Nichols, _James_, ii. 145 (1828).
On arrival, in the park, at an ‘antique gate’ with complimentary
inscriptions, were speeches by Merimna an enchantress, and Saturn; at
the top of the stairs to the great chamber another speech by Merimna
and a gift of a waistcoat.
Later in the great chamber was a mask by four knights and four
gentlemen, in carnation and white, and vizards like stars, representing
sons of Mercury, with pages in blue, and Cynthia and Ariadne as
presenters. A traverse ‘slided away’, and disclosed the presenters
on clouds. Later a second traverse ‘sank down’, and the maskers
appeared throned at the top of a wood. They danced ‘a new measure’,
then ‘presented their shields’, and took out the ladies for measures,
galliards, corantos and lavoltas. ‘The night being much spent’, came
their ‘departing measure’.
At departure were an eclogue by a shepherd and a nymph, and a gift of a
cabinet by Niobe in the little park.
_Mountebank’s Mask. 1618_ (?)
The ascription to Marston of this Gray’s Inn mask rests on an
unverifiable assertion by Collier (cf. Bullen, _Marston_, iii. 418;
Brotanek, 356), and the known dates of Marston’s career render it
extremely improbable.
JOHN MASON (1581–2--?).
The degree boasted on his title-page leads to the identification of
Mason as a son of Richard Mason, priest, of Cavendish, Suffolk, and
pupil of Bury St. Edmunds school, who matriculated from Caius College,
Cambridge, as a sizar at the age of fourteen on 6 July 1596, and took
the degree of B.A. in 1601 and M.A. in 1606 from St. Catharine’s Hall.
He was a member of the King’s Revels syndicate in 1608, and nothing
further is known of him, since the combination of names is too common
to justify his identification with the schoolmaster of Camberwell,
Surrey, whose school-play is described in _Princeps Rhetoricus_ (1648;
cf. C. S. Northup in _E. S._ xlv. 154).
_The Turk. 1607–8_
_S. R._ 1609, March 10 (Segar). ‘A booke called The tragedy of the
Turke with the death of Borgias by John Mason gent.’ _John Busby_
(Arber, iii. 403).
1610. The Turke. A Worthie Tragedie. As it hath bene diuers times acted
by the Children of his Maiesties Reuels. Written by Iohn Mason Maister
of Artes. _E. A. for John Busbie._ [Prologue and Epilogue.]
1632. An excellent Tragedy of Mulleasses the Turke, and Borgias
Governour of Florence. Full of Interchangeable variety; beyond
expectation.... _T. P. for Francis Falkner._
_Edition_ by J. Q. Adams (1913, _Materialien_,
xxxvii).--_Dissertation_: G. C. Moore Smith, _John Mason and
Edward Sharpham_ (1913, _M. L. R._ viii. 371).
As a King’s Revels play this may be put in 1607–8. An earlier date has
been thought to be indicated by _Eastward Ho!_ (1605), II. ii. 41,
‘_Via_, the curtaine that shaddowed Borgia’, but if the reference is
to a play, Borgia may well have figured in other plays. A play ‘Vom
Turcken’ was taken by Spencer to Nuremberg in 1613 (Herz, 66).
CHARLES MASSEY.
For his career as an actor, cf. ch. xv.
He apparently wrote _Malcolm King of Scots_ for the Admiral’s, to
which he belonged, in April 1602, and began _The Siege of Dunkirk,
with Alleyn the Pirate_ in March 1603. Neither play survives.
PHILIP MASSINGER (1583–1640).
Massinger, baptized at Salisbury on 24 Nov. 1583, was son of Arthur
Massinger, a confidential servant of Henry, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. He
entered at St. Alban Hall, Oxford, and left without a degree in 1606.
Little is known of him for some years thereafter. He is conjectured to
have become a Catholic and thus to have imperilled his relations with
the Herbert family, at any rate until the time of Philip, the 4th earl,
who was certainly his patron. He was buried at St. Saviour’s on 18
March 1640 and left a widow. The greater part of his dramatic career,
to which all his independent plays belong, falls outside the scope of
this notice, but on 4 July 1615 he gave a joint bond with Daborne for
£3 to Henslowe, and some undated correspondence probably of 1613 shows
that he was collaborating in one or more plays with Daborne, Field, and
Fletcher.
_Collections_
T. Coxeter (1759), J. M. Mason (1779), W. Gifford (1805), H. Coleridge
(1840, 1848, 1851), F. Cunningham (1871, 3 vols.). [These include _The
Old Law_, _The Fatal Dowry_, and _The Virgin Martyr_, but not any plays
from the Beaumont and Fletcher Ff.]
_Selections_
1887–9. A. Symons, _The Best Plays of P. M._ 2 vols. (_Mermaid
Series_). [Includes _The Fatal Dowry_ and _The Virgin Martyr_.]
1912. L. A. Sherman, _P. M._ (_M. E. D._).
_Dissertations_: S. R. Gardiner, _The Political Element in M._ (1876,
_N. S. S. Trans._ 314); J. Phelan, _P. M._ (1879–80, _Anglia_, ii. 1,
504; iii. 361); E. Koeppel, _Quellenstudien zu den Dramen G. Chapman’s,
P. M.’s und J. Ford’s_ (1897, _Q. F._ lxxxii); W. von Wurzbach, _P. M._
(1899–1900, _Jahrbuch_, xxxv. 214, xxxvi. 128); C. Beck, _P. M. The
Fatal Dowry_ (1906); A. H. Cruickshank, _Philip Massinger_ (1920).
It is doubtful how far Massinger’s dramatic activity began before 1616.
For ascriptions to him, s.v. Beaumont and Fletcher (_Captain_, _Cupid’s
Revenge_, _Coxcomb_, _Scornful Lady_, _Honest Man’s Fortune_, _Faithful
Friends_, _Thierry and Theodoret_, _T. N. K._, _Love’s Cure_), Anthony
Brewer (_The Lovesick King_), and _Second Maiden’s Tragedy_ (ch. xxiv).
It has also been suggested that a _Philenzo and Hypollita_ and an
_Antonio and Vallia_, ascribed to him in late records, but not extant,
may represent revisions of early work by Dekker (q.v.).
FRANCIS MERBURY (_c._ 1579).
At the end of the epilogue to the following play is written ‘Amen,
quoth fra: Merbury’. The formula may denote only a scribe, but a
precisely similar one denotes the author in the case of Preston’s
_Cambyses_ (q.v.).
_A Marriage between Wit and Wisdom. c. 1579_
[_MS._] _Brit. Mus. Addl. MS._ 26782, formerly _penes_ Sir Edward
Dering.
_Editions_ by J. O. Halliwell (1846, _Sh. Soc._), J. S. Farmer (1909,
_T. F. T._).
The MS. has a title-page, with the date 1579, an arrangement of the
parts for six actors and the title ‘The ---- of a Marige betweene wit
and wisdome very frutefull and mixed full of pleasant mirth as well
for The beholders as the Readers or hearers neuer before imprinted’.
There are nine Scenes in two Acts, with a Prologue and Epilogus. The
characters are almost wholly allegorical. Idleness is ‘the vice’. The
stage-directions mention a ‘stage’. Halliwell prints the mutilated
word left blank in the title above as ‘Contract’, no doubt rightly.
Conceivably the play was in fact printed in 1579, as ‘Mariage of wit
and wisdome’ is in Rogers and Ley’s play-list of 1656 (Greg, _Masques_,
lxxxvii).
The play might be identical with the lost Paul’s moral of _The Marriage
of Mind and Measure_ (cf. App. B), which also belongs to 1579. Fleay,
ii. 287, 294, infers from a not very conclusive reference to a ‘King’
in sc. iv that it dates from the time of Edward VI. He also identifies
it with the _Hit Nail o’ th’ Head_ named in _Sir Thomas More_ (q.v.)
because that phrase is quoted in the Epilogus, curiously disregarding
the fact that the _Sir Thomas More_ list names the play under its
existing title as distinct from _Hit Nail o’ th’ Head_. Most of the
plays in the _Sir Thomas More_ list seem to be pre-Elizabethan; cf.
_Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 200.
THOMAS MIDDLETON (_c._ 1570–1627).
Thomas Middleton was a Londoner and of a gentle family. The date of
his birth can only be roughly conjectured from the probability that
he was one of two Thomas Middletons who entered Gray’s Inn in 1593
and 1596, and of his earlier education nothing is known. His first
work was _The Wisdom of Solomon Paraphrased_ (1597), and he may be
the T. M. of _The Black Book_ (1604) and other pamphlets in prose and
verse. He appears as a dramatist, possibly as early as 1599 in _The
Old Law_ and certainly in Henslowe’s diary during 1602, writing an
unnamed play for Worcester’s men, and for the Admiral’s _Caesar’s Fall
or The Two Shapes_ with Dekker (q.v), Drayton, Munday, and Webster,
and by himself, _Randal Earl of Chester_, and a prologue and epilogue
to Greene’s _Friar Bacon_ (q.v.). This work is all lost, but by 1604
he had also collaborated with Dekker for the Admiral’s in the extant
_Honest Whore_. From 1602, if not from 1599, to the end of their career
in 1606 or 1607, he was also writing diligently for the Paul’s boys. I
think he is referred to with their other ‘apes and guls’, Marston and
Dekker, in Marston’s _Jack Drum’s Entertainment_ (1600), IV. 40:
How like you _Musus_ fashion in his carriage?
O filthilie, he is as blunt as _Paules_.
Brabant, the speaker, represents Jonson, who told Drummond in 1619
that he was ‘not of the number of the Faithfull, i. e. _Poets_, and but
a base fellow’ (Laing, 12). Occasional plays for several companies and
the beginnings of employment in city pageantry occupied 1607–16, and
to later periods belong a fruitful partnership with William Rowley for
Prince Charles’s men, and some slight share in the heterogeneous mass
of work that passes under the names of Beaumont and Fletcher. He also
wrote a few independent plays, of which _A Game at Chess_ (1624) got
him into political trouble. At some time before 1623 a few lines of his
got interpolated into the text of _Macbeth_ (cf. _Warwick_ edition, p.
164). In 1620 he obtained a post as Chronologer to the City. He married
Maria Morbeck, had a son Edward, and dwelt at Newington Butts, where he
was buried on 4 July 1627.
_Collections_
1840. A Dyce, _Works of T. M._ 5 vols.
1885–6. A. H. Bullen, _Works of T. M._ 8 vols. [Omits _The Honest
Whore_.]
1887–90. H. Ellis, _The Best Plays of T. M._ 2 vols. (Mermaid Series).
[Includes _Trick to Catch the Old One_, _Chaste Maid in Cheapside_,
_Widow_, _Roaring Girl_, _Mayor of Queenborough_, and later plays.]
_Dissertations_: J. Arnheim, _T. M._ (1887, _Archiv_, lxxviii. 1,
129, 369); P. G. Wiggin, _An Inquiry into the Authorship of the
Middleton-Rowley Plays_ (1897, _Radcliffe College Monographs_, ix);
H. Jung, _Das Verhältniss T. M.’s zu Shakspere_ (1904, _Münchener
Beiträge_, xxix).
PLAYS
_The Old Law. 1599_
1656. The Excellent Comedy, called The Old Law; Or A new way to please
you. By Phil. Massenger. Tho. Middleton. William Rowley. Acted before
the King and Queene at Salisbury House, and at severall other places,
with great Applause. Together with an exact and perfect Catalogue
of all the Playes, with the Authors Names, and what are Comedies,
Tragedies, Histories, Pastoralls, Masks, Interludes, more exactly
Printed than ever before. _For Edward Archer._
_Editions_ with Massinger’s _Works_ (q.v.).--_Dissertation_: E. E.
Morris, _On the Date and Composition of T. O. L._ (_M. L. A._ xvii. 1).
It is generally supposed that in some form the play dates from 1599,
as in III. i. 34 a woman was ‘born in an. 1540, and now ’tis 99’. Of
the three authors only Middleton can then have been writing. Morris,
after elaborate study of the early work and the versification of all
three, concludes that Rowley (_c._ 1615) and Massinger (_c._ 1625)
successively revised an original by Middleton. The Paul’s plays began
in 1599, but it cannot be assumed that this was one of them. Stork, 48,
doubts the 1599 date and is inclined to assume collaboration between
the three writers _c._ 1615.
_Blurt Master Constable. 1601–2_
_S. R._ 1602, June 7. ‘A Booke called Blurt Master Constable. _Edward
Aldee_ (Arber, iii. 207).
1602. Blurt Master Constable. Or The Spaniards Night-walke. As it hath
bin sundry times priuately acted by the Children of Paules. _For Henry
Rocket._
_Edition_ [by W. R. Chetwood] in _A Select Collection of Old Plays_
(1750).
Bullen suggests that V. iii. 179, ‘There be many of your countrymen in
Ireland, signior’, said to a Spaniard, reflects the raid of Spaniards
in Sept. 1601. They were taken at Kinsale in June 1602. A parallel in
III. i. 104 with _Macbeth_, II. ii. 3, cannot be taken with Fleay, ii.
90, as proof of posteriority.
_The Phoenix. 1603–4_
_S. R._ 1607, May 9 (Buck). ‘A Booke called The Phenix.’ _Arthur
Johnson_ (Arber, iii. 348).
1607. The Phoenix, As It hath beene sundry times Acted by the Children
of Paules. And presented before his Maiestie. _E. A. for A. I._
1630. _T. H. for R. Meighen._
The only available performance before James was on 20 Feb. 1604, and
the imitation of _Volpone_ (1605) suggested by Fleay, ii. 92, is not
clear enough to cause any difficulty. Knights are satirized in I. vi.
150, II. iii. 4, and there is an allusion to the unsettled state of
Ireland in I. v. 6.
_A Trick to Catch the Old One. 1604 < > 6_ (?)
_S. R._ 1607, Oct. 7 (Buck). ‘Twoo plaies ... thother A trick to catche
the old one.’ _George Eld_ (Arber, iii. 360).
1608. A Trick to Catch the Old One. As it hath beene lately Acted, by
the Children of Paules. _George Eld._
1608.... As it hath beene often in Action, both at Paules, and the
Black Fryers. Presented before his Maiestie on New yeares night last.
Composed by T. M. _G. E. sold by Henry Rockett._ [Another issue.]
1616.... By T. Middleton. _George Eld for Thomas Langley._
_Editions_ in _O. E. D._ (1830, iii) and by C. W. Dilke (1814, _O. E.
P._ v) and W. A. Neilson (1911, _C. E. D._).
The date of Q_{1} is doubtless 1608/9 and the Court performance that by
the Children of Blackfriars on 1 Jan. 1609. They must have taken the
play over from Paul’s when these went under in 1606 or 1607. The title
is probably proverbial, and therefore the phrase ‘We are in the way to
catch the old one’ in _Isle of Gulls_, II. v, hardly enables us to date
the play with Fleay, ii. 92, before Day’s, which was in Feb. 1606.
_A Mad World, my Masters. 1604 < > 6_ (?)
_S. R._ 1608, Oct. 4. ‘A Booke called A Mad World (my Maysters).’
_Walter Burre and Eleazar Edgar_ (Arber, iii. 391). [The licenser
is Segar, ‘Deputy of Sir George Bucke’.]
1608. A Mad World, My Masters. As it hath bin lately in Action by the
Children of Paules. Composed by T. M. _H. B. for Walter Burre._
_S. R._ 1613, April 19. Transfer to John Hodgettes of Edgar’s share
(Arber, iii. 520).
1640.... A Comedy. As it hath bin often Acted at the Private House in
Salisbury Court, by her Majesties Servants.... _For J. S., sold by
James Becket._ [Epistle to Reader, signed ‘J. S.’]
_Edition_ by W. Scott (1810, _A. B. D._ ii).
The epistle says ‘it is full twenty years since it was written’, which
is absurd. A pamphlet of the same title by Breton in 1603, hits at the
Jacobean knightings in I. i. 64, II. v. 41, and the Family of Love
in I. ii. 73, and the disappearance of Paul’s in 1606 or 1607 are
the only indications of date. In Acts IV and V the duplicate names
Once-Ill-Brothel, Hargrave-Harebrain, Shortrod-Harebrain suggest
revision.
_Michaelmas Term. 1606_ (?)
_S. R._ 1607, May 15 (Buck). ‘A Comedy called Mychaelmas terme.’
_Arthur Johnson_ (Arber, iii. 349).
1607. Michaelmas Terme. As it hath been sundry times acted by the
Children of Paules. _For A. I._ [Induction.]
1630.... Newly corrected. _T. H. for R. Meighen._
Allusions in II. iii. 226, 376 to the presence of women at a quartering
for treason may suggest, as in the case of Marston’s _Fawn_ (q.v.), a
date after that of 30 Jan. 1606. There is no reference in II. i. 63 to
the leap-year of 1604, as suggested by Fleay, ii. 91. Knightings are
satirized in I. i. 191; III. i. 46.
_Your Five Gallants. 1607_
_S. R._ 1608, March 22 (Buck). ‘A Plaie called the ffyve Wittie
Gallantes as it hath ben acted by the Children of the Chappell.’
_Richard Bonyon_ (Arber, iii. 372).
N.D. Your fiue Gallants. As it hath beene often in Action at the
Blacke-friers. Written by T. Middleton. _For Richard Bonian._
[Induction with ‘Presenter or Prologue’ in dumb-show.]
This may have been in preparation for Paul’s when they ceased playing
and taken over by Blackfriars. In any case a reference to closure for
plague in IV. ii. 29 and to fighting with a windmill (like Don
Quixote) in IV. viii. 7 fit in with a date in 1607.
_The Family of Love. 1604 < > 7_ (?)
_S. R._ 1607, Oct. 12 (Buck). ‘A playe called the family of Loue as
yt hath bene Lately acted by the Children of his Maiesties Reuelles.’
_John Browne and John Helme_ (Arber, iii. 360).
1608. The Famelie of Love. Acted by the Children of his Maiesties
Reuells. _For John Helmes._ [Epistle to Reader, Prologue, Epilogue.]
The prologue apologizes that ‘expectation’ hath not ‘filled the general
round’. The King’s Revels can hardly have existed before 1607. Fleay,
ii. 94, thinks that they inherited the play from Paul’s and assigns
it to 1604 ‘when the Family of Love were such objects of public
attention’. His chief reason is that the epistle regrets that the play
was ‘not published when the general voice of the people had sealed
it for good, and the newness of it made it much more desired than at
this time’. It had ‘passed the censure of the stage with a general
applause’. This epistle is clearly by the author, who says ‘it was
in the press before I had notice of it, by which means some faults
may escape in the printing’. I agree that there must have been some
interval between production and publication. But there is no special
virtue in the date 1604. References to the Family of Love are to be
found in _Sir Giles Goosecap_ (_1601–3_), II. i. 263; _Dutch Courtesan_
(_1603–4_), I. i. 156, I. ii. 18; _Mad World, My Masters_ (_1604–6_),
I. ii. 73; _Isle of Gulls_ (_1606_), p. 26; _Every Woman in Her Humour_
(?), p. 316. The sect was well known in England as early as 1574–81,
when an act was passed for its suppression. It petitioned James _c._
1604 and was answered in _A Supplication of the Family of Love_,
printed at Cambridge in 1606. On its history, cf. Fuller, _Church
History_ (1868), iii. 239; F. Nippold, _Heinrich Niclaes und das Haus
der Liebe_ (1862, _Z. f. Hist. Theol._); R. Barclay, _Inner Life of the
Religious Societies of the Commonwealth_ (1876), 25; A. C. Thomas, _The
Family of Love_ (1893); R. M. Jones, _Studies in Mystical Religion_
(1909), 428; E. B. Daw, _Love Feigned and Unfeigned_ (1917, _M. L. A._
xxxii. 267).
_The Roaring Girl. c. 1610._
_With_ Dekker (q.v.).
_A Chaste Maid in Cheapside. 1611._
_S. R._ 1630, April 8 (Herbert). ‘A play called The Chast Mayd of
Chepeside.’ _Constable_ (Arber, iv. 232).
1630. A Chast Mayd in Cheape-side. A Pleasant conceited Comedy neuer
before printed. As it hath beene often acted at the Swan on the
Banke-side by the Lady Elizabeth her Seruants By Thomas Midelton Gent.
_For Francis Constable._
It is not known where the Lady Elizabeth’s played during 1611–13,
and it may very well have been at the Swan. Nor is there anything
improbable in the suggestion of Fleay, 186, that this is the _Proud
Maid’s Tragedy_ acted by them at Court on 25 Feb. 1612 (App. B).
_No Wit, no Help, like a Woman’s. 1613_ (?)
_S. R._ 1653, Sept. 9. ‘No witt, no helpe like a Woman. Mr. Tho.
Midleton.’ _H. Moseley._ (Eyre, i. 428).
{ Wit }
1657. No { Help } like a Womans. A Comedy. By Tho. Middleton,
Gent. _For Humphrey Moseley._ [Prologue and Epilogue.]
The text represents a revival by Shirley in 1638, but Fleay, ii. 96,
refers the original to 1613 as in III. i. 286 a character, after
referring to the almanac for 1638, says he has ‘proceeded in five and
twenty such books of astronomy’. Bullen accepts the date, but I feel no
confidence in the argument. Stork, 47, attempts to trace Rowley’s hand.
_The Widow_ (?)
_S. R._ 1652, Apr. 12 (Brent). ‘A play called The Widdow, written by
John Fletcher & Tho: Middleton gent.’ _Moseley_ (Eyre, i. 394).
1652. The Widdow A Comedie. As it was Acted at the private House in
Black Fryers, with great Applause, by His late Majesties Servants.
Written by Ben: Jonson John Fletcher. Tho: Middleton. Gent. Printed
by the Originall Copy. _For Humphrey Moseley._ [Epistle to Reader by
Alexander Gough. Prologue and Epilogue.]
Bullen places this ‘from internal evidence’ _c._ 1608–9, but thinks
it revised at a later date, not improbably by Fletcher, although he
cannot discover either Jonson’s hand or, ‘unless the songs be his’,
Fletcher’s. Allusions to ‘a scornful woman’ (I. ii. 104) and to ‘yellow
bands’ as ‘hateful’ (V. i. 52) are consistent with a date _c._ 1615–16.
_The Mayor of Quinborough_ (?)
[_MS._] A copy of the play, said to be ‘of no great antiquity’, is
described in an appendix to _Wit and Wisdom_ (_Sh. Soc._), 85.
_S. R._ 1646, Sept. 4 (Langley). ‘Maior of Quinborough.’ _Robinson and
Moseley_ (Eyre, i. 244).
1661, Feb. 13. ‘A Comedie called the Maior of Quinborough, By Tho:
Middleton. _Henry Herringham_ (Eyre, ii. 288).
1661. The Mayor of Quinborough: A Comedy. As it hath been often Acted
with much Applause at Black Fryars, By His Majesties Servants. Written
by Tho. Middleton. _For Henry Herringham._ [Epistle to Gentlemen.]
There is a mention (V. i. 112) of Fletcher’s _Wild-Goose Chase_
(1621), and the introduction of a ‘rebel Oliver’ suggests a much later
date. But Bullen thinks this an old play revised, and Fleay, ii. 104,
attempts to identify it with an anonymous play called both _Vortigern_
and _Hengist_ (Greg, _Henslowe_, ii. 181) which was produced by the
Admiral’s on 4 Dec. 1596 and bought by the same company from Alleyn in
1601. There is not, however, much to support a theory that Middleton
was writing for the stage so early as 1596. Stork, 46, thinks that
Middleton and Rowley revised the older play _c._ 1606, ‘at a time when
plays of ancient Britain were in vogue’.
_Doubtful Plays_
Middleton’s hand has been sought in _Birth of Merlin_, _Puritan_,
and _Second Maiden’s Tragedy_ (cf. ch. xxiv) and in _Wit at Several
Weapons_ of the Beaumont (q.v.) and Fletcher series.
_Lost Mask_
_Mask of Cupid. 4 Jan. 1614_
Writing to Carleton on 5 Jan. 1614 of the festivities at the Earl
of Somerset’s wedding (Birch, i. 288; cf. s.v. Campion, _Mask of
Squires_), Chamberlain notes that the King had called on the City to
entertain the bridal pair, which they had done, though reluctantly, on
4 Jan. in Merchant Taylors’ hall, with a supper, a play and a mask,
and a banquet. Howes in Stowe, _Annales_, 1005, says there were ‘2
seuerall pleasant maskes & a play’. Bullen, _Middleton_, i. xxxix,
gives from the City _Repertory_, xxxi. 2, f. 239^v, an order of 18
Jan. 1614 for payment to Thomas Middleton in respect of the ‘late
solemnities at Merchant Tailors’ Hall’ for ‘the last Mask of Cupid and
other shows lately made’ by him.
ENTERTAINMENTS
_Running Stream Entertainment. 29 Sept. 1613_
1613. The Manner of his Lordships [Sir Thomas Middleton’s]
Entertainment on Michaelmas day last, being the day of his Honorable
Election, together with the worthy Sir Iohn Swinarton, Knight, then
Lord Maior, the Learned and Iuditious, Sir Henry Montague, Maister
Recorder, and many of the Right Worshipfull the Aldermen of the Citty
of London. At that most Famous and Admired Worke of the Running Streame
from Amwell Head, into the Cesterne neere Islington, being the sole
Inuention, Cost, and Industry of that Worthy Maister Hugh Middleton,
of London Goldsmith, for the generall good of the Citty. By T. M.
_Nicholas Okes._ [Appended to reissue of _The Triumphs of Truth_.]
_The Triumphs of Truth. 29 Oct. 1613_
_S. R._ 1613, Nov. 3. ‘A booke called the tryumphs of truth of all
the showes pagiantes Chariots &c. on the Lord Maiours Day octobris 29,
1613.’ _Nicholas Okes_ (Arber, iii. 536).
1613. The Triumphs of Truth. A Solemnity vnparalleld for Cost, Art,
and Magnificence, at the Confirmation and Establishment of that Worthy
and true Nobly-minded Gentleman, Sir Thomas Middleton, Knight; in the
Honorable Office of his Maiesties Lieuetenant, the Lord Maior of the
thrice Famous Citty of London. Taking Beginning at his Lordships going,
and proceeding after his Returne from receiuing the Oath of Maioralty
at Westminster, on the Morrow next after Simon and Iudes day, October
29. 1613. All the Showes, Pageants, Chariots; Morning, Noone, and
Night-Triumphes. Directed, Written, and redeem’d into Forme, from the
Ignorance of some former times, and their Common Writer, by Thomas
Middleton. _Nicholas Okes._
1613.... Shewing also his Lordships Entertainment on Michaelmas day
last, ... [etc.]. _Nicholas Okes._ [Reissue, with _Running Stream
Entertainment_ added.]
_Edition_ in Nichols, _James_ (1828), ii. 679, with _Running Stream_.
_Civitatis Amor. 4 Nov. 1616_
1616. Ciuitatis Amor. The Cities Loue. An entertainement by water, at
Chelsey, and Whitehall. At the ioyfull receiuing of that Illustrious
Hope of Great Britaine, the High and Mighty Charles, To bee created
Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornewall, Earle of Chester, &c. Together
with the Ample Order and Solemnity of his Highnesse creation, as it
was celebrated in his Maiesties Palace of Whitehall on Monday, the
fourth of Nouember, 1616. As also the Ceremonies of that Ancient and
Honourable Order of the Knights of the Bath; And all the Triumphs
showne in honour of his Royall Creation. _Nicholas Okes for Thomas
Archer._ [Middleton’s name follows the account of the ‘entertainment’.]
ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY (_c._ 1556–_c._ 1610).
A Scottish poet (cf. _D. N. B._) who has been suggested as the author
of _Philotus_ (cf. ch. xxiv).
ROGER MORRELL (_c._ 1597).
Possibly the author of the academic _Hispanus_ (cf. App. K).
RICHARD MULCASTER (_c._ 1530–1611).
A contributor to the Kenilworth entertainment (cf. ch. xxiv, C). For
his successive masterships of Merchant Taylors and St. Paul’s, see ch.
xii.
ANTHONY MUNDAY (_c._ 1553–1633).
Anthony was son of Christopher Munday, a London Draper. He ‘first was
a stage player’ (_A True Report of ... M. Campion_, 1582), but in
Oct. 1576 was apprenticed for eight years to John Allde, stationer.
Allde went out of business about 1582, and Munday never completed his
apprenticeship, probably because his ready pen found better profit in
the purveyance of copy for the trade. He began by a journey to Rome
in 1578–9, and brought back material for a series of attacks upon
the Jesuits, to one of which _A True Report of ... M. Campion_ is an
answer. According to the anonymous author, Munday on his return to
England ‘did play extempore, those gentlemen and others whiche were
present, can best giue witnes of his dexterity, who being wery of his
folly, hissed him from his stage. Then being thereby discouraged, he
set forth a balet against playes, but yet (o constant youth) he now
beginnes againe to ruffle upon the stage’. For the ballad there is some
corroborative evidence in a S. R. entry of 10 Nov. 1580 (cf. App. C,
No. xxvi), which, however, does not name Munday, and it is a possible
conjecture that he also wrote the _Third Blast of Retrait from Plaies_
issued in the same year (cf. App. C, No. xxvii). If so, he was already,
before 1580, doing work as a playwright; but of this, with the doubtful
exception of the anonymous _Two Italian Gentlemen_ (q.v.), there is no
other evidence for another fifteen years. His experiences as an actor
may have been with the company of the Earl of Oxford, whose ‘servant’
he calls himself in his _View of Sundry Examples_ (1580). From 1581
he was employed by Topcliffe and others against recusants, and as a
result became, possibly by 1584 and certainly by 1588, a Messenger
of the Chamber. He still held this post in 1593, and was employed
as a pursuivant to execute the Archbishop of Canterbury’s warrants
against Martin Marprelate in 1588. J. D. Wilson (_M. L. R._ iv. 489)
suggests that he may also have taken a hand in the literary and
dramatic controversy, as ‘Mar-Martin, John a Cant: his hobbie-horse’,
who ‘was to his reproche, newly put out of the morris, take it how
he will; with a flat discharge for euer shaking his shins about a
maypole againe while he liued’ (_Protestation of Martin Marprelate_,
_c._ Aug. 1589). Certainly Munday’s official duties did not interfere
with his literary productiveness, as translator of romances, maker of
ballads, lyrist, and miscellaneous writer generally. He is traceable,
chiefly in Henslowe’s diary, as a busy dramatist for the Admiral’s men
during various periods between 1594 and 1602, and there is no reason
to suppose that his activities were limited to these years. Meres in
1598 includes him amongst ‘the best for comedy’, with the additional
compliment of ‘our best plotter’. But he was evidently a favourite mark
for the satire of more literary writers, who depreciated his style and
jested at his functions as a messenger. Small, 172, has disposed of
attempts to identify him with the Deliro or the Puntarvolo of _E. M.
O._, the Amorphus of _Cynthia’s Revels_, the In-and-In Medley of the
_Tale of a Tub_, and the Timothy Tweedle of the anonymous _Jack Drum’s
Entertainment_. But he may reasonably be taken for the Poet Nuntius
of _E. M. I._ and the Antonio Balladino of _The Case is Altered_
(q.v.); and long before Jonson took up the game, an earlier writer had
introduced him as the Posthaste of the anonymous _Histriomastix_ (c.
1589). Posthaste suggests the formation of Sir Oliver Owlet’s men, and
acts as their poet (i. 124). He writes a _Prodigal Child_ at 1_s._ a
sheet (ii. 94). He will teach the actors to play ‘true Politicians’
(i. 128) and ‘should be employd in matters of state’ (ii. 130). He
is always ready to drink (i. 162; ii. 103, 115, 319; vi. 222), and
claims to be a gentleman, because ‘he hath a clean shirt on, with
some learning’ (ii. 214). He has written ballads (v. 91; vi. 235).
The players jeer at ‘your extempore’ (i. 127), and he offers to do a
prologue extempore (ii. 121), and does extemporize on a theme (ii.
293). He writes with
no new luxury or blandishment
But plenty of Old Englands mothers words (ii. 128).
The players call him, when he is late for rehearsal, a ‘peaking
pageanter’, and say ‘It is as dangerous to read his name at a play
door, as a printed bill on a plague door’ (iv. 165). The whole portrait
seems to be by the earlier author; Marston only adds a characteristic
epithet in ‘goosequillian Posthast’ (iii. 187). But it agrees closely
with the later portraits by Jonson, and with the facts of Munday’s
career. I do not think that ‘pageanter’ means anything more than
play-maker. But from 1605 onwards Munday was often employed by city
companies to devise Lord Mayor’s pageants, and it has been supposed
that he had been similarly engaged since 1592 on the strength of a
claim in the 1618 edition of John Stowe’s _Survey of London_, which he
edited, that he had been ‘six and twenty years in sundry employments
for the City’s service’. But there were other civic employments, and it
is doubtful (cf. ch. iv) how far there were pageants during the last
decade of Elizabeth’s reign for Munday to devise. On the title-pages of
his pageants he describes himself as a ‘Cittizen and Draper of London’.
The Corporation’s welcome at the creation of Henry as Prince of Wales
in 1610 (cf. ch. iv) also fell to him to devise. How long he continued
to write plays is unknown. He had several children in St. Giles’s,
Cripplegate, between 1584 and 1589, and was buried on 10 Aug. 1633 at
St. Stephen’s, Coleman Street.
_Dissertations_: J. D. Wilson, _A. M., Pamphleteer and Pursuivant_
(1909, _M. L. R._ iv. 484); W. W. Greg, _Autograph Plays by A. M._
(1913, _M. L. R._ viii. 89); M. St. C. Byrne, _The Date of A. M.’s
Journey to Rome_ (1918, _3 Library_, ix. 106), _The Shepherd Tony--a
Recapitulation_ (1920, _M. L. R._ xv. 364), _A. M. and his Books_
(1921, _4 Library_, i. 225); E. M. Thompson, _The Autograph MSS. of A.
M._ (1919, _Bibl. Soc. Trans._ xiv. 325).
PLAYS
_John a Kent and John a Cumber. 1594_
[_MS._] Autograph MS. in possession of Lord Mostyn, with title ‘The
Booke of John a Kent and John a Cumber’, and at end the signature
‘Anthony Mundy’, and in another hand the date ‘---- Decembris 1596’. A
mutilation of the paper has removed the day of the month and possibly
some memorandum to which the date was appended. The wrapper is in part
formed of a vellum leaf of which another part was used for _Sir Thomas
More_ (cf. ch. xxiv).
_Editions_ by J. P. Collier (1851, _Sh. Soc._) and J. S. Farmer (1912,
_T. F. T._).
The date has been misread ‘1595’. Greg (_Henslowe_, ii. 172) agrees
with Fleay, ii. 114, that the play, of which the scene is at West
Chester, must be _The Wise Man of West Chester_, produced by the
Admiral’s on 3 Dec. 1594 and played to 18 July 1597. Their inventory
of 1598 (_Henslowe Papers_, 117) includes ‘Kentes woden leage’. This
is not required by the extant text, but two or three leaves of the
MS. appear to be missing. If the identification is correct, it is not
easy to see how the MS. can be earlier than 1594, although Sir E.
M. Thompson’s warning that the date of 1596 may be a later addition
is justified. On 19 Sept. 1601 the Admiral’s bought the book from
Alleyn. Greg further suggests that _Randal Earl of Chester_, written by
Middleton for the same company in Oct. and Nov. 1602, may have been a
‘refashioning’ of the earlier play, in which Randal is a character.
_The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon. 1598_
_S. R._ 1600, Dec. 1. ‘The Downe falle of Robert Erle of Huntingdone
after Called Robin Hood.’ _Leake_ (Arber, iii. 176).
1601. The Downfall of Robert, Earle of Huntington, Afterward called
Robin Hood of merrie Sherwodde: with his loue to chaste Matilda, the
Lord Fitzwaters daughter, afterwardes his faire Maide Marian. Acted by
the Right Honourable, the Earle of Notingham, Lord high Admirall of
England, his seruants. _For William Leake._ [Induction.]
_Editions_ by J. P. Collier (1833, _Five Old Plays_), in Dodsley^4 viii
(1874), and by J. S. Farmer (1913, _S. F. T._).--_Dissertation_: A.
Ruckdeschel, _Die Quellen des Dramas ‘The Downfall and Death of Robert,
Earle of Huntington, otherwise called Robin Hood’_ (1897).
Henslowe paid Munday £5 on behalf of the Admiral’s for ‘the firste
parte of Robyne Hoode’ on 15 Feb. 1598. From 20 Feb. to 8 March he paid
Munday and Chettle sums amounting to £5 in all for a ‘seconde parte’,
called in the fullest entry ‘seconde parte of the downefall of earlle
Huntyngton surnamed Roben Hoode’. The books and apparel and properties
are in the Admiral’s inventories of March 1598 (_Henslowe Papers_, 114,
115, 120, 121). Both parts were licensed for performance on 28 March.
On 18 Nov. he paid Chettle 10_s._ for ‘the mendynge of’ the first part,
and on 25 Nov., apparently, another 10_s._ ‘for mendinge of Roben Hood
for the corte’. Greg (_Henslowe_, ii. 190) suggests that the last
payment was for the second part, and that the two Court performances by
the Admiral’s at Christmas 1598 are of these plays. However this may
be, Henslowe’s _1, 2 Robin Hood_ are doubtless the extant _Downfall_
and _Death_. There is an allusion in _The Downfall_, IV. ii, to the
‘merry jests’ of an earlier play, which may be _The Pastoral Comedy of
Robin Hood and Little John_, entered in S. R. on 14 May 1594, but not
now known. Fleay, ii. 114, thinks that Chettle, besides revising some
of Munday’s scenes, added the Induction and the Skeltonic rhymes.
_The Death of Robert Earl of Huntingdon. 1598_
_With_ Chettle.
_S. R._ 1600, Dec. 1. ‘The Death of Robert Earle of Huntingdon with the
lamentable trogidye of Chaste Mathilda.’ _Leake_ (Arber, iii. 176).
1601. The Death of Robert, Earle of Huntington. Otherwise called Robin
Hood of merrie Sherwodde: with the lamentable Tragedie of chaste
Matilda, his faire maid Marian, poysoned at Dunmowe by King Iohn. Acted
by the Right Honourable, the Earle of Notingham, Lord high Admirall of
England, his seruants. _For William Leake._ [_Epilogue._]
_Editions_ and _Dissertation_ with _The Downfall_ (q.v.).
This is a sequel to _The Downfall_ (q.v.). Fleay, ii. 115, gives Munday
the scenes dealing with Robin Hood’s death and Chettle those dealing
with Maid Marian’s. The play contains discrepancies, but Henslowe’s
entries afford no evidence that Munday revised Chettle’s work, as Fleay
thinks. Greg (_Henslowe_, ii. 191) points out that Davenport borrowed
much of his _King John and Matilda_ (1655) from _The Death_.
_1 Sir John Oldcastle. 1599_
_With_ Drayton (q.v.), Hathway, and Wilson.
_Lost Plays_
The following is a complete list of the plays in which Henslowe’s diary
shows Munday to have written between 1597 and 1602. All were for the
Admiral’s:
(i) _Mother Redcap._
With Drayton, Dec. 1597–Jan. 1598.
(ii), (iii) _1, 2 Robin Hood._
_Vide supra._
(iv) _The Funeral of Richard Cœur-de-Lion._
With Chettle, Drayton, and Wilson, June 1598, probably as a sequel to
_Robin Hood_ (cf. Greg, _Henslowe_, ii. 190).
(v) _Valentine and Orson._
With Hathway (q.v.), July 1598.
(vi) A ‘comodey for the corte’, for the completion of which Drayton was
surety, Aug. 1598, but the entry is cancelled, and presumably the play
was not finished, unless it is identical with (vii).
(vii) _Chance Medley._
With Chettle or Dekker, Drayton, and Wilson, Aug. 1598.
(viii), (ix) _1, 2 Sir John Oldcastle._
With Drayton (q.v.), Hathway, and Wilson, Oct.–Dec. 1599.
(x) _Owen Tudor._
With Drayton, Hathway, and Wilson, Jan. 1600, but apparently not
finished.
(xi) _1 Fair Constance of Rome._
With Dekker, Drayton, Hathway, and Wilson, June 1600.
(xii) _1 Cardinal Wolsey._
With Chettle, Drayton, and Smith, Aug.–Nov. 1601.
(xiii) _Jephthah._
With Dekker, May 1602.
(xiv) _Caesar’s Fall, or The Two Shapes._
With Dekker, Drayton, Middleton, and Webster, May 1602.
(xv) _The Set at Tennis._
Dec. 1602. The payment, though in full, was only £3; it was probably,
therefore, a short play, and conceivably identical with the ‘[sec]ond
part of fortun[es Tenn?]is’ of which a ‘plot’ exists (cf. ch. xxiv)
and intended to piece out to the length of a normal performance
the original _Fortune’s Tennis_ written by Dekker (q.v.) as a
‘curtain-raiser’ for the Fortune on its opening in 1600. [This is
highly conjectural.]
Munday must clearly have had a hand in _Sir Thomas More_, which is
in his writing, and has been suggested as the author of _Fedele and
Fortunio_ and _The Weakest Goeth to the Wall_ (cf. ch. xxiv).
ENTERTAINMENTS
_The Triumphs of Reunited Britannia. 29 Oct. 1605_
N.D. The Triumphes of re-vnited Britania. Performed at the cost and
charges of the Right Worship: Company of the Merchant Taylors, in honor
of Sir Leonard Holliday kni: to solemnize his entrance as Lorde Mayor
of the Citty of London, on Tuesday the 29. of October. 1605. Deuised
and Written by A. Mundy, Cittizen and Draper of London. _W. Jaggard._
_Edition_ in Nichols, _James_ (1828), i. 564.
_London’s Love to Prince Henry. 31 May 1610_
See ch. xxiv.
_Chryso-Thriambos. 29 Oct. 1611_
1611. Chruso-thriambos. The Triumphes of Golde. At the Inauguration of
Sir Iames Pemberton, Knight, in the Dignity of Lord Maior of London:
On Tuesday, the 29. of October. 1611. Performed in the harty loue, and
at the charges of the Right Worshipfull, Worthy, and Ancient Company
of Gold-Smithes. Deuised and Written by A. M. Cittizen and Draper of
London. _William Jaggard._
_Himatia Poleos. 29 Oct. 1614_
1614. Himatia-Poleos. The Triumphs of olde Draperie, or the rich
Cloathing of England. Performed in affection, and at the charges of the
right Worthie and first honoured Companie of Drapers: at the enstalment
of Sr. Thomas Hayes Knight, in the high office of Lord Maior of London,
on Satturday, being the 29. day of October. 1614. Deuised and written
by A. M. Citizen and Draper of London. _Edward Allde._
_Metropolis Coronata. 30 Oct. 1615_
1615. Metropolis Coronata, The Triumphes of Ancient Drapery: or, Rich
Cloathing of England, in a second Yeeres performance. In Honour of
the aduancement of Sir Iohn Iolles, Knight, to the high Office of
Lord Maior of London, and taking his Oath for the same Authoritie,
on Monday, being the 30. day of October. 1615. Performed in heartie
affection to him, and at the bountifull charges of his worthy Brethren
the truely Honourable Society of Drapers, the first that receiued such
Dignitie in this Citie. Deuised, and written, by A. M. Citizen, and
Draper of London. _George Purslowe._
_Edition_ in Nichols, _James_, iii. 107.
_Chrysanaleia. 29 Oct. 1616_
_S. R._ 1616, Oct. 29. ‘A booke called the golden Fishing of the showes
of Sir John Leman Lord Maiour.’ _George Purslowe_ (Arber iii. 597).
1616. Chrysanaleia: The Golden Fishing: Or, Honour of Fishmongers.
Applauding the aduancement of Mr. Iohn Leman, Alderman, to the dignitie
of Lord Maior of London. Taking his Oath in the same authority at
Westminster, on Tuesday, being the 29. day of October. 1616. Performed
in hearty loue to him, and at the charges of his worthy Brethren, the
ancient, and right Worshipfull Company of Fishmongers. Deuised and
written by A. M. Citizen and Draper of London. _George Purslowe._
_Editions_ in Nichols, iii. 195, and by J. G. Nichols (1844, 1869) with
reproductions of drawings for the pageant in the possession of the
Fishmongers.
_Doubtful Entertainment_
The _Campbell_ mayoral pageant of 1609 (q.v.) has been ascribed to
Munday.
ROBERT NAILE (_c._ 1613).
Probable describer of the Bristol entertainment of Queen Anne in 1613
(cf. ch. xxiv, C).
THOMAS NASHE (1507–>1601).
Nashe was baptized at Lowestoft, Suffolk, in Nov. 1567, the son of
William Nashe, minister, of a Herefordshire family. He matriculated
from St. John’s, Cambridge, on 13 Oct. 1582, took his B.A. in 1586,
and left the University probably in 1588. According to the _Trimming_
(Harvey, iii. 67), he ‘had a hand in a Show called Terminus & non
terminus, for which his partener in it was expelled the Colledge: but
this foresaid Nashe played in it (as I suppose) the Varlet of Clubs;
which he acted with such naturall affection, that all the spectators
tooke him to be the verie same’. He went to London, and his first book,
_The Anatomie of Absurditie_, was entered in S. R. on 19 Sept. 1588. In
actual publication it was anticipated by an epistle ‘To the Gentlemen
Students of Both Universities’, which he prefixed to the _Menaphon_
(1589) of Robert Greene (cf. App. C, No. xlii). This contains some
pungent criticism of actors, with incidental depreciation of certain
illiterate dramatists, among whom is apparently included Kyd, coupled
with praise of Peele, and of other ‘sweete gentlemen’, who have
‘tricked vp a company of taffata fooles with their feathers’. Evidently
Nashe had joined the London circle of University wits, and henceforth
lived, partly by his pen, as dramatist and pamphleteer, and partly by
services rendered to various patrons, amongst whom were Lord Strange,
Sir George Carey, afterwards Lord Hunsdon, and Archbishop Whitgift.
His connexion with this last was either the cause or the result of his
employment, with other literary men, notably Lyly, in opposition to
the anti-episcopalian tracts of Martin Marprelate and his fellows. His
precise share in the controversy is uncertain. He has been credited
with _An Almond for a Parrot_, with a series of writings under the name
of Pasquil, and with other contributions, but in all cases the careful
analysis of McKerrow, v. 49, finds the evidence quite inconclusive.
McKerrow, too, has given the best account (v. 65) of Nashe’s quarrel
with Gabriel and Richard Harvey. This arose out of his association
as an anti-Martinist with Lyly, between whom and Gabriel there was
an ancient feud. It was carried on, in a vein of scurrilous personal
raillery on both sides, from 1590 until it was suppressed as a public
scandal in 1599. One of the charges against Nashe was his friendship
with, and in the Harveian view aping of, Robert Greene, with whom,
according to Gabriel’s _Four Letters_ (_Works_, i. 170), Nashe took
part in the fatal banquet of pickled herrings and Rhenish which
brought him to his end. Nashe repudiated the charge of imitation, and
spoke of Greene in _Have With You to Saffron Walden_ (iii. 132), as
‘subscribing to mee in anything but plotting Plaies, wherein he was
his crafts master’. Unless _Dido_ is early work, no play written by
Nashe before Greene’s death on 3 Sept. 1592 is known to us. But he is
pretty clearly the ‘young Iuuenall, that byting Satyrist, that lastly
with mee together writ a Comedie’ of Greene’s posthumous _Groats-worth_
(cf. App. C, No. xlviii), and the tone of his own Defence of Plays in
_Pierce Penilesse_ of 1592 (cf. App. C, No. xlvi) as compared with
that of the _Menaphon_ epistle suggests that he had made his peace
with the ‘taffata fooles’. His one extant unaided play belongs to
the autumn of 1592, and was apparently for a private performance at
Croydon. Internal evidence enables us to date in Aug.–Oct. 1596, and
to ascribe to Nashe, in spite of the fact that his name at the foot is
in a nineteenth-century writing, a letter to William Cotton (McKerrow,
v. 192, from _Cott. MS. Julius C._ iii, f. 280) which shows that he
was still writing for the stage and gives valuable evidence upon the
theatrical crisis of that year (App. D, No. cv). To 1597 belongs the
misadventure of _The Isle of Dogs_, which sent Nashe in flight to Great
Yarmouth, and probably ended his dramatic career. He is mentioned as
dead in C. Fitzgeffrey, _Affaniae_ (1601).
_Collections_
1883–5. A. B. Grosart, _The Complete Works of T. N._ 6 vols. (_Huth
Library_).
1904–10. R. B. McKerrow, _The Works of T. N._ 5 vols.
PLAYS
_Summer’s Last Will and Testament. 1592_
_S. R._ 1600, Oct. 28 (Harsnett). ‘A booke called Sommers last Will
and testament presented by William Sommers.’ _Burby and Walter Burre_
(Arber, iii. 175).
1600. A Pleasant Comedie, called Summers last will and Testament.
Written by Thomas Nash. _Simon Stafford for Walter Burre._ [Induction,
with Prologue and Epilogue.]
_Edition_ in Dodsley^{3–4} (1825–74).--_Dissertations_: B. Nicholson,
_The Date of S. L. W. and T._ (_Athenaeum_, 10 Jan. 1891); F. G. Fleay
_Queen Elizabeth, Croydon and the Drama_ (1898).
The play was intended for performance on the ‘tyle-stones’ and in the
presence of a ‘Lord’, to whom there are several other references, in
one of which he is ‘your Grace’ (ll. 17, 205, 208, 587, 795, 1897,
1925). There are also local references to ‘betweene this and Stretham’
(l. 202), to ‘Dubbers hill’ near Croydon (l. 621), to Croydon itself
(ll. 1830, 1873), and to ‘forlorne’ Lambeth (l. 1879). The conclusion
seems justified that ‘this lowe built house’ (l. 1884) was the palace
of Archbishop Whitgift at Croydon.
There was a plague ‘in this latter end of summer’ (l. 80); which had
been ‘brought in’ by the dog-days (l. 656), and had led to ‘want of
terme’ and consequent ‘Cities harm’ in London (l. 1881). Summer
accuses Sol of spiting Thames with a ‘naked channell’ (l. 545) and Sol
lays it on the moon (l. 562):
in the yeare
Shee was eclipst, when that the Thames was bare.
Two passages refer to the Queen as on progress. Summer says (l. 125):
Haruest and age haue whit’ned my greene head:
* * * * *
This month haue I layne languishing a bed,
Looking eche hour to yeeld my life and throne;
And dyde I had in deed vnto the earth,
But that _Eliza_, Englands beauteous Queene,
On whom all seasons prosperously attend,
Forbad the execution of my fate,
Vntill her ioyfull progresse was expir’d.
For her doth Summer liue, and linger here.
And again, at the end of the play (l. 1841):
Vnto _Eliza_, that most sacred Dame,
Whom none but Saints and Angels ought to name,
All my faire dayes remaining I bequeath,
To waite vpon her till she be returnd.
Autumne, I charge thee, when that I am dead,
Be prest and seruiceable at her beck,
Present her with thy goodliest ripened fruites.
The plague and absence of term from London might fit either 1592 or
1593 (cf. App. E), but I agree with McKerrow, iv. 418, that the earlier
year is indicated. In 1593 the plague did not begin in the dog-days,
nor did Elizabeth go on progress. And it is on 6 Sept. 1592 that
Stowe (1615), 764, records the emptying of Thames. I may add a small
confirmatory point. Are not ‘the horses lately sworne to be stolne’ (l.
250) those stolen by Germans in the train of Count Mompelgard between
Reading and Windsor and referred to in _Merry Wives_, IV. v. 78. The
Count came to Windsor on 19 Aug. 1592 (Rye, xcix). Now I part company
with Mr. McKerrow, who thinks that, although the play was written in
1592, it may have been revised for performance before Elizabeth in
a later year, perhaps at her visit to Whitgift on 14 Aug. 1600. His
reasons are three: (_a_) Sol’s reference to the Thames seems to date
it in a year earlier than that in which he speaks; (_b_) the seasonal
references suggest August, while Stowe’s date necessitates September at
earliest, and the want of term points to October; (_c_) the references
to Elizabeth imply her presence. I think there is something in (_a_),
but not much, if the distinction between actual and dramatic time is
kept in mind. As to (_b_), the tone of the references is surely to a
summer prolonged beyond its natural expiration for Eliza’s benefit,
well into autumn, and in such a year the fruits of autumn, which in
this country are chiefly apples, will be on the trees until October.
As to (_c_), I cannot find any evidence of the Queen’s presence at
all. Surely she is on progress elsewhere, and due to ‘return’ in the
future. I may add that Elizabeth was at Croydon in the spring of 1593,
and that it would, therefore, have been odd to defer a revival for her
benefit until another seven years had elapsed. The 1592 progress came
to an end upon 9 Oct. and I should put the performance not long before.
When Q_{1} of _Pierce Penilesse_ (S. R. 8 Aug. 1592) was issued, Nashe
was kept by fear of infection ‘with my Lord in the Countrey’, and the
misinterpretations of the pamphlet which he deprecates in the epistle
to Q_{2} (McKerrow, i. 154) are hinted at in a very similar protest (l.
65) in the play.
The prologue is spoken by ‘the greate foole _Toy_’ (ll. 10, 1945),
who would borrow a chain and fiddle from ‘my cousin Ned’ (l. 7), also
called ‘Ned foole’ (l. 783). The epilogue is spoken (l. 1194) and
the songs sung (ll. 117, 1871) by boys. Will Summer (l. 792) gives
good advice to certain ‘deminitiue urchins’, who wait ‘on my Lords
trencher’; but he might be speaking either to actors or to boys in the
audience. The morris (l. 201) dances ‘for the credit of Wostershire’,
where Whitgift had been bishop. The prompter was Dick Huntley (l. 14),
and Vertumnus was acted by Harry Baker (l. 1567). There is a good deal
of Latin in the text. On the whole, I think that the play was given
by members of Whitgift’s household, which his biographer describes
as ‘a little academy’. The prologue (l. 33) has ‘So fares it with vs
nouices, that here betray our imperfections: we, afraid to looke on
the imaginary serpent of Enuy, paynted in mens affections, haue ceased
to tune any musike of mirth to your eares this twelue-month, thinking
that, as it is the nature of the serpent to hisse, so childhood and
ignorance would play the goslings, contemning and condemning what they
vnderstood not’. This agrees curiously in date with the termination
of the Paul’s plays. Whitgift might have entertained the Paul’s boys
during the plague and strengthened them for a performance with members
of his own household. But would they call themselves ‘nouices’?
_Dido, Queen of Carthage > 1593_
_With_ Marlowe (q.v.).
_Lost Plays_
_Terminus et non Terminus. 1586 < > 8_
_Vide supra._ McKerrow, v. 10, thinks that the name of Nashe’s alleged
part may be a jest, and points out that the identification by Fleay,
ii. 124, of the play, of which nothing more is known, with the ‘London
Comedie’ of the _Cards_ referred to in Harington’s _Apology_ (cf. App.
C, No. xlv) is improbable.
_The Isle of Dogs. 1597_
Meres, _Palladis Tamia_ (S. R. 7 Sept. 1598), writes:
‘As _Actaeon_ was wooried of his owne hounds: so is _Tom Nash_
of his _Isle of Dogs_. Dogges were the death of _Euripedes_,
but bee not disconsolate gallant young _Iuuenall_, _Linus_,
the sonne of _Apollo_ died the same death. Yet God forbid that
so braue a witte should so basely perish, thine are but paper
dogges, neither is thy banishment like _Ouids_, eternally to
conuerse with the barbarous _Getes_. Therefore comfort thy
selfe sweete _Tom_, with _Ciceros_ glorious return to Rome, &
with the counsel _Aeneas_ giues to his seabeaten soldiors.’
We learn something more from _Nashes Lenten Stuffe_ (S. R. 11 Jan.
1599), where he tells us that he is sequestered from the wonted means
of his maintenance and exposed to attacks on his fame, through ‘the
straunge turning of the Ile of Dogs from a commedie to a tragedie
two summers past, with the troublesome stir which hapned aboute it’,
and goes on to explain the ‘infortunate imperfit Embrion of my idle
houres, the Ile of Dogs before mentioned ... was no sooner borne but
I was glad to run from it’; which is what brought him to Yarmouth. In
a marginal note he adds ‘An imperfit Embrion I may well call it, for
I hauing begun but the induction and first act of it, the other foure
acts without my consent, or the least guesse of my drift or scope, by
the players were supplied, which bred both their trouble and mine to’
(McKerrow, iii. 153). Of this there is perhaps some confirmation in the
list of writings on the cover of the _Northumberland MS._ which records
the item, not now extant in the MS., ‘Ile of doges frmn^t by Thomas
Nashe inferior plaiers’. This MS. contains work by Bacon (q.v.), and
if the entry is not itself based on _Lenten Stuffe_, it may indicate
that Bacon was professionally concerned in the proceedings to which
the play gave rise. McKerrow, v. 31, points out that the evidence is
against the suggestion in the _Trimming of Thomas Nashe_ (S. R. 11
Oct. 1597) that Nashe suffered imprisonment for the play. The Privy
Council letter of 15 Aug. 1597 (cf. App. D, No. cxi) was no doubt
intended to direct his apprehension, but, as I pointed out in _M. L.
R._ iv. 410, 511, the actor and maker of plays referred to therein
as actually in prison must have been Ben Jonson, who was released by
the Council on 3 Oct. 1597 (cf. App. D, No. cxii). The connexion of
Jonson (q.v.) with the _Isle of Dogs_ is noted in _Satiromastix_. With
him the Council released Gabriel Spencer and Robert Shaw, and the
inference is that the peccant company was Pembroke’s (q.v.) at the
Swan on Bankside. The belief that it was the Admiral’s at the Rose
only rests on certain forged interpolations by Collier in Henslowe’s
diary. These are set out by Greg (_Henslowe_, i. xl). The only genuine
mention of the affair in the diary is the provision noted in the
memorandum of Borne’s agreement of 10 Aug. 1597 that his service is to
begin ‘imediatly after this restraynt is recaled by the lordes of the
counsell which restraynt is by the meanes of playinge the Ieylle of
Dooges’ (_Henslowe_, i. 203). The restraint was ordered by the Privy
Council on 28 July 1597 (App. D, No. cx), presumably soon after the
offence, the nature of which is only vaguely described as the handling
of ‘lewd matters’. Perhaps it is possible, at any rate in conjecture,
to be more specific. By dogs we may take it that Nashe meant men. The
idea was not new to him. In _Summer’s Last Will and Testament_ he makes
Orion draw an elaborate parallel between dogs and men, at the end of
which Will Summer says that he had not thought ‘the ship of fooles
would haue stayde to take in fresh water at the Ile of dogges’ (l.
779). But there is nothing offensive to authority here. Nashe returns
to the question of his indiscretion in more than one passage of _Lenten
Stuffe_, and in particular has a diatribe (McKerrow, iii. 213) against
lawyers who try to fish ‘a deepe politique state meaning’ out of what
contains no such thing. ‘Talke I of a beare, O, it is such a man that
emblazons him in his armes, or of a woolfe, a fox, or a camelion, any
lording whom they do not affect it is meant by.’ Apparently Nashe was
accused of satirizing some nobleman. But this was not the only point
of attack. ‘Out steps me an infant squib of the Innes of Court ...
and he, to approue hymselfe an extrauagant statesman, catcheth hold
of a rush, and absolutely concludeth, it is meant of the Emperor of
Ruscia, and that it will vtterly marre the traffike into that country
if all the Pamphlets bee not called in and suppressed, wherein that
libelling word is mentioned.’ I do not suppose that Nashe had literally
called the Emperor of Russia a rush in _The Isle of Dogs_, but it is
quite possible that he, or Ben Jonson, had called the King of Poland
a pole. On 23 July 1597, just five days before the trouble, a Polish
ambassador had made representations in an audience with Elizabeth,
apparently about the question, vexed in the sixteenth as in the
twentieth century, of contraband in neutral vessels, and she, scouring
up her rusty old Latin for the purpose, had answered him in very
round terms. The matter, to which there are several allusions in the
Cecilian correspondence (Wright, _Eliz._ ii. 478, 481, 485), gave some
trouble, and any mention of it on the public stage might well have been
resented. A letter of Robert Beale in 1592 (McKerrow, v. 142) shows
that the criticisms of Nashe’s _Pierce Penilesse_ had similarly been
due to his attack upon the Danes, with which country the diplomatic
issues were much the same as with Poland. In _Hatfield MSS._ vii. 343
is a letter of 10 Aug. 1597 to Robert Cecil from Richard (misdescribed
in the Calendar as Robert) Topcliffe, recommending an unnamed bearer
as ‘the first man that discovered to me that seditious play called The
Isle of Dogs’.
_Doubtful Play_
Nashe has been suggested as a contributor to _A Knack to Know a Knave_
(cf. ch. xxiv).
THOMAS NELSON.
The pageant-writer is probably identical with the stationer of the same
name, who is traceable in London during 1580–92 (McKerrow, 198).
_Allot Pageant. 29 Oct. 1590_
1590. The Deuice of the Pageant: Set forth by the Worshipfull Companie
of the Fishmongers, for the right honourable Iohn Allot: established
Lord Maior of London, and Maior of the Staple for this present Yeere of
our Lord 1590. By T. Nelson. _No imprint._
Speeches by the riders on the Merman and the Unicorn, and by Fame,
the Peace of England, Wisdom, Policy, God’s Truth, Plenty, Loyalty
and Concord, Ambition, Commonwealth, Science and Labour, Richard the
Second, Jack Straw, and Commonwealth again, representing Sir William
Walworth, who was evidently the chief subject of the pageant.
_Edition_ by W. C. Hazlitt (1886, _Antiquary_, xiii.
54).--_Dissertation_: R. Withington, _The Lord Mayor’s Show for 1590_
(1918, _M.L.N._ xxxiii. 8).
ALEXANDER NEVILLE (1544–1614).
Translator of Seneca (q.v.).
THOMAS NEWTON (_c._ 1542–1607).
Translator of Seneca (q.v.).
RICHARD NICCOLS (1584–1616?).
This writer of various poetical works and reviser in 1610 of _The
Mirror for Magistrates_ may have been the writer intended by the S.
R. entry to Edward Blount on 15 Feb. 1612 of ‘A tragedye called, The
Twynnes tragedye, written by Niccolls’ (Arber, iii. 478). No copy is
known, and it is arbitrary of Fleay, ii. 170, to ‘suspect’ a revival
of it in William Rider’s _The Twins_ (1655), which had been played at
Salisbury Court.
HENRY NOEL (_ob._ 1597).
A younger son of Andrew Noel of Dalby on the Wolds, Leicestershire,
whose personal gifts and extravagance enabled him to make a
considerable figure as a Gentleman Pensioner at Court. He may have been
a fellow author with Robert Wilmot (q.v.) of _Gismond of Salerne_,
although he has not been definitely traced as a member of the Inner
Temple, by whom the play was produced.
THOMAS NORTON (1532–84).
Norton was born in London and educated at Cambridge and the Inner
Temple. In 1571 he became Remembrancer of the City of London, and also
sat in Parliament for London. Apparently he is distinct from the Thomas
Norton who acted from 1560 as counsel to the Stationers’ Company. He
took part in theological controversy as a Calvinist, and was opposed
to the public stage (cf. App. D, No. xxxi). In 1583 he escaped with
some difficulty from a charge of treason. His first wife, Margaret, was
daughter, and his second, Alice, niece of Cranmer.
_Ferrex and Porrex_, or _Gorboduc_. _28 Jan. 1562_
_S. R._ 1565–6. ‘A Tragdie of Gorboduc where iij actes were Wretten by
Thomas Norton and the laste by Thomas Sackvyle, &c.’ _William Greffeth_
(Arber, i. 296).
1565, Sept. 22. The Tragedie of Gorboduc, Where of three Actes were
wrytten by Thomas Nortone, and the two laste by Thomas Sackuyle.
Sett forthe as the same was shewed before the Quenes most excellent
Maiestie, in her highnes Court of Whitehall, the .xviij. day of
Ianuary, Anno Domini .1561. By the Gentlemen of Thynner Temple in
London. _William Griffith._ [Argument; Dumb-Shows.]
N.D. [_c._ 1571] The Tragidie of Ferrex and Porrex, set forth without
addition or alteration but altogether as the same was shewed on stage
before the Queenes Maiestie, about nine yeares past, _viz._, the xviij
day of Ianuarie 1561, by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple. Seen and
allowed, &c. _John Day._ [Epistle by ‘The P. to the Reader’.]
1590. _Edward Allde for John Perrin._ [Part of _The Serpent of
Division_.]
_Editions_ in Dodsley^{1–3} (1744–1825), and by Hawkins (1773, _O.
E. D._ ii), W. Scott (1810, _A. B. D._ i), W. D. Cooper (1847, _Sh.
Soc._), R. W. Sackville-West, _Works of Sackville_ (1859), L. T.
Smith (1883), J. M. Manly (1897, _Spec._ ii. 211), J. S. Farmer
(1908, _T. F. T._), J. W. Cunliffe and H. A. Watt (1912, _E. E. C.
T._).--_Dissertations_: E. Köppel (_E. S._ xvi. 357); Koch, _F. und P._
(1881, _Halle diss._); H. A. Watt, _G.; or F. and P._ (1910, _Wisconsin
Univ. Bulletin_, 351).
Day’s epistle says that the play was ‘furniture of part of the grand
Christmasse in the Inner Temple first written about nine yeares agoe
by the right honourable Thomas now Lorde Buckherst, and by T. Norton,
and after shewed before her Maiestie, and neuer intended by the authors
therof to be published’. But one W. G. printed it in their absence,
‘getting a copie therof at some yongmans hand that lacked a litle money
and much discretion’. Machyn, 275, records on 18 Jan. 1561 ‘a play in
the quen hall at Westmynster by the gentyll-men of the Tempull, and
after a grett maske, for ther was a grett skaffold in the hall, with
grett tryhumpe as has bene sene; and the morow after the skaffold was
taken done’. Fleay, ii. 174, doubts Norton’s participation--Heaven
knows why.
Malone (_Var._ iii. 32) cites the unreliable Chetwood for a performance
of _Gorboduc_ at Dublin Castle in 1601.
For the Inner Temple Christmas of 1561, at which Robert Dudley was
constable-marshal and Christopher Hatton master of the game, cf.
_Mediaeval Stage_, i. 415. It was presumably at the mask of 18 Jan.
that Hatton danced his way into Elizabeth’s heart.
THOMAS NUCE (_ob._ 1617).
Translator of Seneca (q.v.).
OWEN AP JOHN (_c._ 1600).
A late sixteenth-century MS. (_Peniarth MS._ 65 = _Hengwrt MS._ 358)
of _The Oration of Gwgan and Poetry_ is calendared as his in _Welsh
MSS._ (_Hist. MSS. Comm._), i. 2. 454, and said to be ‘in the form of
interludes’. He may be merely the scribe.
PHILIP PARSONS (1594–1653).
Fellow of St. John’s, Oxford, and later Principal of Hart Hall (_D. N.
B._), and author of the academic _Atalanta_ (cf. App. K).
MERCURIUS (?) PATEN (_c._ 1575).
Gascoigne names a ‘M. [Mr.] Paten’ as a contributor to the Kenilworth
entertainment (cf. ch. xxiv, C.). He might be the Patten described in
_D. N. B._ as rector of Stoke Newington (but not traceable in Hennessy)
and author of an anonymous _Calendars of Scripture_ (1575). But I
think he is more likely to have been Mercurius, son of William Patten,
teller of the exchequer and lord of the manor of Stoke Newington,
who matriculated at Trinity, Cambridge, in 1567 and was Blue Mantle
pursuivant in 1603 (_Hist. of Stoke Newington_ in _Bibl. Top. Brit._
ii; _Admissions to T. C. C._ ii. 70).
GEORGE PEELE (_c._ 1557–96).
As the son of James Peele, clerk of Christ’s Hospital and himself a
maker of pageants (vol. i, p. 136; _Mediaeval Stage_, ii. 166), George
entered the grammar school in 1565, proceeded thence to Broadgates
Hall, Oxford, in 1571, and became a student of Christ Church in 1574,
taking his B.A. in 1577 and his M.A. in 1579. In Sept. 1579 the court
of Christ’s Hospital required James Peele ‘to discharge His howse
of his sonne George Peele and all other his howsold which have bene
chargable to him’. This perhaps explains why George prolonged his
residence at Oxford until 1581. In that year he came to London, and
about the same time married. His wife’s business affairs brought him
back to Oxford in 1583 and in a deposition of 29 March he describes
himself as aged 25. During this visit he superintended the performance
before Alasco at Christ Church on 11 and 12 June of the _Rivales_ and
_Dido_ of William Gager, who bears testimony to Peele’s reputation as
wit and poet in two sets of Latin verses _In Iphigeniam Georgii Peeli
Anglicanis versibus redditam_ (Boas, 166,180). Presumably the rest of
his life was spent in London, and its wit and accompanying riot find
some record in _The Merry Conceited Jests of George Peele_ (S. R. 14
Dec. 1605: text in Bullen and in Hazlitt, _Jest Books_, ii. 261, and
Hindley, i), although this is much contaminated with traditional matter
from earlier jest books. It provided material for the anonymous play of
_The Puritan_ (1607), in which Peele appeared as George Pyeboard. His
fame as a dramatist is thus acknowledged in Nashe’s epistle to Greene’s
_Menaphon_ (1589):
‘For the last, though not the least of them all, I dare commend
him to all that know him, as the chief supporter of pleasance
now living, the Atlas of poetry, and _primus verborum artifex_;
whose first increase, the Arraignment of Paris, might plead to
your opinions his pregnant dexterity of wit and manifold variety
of invention, wherein (_me iudice_) he goeth a step beyond all
that write.’
Some have thought that Peele is the
Palin, worthy of great praise,
Albe he envy at my rustic quill,
of Spenser’s _Colin Clout’s Come Home Again_ (1591). It seems difficult
to accept the suggestions of Sarrazin that he was the original both of
Falstaff and of Yorick. An allusion in a letter to Edward Alleyn (cf.
ch. xv) has unjustifiably been interpreted as implying that Peele was
actor as well as playwright, and Collier accordingly included his name
in a forged list of housekeepers at an imaginary Blackfriars theatre
of 1589 (cf. vol. ii, p. 108). He was, however, clearly one of the
three of his ‘quondam acquaintance’ to whom Greene (q.v.) addressed
the attack upon players in his _Groats-worth of Wit_ (1592). In 1596
Peele after ‘long sickness’ sent a begging letter by his daughter to
Lord Burghley, with a copy of his _Tale of Troy_. He was buried as a
‘householder’ at St. James’s, Clerkenwell, on 9 Nov. 1596 (_Harl. Soc.
Registers_, xvii. 58), having died, according to Meres’s _Palladis
Tamia_, ‘by the pox’. He can, therefore, hardly be the Peleus of _Birth
of Hercules_ (1597 <).
_Collections_
1828–39. A. Dyce. 3 vols.
1861, 1879. A. Dyce. 1 vol. [With Greene.]
1888. A. H. Bullen. 2 vols.
_Dissertations_: R. Lämmerhirt, _G. P. Untersuchungen über sein Leben
und seine Werke_ (1882); L. Kellner, _Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamides_
(1889, _E. S._ xiii. 187); E. Penner, _Metrische Untersuchungen zu
P._ (1890, _Archiv_, lxxxv. 269); A. R. Bayley, _P. as a Dramatic
Artist_ (_Oxford Point of View_, 15 Feb. 1903); G. C. Odell, _P. as
a Dramatist_ (1903, _Bibliographer_, ii); E. Landsberg, _Der Stil in
P.’s sicheren und zweifelhaften dramatischen Werken_ (1910, _Breslau
diss._); G. Sarrazin, _Zur Biographie und Charakteristik von G. P._
(1910, _Archiv_, cxxiv. 65); P. H. Cheffaud, _G. P._ (1913).
PLAYS
_The Arraignment of Paris, c. 1584_
1584. The Araygnement of Paris A Pastorall. Presented before the
Queenes Maiestie, by the Children of her Chappell. _Henry Marsh._
[Prologue and Epilogue.]
_Editions_ by O. Smeaton (1905, _T. D._) and H. H. Child (1910, _M. S.
R._).--_Dissertation_: F. E. Schelling, _The Source of P.’s A. of P._
(1893, _M. L. N._ viii. 206).
Fleay, ii. 152, assigns the play to 1581 on the assumption that the
Chapel stopped playing in 1582. But they went on to 1584. Nashe’s
allusion (_vide supra_) and the ascription of passages from the play to
‘Geo. Peele’ in _England’s Helicon_ (1600) fix the authorship.
_The Battle of Alcazar, c. 1589_
[_MS._] _Addl. MS._ 10449, ‘The Plott of the Battell of Alcazar’.
[Probably from Dulwich. The fragmentary text is given by Greg,
_Henslowe Papers_, 138, and a facsimile by Halliwell, _The Theatre
Plats of Three Old English Dramas_ (1860).]
1594. The Battell of Alcazar, fought in Barbarie, betweene Sebastian
king of Portugall, and Abdelmelec king of Marocco. With the death of
Captaine Stukeley. As it was sundrie times plaid by the Lord high
Admirall his seruants. _Edward Allde for Richard Bankworth_. [Prologue
by ‘the Presenter’ and dumb-shows.]
_Edition_ by W. W. Greg (1907, _M. S. R._).
Interest in Sebastian was aroused in 1589 by the expedition of Norris
and Drake to set Don Antonio on the throne of Portugal. This started on
18 April, and Peele wrote _A Farewell_, in which is a reference to this
amongst other plays (l. 20, ed. Bullen, ii. 238):
Bid theatres and proud tragedians,
Bid Mahomet’s Poo and mighty Tamburlaine,
King Charlemagne, Tom Stukeley and the rest,
Adieu.
There are some possible but not very clear allusions to the Armada
in the play. From 21 Feb. 1592 to 20 Jan. 1593 Strange’s men played
fourteen times for Henslowe _Muly Mollocco_, by which this play, in
which Abdelmelec is also called Muly Mollocco, is probably meant (Greg,
_Henslowe_, ii. 149). The ‘plot’ must belong to a later revival by the
Admiral’s, datable, since both Alleyn and Shaw acted in it, either in
Dec. 1597 or in 1600–2 (cf. ch. xiii).
The authorship has been assigned to Peele, both on stylistic evidence
and because ll. 467–72 appear over his name in R. A.’s _England’s
Parnassus_ (1600), but R. A. has an error in at least one of his
ascriptions to Peele, and he ascribes l. 49 of this play to Dekker
(Crawford, _E. P._ xxxv. 398, 474; _M. S. C._ i. 101).
_Edward I > 1593_
_S. R._ 1593, Oct. 8. ‘An enterlude entituled the Chronicle of Kinge
Edward the firste surnamed Longeshank with his Retourne out of the
Holye Lande, with the lyfe of Leublen Rebell in Wales with the sinkinge
of Quene Elinour.’ _Abel Jeffes_ (Arber, ii. 637).
1593. The Famous Chronicle of king Edwarde the first, sirnamed Edwarde
Longshankes, with his returne from the holy land. Also the life of
Lleuellen, rebell in Wales. Lastly, the sinking of Queene Elinor, who
sunck at Charingcrosse, and rose againe at Potters-hith now named
Queenehith. _Abel Jeffes, sold by William Barley._ [At end, ‘Yours. By
George Peele, Maister of Artes in Oxenford’.]
1599. _W. White._
_Edition_ by W. W. Greg (1911, _M. S. R._).--_Dissertations_: W.
Thieme, _P.’s Ed. I und seine Quellen_ (1903, _Halle diss._); E.
Kronenberg, _G. P.’s Ed. I_ (1903, _Jena diss._).
Fleay, ii. 157, makes the date 1590–1, on the ground that lines are
quoted from _Polyhymnia_ (1590). A theory that Shakespeare acted in the
play is founded on ll. 759–62, where after Baliol’s coronation Elinor
says:
Now, brave John Baliol, Lord of Galloway
And King of Scots, shine with thy golden head!
Shake thy spears, in honour of his [i.e. Edward’s] name,
Under whose royalty thou wearest the same.
This is not very convincing.
A play called _Longshank, Longshanks_, and _Prince Longshank_ was
played fourteen times by the Admiral’s, from 29 Aug. 1595 to 14
July 1596. It is marked ‘ne’, and unless there had been substantial
revision, can hardly be Peele’s play. ‘Longe-shanckes sewte’ is in
the Admiral’s inventory of 10 March 1598. On 8 Aug. 1602 Alleyn sold
the book of the play to the Admiral’s with another for £4. (Greg,
_Henslowe_, ii. 176; _Henslowe Papers_, 113.)
_David and Bethsabe > 1594_
_S. R._ 1594, May 14. ‘A booke called the book of David and Bethsaba.’
_Adam Islip_ (Arber, ii. 649). [Islip’s name is cancelled and Edward
White’s substituted.]
1599. The Love of King David and Fair Bethsabe. With the Tragedie of
Absalon. As it hath ben divers times plaied on the stage. Written by
George Peele. _Adam Islip._ [Prologue.]
_Editions_ by T. Hawkins (1773, _O. E. D._ ii), J. M. Manly
(1897, _Specimens_, ii. 419), and W. W. Greg (1912, _M. S.
R._).--_Dissertations_: B. Neitzel (1904, _Halle diss._); M.
Dannenberg, _Die Verwendung des biblischen Stoffes von David und
Bathseba im englischen Drama_ (1905, _Königsberg diss._).
Fleay, ii. 153, dates the play _c._ 1588 on the ground of some not
very plausible political allusions. The text as it stands looks like a
boildown of a piece, perhaps of a neo-miracle type, written in three
‘discourses’. It had choruses, of which two only are preserved. One
is ll. 572–95 (at end of sc. iv of _M. S. R._ ed.). The other (ll.
1646–58; _M. S. R._ sc. xv) headed ‘Chorus 5’, contains the statement:
this storie lends vs other store,
To make a third discourse of Dauids life,
and is followed by a misplaced fragment of a speech by Absalon.
In Oct. 1602 Henslowe (ii. 232) laid out money for Worcester’s on poles
and workmanship ‘for to hange Absolome’; but we need not assume a
revival of Peele’s play.
_The Old Wive’s Tale. 1591 < > 4_
_S. R._ 1595, Apr. 16. ‘A booke or interlude intituled a pleasant
Conceipte called the owlde wifes tale.’ _Ralph Hancock_ (Arber, ii.
296).
1595. The Old Wiues Tale. A pleasant conceited Comedie, played by the
Queenes Maiesties players. Written by G. P. _John Danter, sold by Ralph
Hancock and John Hardie._
_Editions_ by F. B. Gummere (1903, _R. E. C._), W. W. Greg
(1908, _M. S. R._), W. A. Neilson (1911, _C. E. D._), F. R. Cady
(1916).--_Dissertation_: H. Dutz, _Der Dank des Tödten in der
englischen Literatur_ (1894).
The Queen’s men had presumably produced the play by 1594, when they
left London. Peele borrowed some lines and the name Sacrapant from
Greene’s _Orlando Furioso_ (1591). The hexameters of Huanebango are a
burlesque of Gabriel Harvey.
_Lost Plays_
_Iphigenia. c. 1579_
A translation of one of the two plays of Euripides, probably written at
Oxford, is only known by some laudatory verses of William Gager, _In
Iphigeniam Georgii Peeli Anglicanis versibus redditam_, printed by
Bullen, i. xvii.
_Hunting of Cupid > 1591_
_S. R._ 1591, July 26 (Bp. of London). ‘A booke intituled the Huntinge
of Cupid wrytten by George Peele, Master of Artes of Oxeford. Provyded
alwayes that yf yt be hurtfull to any other Copye before lycenced, then
this to be voyde.’ _Richard Jones_ (Arber, ii. 591).
Probably the play--I suppose it was a play--was printed, as Drummond
of Hawthornden includes jottings from ‘The Huntinge of Cupid by George
Peele of Oxford. Pastoral’ amongst others from ‘Bookes red anno 1609 be
me’, and thereby enables us to identify extracts assigned to Peele in
_England’s Parnassus_ (1600) and _England’s Helicon_ (1600) as from the
same source. The fragments are all carefully collected by W. W. Greg in
_M. S. C._ i. 307.
_The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek > 1594_
The _Merry Conceited Jests_ (Bullen, ii. 394) gives this as the title
of a ‘famous play’ of Peele’s. Conceivably it, rather than Greene’s
_Alphonsus_ (q.v.), may be the ‘Mahomet’s Poo’ of Peele’s _Farewell_ of
1589 (_vide supra_, s.v. _Battle of Alcazar_). An Admiral’s inventory
of 10 March 1598 includes ‘owld Mahemetes head’. The Admiral’s had
played _Mahomet_ for Henslowe from 16 Aug. 1594 to 5 Feb. 1595, and a
play called _The Love of a Grecian Lady_ or _The Grecian Comedy_ from
5 Oct. 1594 to 10 Oct. 1595. In Aug. 1601 Henslowe bought _Mahemett_
from Alleyn, and incurred other expenses on the play for the Admiral’s
(Henslowe, ii. 167; _Henslowe Papers_, 116). Possibly all the three
titles of 1594–5 stand for Peele’s play. Jacob Ayrer wrote a play on
the siege of Constantinople and the loves of Mahomet and Irene. This
may have had some relation on the one hand to Peele’s, and on the other
to a play of the siege of Constantinople used by Spencer (cf. ch. xiv)
in Germany during 1612–14 (Herz, 73). Pistol’s ‘Have we not Hiren
here?’ (_2 Hen. IV_, II. iv. 173) is doubtless from the play.
_The Knight of Rhodes_
This also is described in the _Merry Jests_ (cf. ch. xxiv, s.v.
_Soliman and Perseda_).
_Doubtful Plays_
Peele’s hand has been sought in nearly every masterless play of his
epoch: _Alphonsus of Germany_, _Captain Thomas Stukeley_, _Clyomon
and Clamydes_, _Contention of York and Lancaster_, _George a Greene_,
_Henry VI_, _Histriomastix_, _Jack Straw_, _Troublesome Reign of King
John_, _Knack to Know a Knave_, _Leire_, _Locrine_, _Mucedorus_,
_Soliman and Perseda_, _Taming of A Shrew_, _True Tragedy of Richard
III_, _Wily Beguiled_, _Wisdom of Dr. Dodipoll_ (cf. ch. xxiv).
ENTERTAINMENTS
_Dixie Pageant. 29 Oct. 1585_
1585. The Device of the Pageant borne before Woolstone Dixi Lord Maior
of the Citie of London. An. 1585. October 29. _Edward Allde._ [At end,
‘Done by George Peele, Master of Arts in Oxford’.]
_Editions_ in Nichols, _Eliz._ (1823), ii. 446, and F. W. Fairholt,
_Lord Mayor’s Pageants_ (1843, _Percy Soc._ xxxviii).
_Polyhymnia. 17 Nov. 1590_
See s.v. Lee.
_Descensus Astreae. 29 Oct. 1591_
1591. Descensus Astreae. The Deuice of a Pageant, borne before M.
William Web, Lord Maior of the Citie of London on the day he tooke his
oath; beeing the 29. of October. 1591. Wherevnto is annexed A Speech
deliuered by one clad like a Sea Nymph, who presented a Pinesse on the
water brauely rigd and mand, to the Lord Maior, at the time he tooke
Barge to go to Westminster. Done by G. Peele Maister of Arts in Oxford.
_For William Wright._
_Edition_ in F. W. Fairholt, _Lord Mayor’s Pageants_ (1843, _Percy
Soc._ xxxviii).
_Anglorum Feriae. 1595_
[_MS._] _Brit. Mus. Addl. MS._ 21432 (autograph). ‘Anglorum Feriae,
Englandes Hollydayes, celebrated the 17th of Novemb. last, 1595,
beginninge happyly the 38 yeare of the raigne of our soveraigne ladie
Queene Elizabeth. By George Peele M^r of Arte in Oxforde.’
_S. R._ 1595, Nov. 18. ‘A newe Ballad of the honorable order of the
Runnynge at Tilt at Whitehall the 17. of November in the 38 yere of
her maiesties Reign.’ _John Danter_ (Arber, iii. 53). [This is not
necessarily Peele’s poem.]
_Edition_ by R. Fitch (n.d. _c._ 1830).
This is a blank-verse description of tilting, like _Polyhymnia_; on the
occasion, cf. s.v. Bacon.
_Lost Entertainment. 1588_
_S. R._ 1588, Oct. 28. ‘Entred for his copie vppon Condicon that it
maye be lycenced, ye device of the Pageant borne before the Righte
honorable Martyn Calthrop lorde maiour of the Cytie of London the 29th
daie of October 1588 George Peele the Authour.’ _Richard Jones_ (Arber,
ii. 504).
In the _Merry Conceited Jests_ it is said that Peele had ‘all the
oversight of the pageants’ (Bullen, ii. 381).
_Doubtful Entertainment_
For the ascription to Peele of a Theobalds entertainment in 1591, see
s.v. Cecil.
JOHN PENRUDDOCK (_c._ 1588).
The Master ‘Penroodocke’, who was one of the directors for the
_Misfortunes of Arthur_ of Thomas Hughes (q.v.) in 1588, was presumably
John Penruddock, one of the readers of Gray’s Inn in 1590, and the John
who was admitted to the inn in 1562 (J. Foster, _Admissions to Gray’s
Inn_).
WILLIAM PERCY (1575–1648).
Percy was third son of Henry Percy, eighth Earl of Northumberland, and
educated at Gloucester Hall, Oxford. He was a friend of Barnabe Barnes,
and himself published _Sonnets to the Fairest Coelia_ (1594). His life
is obscure, but in 1638 he was living in Oxford and ‘drinking nothing
but ale’ (_Strafford Letters_, ii. 166), and here he died in 1648.
PLAYS
[_MS._] Autograph formerly in collection of the Duke of Devonshire,
with t.p. ‘Comædyes and Pastoralls ... By W. P. Esq.... Exscriptum Anno
Salutis 1647’. [Contains, in addition to the two plays printed in 1824,
the following:
_Arabia Sitiens, or A Dream of a Dry Year_ (1601).
_The Aphrodysial, or Sea Feast_ (1602).
_Cupid’s Sacrifice, or a Country’s Tragedy in Vacuniam_ (1602).
_Necromantes, or The Two Supposed Heads_ (1602).]
[_Edition_] 1824. The Cuck-Queanes and Cuckolds Errants or The
Bearing down the Inne. A Comædye. The Faery Pastorall, or Forrest
of Elves. By W. P. Esq. (_Roxburghe Club_). [Preface by [Joseph]
H[aslewood].]--_Dissertations_: C. Grabau, _Zur englischen Bühne um
1600_ (1902, _Jahrbuch_, xxxviii. 230); V. Albright, _P.’s Plays
as Proof of the Elizabethan Stage_ (1913, _M. P._ xi. 237); G. F.
Reynolds, _W. P. and his Plays_ (1914, _M. P._ xii. 241).
Percy’s authorship appears to be fixed by a correspondence between an
epigram in the MS. to Charles Fitzgeffrey with one _Ad Gulielmum
Percium_ in _Fitzgeoffridi Affaniae_ (1601), sig. D 2. 6.
_The Cuck-Queanes and Cuckolds Errants_ is dated 1601 and _The Faery
Pastorall_ 1603. The other plays are unprinted and practically unknown,
although Reynolds gives some account of _The Aphrodysial._ There are
elaborate stage-directions, which contain several references to Paul’s,
for which the plays, whether in fact acted or not, were evidently
intended, as is shown by an author’s note appended to the manuscript
(cf. ch. xii, s.v. Paul’s).
I feel some doubt as to the original date of these plays. It seems
to me just conceivable that they were originally produced by the
Paul’s boys before 1590, and revised by Percy after 1599 in hopes of
a revival. Some of the s.ds. are descriptive in the past tense (cf.
ch. xxii), which suggests actual production. The action of _C. and C.
Errant_ is during the time of the Armada, but the composition must be
later than the death of Tarlton, as his ghost prologizes. Here the
author notes, ‘Rather to be omitted if for Powles, and another Prologue
for him to be brought in Place’. _Faery Pastoral_ uses (p. 97) the date
‘1647’; it is in fairy time, but points to some revision when the MS.
was written. There are alternative final scenes, with the note, ‘Be
this the foresayd for Powles, For Actors see the Direction at later end
of this Pastorall, which is separate by itself, Extra Olens, as they
say’. Similarly in _Aphrodysial_ a direction for beards is noted ‘Thus
for Actors; for Powles without’, and another s.d. is ‘Chambers (noise
supposd for Powles) For Actors’. A reference to ‘a showre of Rose-water
and confits, as was acted in Christ Church in Oxford, in Dido and
Aeneas’ is a reminiscence of Gager’s play of 12 June 1583, and again
makes a seventeenth-century date seem odd.
PETER (?) PETT (_c._ 1600).
Henslowe’s diary records a payment of £6 on 17 May 1600 for the
Admiral’s ‘to pay Will: Haulton [Haughton] and Mr. Pett in full
payment of a play called straunge newes out of Poland’. Fleay, i.
273, says: ‘Pett is not heard of elsewhere. Should it not be Chett.,
_i.e._ Chettle? The only Pett I know of as a writer is Peter Pett, who
published _Time’s journey to seek his daughter Truth_, in verse, 1599.’
To which Greg, _Henslowe_, ii. 213, replies: ‘Henslowe often has Cett
for Chettle, which is even nearer, but only where he is crowded for
room and he never applies to him the title of Mr.’
JOHN PHILLIP (> 1570–> 1626).
John Phillip or Phillips was a member of Queens’ College, Cambridge,
and author of various ballads, tracts, and elegies, published between
1566 and 1591. I do not know whether he may be the ‘Phelypes’, who was
apparently concerned with John Heywood and a play by Paul’s (q.v.)
in 1559. A John Phillipps, this or another, is mentioned (1619) as a
brother-in-law in the will of Samuel Daniel (_Sh. Soc. Papers_, iv.
157).
_Dissertation_: W. W. Greg, _J. P._--_Notes for a Bibliography_
(1910–13, _3 Library_, i. 302, 395; iv. 432).
_Patient Grissell. 1558–61_
_S. R._ 1565–6. ‘An history of meke and pacyent gresell.’ _Thomas
Colwell_ (Arber, i. 309).
1568–9. ‘The history of payciente gresell &c.’ _Thomas Colwell_ (Arber,
i. 385).
N.D. The Commodye of pacient and meeke Grissill, Whearin is declared,
the good example, of her patience towardes her husband: and lykewise,
the due obedience of Children, toward their Parentes. Newly. Compiled
by Iohn Phillip. Eight persons maye easely play this Commody....
_Thomas Colwell._ [Preface; Epilogue, followed by ‘Finis, qd. Iohn
Phillipp’.]
_Edition_ by R. B. McKerrow and W. W. Greg (1909, _M. S. R._).
The characters include Politic Persuasion, the ‘Vice’. Elizabeth
is mentioned as Queen in the epilogue, and a reference (51) to the
‘wethercocke of Paules’ perhaps dates before its destruction in 1561.
JOHN PICKERING (_c._ 1567–8).
Brie records several contemporary John Pickerings, but there is nothing
to connect any one of them with the play.
_Horestes. 1567–8_
1567. A Newe Enterlude of Vice Conteyninge, the Historye of Horestes,
with the cruell reuengment of his Father’s death, vpon his one naturtll
Mother. By John Pikeryng.... The names deuided for VI to playe....
_William Griffith._ [On the back of the t.p. is a coat of arms which
appears to be a slight variant of that assigned by Papworth and Morant,
_Ordinary of British Armorials_, 536, to the family of Marshall.
Oddly enough, there was a family of this name settled at Pickering
in Yorkshire, but they, according to G. W. Marshall, _Miscellanea
Marescalliana_, i. 1; ii. 2, 139, had quite a different coat.]
_Editions_ by J. P. Collier (1866, _Illustrations of Old English
Literature_), A. Brandl (1898, _Q. W. D._), J. S. Farmer (1910, _T. F.
T._).--_Dissertation_: F. Brie, _Horestes von J. P._ (1912, _E. S._
xlvi. 66).
The play has a Vice, and ends with prayer for Queen Elizabeth and the
Lord Mayor of ‘this noble Cytie’. Feuillerat, _Eliz._ 449, thinks it
too crude to be the Court _Orestes_ of 1567–8, but the coincidence of
date strongly suggests that it was.
JOHN POOLE (?).
Possible author of _Alphonsus, Emperor of Germany_ (cf. ch. xxiv).
HENRY PORTER (_c._ 1596–9).
Porter first appears in Henslowe’s diary as recipient of a payment of
£5 on 16 Dec. 1596 and a loan of £4 on 7 March 1597, both on account of
the Admiral’s. It may be assumed that he was already writing for the
company, who purchased five plays, wholly or partly by him, between May
1598 and March 1599. Meres, in his _Palladis Tamia_ of 1598, counts
him as one of ‘the best for Comedy amongst vs’. He appears to have
been in needy circumstances, and borrowed several small sums from the
company or from Henslowe personally (Greg, _Henslowe_, ii. 304). On
28 Feb. 1599, when he obtained £2 on account of _Two Merry Women of
Abingdon_, ‘he gaue me his faythfulle promysse that I shold haue alle
the boockes w^{ch} he writte ether him sellfe or w^{th} any other’. On
16 April 1599, in consideration of 1_s._ he bound himself in £10 to
pay Henslowe a debt of 25_s._ on the following day, but could not meet
his obligation. Porter is not traceable as a dramatist after 1599. His
extant play, on the title-page of which he is described as ‘Gent.’,
suggests a familiarity with the neighbourhood of Oxford, and I see
no _a priori_ reason why he should not be the Henry Porter, son of
a London gentleman, who matriculated from Brasenose on 19 June 1589
(Boase and Clark, ii. 2, 170), or the Henricus Porter, apparently a
musician, of John Weever’s _Epigrammes_ (1599), v. 24, or the Henry
Porter of Christ Church who became B.Mus. in July 1600 (Wood, _Fasti
Oxon._ i. 284), or the Henry Porter who was a royal sackbut on 21 June
1603 (Nagel, 36), or the Henry Porter whose son Walter became Gentleman
of the Chapel Royal on 5 Jan. 1616 and has left musical works (_D.
N. B._). Gayley’s argument to the contrary rests on the unfounded
assumption that the musician could not have been writing Bankside plays
during the progress of his studies for his musical degree.
_The Two Angry Women of Abingdon > 1598_
1599. The Pleasant Historie of the two angrie women of Abington.
With the humorous mirthe of Dicke Coomes and Nicholas Prouerbes, two
Seruingmen. As it was lately playde by the right Honorable the Earle
of Nottingham, Lord High Admirall, his seruants. By Henry Porter Gent.
_For Joseph Hunt and William Ferbrand._ [Prologue. Greg shows this to
be Q_{1}.]
1599. _For William Ferbrand._
_Editions_ in Dodsley^4 (1874), and by G. M. Gayley (1903, _R. E. C._
i), J. S. Farmer (1911, _T. F. T._), W. W. Greg (1912, _M. S. R._).
The play shows no signs of being a sequel, and is presumably the First
Part, to which Porter wrote a Second Part (_vide infra_) in the winter
of 1598–9. It was an Admiral’s play, and therefore one would expect
to find it in Henslowe’s very full, if not absolutely exhaustive,
chronicle of the company’s repertory. Of the plays named as his by
Henslowe, _Love Prevented_ seems the only likely title. But he was in
the pay of the company before the diary began to record the authorship
of plays, and Part i may therefore be among the anonymous plays of
1596–7 or an earlier season. Gayley suggests _The Comedy of Humours_,
produced 11 May 1597, but that is more plausibly identified with
Chapman’s _Humorous Day’s Mirth_ (q.v.). Another possibility is _Woman
Hard to Please_, produced 27 Jan. 1597.
_Lost Plays_
Henslowe’s diary records the following plays for the Admiral’s men, in
which Porter had a hand in 1598 and 1599:
(i) _Love Prevented._
May 1598. _Vide Two Angry Women of Abingdon, supra._
(ii) _Hot Anger Soon Cold._
With Chettle and Jonson, Aug. 1598.
(iii) _2 Two Angry Women of Abingdon._
Dec. 1598–Feb. 1599.
(iv) _Two Merry Women of Abingdon._
Feb. 1599.
(v) _The Spencers._
With Chettle, March 1599.
THOMAS POUND (1538?-1616?).
Pound was of Beaumonds in Farlington, Hants, the son of William Pound
and Anne Wriothesley, daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Southampton.
William Pound had a brother Anthony, whose daughter Honora married
Henry, fourth Earl of Sussex (_V. H. Hants_, iii. 149; _Harl. Soc._
lxiv. 138; Berry, _Hants Genealogies_, 194; _Recusant Rolls_ in
_Catholic Record Soc._ xviii. 278, 279, 330, 334). Thomas was in youth
a Winchester boy, a Lincoln’s Inn lawyer, and a courtier of repute.
About 1570 he left the world and became a fervent Catholic, and the
record of his recusancy, of his relations with the Jesuit order, which
he probably joined, of the help he gave to Edmund Campion, and of his
long life of imprisonment and domiciliary restraint is written in H.
Morus, _Historia Missionis Anglicanae Societatis Jesu_ (1660); D.
Bartoli, _Dell’ Istoria della Compagnia di Gesu: L’Inghilterra_ (1667);
N. Sanders and E. Rishton, _De Origine Schismatis Anglicani_ (1586);
M. Tanner, _Societas Jesu Apostolorum Imitatrix_ (1694); R. Simpson in
_2 Rambler_ (1857), viii. 29, 94; H. Foley, _Records of the English
Province of the Society of Jesus_, iii (1878), 567; J. H. Pollen,
_English Catholics in the Reign of Elizabeth_ (1920), 333 _sqq._ I
am only concerned with his worldly life and his quitting of it. As a
Winchester _alumnus_, he is said to have delivered a Latin speech of
welcome to Elizabeth (Bartoli, 51), presumably at her visit of 1560
(App. A), but he can hardly still have been a schoolboy; perhaps he
was at New College. He had already been entered at Lincoln’s Inn on 16
Feb. 1560 (_Adm. Reg._ i. 66), and it was on behalf of Lincoln’s Inn
that he wrote and pronounced two mask orations which are preserved in
_Bodl. Rawl. Poet. MS._ 108, ff. 24, 29, whence they are described in
E. Brydges, _British Bibliographer_, ii. 612. Both seem to have been
before Elizabeth (cf. vol. i, p. 162, and App. A). The first, at the
wedding of his cousin Henry, Earl of Southampton, in Feb. 1566, is
headed in the manuscript ‘The copye of an oration made and pronounced
by Mr. Pownde of Lyncolnes Inne, with a brave maske out of the same
howse, all one greatte horses att the mariage off the yonge erle
of South hampton to the Lord Mountagues dawghter abowt Shrouetyde
1565’. The second, at the wedding on 1 July 1566 of another cousin,
Frances Radcliffe, is similarly headed ‘The copye of an oration made
and pronounced by Mr. Pownd of Lincolnes Inne, with a maske att y^e
marriage of y^e Earl of Sussex syster to Mr. Myldmaye off Lyncolnes
Inne 1566’. From this, which is in rhyming quatrains, Brydges quotes
119 lines; they are of no merit. In 1580 Pound wrote from his prison at
Bishop’s Stortford to Sir Christopher Hatton (_S. P. D. Eliz._ cxlii.
20) commending a petition to the Queen, ‘for her poeticall presents
sake, which her Majesty disdayned not to take at poore Mercuries hands,
if you remember it, at Killiegeworth Castle’. The reference must be to
the Kenilworth visit of 1568, rather than 1573 or 1575, for soon after
Thomas Pound’s days of courtly masking came to an abrupt end. The story
is told in Morus, 46:
‘Natales Christi dies, ut semper solemnes, ita anno sexagesimo quarto
fuere celeberrimi; dabantur in Curia ludi apparatissimi Thoma Pondo
instructore. Inter saltandum, nudam eius manum manu nuda prensat
Regina, tum ei caput, abrepto Leicestrie Comitis pileo, ipsa tegit, ne
ex vehementi motu accensus subito refrigeraretur. Imposita ei videbatur
laurea: cum (secundo eandem saltationis formam flagitante Regina)
celerrime de more uno in pede circumuolitans, pronus concidit; Plausu
in risum mutato, surge, inquit Regina, Domine Taure; ea voce commotus,
surrexit quidem; at flexo ad terram poplite, vulgatum illud latine
prolocutus, _sic transit gloria mundi_, proripuit se, et non longo
interuallo Aulam spesque fallaces deseruit, consumptarum facultatum et
violatae Religionis praemium ludibrium consecutus.’
There is a little difficulty as to the date. Morus puts it in 1564,
but goes on to add that Pound was in his thirtieth year, and he was
certainly born in 1538 or 1539. And Bartoli, 51, followed by Tanner,
480, gives 1569, citing, probably from Jesuit archives, a letter
written by Pound himself on 3 June 1609. No doubt 1569, which may mean
either 1568–9 or 1569–70, is right.
THOMAS PRESTON (> 1569–1589 <).
A Thomas Preston entered King’s, Cambridge, from Eton in 1553, and
became Fellow in 1556, taking his B.A. in 1557 and his M.A. in 1561. At
Elizabeth’s visit in 1564 he disputed with Thomas Cartwright before her
in the Philosophy Act, and also played in _Dido_, winning such favour
that she called him her ‘scholar’ and gave him a pension of £20 a year
from the privy purse (Cunningham, xx; Nichols, _Eliz._ i. 270; Fuller,
_Cambridge_, 137; Wordsworth, _Ecclesiastical Memorials_, iv. 322). He
held his fellowship at King’s until 1581. In 1583 a newswriter reported
him to be ‘withdrawen into Scotland as a malcontent and there made much
of by the King’ (Wright, _Eliz._ ii. 215). In 1584 he became Master
of Trinity Hall, and in 1589 was Vice-Chancellor. In 1592, with other
Heads of Houses, he signed a memorial to Burghley in favour of the stay
of plays at Cambridge (_M. S. C._ i. 192). It seems to me incredible
that he should, as is usually taken for granted, have been the author
of _Cambyses_, about which there is nothing academic, and I think that
there must have been a popular writer of the same name, responsible for
the play, and also for certain ballads of the broadside type, of which
_A Lamentation from Rome_ (Collier, _Old Ballads_, _Percy Soc._) was
printed in 1570, and _A Ballad from the Countrie, sent to showe how we
should Fast this Lent_ (_Archiv_, cxiv. 329, from _Bodl. Rawl. Poet.
MS._ 185) is dated 1589. Both are subscribed, like _Cambyses_, ‘Finis
Quod Thomas Preston’. A third was entered on S. R. in 1569–70 as ‘A
geliflower of swete marygolde, wherein the frutes of tyranny you may
beholde’.
A Thomas Preston is traceable as a quarterly waiter at Court under
Edward VI (_Trevelyan Papers_, i. 195, 200, 204; ii. 19, 26, 33), and
a choirmaster of the same name was ejected from Windsor Chapel as a
recusant about 1561 (cf. ch. xii).
_Cambyses > 1570_
_S. R._ 1569–70. ‘An enterlude a lamentable Tragedy full of pleasaunt
myrth.’ _John Allde_ (Arber, i. 400).
N.D. [1569–84]. A Lamentable Tragedie, mixed full of pleasant mirth,
containing the life of Cambises King of Percia ... By Thomas Preston.
_John Allde._ [Arrangement of parts for eight actors; Prologue;
Epilogue, with prayer for Queen and Council. At end, ‘Amen, quod Thomas
Preston’.]
N.D. [1584–1628]. _Edward Allde._
_Editions_ by T. Hawkins (1773, _O. E. D._ i), in Dodsley^4, iv (1874),
and by J. M. Manly (1897, _Specimens_, ii), and J. S. Farmer (1910, _T.
F. T._).
Line 1148 mentions Bishop Bonner whose ‘delight was to shed blood’, and
Fleay, 64, therefore dates the play 1569–70, as Bonner died 5 Sept.
1569. But he may merely be put in the past as an ex-bishop. Three comic
villains, Huf, Ruf, and Snuf, are among the characters, and chronology
makes it possible that the play was the _Huff, Suff, and Ruff_ (cf.
App. A) played at Court during Christmas 1560–1. Preston may, however,
have borrowed these characters, as Ulpian Fulwell borrowed Ralph
Roister, from an earlier play.
_Doubtful Play_
Preston has been suggested as the author of _Sir Clyomon and Clamydes_
(cf. ch. xxiv).
DANIEL PRICE (1581–1631).
A student of Exeter College, Oxford, who became chaplain to Prince
Henry (_D. N. B._), and described his _Creation_ in 1610 (cf. ch. xxiv,
C).
RICHARD (?) PUTTENHAM (_c._ 1520–1601).
The author of _The Arte of English Poesie_ (1589; cf. App. C, No. xli)
claims to have written three plays, no one of which is extant. He
analyses at length the plot of his ‘Comedie entituled _Ginecocratia_’
(Arber, 146), in which were a King, Polemon, Polemon’s daughter, and
Philino. He twice cites his ‘enterlude’, _Lustie London_ (Arber, 183,
208), in which were a Serjeant, his Yeoman, a Carrier, and a Buffoon.
And he twice cites his ‘enterlude’, _The Woer_ (Arber, 212, 233), in
which were a Country Clown, a Young Maid of the City, and a Nurse.
The author of _The Arte_ is referred to by Camden in 1614 (cf.
Gregory Smith, ii. 444) as ‘Maister Puttenham’, and by E. Bolton,
_Hypercritica_ (_c._ 1618), with the qualification ‘as the Fame is’, as
‘one of her Gentlemen Pensioners, Puttenham’. H. Crofts, in his edition
(1880) of Sir Thomas Elyot’s _The Governour_, has shown that this is
more likely to have been Richard, the elder, than George, the younger,
son of Robert Puttenham and nephew of Sir Thomas Elyot. Neither
brother, however, can be shown to have been a Gentleman Pensioner, and
Collier gives no authority for his statement that Richard was a Yeoman
of the Guard. Richard was writing as far back as the reign of Henry
VIII, and the dates of his plays are unknown.
WILLIAM RANKINS (> 1587–1601 <).
The moralist who published _A Mirrour of Monsters_ (1587), _The English
Ape_ (1588), and _Seven Satires_ (1598) is, in spite of the attack
on plays (cf. App. C, No. xxxviii) in the first of these, probably
identical with the dramatist who received payment from Henslowe on
behalf of the Admiral’s for the following plays during 1598–1601:
(i) _Mulmutius Dunwallow._
Oct. 1598, £3, ‘to by a boocke’, probably an old one.
(ii) _Hannibal and Scipio._
With Hathway, Jan. 1601.
(iii) _Scogan and Skelton._
With Hathway, Jan.–Mar. 1601.
(iv) _The Conquest of Spain by John of Gaunt._
With Hathway, Mar.–Apr. 1601, but never finished, as shown by a letter
to Henslowe from S. Rowley, bidding him let Hathway ‘haue his papars
agayne’ (_Henslowe Papers_, 56).
Rankins has also been suggested as the author of _Leire_ (cf. ch. xxiv).
THOMAS RICHARDS (_c._ 1577).
A possible author of _Misogonus_ (cf. ch. xxiv).
HENRY ROBERTS (_c._ 1606).
A miscellaneous writer (_D. N. B._) who described the visit of the
King of Denmark to England (cf. ch. xxiv, C). The stationer of the same
name, who printed the descriptions, may be either the author or his son
(McKerrow, 229).
JOHN ROBERTS (_c._ 1574).
A contributor to the Bristol Entertainment of Elizabeth (cf. ch. xxiv,
C).
ROBINSON.
Henslowe paid £3 on behalf of the Admiral’s men on 9 Sept. 1602 ‘vnto
M^r. Robensone for a tragedie called Felmelanco’. Later in the month he
paid two sums amounting to another £3 to Chettle, for ‘his tragedie’ of
the same name. The natural interpretation is that Chettle and Robinson
co-operated, but Fleay, i. 70, rather wantonly says, ‘Robinson was,
I think, to Chettle what Mrs. Harris was to Mrs. Gamp’, and Greg,
_Henslowe_, ii. 224, while not agreeing with Fleay, ‘It is, however,
unlikely that he had any hand in the play. Probably Chettle had again
pawned his MS.’
Dates make it improbable that this Robinson was the poet Richard
Robinson whose lost ‘tragedy’ _Hemidos and Thelay_ is not likely to
have been a play (cf. App. M).
SAMUEL ROWLEY (?-1624).
For Rowley’s career as an Admiral’s and Prince’s man, cf. ch. xv.
_Dr. Faustus_
For the additions by Rowley and Bird in 1602, cf. s.v. Marlowe.
_When You See Me, You Know Me. 1603 < > 5_
_S. R._ 1605, Feb. 12, ‘Yf he gett good alowance for the enterlude of
King Henry the 8th before he begyn to print it. And then procure the
wardens handes to yt for the entrance of yt: He is to haue the same for
his copy.’ _Nathanaell Butter_ (Arber, iii. 283). [No fee recorded.]
1605. When you see me, You know me. Or the famous Chronicle Historie of
King Henry the eight, with the birth and vertuous life of Edward Prince
of Wales. As it was playd by the high and mightie Prince of Wales his
seruants. By Samuell Rowly, seruant to the Prince. _For Nathaniel
Butter._
1613; 1621; 1632.
_Editions_ by K. Elze (1874) and J. S. Farmer (1912, _S. F.
T._).--_Dissertation_: W. Zeitlin, _Shakespeare’s King Henry the Eighth
and R.’s When You See Me_ (1881, _Anglia_, iv. 73).
_The Noble Soldier_
Probably with Day and Dekker (q.v.).
_Lost Plays_
(a) _Plays for the Admiral’s, noted in Henslowe’s diary._
_Judas._ With W. Bird, Dec. 1601, possibly a completion of the play of
the same name left unfinished by Haughton (q.v.) in 1600.
_Joshua._ Sept. 1602.
(b) _Plays for the Palsgrave’s, licensed by Sir Henry Herbert_
(Chalmers, _S. A._ 214–17; Herbert, 24, 26, 27).
27 July 1623, _Richard III_.
29 Oct. 1623, _Hardshifte for Husbands_.
6 Apr. 1624, _A Match or No Match_.
_Doubtful Plays_
H. D. Sykes, _The Authorship of The Taming of A Shrew, etc._ (1920,
_Sh. Association_), argues, on the basis of a comparison of phraseology
with _When You See Me, You Know Me_ and some of the additions to _Dr.
Faustus_, for Rowley’s authorship of (_a_) _The Famous Victories_,
(_b_) the prose scenes of _A Shrew_, (_c_) the clowning passages in
Greene’s _Orlando Furioso_, (_d_) the prose scenes of _Wily Beguiled_.
He suggests that the same collaborator, borrowing first from Marlowe
and then from Kyd, may have supplied the verse scenes both of _A Shrew_
and of _Wily Beguiled_. There is no external evidence to connect Rowley
with the Queen’s, and he only becomes clearly traceable with the
Admiral’s in 1598, but Mr. Sykes has certainly made out a stylistic
case which deserves consideration.
WILLIAM ROWLEY (?-1625 <).
Of Rowley’s origin and birth nothing is known. He first appears as
collaborator in a play of Queen Anne’s men in 1607, and, although he
may have also acted with this company, there is no evidence of the
fact. His name is in the patent of 30 March 1610 for the Duke of York’s
men with that of Thomas Hobbes, to whom his pamphlet _A Search for
Money_ (1609, _Percy Soc. ii_.) is dedicated. He acted as their payee
from 1610 to 1615, and they played his _Hymen’s Holiday or Cupid’s
Vagaries_, now lost, in 1612. _A Knave in Print_ and _The Fool without
Book_, entered as his on 9 Sept. 1653 (Eyre, i. 428), might be their
anonymous two-part _Knaves_ of 1613. He contributed an epitaph on
Thomas Greene of the Queen’s to Cooke’s _Greene’s Tu Quoque_ (1614).
From 1615 to March 1616 the Prince’s men seem to have been merged in
the Princess Elizabeth’s. They then resumed their identity at the Hope,
and with them Rowley is traceable as an actor to 1619 and as a writer,
in collaboration with Thomas Middleton (q.v.), Thomas Ford, and Thomas
Heywood, until 1621. In 1621 he wrote an epitaph upon one of their
members, Hugh Attwell, apparently as his ‘fellow’. It was still as a
Prince’s man that he received mourning for James on 17 March 1625. But
in 1621 and 1622 he was writing, with Middleton and alone, for the
Lady Elizabeth’s at the Cockpit, and in 1623 both writing and acting
in _The Maid of the Mill_ for the King’s men, and prefixing verses to
Webster’s _Duchess of Malfi_, which belonged to the same company. He
had definitely joined the King’s by 24 June 1625 when his name appears
in their new patent, and for them his latest play-writing was done. In
addition to what was published under his name, he is generally credited
with some share in the miscellaneous collection of the Beaumont and
Fletcher Ff. His name is not in an official list of King’s men in
1629, but the date of his death is unknown. A William Rowley married
Isabel Tooley at Cripplegate in 1637, but the date hardly justifies the
assumption that it was the dramatist.
_Dissertations_: P. G. Wiggin, _An Inquiry into the Authorship of the
Middleton-Rowley Plays_ (1897, _Radcliffe College Monographs_, ix); C.
W. Stork, _William Rowley_ (1910, _Pennsylvania Univ. Publ._ xiii, with
texts of _All’s Lost for Lust_ and _A Shoemaker a Gentleman_).
_A Shoemaker a Gentleman, c. 1608_
_S. R._ 1637, Nov. 28 (Weekes). ‘A Comedie called A Shoomaker is a
gentleman with the life and death of the Criple that stole the weather
cocke of Pauls, by William Rowley.’ _John Okes_ (Arber, iv. 400).
1638. A Merrie and Pleasant Comedy: Never before Printed, called A
Shoomaker a Gentleman. As it hath beene sundry Times Acted at the Red
Bull and other Theatres, with a general and good Applause. Written by
W. R. Gentleman. _I. Okes, sold by Iohn Cooper._ [Epistle by Printer to
Gentlemen of the Gentle Craft.]
_Edition_ by C. W. Stork (1910).
The epistle says that the play was still often acted, and ‘as Plaies
were then, some twenty yeares agone, it was in the fashion’. This
dating and the mention of the Red Bull justify us in regarding it as an
early play for Queen Anne’s men.
_A New Wonder, A Woman Never Vexed_ (?)
_S. R._ 1631, Nov. 24 (Herbert). ‘A booke called A new wonder or a
woman neuer vext (a Comedy) by William Rowley.’ _Constable_ (Arber, iv.
266).
1632. A new Wonder, A Woman never vext. A pleasant conceited Comedy:
sundry times Acted: never before printed. Written by William Rowley,
one of his Maiesties Servants. _G. P. for Francis Constable._
Fleay, ii, 102, and Greg (_H._ ii. 177) suggest revision by Rowley
of the Admiral’s _Wonder of a Woman_ (1595), perhaps by Heywood
(q.v.); Stork, 26, early work for Queen Anne’s men, under Heywood’s
influence.
_A Match at Midnight_ (?)
_S. R._ 1633, Jan. 15 (Herbert). ‘A Play called A Match at midnight.’
_William Sheares_ (Arber, iv. 291).
1633. A Match at Midnight A Pleasant Comœdie: As it hath been Acted
by the Children of the Revells. Written by W. R. _Aug. Mathewes for
William Sheares._
Fleay, 203 and ii. 95, treats the play, without discussion, as written
by Middleton and Rowley for the Queen’s Revels _c._ 1607. Bullen,
_Middleton_, i. lxxxix, and Stork, 17, concur as to the date, the
former regarding it as Middleton’s revised _c._ 1622 by Rowley,
the latter as practically all Rowley’s. These views are evidently
influenced by the mention of the Children of the Revels on the
title-page. Wiggin, 7, noting allusions to the battle of Prague in
1620 and _Reynard the Fox_ (1621), thinks it alternatively possible
that Rowley wrote it under Middletonian influence for one of the later
Revels companies _c._ 1622. There was no doubt a company of Children of
the Revels in 1622–3 (Murray, i. 198), but the name on a t.p. of 1633
would naturally refer to the still later company of 1629–37 (Murray, i.
279).
_The Birth of Merlin_ (?)
1662. The Birth of Merlin: Or, The Childe hath found his Father. As it
hath been several times Acted with great Applause. Written by William
Shakespear, and William Rowley. _Tho. Johnson for Francis Kirkman and
Henry Marsh._
_Editions_ by T. E. Jacob (1889), J. S. Farmer (1910, _T. F. T._), and
with _Sh. Apocrypha_.--_Dissertations_: F. A. Howe, _The Authorship of
the B. of M._ (1906, _M. P._ iv. 193); W. Wells, _The B. of M._ (1921,
_M. L. R._ xvi. 129).
Kirkman’s attribution to Shakespeare and Rowley was first made in his
play-list of 1661 (Greg, _Masques_, liii). It is generally accepted
for Rowley, but not for Shakespeare. But Fleay, _Shakespeare_, 289,
on a hint of P. A. Daniel, gave Rowley a collaborator in Middleton,
and later (ii. 105) treated the play as a revision by Rowley of the
_Uther Pendragon_ produced by the Admiral’s on 29 April 1597. This
view seems to rest in part upon the analogous character of _The
Mayor of Quinborough_. Howe thinks that Rowley worked up a sketch by
Middleton later than 1621, and attempts a division of the play on this
hypothesis. But Stork, _Rowley_, 58, thinks that Rowley revised _Uther
Pendragon_ or some other old play about 1608. F. W. Moorman (_C. H._ v.
249) suggests Dekker, and Wells Beaumont and Fletcher.
_Doubtful Plays_
The ascription to Rowley on the t.p. of _The Thracian Wonder_ is not
generally accepted. His hand has been sought in _The Captain_, _The
Coxcomb_, and _Wit at Several Weapons_ (cf. s.v. Beaumont) and in
_Troublesome Reign of King John_ (cf. ch. xxiv) and _Pericles_.
MATTHEW ROYDON (> 1580–1622 <).
The reference to his ‘comike inuentions’ in Nashe’s _Menaphon_ epistle
of 1589 (App. C, No. xlii) suggests that he wrote plays.
GEORGE RUGGLE (1575–1622).
Ruggle entered St. John’s, Cambridge, from Lavenham grammar school,
Suffolk, in 1589, migrated to Trinity, where he took his B.A. in 1593
and his M.A. in 1597, and became Fellow of Clare Hall in 1598. He
remained at Cambridge until 1620, shortly before his death.
_Ignoramus. 8 March 1615_
[_MSS._] _Bodl. Tanner MS._ 306, with actor-list; _Harl. MSS._ 6869
(fragmentary); and others.
_S. R._ 1615, April 18 (Nidd). ‘Ignoramus Comœdia provt Cantabrigie
acta coram Jacobo serenissimo potentissimo magnae Britanniae rege.’
_Walter Burre_ (Arber, iii. 566).
1630. Ignoramus. Comœdia coram Regia Majestate Jacobi Regis Angliae,
&c. _Impensis I. S._ [Colophon] _Excudebat T. P._ [Prologus Prior.
Martii 8. Anno 1614; Prologus Posterior. Ad secundum Regis adventum
habitus, Maii 6, 1615; Epilogus.]
1630.... Secunda editio auctior & emendatior. _Typis T. H. Sumptibus G.
E. & J. S._ [Macaronic lines, headed ‘Dulman in laudem Ignorami’.]
1658.... Autore M^{ro} Ruggle, Aulae Clarensis A.M.
1659, 1668, 1707, 1731, 1736, 1737.
_Edition_ by J. S. Hawkins (1787).
Chamberlain, describing to Carleton James’s visit to Cambridge in
March 1615, wrote (Birch, i. 304): ‘The second night [8 March] was a
comedy of Clare Hall, with the help of two or three good actors from
other houses, wherein David Drummond, on a hobby-horse, and Brakin, the
recorder of the town, under the name of Ignoramus, a common lawyer,
bore great parts. The thing was full of mirth and variety, with many
excellent actors; among whom the Lord Compton’s son, though least,
yet was not worst, but more than half marred by extreme length.’
On 31 March he told Carleton (Birch, i. 360) of the Oxford satires
on the play, and of a possible second visit by the King, unless he
could persuade the actors to visit London. And on 20 May he wrote to
him (Birch, i. 363): ‘On Saturday last [13 May], the King went again
to Cambridge, to see the play “Ignoramus”, which has so nettled the
lawyers, that they are almost out of all patience.’ He adds that rhymes
and ballads had been written by the lawyers, and answered. Specimens
of the ‘flytings’ to which the play gave rise are in Hawkins, xxxvii,
xlii, cvii, 259. Fuller, _Church History_ (1655), x. 70, reports a
story that the irritation caused to the lawyers also led to John
Selden’s demonstration of the secular origin of tithes. The authorship
of _Ignoramus_ is indicated by the entry in a notice of the royal visit
printed (Hawkins, xxx) from a manuscript in the library of Sir Edward
Dering:
‘On Wednesday night, 2, _Ignoramus_, the lawyer, _Latine_, and
part _English_, composed by M^r. _Ruggle_, _Clarensis_.’
_Ignoramus_ was largely based on the _Trappolaria_ (1596) of
Giambattista Porta, into which Ruggle introduced his satire of the
Cambridge recorder, Francis Brackyn, who had already been the butt of
_3 Parnassus_.
_Doubtful and Lost Plays_