There are nineteen or twenty printed and probably produced during 1599-1609, of which, however, one or two were originally written for private theatres.[1] There are two produced and printed during 1609-12, and one preserved in manuscript from the same period.[2] There are ten probably produced during 1599-1603, but not printed before 1622 or 1623.[3] There are perhaps nine or ten produced during 1609-13, and printed at various dates from 1619 to 1634.[4] It will be seen that the first group is of much the greatest value evidentially, as well as fortunately the longest, but that it only throws light upon the Globe and not upon the Blackfriars; that the value of the second and fourth groups is discounted by our not knowing how far they reflect Globe and how far Blackfriars conditions; and that the original features of the third and fourth groups may have been modified in revivals, either at the Blackfriars or at the later Globe, before they got into print. I shall use them all, but, I hope, with discrimination.[5] I shall also use, for illustration and confirmation, rather than as direct evidence, plays from other seventeenth-century theatres. The Prince's men were at the Fortune during the whole of the period with which we are concerned, and then on to and after the fire of 1621, and the reconstruction, possibly on new lines, of 1623. We know that its staging arrangements resembled those of the Globe, for it was provided in the builder's contract that this should be so, and also that the stage should be 'placed and sett' in accordance with 'a plott thereof drawen'. Alleyn would have saved me a great deal of trouble if he had put away this little piece of paper along with so many others. Unfortunately, the Prince's men kept their plays very close, and only five or
- ↑ Henry V, Much Ado about Nothing, Merry Wives of Windsor, Hamlet, King Lear, Troilus and Cressida, Pericles, Every Man Out of his Humour, Sejanus, Volpone, Yorkshire Tragedy, London Prodigal, Fair Maid of Bristow, Devil's Charter, Merry Devil of Edmonton, Revenger's Tragedy, Miseries of Enforced Marriage, and perhaps 1 Jeronimo; with the second version of Malcontent, originally a Queen's Revels play, and Satiromastix, the s.ds. of which perhaps belong rather to Paul's, where it was also played.
- ↑ Catiline, Alchemist; Second Maid's Tragedy.
- ↑ Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, All's Well that Ends Well, Measure for Measure, Othello, Macbeth, Coriolanus, Antony and Cleopatra, Timon of Athens.
- ↑ Cymbeline, Winter's Tale, Tempest, Henry VIII, Duchess of Malfi, Two Noble Kinsmen, Maid's Tragedy, King and no King, Philaster, and perhaps Thierry and Theodoret.
- ↑ I have only occasionally drawn upon plays such as Bonduca, whose ascription in whole or part to 1599-1613 is doubtful; these will be found in the list in App. L.
