Part ii

, prol. 13, 23, calls the theatre ‘round’ and ‘ring’.

_What You Will. 1601_

_S. R._ 1607, Aug. 6 (Buck). ‘A commedie called What you will.’ _Thomas Thorp_ (Arber, iii. 358).

1607. What You Will. By Iohn Marston. _G. Eld for Thomas Thorpe._ [Induction and Prologue.]

_Edition_ by C. W. Dilke (1814, _O. E. P._ ii).--_Dissertation_: F. Holthausen, _Die Quelle von Marston’s W. Y. W._ (1905, _Jahrbuch_, xli. 186).

Bullen, Fleay, ii. 76, Small, 101, and Aronstein agree in regarding the play as written in 1601 by way of answer to _Cynthia’s Revels_, and they are probably right. Small shows that, in spite of the fact that Quadratus calls Lampatho Doria a ‘Don Kynsader’ (II. i. 134), Lampatho must stand for Jonson, and Quadratus to some extent for Marston himself. Perhaps Simplicius Faber is the unidentified Asinius Bubo of _Satiromastix_. Both Fleay and Small think that the play has been revised before publication, partly because of confusion in the names of the characters, and partly because of the absence of the kind of Marstonian language which Jonson satirized. Small goes so far as to suggest that the seventeen untraceable words vomited by Crispinus in _The Poetaster_ came from _What You Will_, and that Marston rewrote the play and eliminated them. The rest of Fleay’s conjectures about the play seem to me irresponsible. If the play dates from 1601, it may reasonably be assigned to the Paul’s boys. The induction, with its allusions to the small size of the stage and the use of candles, excludes the possibility of an adult theatre.

_The Dutch Courtesan. 1603–4_

_S. R._ 1605, June 26. ‘A booke called the Dutche Curtizan, as yt was latelie presented at the Blackeffryers Provyded that he gett sufficient Aucthoritie before yt be prynted.’ _John Hodgettes_ (Arber, iii. 293). [A further note, ‘This is alowed to be printed by Aucthoritie from Master Hartwell’.]

1605. The Dutch Courtezan. As it was played in the Blacke-Friars. by the Children of her Maiesties Reuels. Written by Iohn Marston, _T. P. for John Hodgets_. [Prologue.]

_S. R._ 1613, April 19. Transfer to Hodgettes of Eleazer Edgar’s interest in the play (Arber, iii. 520).

As a Queen’s Revels play, this must have been on the stage at least as late as 1603, and the clear proof of Crawford, ii. 1, that several passages are verbal imitations of Florio’s translation of Montaigne, published in that year, make it difficult to put it earlier, although Wallace, ii. 75, says that he has evidence, which he does not give, for production in 1602. On the other hand, C. R. Baskervill (_M. L. A._ xxiv. 718) argues that the plot influenced that of _The Fair Maid of Bristow_, which was performed at Court during the winter of 1603–4. The play is referred to with _Eastward Ho!_ (q.v.) as bringing trouble on Marston by A. Nixon, _The Black Year_ (1606). It was revived for the Court by the Lady Elizabeth’s on 25 Feb. 1613, under the name of _Cockle de Moye_ from one of the characters, and repeated on 12 Dec. 1613 (cf. App. B).

_The Malcontent. 1604_

_S. R._ 1604, July 5 (Pasfield). ‘An Enterlude called the Malecontent, Tragicomoedia.’ _William Aspley and Thomas Thorpe_ (Arber, iii. 266, 268). [Entry made on the wrong page and re-entered.]

1604. The Malcontent. By Iohn Marston. _V. S. for William Aspley._ [Two editions. Inscription ‘Beniamino Jonsonio, poetae elegantissimo, gravissimo, amico suo, candido et cordato, Iohannes Marston, Musarum alumnus, asperam hanc suam Thaliam D.D.’ and Epistle to Reader.]

1604. The Malcontent. Augmented by Marston. With the Additions played by the Kings Maiesties servants. Written by Ihon Webster. _V. S. for William Aspley._ [A third edition, with the Induction, which is headed ‘The Induction to the Malcontent, and the additions acted by the Kings Maiesties servants. Written by Iohn Webster’, and the insertions I. i. 146–88, 195–212, 256–303; I. iii; II. ii. 34, 57–71; III. i. 33–156; IV. ii. 123–37; V. i; V. ii. 10–39, 164–94, 212–26; V. iii. 180–202.]

_Editions_ by W. Scott (1810, _A. B. D._ ii) and W. A. Neilson (1911, _C. E. D._); and with _Works_ of Webster (q.v.).--_Dissertation_: E. E. Stoll, _John Webster_ (1905), 55, and _Shakspere, Marston, and the Malcontent Type_ (1906, _M. P._ iii. 281).

The induction, in which parts are taken by Sly, Sinklo, Burbadge, Condell, and Lowin, explains the genesis of the enlarged edition.

_Sly._ ... I would know how you came by this play?

_Condell._ Faith, sir, the book was lost; and because ’twas pity so good a play should be lost, we found it and play it.

_Sly._ I wonder you would play it, another company having interest in it.

_Condell._ Why not Malevole in folio with us, as Jeronimo in decimosexto with them? They taught us a name for our play; we call it _One for Another_.

_Sly._ What are your additions?

_Burbadge._ Sooth, not greatly needful; only as your salad to your great feast, to entertain a little more time, and to abridge the not-received custom of music in our theatre.

Stoll, 57, rightly argues that Small, 115, is not justified in ignoring the evidence of the title-page and assigning the insertions, as well as the induction, to Webster rather than Marston. On the other hand, I think he himself ignores the evidence of Burbadge’s speech in the induction, when he takes the undramatic quality of the insertions as proof that Marston did not write them first in 1604, but revived them from his original text, which the boy actors had shortened. He puts this original text in 1600, because of the allusion in one of the insertions (I. iii. 20) to a ‘horn growing in the woman’s forehead twelve years since’. This horn was described in a pamphlet of 1588. I do not share his view that ‘twelve’ must be a precise and not a round number. Sly says in the induction:

‘This play hath beaten all your gallants out of the feathers: Blackfriars hath almost spoiled Blackfriars for feathers.’

It is clear therefore that the original actors were the Blackfriars boys, and there is nothing else to suggest a connexion between Marston and these boys during Elizabeth’s reign. Small, 115, points out a reference to the Scots in V. iii. 24 which should be Jacobean. I think that this is Marston’s first play for the Queen’s Revels after the formation of the syndicate early in 1604, and that the revision followed later in the same year. It is not necessary to assume that the play was literally ‘lost’ or that Marston was not privy to the adoption of it by the King’s. Importance is attached to the date by parallels to certain plays of Shakespeare, where Stoll thinks that Shakespeare was the borrower. I do not see how it can be so. The epilogue speaks of the author’s ‘reformed Muse’ and pays a compliment to ‘another’s happier Muse’ and forthcoming ‘Thalia’, perhaps Jonson’s _Volpone_.

_The Fawn. 1604 < > 6_

_S. R._ 1606, March 12. ‘A playe called the ffaune provided that he shall not put the same in prynte before he gett alowed lawfull aucthoritie.’ _William Cotton_ (Arber, iii. 316).

1606. Parasitaster, Or The Fawne, As it hath bene diuers times presented at the blacke Friars, by the Children of the Queenes Maiesties Reuels. Written by Iohn Marston. _T. P. for W. C._ [Epistle to the Equal Reader, signed ‘Jo. Marston’, Prologue, and Epilogue.]

1606.... and since at Paules.... And now corrected of many faults, which by reason of the Author’s absence were let slip in the first edition. _T. P. for W. C._ [A further Epistle to the Reader states that the writer has ‘perused this copy’ and is about to ‘present ... to you’ the tragedy of _Sophonisba_.]

Modern edition by C. W. Dilke (1814, _O. E. P._ ii).

As a Queen’s Revels play, this must date from 1604 or 1605; presumably it was transferred to Paul’s by Edward Kirkham, when he took charge of them for the Christmas of 1605–6. Small, 116, refutes Aronstein’s suggested allusion to Jonson’s _Volpone_ of 1605 or 1606. Bolte, _Danziger Theater_, 177, prints from a seventeenth-century Dantzig MS. a German play, _Tiberius von Ferrara und Annabella von Mömpelgart_, which is in part derived from _The Fawn_ (Herz, 99). If, as the titles suggest, the performances of _Annabella, eines Hertzogen Tochter von Ferrara_ at Nördlingen in 1604, of _Annabella, eines Markgraffen Tochter von Montferrat_ at Rothenburg in 1604, and of _Herzog von Ferrara_ at Dresden in 1626 (Herz, 65, 66), indicate intermediate links, _The Fawn_ cannot be later than 1604. Yet I find it impossible not to attach some value to the argument of Stoll, _Webster_, 17, for a date later than the execution of Sir Everard Digby on 30 Jan. 1606 (Stowe, _Annales_, 881), which appears to be alluded to in IV. i. 310, ‘Nay, heed me, a woman that will thrust in crowds,--a lady, that, being with child, ventures the hope of her womb,--nay, gives two crowns for a room to behold a goodly man three parts alive, quartered, his privities hackled off, his belly lanched up’. It is true that there were also quarterings for treason on 29 Nov. 1603 (Stowe, _Annales_, ed. Howes, 831), but these were in Winchester; also that contemporary notices, such as that in Stowe and the narratives in J. Morris, _Catholics under James I_, 216, and in _Somers Tracts_ (1809), ii. 111, which describes the victims as ‘proper men, in shape’, afford no confirmation of indecent crowds in 1606, but the cumulative effect of the quadruple allusions here, in Day’s _Isle of Gulls_ (q.v.), in Sharpham’s _Fleir_ (q.v.), and in Middleton’s _Michaelmas Term_ (q.v.) is pretty strong. The passage quoted by Crawford, ii. 40, from Montaigne is hardly particular enough to explain that in the _Fawn_. I do not like explaining discrepancies by the hypothesis of a revision, but if Kirkham revived the _Fawn_ at Paul’s in 1606, he is not unlikely to have had it written up a bit. The epistle refers to ‘the factious malice and studied detractions’ of fellow-dramatists, perhaps an echo of Marston’s relations with Jonson and Chapman over _Eastward Ho!_

_The Wonder of Women_, or _Sophonisba_. _1606_

_S. R._ 1606, March 17 (Wilson). ‘A booke called the wonder of woemen, or the Tragedie of Sophonisba, &c.’ _Eleazar Edgar_ (Arber, iii. 316).

1606. The Wonder of Women Or the Tragedie of Sophonisba, as it hath beene sundry times Acted at the Blacke-Friers. Written by Iohn Marston. _John Windet._ [Epistle to the General Reader by the author, but unsigned, Argumentum, Prologue, and Epilogue.]

_S. R._ 1613, April 19. Transfer from Edgar to John Hodgettes (Arber, iii. 521).

The mention of Blackfriars without the name of a company points to a performance after Anne’s patronage had been withdrawn from the Revels boys, late in 1605 or early in 1606, not, as Fleay, ii. 79, suggests, to one by the Chapel in 1602–3. Some features of staging (cf. ch. xxi) raise a suspicion that the play may have been taken over from Paul’s. The resemblance of the title to that of _Wonder of a Woman_ produced by the Admiral’s in 1595 is probably accidental. The epistle glances at Jonson’s translations in _Sejanus_ (1603).

_The Insatiate Countess. c. 1610_

1613. The Insatiate Countesse. A Tragedie: Acted at White-Fryers. Written by Iohn Marston. _T. S. for Thomas Archer._

1616. _N. O. for Thomas Archer._

1631.... Written by William Barksteed. _For Hugh Perrie._

1631.... Written by Iohn Marston. _I. N. for Hugh Perrie._ [A reissue.]

_Dissertation_: R. A. Small, _The Authorship and Date of the Insatiate Countess_ in _Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature_, v (_Child Memorial Volume_), 277.

It is generally supposed that Marston began the play and that Barksted (q.v.) finished it. Two lines (V. ii. 244–5) appear verbatim in Barksted’s _Mirrha_ (1607). Small traces several other clear parallels with both _Mirrha_ and _Hiren_, as well as stylistic qualities pointing to Barksted rather than to Marston, and concludes that the play is Barksted’s on a plot drafted by Marston. It may be conjectured that Marston left the fragment when he got into trouble for the second time in 1608, and that the revision was more probably for the Queen’s Revels at Whitefriars in 1609–11 than for the conjoint Queen’s Revels and Lady Elizabeth’s in 1613. Hardly any of the suggestions on the play in Fleay, ii. 80, bear analysis.

_Lost Plays_

On _The King of Scots_, _vide supra_. Rogers and Ley’s list of 1656 (Greg, _Masques_, lxxii) ascribes to Marston a _Guise_, which other publishers’ lists transfer to Webster (q.v.). Collier, _Memoirs of Alleyn_, 154, assigns to Marston a _Columbus_, on the basis of a forgery.

_Doubtful Plays_

Marston doubtless had a hand in revising the anonymous _Histriomastix_ and in _Jack Drum’s Entertainment_, and attempts have been made to find him in _An Alarum for London_, _Charlemagne_, _London Prodigal_, _Puritan_ (cf. ch. xxiv), and as a collaborator in Dekker’s _Satiromastix_.

MASKS

_Ashby Entertainment. Aug. 1607_

[_MSS._] (_a_) _Bridgewater House_, with title, ‘The honorable Lorde & Lady of Huntingdons Entertainment of their right Noble Mother Alice: Countesse Dowager of Darby the first night of her honors arrivall att the house of Ashby’. [Verses to Lady Derby signed ‘John Marston’; includes a mask of Cynthia and Ariadne.]

(_b_) _B.M. Sloane_ 848, f. 9. [Speech of Enchantress only, with date Aug. 1607.]

_Extracts_ in H. J. Todd, _Works of Milton_, v. 149 (1801), and 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