Page:The Elizabethan stage (Volume 3).pdf/240

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

at the Private House in Blacke-Friers, by his Majesties Servants. . . .

A. M. for Meighen. [Verses to Joseph Taylor, signed 'Shakerley Marmion', and Prologue, both for the performance of 6 Jan. 1634.] 1656; 1665. Editions by F. W. Moorman (1897, T. D.), W. W. Greg (1908, Bullen, iii), W. A. Neilson (1911, C. E. D.). Jonson told Drummond in the winter of 1618-19 (Laing, 17) that 'Flesher and Beaumont, ten yeers since, hath written the Faithfull Shipheardesse, a Tragicomedie, well done'. This gives us the date 1608-9, which there is nothing to contradict. The undated Q_{1} may be put in 1609 or 1610, as Skipwith died on 3 May 1610 and the short partnership of the publishers is traceable from 22 Dec. 1608 to 14 Jan. 1610. It is, moreover, in Sir John Harington's catalogue of his plays, which was made up in 1609 or 1610 (cf. ch. xxii). The presence of Field, Chapman, and Jonson amongst the verse-writers and the mentions in Beaumont's verses of 'the waxlights' and of a boy dancing between the acts point to the Queen's Revels as the producers. It is clear also from the verses that the play was damned, and that Fletcher alone, in spite of Drummond's report, was the author. This is not doubted on internal grounds.

The Woman's Prize, or, The Tamer Tamed. 1604 <

1647. The Womans Prize, or The Tamer Tam'd. A Comedy. [Part of F_{1}. Prologue and Epilogue.]

1679. [Part of F_{2}.]

Fleay, i. 198, Oliphant, and Thorndike, 70, accumulate inconclusive evidence bearing on the date, of which the most that can be said is

that an answer to The Taming of the Shrew would have more point the nearer it came to the date of the original, and that the references to the siege of Ostend in I. iii would be topical during or not long after that siege, which ended on 8 Sept. 1604. On the other hand, Gayley (R. E. C. iii, lxvi) calls attention to possible reminiscences of Epicoene (1609) and Alchemist (1610). I see no justification for supposing that a play written in 1605 would undergo revision, as has been suggested, in 1610-14. A revival by the King's in 1633 got them into some trouble with Sir Henry Herbert, who claimed the right to purge even an old play of 'oaths, prophaness, and ribaldrye' (Variorum, iii. 208). Possibly the play is also The Woman is too Hard for Him, which the King's took to Court on 26 Nov. 1621 (Murray, ii. 193). But the original writing was not necessarily for this company. There is general agreement in assigning the play to Fletcher alone.

Philaster > 1610

S. R. 1620, Jan. 10 (Taverner). 'A Play Called Philaster.' Thomas Walkley (Arber, iii. 662). 1620. Phylaster, Or Loue lyes a Bleeding. Acted at the Globe by his Maiesties Seruants. Written by Francis Baymont and Iohn Fletcher. Gent. For Thomas Walkley.

1622. . . . As it hath beene diuerse times Acted, at the Globe, and