plays, of which thirty-nine are extant, although two only in the form of fragments. On analysis, the greater number of these, seventeen in all, fall into a group of moral interludes, often controversial in tone, and in some cases approximating, through the intermingling of concrete with abstract personages, on the one hand to classical comedy, on the other to the mediaeval miracle-play. There are also twelve translations or adaptations, including two from Italian comedy. There is one neo-classical tragedy. And there are nine plays which can best be classified as histories, of which seven have a classical and two a romantic colouring.[1] It is of interest to compare this output of the printing-press with the chronicle of Court performances over the same years which is recorded in the Revels Accounts.[2] Here we get, so far of course as can be judged from a bare enumeration of titles, fourteen morals, twenty-one classical histories, mainly shown by boys, twenty-two romantic histories, mainly shown by men, and perhaps three farces, two plays of contemporary realism, with one 'antick' play and two groups of short dramatic episodes. It is clear that the main types are the same in both lists. But only one of the printed plays, Orestes, actually appears in the Court records, although Damon and Pythias, Gorboduc, Sapho and Phao, Campaspe, and The Arraignment of Paris were also given at Court, and the Revels Accounts after
- ↑ Cf. App. L.
- ↑ Cf. App. B. I classify as follows: (a) Companies of Men: (i) Morals (3), Delight, Beauty and Housewifery, Love and Fortune; (ii) Classical (7), Tully, A Greek Maid, Four Sons of Fabius, Sarpedon, Telomo, Phillida and Corin, Rape of the Second Helen; (iii) Romantic (17), Lady Barbara, Cloridon and Radiamanta, Predor and Lucia, Mamillia, Herpetulus the Blue Knight and Perobia, Philemon and Philecia, Painter's Daughter, Solitary Knight, Irish Knight, Cynocephali, Three Sisters of Mantua, Knight in the Burning Rock, Duke of Milan and Marquess of Mantua, Portio and Demorantes, Soldan and Duke, Ferrar, Felix and Philiomena; (iv) Farce (1), The Collier; (v) Realistic (2), Cruelty of a Stepmother, Murderous Michael; (vi) Antic Play (1); (vii) Episodes (2), Five Plays in One, Three Plays in One; (b) Companies of Boys: (i) Morals (6), Truth, Faithfulness and Mercy, Vanity, Error, Marriage of Mind and Measure, Loyalty and Beauty, Game of Cards; (ii) Classical (12), Iphigenia, Ajax and Ulysses, Narcissus, Alcmaeon, Quintus Fabius, Siege of Thebes, Perseus and Andromeda, Xerxes, Mutius Scaevola, Scipio Africanus, Pompey, Agamemnon and Ulysses; (iii) Romantic (4), Paris and Vienna, Titus and Gisippus, Alucius, Ariodante and Genevora; (c) Unknown Companies: (i) Morals (5), As Plain as Can Be, Painful Pilgrimage, Wit and Will, Prodigality, Fortune; (ii) Classical (2), Orestes, Theagenes and Chariclea; (iii) Romantic (1), King of Scots; (iv) Farces (2), Jack and Jill, Six Fools. The moral and romantic elements meet also in the list of pieces played by companies of men at Bristol from 1575 to 1579: The Red Knight, Myngo, What Mischief Worketh in the Mind of Man, The Queen of Ethiopia, The Court of Comfort, Quid pro Quo (Murray, ii. 213).
