I think this can only refer to a contemplated personal appearance of Mary Frith on the stage; it has been interpreted as referring to another forthcoming play. Moll Cutpurse appears in Field’s Amends for Ladies, but this was not a Fortune play. Bullen (Middleton, i. xxxv) regards the play as an example of collaboration, and gives Dekker I. II. ii, and V; Middleton, with occasional hesitation, the rest. Fleay, i. 132, only gives Middleton II. ii, IV. i, V. ii.
If It be not Good, the Devil is in It. 1610 < > 12
1612. If It Be Not Good, the Diuel is in it. A New Play, As it hath bin lately Acted, with great applause, by the Queenes Maiesties Seruants: At the Red Bull. Written by Thomas Dekker. For I. T. sold by Edward Marchant. [Epistle to the Queen’s men signed Tho: Dekker, Prologue, and Epilogue. The running title is ‘If this be not a good Play, the Diuell is in it’.]
The Epistle tells us that after ‘Fortune’ (the Admiral’s) had ‘set her foote vpon’ the play, the Queen’s had ‘raised it up ... the Frontispice onely a little more garnished’. Fleay, i. 133, attempts to fix the play to 1610, but hardly proves more than that it cannot be earlier than 14 May 1610, as the murder on that day of Henri IV is referred to (ed. Pearson, p. 354). The Epistle also refers to a coming new play by Dekker’s ‘worthy friend’, perhaps Webster (q.v.). In the opening scene the devil Lurchall is addressed as Grumball, which suggests the actor Armin (cf. ch. xv). Daborne (q.v.) in the Epistle to his Christian Turned Turk seems to claim a share in this play.
Match Me in London (?)
S. R. 1630, 8 Nov. (Herbert). ‘A Play called Mach mee in London by Thomas Decker.’ Seile (Arber, iv. 242).
1631. A Tragi-Comedy: Called, Match mee in London. As it hath beene often presented; First, at the Bull in St. Iohns-street; And lately, at the Priuate-House in Drury Lane, called the Phoenix. Written by Tho: Dekker. B. Alsop and T. Fawcet for H. Seile. [Epistle to Lodowick Carlell signed ‘Tho: Dekker’.]
Herbert’s diary contains the entry on 21 Aug. 1623, ‘For the L. Elizabeth’s servants of the Cockpit. An old play called Match me in London which had been formerly allowed by Sir G. Bucke.’ On this, some rather slight evidence from allusions, and a general theory that Dekker did not write plays during his imprisonment of 1613–19, Fleay, i. 134, puts the original production by Queen Anne’s men c. 1611 and Hunt, 160, in 1612–13. As there are some allusions to cards and the game of maw, Fleay thinks the play a revision of The Set at Maw produced by the Admiral’s on 15 Dec. 1594. Greg (Henslowe, ii. 172) points out the weakness of the evidence, but finds some possible traces of revision in the text.
The Virgin Martyr. c. 1620
With Massinger.
S. R. 1621, 7 Dec. (Buck). ‘A Tragedy called The Virgin Martir.’ Thomas Jones (Arber, iv. 62).
1622. The Virgin Martir, A Tragedie, as it hath bin divers times publickely Acted with great Applause, By the seruants of his Maiesties Reuels. Written by Phillip Messenger and Thomas Deker. B. A. for Thomas Jones.
1631, 1651, 1661.
The play is said to have been ‘reformed’ and licensed by Buck for the Red Bull on 6 Oct. 1620 (Herbert, 29). An additional scene, licensed on 7 July 1624 (Var. i. 424), did not find its way into print. Fleay, i. 135, 212, asserts that the 1620 play was a refashioning by Massinger of a play by Dekker for the Queen’s about 1611, itself a recast of Diocletian, produced by the Admiral’s on 16 Nov. 1594, but ‘dating from 1591 at the latest’. He considers II. i, iii, III. iii, and IV. ii of the 1620 version to be still Dekker’s. Ward, iii. 12, and Hunt, 156, give most of the play to Dekker. But all these views are impressionistic, and there is no special reason to suppose that Massinger revised, rather than collaborated with, Dekker, or to assume a version of c. 1611. As for an earlier version still, Fleay’s evidence is trivial. In any case 1591 is out of the question, as Henslowe marked the Diocletian of 1594 ‘n.e.’ Nor does he say it was by Dekker. A play on Dorothea the Martyr had made its way into Germany by 1626, but later German repertories disclose that there was also a distinct play on Diocletian (Herz, 66, 103; Greg, Henslowe, ii. 172). Greg, however, finds parts of The Virgin Martyr, ‘presumably Dekker’s’, to be ‘undoubtedly early’. Oliphant (E. S. xvi. 191) makes the alternative suggestion that Diocletian was the basis of Fletcher’s Prophetess, in which he believes the latter part of IV. i and V. i to be by an older hand, which he cannot identify. All this is very indefinite.
The Witch of Edmonton. 1621
With Ford and W. Rowley.
S. R. 1658, May 21. ‘A booke called The witch of Edmonton, a Tragicomedy by Will: Rowley, &c.’ Edward Blackmore (Eyre, ii. 178).
1658. The Witch of Edmonton, A known true Story. Composed into a Tragi-Comedy By divers well-esteemed Poets; William Rowley, Thomas Dekker, John Ford, &c. Acted by the Princes Servants; often at the Cock-Pit in Drury Lane, once at Court, with singular Applause. Never printed till now. J. Cottrel for Edward Blackmore. [Prologue signed ‘Master Bird’.]
Editions with Works of John Ford, by H. Weber (1811), W. Gifford (1827), H. Coleridge (1840, 1848, 1851), A. Dyce (1869), A. H. Bullen (1895).
I include this for the sake of completeness, but it is based upon a pamphlet published in 1621 and was played at Court by the Prince’s men on 29 Dec. 1621 (Murray, ii. 193). It is generally regarded as written in collaboration. Views as to its division amongst the writers are summarized by Hunt, 178, and Pierce (Anglia, xxxvi. 289). The latter finds Dekker in nearly all the scenes, Ford in four, Rowley perhaps in five.
The Wonder of a Kingdom. 1623
Possibly with Day.
S. R. 1631, May 16 (Herbert). ‘A Comedy called The Wonder of a Kingdome by Thomas Decker.’ John Jackman (Arber, iv. 253).
1636, Feb. 24. ‘Vnder the hands of Sir Henry Herbert and Master Kingston Warden (dated the 7th of May 1631) a Play called The Wonder of a Kingdome by Thomas Decker.’ Nicholas Vavasour (Arber, iv. 355).
1636. The Wonder of a Kingdome. Written by Thomas Dekker. Robert Raworth for Nicholas Vavasour.
Herbert’s diary for 18 Sept. 1623 has the entry: ‘For a company of strangers. A new comedy called Come see a wonder, written by John Daye. It was acted at the Red Bull and licensed without my hand to it because they were none of the 4 companies.’ As The Wonder of a Kingdom contains scenes which are obviously from Day’s Parliament of Bees (1608–16) it is possible either to adopt the simple theory of a collaboration between Day and Dekker in 1623, or to hold with Fleay, i. 136, and Greg, Henslowe, ii. 174, that Day’s ‘new’ play of 1623 was a revision of an earlier one by Dekker. The mention of cards in the closing lines seems an inadequate ground for Fleay’s further theory, apparently approved by Greg, that the original play was The Mack, produced by the Admiral’s on 21 Feb. 1595.
The Sun’s Darling. 1624
With Ford.
1656. The Sun’s-Darling: A Moral Masque: As it hath been often presented at Whitehall, by their Majesties Servants; and after at the Cockpit in Drury Lane, with great Applause. Written by John Foard and Tho. Decker Gent. J. Bell for Andrew Penneycuicke.
1657. Reissue with same imprint.
1657. Reissue with same imprint.... ‘As it hath been often presented by their Majesties Servants; at the Cockpit in Drury Lane’....
Editions with Works of John Ford, by H. Weber (1811), W. Gifford (1827), H. Coleridge (1840, 1848, 1851), A. Dyce (1869), A. H. Bullen (1895).
The play was licensed by Herbert for the Lady Elizabeth’s at the Cockpit on 3 March 1624 (Chalmers, S. A. 217; Herbert, 27) and included in a list of Cockpit plays in 1639 (Variorum, iii. 159). Fleay, i. 232, Ward, ii. 470, and Pierce (Anglia, xxxvi. 141) regard it as a revision by Ford of earlier work by Dekker, and the latter regards the last page of Act I, Acts II and III, and the prose of Acts IV and V as substantially Dekker’s. It is perhaps a step from this to the theory of Fleay and Greg (Henslowe, ii. 190) that the play represents the Phaethon, which Dekker wrote for the Admiral’s in Jan. 1598 and afterwards altered for a Court performance at Christmas 1600. There are allusions to ‘humours’ and to ‘pampered jades of Asia’ (ed. Pearson, pp. 316, 318) which look early, but Phaethon is not a character, nor is the story his. A priest of the Sun appears in Act I: I am surprised that Fleay did not identify him, though he is not mad, with the ‘mad priest of the sun’ referred to in Greene’s (q.v.) Epistle to Perimedes. The play is not a ‘masque’ in the ordinary sense.
The Noble Soldier > 1631
With Day and S. Rowley?
S. R. 1631, May 16 (Herbert). ‘A Tragedy called The noble Spanish Souldier by Thomas Deckar.’ John Jackman (Arber, iv. 253).
1633, Dec. 9. ‘Entred for his Copy vnder the handes of Sir Henry Herbert and Master Kingston warden Anno Domini 1631. a Tragedy called The Noble Spanish soldior written by master Decker.’ Nicholas Vavasour (Arber, iv. 310).
1634. The Noble Souldier, Or, A Contract Broken, justly reveng’d. A Tragedy. Written by S. R. For Nicholas Vavasour.
Editions by A. H. Bullen (1882, O. E. P. i) and J. S. Farmer (1913, S. F. T.).
The printer tells us that the author was dead in 1634.
The initials may indicate Samuel Rowley of the Admiral’s and Prince Henry’s. Bullen and Hunt, 187, think that Dekker revised work by Rowley. But probably Day also contributed, for II. i, ii; III. ii; IV. i; V. i, ii, and parts of I. ii and V. iv are drawn like scenes in The Wonder of a Kingdom from his Parliament of Bees (1608–16). Fleay, i. 128, identifies the play with The Spanish Fig for which Henslowe made a payment on behalf of the Admiral’s in Jan. 1602. This Greg (Henslowe, ii. 220) thinks ‘plausible’, regarding the play as ‘certainly an old play of about 1600, presumably by Dekker and Rowley with later additions by Day’. He notes that the King is not, as Fleay alleged, poisoned with a Spanish fig, but a Spanish fig is mentioned, ‘and it is quite possible that such may have been the mode of poisoning in the original piece’. Henslowe does not name the payee for The Spanish Fig, and it was apparently not finished at the time.
Lost and Doubtful Plays
It will be convenient to set out all the certain or conjectured work by Dekker mentioned in Henslowe’s Diary.
(a) Conjectural anonymous Work before 1598
(i) Philipo and Hippolito.
Produced as a new play by the Admiral’s on 9 July 1594. The ascription to Dekker, confident in Fleay, i. 213, and regarded as possible by Greg (Henslowe, ii. 165), appears to be due to the entry of a Philenzo and Hypollita by Massinger, who revised other early work of Dekker, in the S. R. on 29 June 1660, to the entry of a Philenzo and Hipolito by Massinger in Warburton’s list of burnt plays (3 Library, ii. 231), and to the appearance of a Julio and Hyppolita in the German collection of 1620. A copy of Massinger’s play is said (Collier, Henslowe, xxxi) to be amongst the Conway MSS.
(ii) The Jew of Venice.
Entered as a play by Dekker in the S. R. on 9 Sept. 1653 (3 Library, ii. 241). It has been suggested (Fleay, i. 121, and Sh. 30, 197; Greg in Henslowe, ii. 170) that it was the source of a German play printed from a Vienna MS. by Meissner, 131 (cf. Herz, 84). In this a personage disguises himself as a French doctor, which leads to the conjectural identification of its English original both with The Venetian Comedy produced by the Admiral’s on 27 Aug. 1594 and with The French Doctor performed by the same men on 19 Oct. 1594 and later dates and bought by them from Alleyn in 1602. The weakest point in all this guesswork is the appearance of common themes in the German play and in The Merchant of Venice, which Fleay explains to his own satisfaction by the assumption that Shakespeare based The Merchant of Venice on Dekker’s work.
(iii) Dr. Faustus.
Revived by the Admiral’s on 30 Sept. 1594. On the possibility that the 1604 text contains comic scenes written by Dekker for this revival, cf. s.v. Marlowe.
(iv) Diocletian.
Produced by the Admiral’s, 16 Nov. 1599; cf. s.v. The Virgin Martyr (supra).
(v) The Set at Maw.
Produced by the Admiral’s on 14 Dec. 1594; cf. s.v. Match Me in London (supra).
(vi) Antony and Valia.
Revived by the Admiral’s, 4 Jan. 1595, and ascribed by Fleay, i. 213, with some encouragement from Greg in Henslowe, ii. 174, to Dekker, on the ground of entries in the S. R. on 29 June 1660 and in Warburton’s list of burnt plays (3 Library, ii. 231) of an Antonio and Vallia by Massinger, who revised other early work by Dekker.
(vii) The Mack.
Produced by the Admiral’s on 21 Feb. 1595; cf. s.v. The Wonder of a Kingdom (supra).
(viii) 1 Fortunatus.
Revived by the Admiral’s on 3 Feb. 1596; cf. s.v. Old Fortunatus (supra).
(ix) Stukeley.
Produced by the Admiral’s on 11 Dec. 1596. On Fleay’s ascription to Dekker, cf. s.v. Captain Thomas Stukeley (Anon.).
(x) Prologue to Tamberlaine.
This rests on a forged entry in Henslowe’s Diary for 20 Dec. 1597; cf. s.v. Marlowe.
(b) Work for Admiral’s, 1598–1602
(i) Phaethon.
Payments in Jan. 1598 and for alterations for the Court in Dec. 1600; cf. s.v. The Sun’s Darling (supra).
(ii) The Triplicity or Triangle of Cuckolds.
Payment in March 1598.
(iii) The Wars of Henry I or The Welshman’s Prize.
Payment, with Chettle and Drayton, March 1598. Greg (Henslowe, ii. 192) speculates on possible relations of the plays to others on a Welshman and on Henry I.
(iv) 1 Earl Godwin.
Payment, with Chettle, Drayton, and Wilson, March 1598.
(v) Pierce of Exton.
Payment, with Chettle, Drayton, and Wilson, April 1598. Apparently the play was not finished.
(vi) 1 Black Bateman of the North.
Payments, with Chettle, Drayton, and Wilson, May 1598.
(vii) 2 Earl Godwin.
Payments, with Chettle, Drayton, and Wilson, May–June 1598.
(viii) The Madman’s Morris.
Payments, with Drayton and Wilson, July 1598.
(ix) Hannibal and Hermes.
Payments, with Drayton and Wilson, July 1598.
(x) 2 Hannibal and Hermes.
Greg (Henslowe, ii. 195) gives this name to (xiii).
(xi) Pierce of Winchester.
Payments, with Drayton and Wilson, July–Aug. 1598.
(xii) Chance Medley.
Payments to Dekker (or Chettle), with Munday, Drayton, and Wilson, Aug. 1598.
(xiii) Worse Afeared than Hurt.
Payments, with Drayton, Aug.–Sept. 1598.
(xiv) 1 Civil Wars of France.
Payment, with Drayton, Sept. 1598.
(xv) Connan Prince of Cornwall.
Payments, with Drayton, Oct. 1598.
(xvi) 2 Civil Wars of France.
Payment, with Drayton, Nov. 1598.
(xvii) 3 Civil Wars of France.
Payments, with Drayton, Nov.–Dec. 1598.
(xviii) Introduction to Civil Wars of France.
Payments, Jan. 1599.
(xix) Troilus and Cressida.
Payments, with Chettle, April 1599. A fragmentary ‘plot’ (cf. ch. xxiv) may belong to this play.
(xx) Agamemnon or Orestes Furious.
Payments, with Chettle, May 1599.
(xxi) The Gentle Craft.
Payment, July 1599; cf. The Shoemaker’s Holiday (supra).
(xxii) The Stepmother’s Tragedy.
Payments, with Chettle, Aug.–Oct. 1599.
(xxiii) Bear a Brain.
Payment, Aug. 1599; cf. s.vv. The Shoemaker’s Holiday (supra) and Look About You (Anon.).
(xxiv) Page of Plymouth.
Payments, with Jonson, Aug.–Sept. 1599.
(xxv) Robert II or The Scot’s Tragedy.
Payments, with Chettle, Jonson, ‘& other Jentellman’ (? Marston, q.v.), Sept. 1599.
(xxvi) Patient Grissell.
Payments, with Chettle and Haughton, Oct.–Dec. 1599; cf. supra.
(xxvii) Fortunatus.
Payments, Nov.–Dec. 1599; cf. s.v. Old Fortunatus (supra).
(xxviii) Truth’s Supplication to Candlelight.
Payments, Jan. 1600. Apparently the play was not finished; cf. s.v. The Whore of Babylon (supra).
(xxix) The Spanish Moor’s Tragedy.
Payment, with Day and Haughton, Feb. 1600. Apparently the play was not finished; cf. s.v. Lust’s Dominion (Marlowe).
(xxx) The Seven Wise Masters.
Payments, with Chettle, Day, and Haughton, March 1600.
(xxxi) The Golden Ass or Cupid and Psyche.
Payments, with Chettle and Day, April-May 1600; on borrowings from this, cf. s.v. Heywood, Pleasant Dialogues and Dramas.
(xxxii) 1 Fair Constance of Rome.
Payments, with Drayton, Hathway, Munday, and Wilson (q.v.), June 1600.
(xxxiii) [1] Fortune’s Tennis.
Payment, Sept. 1600. A fragmentary plot (cf. ch. xxiv) is perhaps less likely to belong to this than to Munday’s Set at Tennis.
(xxxiv) King Sebastian of Portugal.
Payments, with Chettle, April-May 1601.
(xxxv) The Spanish Fig.
Payment, Jan. 1602. The payee is unnamed; cf. The Noble Soldier (supra).
(xxxvi) Prologue and Epilogue to Pontius Pilate.
Payment, Jan. 1602.
(xxxvii) Alterations to Tasso’s Melancholy.
Payments, Jan.–Dec. 1602.
(xxxviii) Jephthah.
Payments, with Munday, May 1602.
(xxxix) Caesar’s Fall, or The Two Shapes.
Payments, with Drayton, Middleton, Munday, and Webster, May 1602.
(c) Work for Worcester’s, 1602
(i) A Medicine for a Curst Wife.
Payments, July–Sept. 1602. The play was begun for the Admiral’s and transferred to Worcester’s.
(ii) Additions to Sir John Oldcastle.
Payments, Aug.–Sept. 1602; cf. s.v. Drayton.
(iii) 1 Lady Jane, or The Overthrow of Rebels.
Payments, with Chettle, Heywood, Smith, and Webster, Oct. 1602; cf. s.v. Sir Thomas Wyatt (supra).
(iv) 2 Lady Jane.
Payment, Oct. 1602. Apparently the play was not finished; cf. s.v. Sir Thomas Wyatt (supra).
(v) Christmas Comes but Once a Year.
Payments, with Chettle, Heywood, and Webster, Nov. 1602.
(d) Work for Prince’s, 1604
The Patient Man and the Honest Whore.
Payments, with Middleton, Jan.–March 1602; cf. s.v. The Honest Whore (supra).
The following plays are assigned to Dekker in S. R. but are now lost:
The Life and Death of Guy of Warwick, with Day (S. R. 15 Jan. 1620).
Gustavus King of Swethland (S. R. 29 June 1660).
The Tale of Ioconda and Astolso, a Comedy (S. R. 29 June 1660).
The two latter are also in Warburton’s list of burnt plays (3 Library, ii. 231).
The following are assigned to Dekker in Herbert’s licence entries:
A French Tragedy of The Bellman of Paris, by Dekker and Day, for the Prince’s, on 30 July 1623.
The Fairy Knight, by Dekker and Ford, for the Prince’s, on 11 June 1624.
The Bristow Merchant, by Dekker and Ford, for the Palsgrave’s, on 22 Oct. 1624.
Fleay, i. 232, seems to have nothing but the names to go upon in suggesting identifications of the two latter with the Huon of Bordeaux, revived by Sussex’s on 28 Dec. 1593, and Day’s Bristol Tragedy (q.v.) respectively.
For other ascriptions to Dekker see Capt. T. Stukeley, Charlemagne, London Prodigal, Sir Thomas More, The Weakest Goeth to the Wall in ch. xxiv. He has also been conjectured to be the author of the songs in the 1632 edition of Lyly’s plays.
ENTERTAINMENTS
Coronation Entertainment. 1604
See ch. xxiv, C.
Troia Nova Triumphans. 29 Oct. 1612
S. R. 1612, Oct. 21. ‘To be prynted when yt is further Aucthorised, A Booke called Troia Nova triumphans. London triumphinge. or the solemne receauinge of Sir John Swynerton knight into the citye at his Retourne from Westminster after the taking his oathe written by Thomas Decker.’ Nicholas Okes (Arber, iii. 500).
1612. Troia-Noua Triumphans. London Triumphing, or, The Solemne, Magnificent, and Memorable Receiuing of that worthy Gentleman, Sir Iohn Swinerton Knight, into the Citty of London, after his Returne from taking the Oath of Maioralty at Westminster, on the Morrow next after Simon and Iudes day, being the 29. of October, 1612. All the Showes, Pageants, Chariots of Triumph, with other Deuices (both on the Water and Land) here fully expressed. By Thomas Dekker. Nicholas Okes, sold by John Wright.
Edition in Fairholt (1844), ii. 7.
The opening of the description refers to ‘our best-to-be-beloved friends, the noblest strangers’. John Chamberlain (Birch, i. 202) says that the Palsgrave was present and Henry kept away by his illness, that the show was ‘somewhat extraordinary’ and the water procession wrecked by ‘great winds’. At Paul’s Chain the Mayor was met by the ‘first triumph’, a sea-chariot, bearing Neptune and Luna, with a ship of wine. Neptune made a speech. At Paul’s Churchyard came ‘the second land-triumph’, the throne or chariot of Virtue, drawn by four horses on which sat Time, Mercury, Desire, and Industry. Virtue made a speech, and both pageants preceded the Mayor down Cheapside. At the little Conduit in Cheapside was the Castle of Envy, between whom and Virtue there was a dialogue, followed by fireworks from the castle. At the Cross in Cheapside was another ‘triumph’, the House of Fame, with representations of famous Merchant Tailors, ‘a perticular roome being reserved for one that represents the person of Henry, the now Prince of Wales’. After a speech by Fame, the pageant joined the procession, and from it was heard a song on the way to the Guildhall. On the way to Paul’s after dinner, Virtue and Envy were again beheld, and at the Mayor’s door a speech was made by Justice.
THOMAS DELONEY (c. 1543–c. 1600).
A ballad writer and pamphleteer, who wrote a ballad on the visit to Tilbury in 1588. See ch. xxiv, C.
ROBERT DEVEREUX, EARL OF ESSEX (1566–1601).
It is possible that Essex, who sometimes dabbled in literature, had himself a hand in the device of Love and Self-Love, with which he entertained Elizabeth on 17 Nov. 1595, and of which some of the speeches are generally credited to Bacon (q.v.).
WILLIAM DODD (c. 1597–1602).
A Scholar and Fellow of St. John’s, Cambridge, and a conjectured author of Parnassus (cf. ch. xxiv).
MICHAEL DRAYTON (c. 1563–1631).
Drayton was born at Hartshill in Warwickshire, and brought up in the household of Sir Henry Goodyere of Polesworth, whose daughter Anne, afterwards Lady Rainsford, is the Idea of his pastorals and sonnets. With The Harmony of the Church (1591) began a life-long series of ambitious poems, in all the characteristic Elizabethan manners, for which Drayton found many patrons, notably Lucy Lady Bedford, Sir Walter Aston of Tixall, Prince Henry and Prince Charles, and Edward Earl of Dorset. The guerdons of his pen were not sufficient to keep him from having recourse to the stage. Meres classed him in 1598 among the ‘best for tragedy’, and Henslowe’s diary shows him a busy writer for the Admiral’s men, almost invariably in collaboration with Dekker and others, from Dec. 1597 to Jan. 1599, and a more occasional one from Oct. 1599 to May 1602. At a later date he may possibly have written for Queen Anne’s men, since commendatory verses by T. Greene are prefixed to his Poems of 1605. In 1608 he belonged to the King’s Revels syndicate at Whitefriars. No later connexion with the stage can be traced, and he took no steps to print his plays with his other works. His Elegy to Henry Reynolds of Poets and Poesie (C. Brett, Drayton’s Minor Poems, 108) does honour to Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jonson, and Beaumont, and tradition makes him a partaker in the drinking-bout that led to Shakespeare’s end. Jonson wrote commendatory verses for him in 1627, but in 1619 had told Drummond (Laing, 10) that ‘Drayton feared him; and he esteemed not of him’. The irresponsible Fleay, i. 361; ii. 271, 323, identifies him with Luculento of E. M. O., Captain Jenkins of Dekker and Webster’s Northward Ho!, and the eponym of the anonymous Sir Giles Goosecap; Small, 98, with the Decius criticized in the anonymous Jack Drum’s Entertainment, who may also be Dekker.
The collections of Drayton’s Poems do not include his plays.—Dissertations: O. Elton, M. D. (1895, Spenser Soc., 1905); L. Whitaker, M. D. as a Dramatist (1903, M. L. A. xviii. 378).
Sir John Oldcastle. 1599
With Hathaway, Munday, and Wilson.
S. R. 1600, Aug. 11 (Vicars). ‘The first parte of the history of the life of Sir John Oldcastell lord Cobham. Item the second and last parte of the history of Sir John Oldcastell lord Cobham with his martyrdom,’ Thomas Pavier (Arber, iii. 169).
1600. The first part Of the true and honorable historie, of the life of Sir John Oldcastle, the good Lord Cobham. As it hath been lately acted by the right honorable the Earle of Notingham Lord high Admirall of England his seruants. V. S. for Thomas Pavier. [Prologue.]
1600.... Written by William Shakespeare. For T. P. [Probably a forgery of later date than that given in the imprint; cf. p. 479.]
1664. In Third Folio Shakespeare.
1685. In Fourth Folio Shakespeare.
Editions in collections of the Shakespeare Apocrypha, and by W. Scott (1810, A. B. D. i), P. Simpson (1908, M. S. R.), J. S. Farmer (1911, T. F. T.).
Henslowe advanced £10 to the Admiral’s as payment to Munday, Drayton, Wilson, and Hathway for the first part of ‘the lyfe of Sr Jhon Ouldcasstell’ and in earnest for the second part on 16 Oct. 1599, and an additional 10s. for the poets ‘at the playnge of Sr John Oldcastell the ferste tyme as a gefte’ between 1 and 8 Nov. 1599. Drayton had £4 for the second part between 19 and 26 Dec. 1599, and properties were being bought for it in March 1600. It is not preserved. By Aug. 1602 the play had been transferred to Worcester’s men. More properties were bought, doubtless for a revival, and Dekker had £2 10s. for ‘new a dicyons’. Fleay, ii. 116, attempts to disentangle the work of the collaborators. Clearly the play was an answer to Henry IV, in which Sir John Falstaff was originally Sir John Oldcastle, and this is made clear in the prologue:
Doubtful and Lost Plays
For ascriptions see Edward IV, London Prodigal, Merry Devil of Edmonton, Sir T. More, and Thomas Lord Cromwell in ch. xxiv.
The complete series of his work for the Admiral’s during 1597–1602 is as follows:
(i) Mother Redcap.
Payments, with Munday, Dec. 1597–Jan. 1598.
(ii) The Welshman’s Prize, or The Famous Wars of Henry I and the Prince of Wales.
Payments, with Chettle and Dekker, March 1598. Greg (Henslowe, ii. 192) thinks that the play may have had some relation to Davenport’s Henry I of 1624 entered as by Shakespeare and Davenport in S. R. on 9 Sept. 1653.
(iii) 1 Earl Godwin and his Three Sons.
Payments, with Chettle, Dekker, and Wilson, March 1598.
(iv) 2 Earl Godwin and his Three Sons.
Payments, with Chettle, Dekker, and Wilson, May to June 1598.
(v) Pierce of Exton.
Payment of £2, with Chettle, Dekker, and Wilson, April 1598; but apparently not finished.
(vi) 1 Black Bateman of the North.
Payments, with Chettle, Dekker, and Wilson, May 1598.
(vii) Funeral of Richard Cœur-de-lion.
Payments, with Chettle, Munday, and Wilson, June 1598.
(viii) The Madman’s Morris.
Payments, with Dekker and Wilson, July 1598.
(ix) Hannibal and Hermes.
Payments, with Dekker and Wilson, July 1598.
(x) Pierce of Winchester.
Payments, with Dekker and Wilson, July–Aug. 1598.
(xi) Chance Medley.
Payments, with Chettle or Dekker, Munday, and Wilson, Aug. 1598.
(xii) Worse Afeared than Hurt.
Payments, with Dekker, Aug.–Sept. 1598.
(xiii-xv) 1, 2, 3 The Civil Wars of France.
Payments, with Dekker, Sept.–Dec. 1598. Greg (Henslowe, ii. 198) suggests some relation with Chapman’s Bussy D’Ambois (q.v.).
(xvi) Connan Prince of Cornwall.
Payments, with Dekker, Oct. 1598.
(xvii) William Longsword.
Apparently Drayton’s only unaided play and unfinished. His autograph receipt for a payment in Jan. 1599 is in Henslowe, i. 59.
[There is now a break in Drayton’s dramatic activities, but not in his relations with Henslowe, for whom he acted as a witness on 8 July 1599. On 9 Aug. 1598 he had stood security for the delivery of a play by Munday (Henslowe, i. 60, 93).]
(xviii-xix) 1, 2 Sir John Oldcastle.
See above.
(xx) Owen Tudor.
Payments, with Hathway, Munday, and Wilson, Jan. 1600; but apparently not finished.
(xxi) 1 Fair Constance of Rome.
Payments, with Dekker, Hathway, Munday, and Wilson (q.v.), June 1600.
(xxii) The Rising of Cardinal Wolsey.
Payments, with Chettle (q.v.), Munday, and Smith, Aug.–Nov. 1601.
(xxiii) Caesar’s Fall, or The Two Shapes.
Payments, with Dekker, Middleton, Munday, and Webster, May 1602.
GILBERT DUGDALE (c. 1604).
Author of Time Triumphant, an account of the entry and coronation of James I (cf. ch. xxiv, C).
JOHN DUTTON (c. 1598–1602).
Perhaps only a ‘ghost-name’, but conceivably the author of Parnassus (cf. ch. xxiv).
JOHN DYMMOCKE (c. 1601).
Possibly the translator of Pastor Fido (cf. ch. xxiv).
RICHARD EDES (1555–1604).
Edes, or Eedes, entered Christ Church, Oxford, from Westminster in 1571, took his B.A. in 1574, his M.A. in 1578, and was University Proctor in 1583. He took orders, became Chaplain to the Queen, and was appointed Canon of Christ Church in 1586 and Dean of Worcester in 1597. Some of his verse, both in English and Latin, has survived, and Meres includes him in 1598 amongst ‘our best for Tragedie’. The Epilogue, in Latin prose, of a play called Caesar Interfectus, which was both written and spoken by him, is given by F. Peck in A Collection of Curious Historical Pieces, appended to his Memoirs of Cromwell (1740), and by Boas, 163, from Bodl. MS. Top. Oxon. e. 5, f. 359. A later hand has added the date 1582, from which Boas infers that Caesar Interfectus, of which Edes was probably the author, was one of three tragedies recorded in the Christ Church accounts for Feb.–March 1582. Edes appears to have written or contributed to Sir Henry Lee’s (q.v.) Woodstock Entertainment of 1592.
RICHARD EDWARDES (c. 1523–1566).
Edwardes was a Somersetshire man. He entered Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 11 May 1540, and became Senior Student of Christ Church in 1547. Before the end of Edward’s reign he was seeking his fortune at Court and had a fee or annuity of £6 13s. 4d. (Stopes, Hunnis, 147). He must not be identified with the George Edwardes of Chapel lists, c. 1553 (ibid. 23; Shakespeare’s Environment, 238; Rimbault, x), but was of the Chapel by 1 Jan. 1557 (Nichols, Eliz. i. xxxv; Illustrations, App. 14), when he made a New Year’s gift of ‘certeigne verses’, and was confirmed in office by an Elizabethan patent of 27 May 1560. He succeeded Bower as Master of the Children, receiving his patent of appointment on 27 Oct. 1561 and a commission to take up children on 4 Dec. 1561 (Wallace, i. 106; ii. 65; cf. ch. xii). Barnabe Googe in his Eglogs, Epytaphes and Sonettes (15 March 1563) puts his ‘doyngs’ above those of Plautus and Terence. In addition to plays at Court, he took his boys on 2 Feb. 1565 and 2 Feb. 1566 to Lincoln’s Inn (cf. ch. vii), of which he had become a member on 25 Nov. 1564 (L. I. Admission Register, i. 72). He appeared at Court as a ‘post’ on behalf of the challengers for a tilt in Nov. 1565 (cf. ch. iv). In 1566 he helped in the entertainment of Elizabeth at Oxford, and on Oct. 31 of that year he died. His reputation as poet and dramatist is testified to in verses by Barnabe Googe, George Turberville, Thomas Twine, and others and proved enduring. The author [Richard Puttenham?] of The Arte of English Poesie (1589) couples him with the Earl of Oxford as deserving the highest price for comedy and enterlude, and Francis Meres in his Palladis Tamia (1598) includes him amongst those ‘best for comedy’. Several of his poems are in The Paradise of Dainty Devices (1576). Warton, iv. 218, says that William Collins (the poet) had a volume of prose stories printed in 1570, ‘sett forth by maister Richard Edwardes mayster of her maiesties revels’. One of these contained a version of the jest used in the Induction of The Taming of the Shrew (q.v.). There is nothing else to connect Edwardes with the Revels office, and probably ‘revels’ in Warton’s account is a mistake for ‘children’ or ‘chapel’.
Dissertations: W. Y. Durand, Notes on R. E. (1902, J. G. P. iv. 348), Some Errors concerning R. E. (1908, M. L. N. xxiii. 129).
Damon and Pythias. 1565
S. R. 1567–8. ‘A boke intituled ye tragecall comodye of Damonde and Pethyas.’ Rycharde Jonnes (Arber, i. 354).
Warton, iv. 214, describes an edition, not now known, as printed by William How in Fleet Street. The Tragical comedie of Damon and Pythias, newly imprinted as the same was playde before the queenes maiestie by the children of her grace’s chapple. Made by Mayster Edwards, then being master of the children. William How. [Only known through the description of Warton, iv. 214.]
1571. The excellent Comedie of two the moste faithfullest Freendes, Damon and Pithias. Newly Imprinted, as the same was shewed before the Queenes Maiestie, by the Children of her Graces Chappell, except the Prologue that is somewhat altered for the proper vse of them that hereafter shall haue occasion to plaie it, either in Priuate, or open Audience. Made by Maister Edwards, then beynge Maister of the Children. Richard Jones.
1582. Richard Jones.
Editions in Dodsley4, iv (1874), and by W. Scott (1810, A. B. D. i) and J. S. Farmer (1908, T. F. T.).—Dissertation: W. Y. Durand, A Local Hit in E.’s D. and P. (M. L. N. xxii. 236).
The play is not divided into acts or scenes; the characters include Carisophus a parasite, and Grim the Collier. The prologue [not that used at Court] warns the audience that they will be ‘frustrate quite of toying plays’ and that the author’s muse that ‘masked in delight’ and to some ‘seemed too much in young desires to range’ will leave such sports and write a ‘tragical comedy ... mixed with mirth and care’. Edwardes adds (cf. App. C, No. ix):