. 206:
_To the well deseruing_ M^r John Fletcher.
_Loue lies ableeding_, if it should not proue
Her vttmost art to shew why it doth loue.
Thou being the _Subiect_ (now) It raignes vpon:
Raign’st in _Arte_, _Iudgement_, and _Inuention_:
_For this I loue thee: and can doe no lesse_
_For thine as faire, as faithfull_ Shepheardesse.
If so, the date 1608–10 is suggested, and I do not think that it is
possible to be more precise. No trustworthy argument can be based with
Gayley, 342, on the fact that Davies’s epigram follows that praising
Ostler as ‘Roscius’ and ‘sole king of actors’; and I fear that the
view of Thorndike, 65, that 1608 is a ‘probable’ conjecture is biased
by a desire to assume priority to _Cymbeline_. There were two Court
performances in the winter of 1612–13, and Fleay, i. 189, suggests
that the versions of I. i and V. iv, v which appear in Q_{1} were
made for these. The epistle to Q_{2} describes them as ‘dangerous and
gaping wounds ... received in the first impression’. There is general
agreement that most of the play, whether Davies knew it or not, is
Beaumont’s. Most critics assign V. iii, iv and some the whole or parts
of I. i, ii, II. ii, iv, and III. ii to Fletcher.
_The Coxcomb. 1608 < > 10_
1647. The Coxcomb. [Part of F_{1}. Prologue and Epilogue.]
1679. [Part of F_{2}. ‘The Principal Actors were Nathan Field, Joseph
Taylor, Giles Gary, Emanuel Read, Rich. Allen, Hugh Atawell, Robert
Benfeild, Will Barcksted.’]
_Dissertation_: A. S. W. Rosenbach, _The Curious Impertinent in English
Dramatic Literature_ (1902, _M. L. N._ xvii. 179).
The play was given at Court by the Queen’s Revels on 2 or 3 Nov.
1612. It passed, doubtless, through the Lady Elizabeth’s, to whom the
actor-list probably belongs, to the King’s, who took it to Court on 5
March 1622 (Murray, ii. 193) and again on 17 Nov. 1636 (Cunningham,
xxiv). There was thus more than one opportunity for the prologue, which
speaks of the play as having a mixed reception at first, partly because
of its length, then ‘long forgot’, and now revived and shortened. The
original date may be between the issue in 1608 of Baudouin’s French
translation of _The Curious Impertinent_ from _Don Quixote_, which in
original or translation suggested its plot, and Jonson’s _Alchemist_
(1610), IV. vii. 39, ‘You are ... a Don Quixote. Or a Knight o’ the
curious coxcombe’. The prologue refers to ‘makers’, and there is fair
agreement in giving some or all of I. iv, vi, II. iv, III. iii, and V.
ii to Beaumont and the rest to Fletcher. Fleay, Boyle, Oliphant, and
Gayley think that there has been revision by a later writer, perhaps
Massinger or W. Rowley.
_The Maid’s Tragedy > 1611_
_S. R._ 1619, April 28 (Buck). ‘A play Called The maides tragedy.’
_Higgenbotham and Constable_ (Arber, iii. 647).
1619. The Maides Tragedy. As it hath beene divers times Acted at the
Blacke-friers by the King’s Maiesties Seruants. _For Francis Constable._
1622.... Newly perused, augmented, and inlarged, This second
Impression. _For Francis Constable._
1630.... Written by Francis Beaumont, and Iohn Fletcher Gentlemen. The
Third Impression, Reuised and Refined. _A. M. for Richard Hawkins._
1638; 1641; 1650 [1660?]; 1661.
_Editions_ by J. S. L. Strachey (1887, _Mermaid_, i), P. A. Daniel
(1904, _Variorum_, i), A. H. Thorndike (1906, _B. L._), W. A. Neilson
(1911, _C. E. D._).--_Dissertation_: B. Leonhardt, _Die Text-Varianten
in B. und F.’s M. T._ (1900, _Anglia_, xxiii. 14).
The play must have been known by 31 Oct. 1611 when Buck named the
_Second Maiden’s Tragedy_ (q.v.) after it, and it was given at Court
during 1612–13. An inferior limit is not attainable and any date within
_c._ 1608–11 is possible. Gayley, 349, asks us to accept the play as
more mature than, and therefore later than, _Philaster_. Fleay, i. 192,
thinks that the mask in I. ii was added after the floods in the winter
of 1612, but you cannot bring Neptune into a mask without mention of
floods. As to authorship there is some division of opinion, especially
on II. ii and IV. iii; subject thereto, a balance of opinion gives I,
II, III, IV. ii, iv and V. iv to Beaumont, and only IV. i and V. i, ii,
iii to Fletcher.
An episode (I. ii) consists of a mask at the wedding of Amintor and
Evadne, with an introductory dialogue between Calianax, Diagoras, who
keeps the doors, and guests desiring admission. ‘The ladies are all
placed above,’ says Diagoras, ‘save those that come in the King’s
troop.’ Calianax has an ‘office’, evidently as Chamberlain. ‘He would
run raging among them, and break a dozen wiser heads than his own in
the twinkling of an eye.’
The maskers are Proteus and other sea-gods; the presenters Night,
Cinthia, Neptune, Aeolus, Favonius, and other winds, who ‘rise’ or come
‘out of a rock’. There are two ‘measures’ between hymeneal songs, but
no mention of taking out ladies.
In an earlier passage (I. i. 9) a poet says of masks, ‘They must
commend their King, and speak in praise Of the Assembly, bless the
Bride and Bridegroom, In person of some God; th’are tyed to rules Of
flattery’.
_A King and No King. 1611_
_S. R._ 1618, Aug. 7 (Buck). ‘A play Called A king and noe kinge.’
_Blount_ (Arber, iii. 631).
1619. A King and no King. Acted at the Globe, by his Maiesties
Seruants: Written by Francis Beamount and Iohn Flecher. _For Thomas
Walkley._ [Epistle to Sir Henry Nevill, signed ‘Thomas Walkley’.]
1625.... Acted at the Blacke-Fryars, by his Maiesties Seruants. And now
the second time Printed, according to the true Copie.... _For Thomas
Walkley._
1631; 1639; 1655; 1661; 1676.
_Editions_ by R. W. Bond (1904, Bullen, i), R. M. Alden (1910, _B.
L._).--_Dissertation_: B. Leonhardt, _Die Text-Varianten von B.’s und
F.’s A K. and No K._ (1903, _Anglia_, xxvi. 313).
This is a fixed point, both for date and authorship, in the history
of the collaboration. Herbert records (_Var._ iii. 263) that it was
‘allowed to be acted in 1611’ by Sir George Buck. It was in fact acted
at Court by the King’s on 26 Dec. 1611 and again during 1612–13. A
performance at Hampton Court on 10 Jan. 1637 is also upon record
(Cunningham, xxv). The epistle, which tells us that the publisher
received the play from Nevill, speaks of ‘the authors’ and of their
‘future labours’; rather oddly, as Beaumont was dead. There is
practical unanimity in assigning I, II, III, IV. iv, and V. ii, iv to
Beaumont and IV. i, ii, iii and V. i, iii to Fletcher.
_Cupid’s Revenge > 1612_
_S. R._ 1615, April 24 (Buck). ‘A play called Cupid’s revenge.’
_Josias Harrison_ (Arber, iii. 566).
1615. Cupid’s Revenge. As it hath beene diuers times Acted by the
Children of her Maiesties Reuels. By Iohn Fletcher. _Thomas Creede
for Josias Harrison._ [Epistle by Printer to Reader.]
1630.... As it was often Acted (with great applause) by the Children
of the Reuells. Written by Fran. Beaumont & Io. Fletcher. The second
edition. _For Thomas Jones._
1635.... The third Edition. _A. M._
The play was given by the Queen’s Revels at Court on 5 Jan. 1612, 1
Jan. 1613, and either 9 Jan. or 27 Feb. 1613. It was revived by the
Lady Elizabeth’s at Court on 28 Dec. 1624, and is in the Cockpit list
of 1639. It cannot therefore be later than 1611–12, while no close
inferior limit can be fixed. Fleay, i. 187, argues that it has been
altered for Court, chiefly by turning a wicked king, queen, and prince
into a duke, duchess, and marquis. I doubt if this implies revision
as distinct from censorship, and in any case it does not, as Fleay
suggests, imply the intervention of a reviser other than the original
authors. The suggestion has led to chaos in the distribution of
authorship, since various critics have introduced Daborne, Field, and
Massinger as possible collaborators or revisers. The stationer speaks
of a single ‘author’, meaning Fletcher, but says he was ‘not acquainted
with him’. And the critics at least agree in finding both Beaumont and
Fletcher, pretty well throughout.
_The Captain. 1609 < > 12_
1647. The Captain. [Part of F_{1}. Prologue and Epilogue.]
1679. The Captain. A Comedy. [Part of F_{2}.] ‘The principal Actors
were, Richard Burbadge, Henry Condel, William Ostler, Alexander Cooke.’
The play was given by the King’s at Court during 1612–13, and
presumably falls between that date and the admission of Ostler to the
company in 1609. The 1679 print, by a confusion, gives the scene as
‘Venice, Spain’, but this hardly justifies the suggestion of Fleay, i.
195, that we have a version of Fletcher’s work altered for the Court
by Barnes. He had formerly conjectured collaboration between Fletcher
and Jonson (_E. S._ ix. 18). The prologue speaks of ‘the author’;
Fleay thinks that the mention of ‘twelve pence’ as the price of a seat
indicates a revival. Several critics find Massinger; Oliphant finds
Rowley; and Boyle and Oliphant find Beaumont, as did Macaulay, 196, in
1883, but apparently not in 1910 (_C. H._ vi. 137).
_Two Noble Kinsmen. 1613_
_S. R._ 1634, April 8 (Herbert). ‘A Tragicomedy called the two noble
kinsmen by John Fletcher and William Shakespeare.’ _John Waterson_
(Arber, iv. 316).
1634. The Two Noble Kinsmen: Presented at the Black-friers by the Kings
Maiesties servants, with great applause: Written by the memorable
Worthies of their time; Mr. John Fletcher, and Mr. William Shakspeare.
Gent. _Tho. Cotes for Iohn Waterson._ [Prologue and Epilogue.]
1679. [Part of F_{2} of Beaumont and Fletcher.]
_Editions_ by W. W. Skeat (1875), H. Littledale (1876–85, _N. S. S._),
C. H. Herford (1897, _T. D._), J. S. Farmer (1910, _T. F. T._), and
with _Works_ of Beaumont and Fletcher, _Sh. Apocrypha_, and sometimes
_Works_ of Shakespeare.--_Dissertations_: W. Spalding, _A Letter on
Sh.’s Authorship of T. N. K._ (1833; 1876, _N. S. S._); S. Hickson,
_The Shares of Sh. and F. in T. N. K._ (1847, _Westminster Review_,
xlvii. 59; 1874, _N. S. S. Trans._ 25*, with additions by F. G. Fleay
and F. J. Furnivall); N. Delius, _Die angebliche Autorschaft des T. N.
K._ (1878, _Jahrbuch_, xiii. 16); R. Boyle, _Sh. und die beiden edlen
Vettern_ (1881, _E. S._ iv. 34), _On Massinger and T. N. K._ (1882,
_N. S. S. Trans._ 371); T. Bierfreund, _Palamon og Arcite_ (1891);
E. H. C. Oliphant (1892, _E. S._ xv. 323); B. Leuschner, _Über das
Verhältniss von T. N. K. zu Chaucer’s Knightes Tale_ (1903, _Halle
diss._); O. Petersen, _The T. N. K._ (1914, _Anglia_, xxxviii. 213); H.
D. Sykes, _The T. N. K._ (1916, _M. L. R._ xi. 136); A. H. Cruickshank,
_Massinger and T. N. K._ (1922).
The date of _T. N. K._ is fairly well fixed to 1613 by its adaptation
of Beaumont’s wedding mask of Shrovetide in that year; there would be
a confirmation in Jonson, _Bartholomew Fair_ (1614), iv. 3,
_Quarlous._ Well my word is out of the _Arcadia_, then: _Argalus_.
_Win-wife._ And mine out of the play, _Palemon_;
did not the juxtaposition of the _Arcadia_ suggest that the allusion
may be, not to the Palamon of _T. N. K._ but to the Palaemon of
Daniel’s _The Queen’s Arcadia_ (1606). In spite of the evidence of
the t.p. attempts have been made to substitute Beaumont, or, more
persistently, Massinger, for Shakespeare as Fletcher’s collaborator.
This question can only be discussed effectively in connexion with
Shakespeare.
_The Honest Man’s Fortune. 1613_
[_MS._] _Dyce MS._ 9, formerly in Heber collection.
1647. The Honest Mans Fortune. [Part of F_{1}. After play, verses ‘Upon
an Honest Mans Fortune. By M^r. John Fletcher’, beginning ‘You that can
look through Heaven, and tell the Stars’.]
1679. The Honest Man’s Fortune. A Tragicomedie. [Part of F_{2}. ‘The
principal actors were Nathan Field, Joseph Taylor, Rob. Benfield, Will
Eglestone, Emanuel Read, Thomas Basse.’]
_Dissertation_: K. Richter, _H. M. F. und seine Quellen_ (1905, _Halle
diss._).
On the fly-leaf of the MS. is ‘The Honest Man’s Fortune, Plaide in
the yeare 1613’, and in another hand at the end of the text, ‘This
Play, being an olde one, and the Originall lost was reallow’d by
mee this 8 Febru. 1624. Att the intreaty of Mr. .’ The last word is
torn off, but a third hand has added ‘Taylor’. The MS. contains some
alterations, partly by the licenser, partly by the stage-manager or
prompter. The latter include the names of three actors, ‘G[eorge]
Ver[non]’, ‘J: R Cro’ and ‘G. Rick’. The ending of the last scene in
the MS. differs from that of the Ff. The endorsement is confirmed by
Herbert’s entry in his diary (_Variorum_, iii. 229), ‘For the King’s
company. An olde play called The Honest Mans Fortune, the originall
being lost, was re-allowed by mee at M^r. Taylor’s intreaty, and on
condition to give mee a booke [The Arcadia], this 8 Februa. 1624.’ The
actor-list suggests that the original performers were Lady Elizabeth’s
men, after the Queen’s Revels had joined them in March 1613. Fleay,
i. 196, suggests that this is the play by Fletcher, Field, Massinger,
and Daborne which is the subject of some of Henslowe’s correspondence
and was finally delivered on 5 Aug. 1613 (Greg, _Henslowe Papers_, 65,
90). Attempts to combine this indication with stylistic evidence have
led the critics to some agreement that Fletcher is only responsible
for V and that Massinger is to be found in III, and for the rest into
a quagmire of conjecture amongst the names of Beaumont, Fletcher,
Massinger, Field, Daborne, Tourneur, and Cartwright. The appended
verses of the Ff. are not in the _Dyce MS._, but they are in _Addl.
MS._ 25707, f. 66, and _Bodl. Rawlinson Poet. MS._ 160, f. 20, where
they are ascribed to Fletcher, and in Beaumont’s _Poems_ (1653).
_Bonduca. 1609 < > 14_
1647. Bonduca, A Tragedy. [Part of F_{1}.]
1679. [Part of F_{2}. ‘The Principal Actors were Richard Burbadge,
Henry Condel, William Eglestone, Nich. Toolie, William Ostler, John
Lowin, John Underwood, Richard Robinson.’]
_Dissertations_: B. Leonhardt, _Die Text-Varianten von B. und F.’s B._
(1898, _Anglia_, xx. 421) and _Bonduca_ (_E. S._ xiii. 36).
The actor-list is of the King’s men between 1609–11 or between 1613–14,
as these are the only periods during which Ecclestone and Ostler
can have played together. The authorship is generally regarded as
substantially Fletcher’s; and the occasional use of rhyme in II. i and
IV. iv hardly justifies Oliphant’s theory of an earlier version by
Beaumont, or the ascription by Fleay and Macaulay of these scenes to
Field, whose connexion with the King’s does not seem to antedate 1616.
_Monsieur Thomas. 1610 < > 16_
_S. R._ 1639, Jan. 22 (Wykes). ‘A Comedy called Monsieur Thomas, by
master John Fletcher.’ _Waterson_ (Arber, iv. 451).
1639. Monsieur Thomas. A Comedy. Acted at the Private House in Blacke
Fryers. The Author, Iohn Fletcher, Gent. _Thomas Harper for John
Waterson._ [Epistle to Charles Cotton, signed ‘Richard Brome’ and
commendatory verses by the same.]
N.D. [_c._ 1661]. Fathers Own Son. A Comedy. Formerly Acted at the
Private House in Black Fryers; and now at the Theatre in Vere Street
by His Majesties Servants. The Author John Fletcher Gent. _For Robert
Crofts._ [Reissue with fresh t.p.]
_Edition_ by R. G. Martin (1912, Bullen, iv).--_Dissertations_: H.
Guskar, _Fletcher’s Monsieur Thomas und seine Quellen_ (1905, _Anglia_,
xxviii. 397; xxix. 1); A. L. Stiefel, _Zur Quellenfrage von John
Fletcher’s Monsieur Thomas_ (1906, _E. S._ xxxvi. 238); O. L. Hatcher,
_The Sources of Fletcher’s Monsieur Thomas_ (1907, _Anglia_, xxx. 89).
The title-page printed at the time of the revival by the King’s men
of the Restoration enables us to identify _Monsieur Thomas_ with the
_Father’s Own Son_ of the Cockpit repertory in 1639, and like the
other plays of the Beaumont and Fletcher series in that repertory it
was probably written by 1616, and either for the Queen’s Revels or
for the Lady Elizabeth’s. An allusion in II. iii. 104 to ‘all the
feathers in the Friars’ might indicate production at Porter’s Hall in
the Blackfriars about that year. The play cannot be earlier than its
source, Part ii (1610) of H. d’Urfé’s _Astrée_, and by 1610 the more
permanent Blackfriars house had passed to the King’s, by whom the
performances referred to on the original title-page must therefore
have been given. Perhaps the explanation is that there had been some
misunderstanding about the distribution of the Lady Elizabeth’s men’s
plays between the King’s and the Cockpit, and that a revival by the
King’s in 1639 led the Cockpit managers to get the Lord Chamberlain’s
order of 10 Aug. 1639 (_Variorum_, iii. 159) appropriating their
repertory to them. The authorship is ascribed with general assent to
Fletcher alone.
_Valentinian. 1610 < > 14_
1647. The Tragedy of Valentinian. [Part of F_{1}. Epilogue.]
1679. [Part of F_{2}. ‘The principal Actors were, Richard Burbadge,
Henry Condel, John Lowin, William Ostler, John Underwood.’]
_Edition_ by R. G. Martin (1912, Bullen, iv).
The actor-list is of the King’s men before the death of Ostler on 16
Dec. 1614, and the play must fall between this date and the publication
of its source, Part ii (1610) of H. d’Urfé’s _Astrée_. There is general
agreement in assigning it to Fletcher alone.
_Wit Without Money, c. 1614_
_S. R._ 1639, April 25 (Wykes). ‘These fiue playes ... Witt without
money.’ _Crooke and William Cooke_ (Arber, iv. 464).
1639. Wit Without Money. A Comedie, As it hath beene Presented with
good Applause at the private house in Drurie Lane, by her Majesties
Servants. Written by Francis Beamount and John Flecher. Gent. _Thomas
Cotes for Andrew Crooke and William Cooke._
1661.... The Second Impression Corrected. _For Andrew Crooke._
_Edition_ by R. B. McKerrow (1905, Bullen, ii).
Allusions to the New River opened in 1613 (IV. v. 61) and to an alleged
Sussex dragon of Aug. 1614 (II. iv. 53) suggest production not long
after the latter date. There is general agreement in assigning the play
to Fletcher alone. It passed into the Cockpit repertory and was played
there both by Queen Henrietta’s men and in 1637 by Beeston’s boys
(_Variorum_, iii. 159, 239). Probably, therefore, it was written for
the Lady Elizabeth’s.
_The Scornful Lady. 1613 < > 17_
_S. R._ 1616, March 19 (Buck). ‘A plaie called The scornefull ladie
written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher.’ _Miles Partriche_
(Arber, iii. 585).
1616. The Scornful Ladie. A Comedie. As it was Acted (with great
applause) by the Children of Her Maiesties Reuels in the Blacke-Fryers.
Written by Fra. Beaumont and Io. Fletcher, Gent. _For Miles Partriche._
1625.... As it was now lately Acted (with great applause) by the Kings
Maiesties seruants, at the Blacke-Fryers.... _For M. P., sold by Thomas
Jones._
1630, 1635, 1639, 1651 (_bis_).
_Edition_ by R. W. Bond (1904, Bullen, i).
References to ‘talk of the Cleve wars’ (V. iii. 66) and ‘some cast
Cleve captain’ (V. iv. 54) cannot be earlier than 1609 when the wars
broke out after the death of the Duke of Cleves on 25 March, and there
can hardly have been ‘cast’ captains until some time after July 1610
when English troops first took part. Fleay, i. 181, calls attention to
an allusion to the binding by itself of the Apocrypha (I. ii. 46) which
was discussed for the A. V. and the Douay Version, both completed in
1610; and Gayley to a reminiscence (IV. i. 341) of _Epicoene_ which,
however, was acted in 1609, not, as Gayley thinks, 1610. None of these
indications, however, are of much importance in view of another traced
by Gayley (III. ii. 17):
I will style thee noble, nay, Don Diego;
I’ll woo thy infanta for thee.