Page:The Elizabethan stage (Volume 3).pdf/248

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of Epicoene which, however, was acted in 1609, not, as Gayley thinks, 1610. None of these indications, however, are of much importance in view of another traced by Gayley (III. ii. 17):

   I will style thee noble, nay, Don Diego; I'll woo thy infanta for thee.

Don Diego Sarmiento's negotiations for a Spanish match with Prince Charles began on 27 May 1613. The play must therefore be 1613-16. In any case the 'Blackfriars' of the title-page must be the Porter's Hall house of 1615-17. Even if the end of 1609 were a possible date, Murray, i. 153, is wrong in supposing that the Revels were then at Blackfriars. There is fair unanimity in assigning I, the whole or part of II, and V. ii to Beaumont, and the rest to Fletcher, but Bond and Gayley suggest that III. i, at least, might be Massinger's.

Thierry and Theodoret (?)

1621. The Tragedy of Thierry King of France, and his Brother Theodoret. As it was diuerse times acted at the Blacke-Friers by the Kings Maiesties Seruants. For Thomas Walkley.

1648. . . . Written by John Fletcher Gent. For Humphrey Moseley.

1649. . . . Written by Fracis Beamont and John Fletcher Gent.

For Humphrey Moseley. [A reissue, with Prologue and Epilogue, not written for the play; cf. Fleay, i. 205.] Dissertation: B. Leonhardt, Die Text-Varianten von B. und F.'s T. and T. (1903, Anglia, xxvi. 345). Fleay, i. 205, dates the play c. 1617, supposing it to be a satire on the French Court, and the name De Vitry to be that of the slayer of the Maréchal d'Ancre. Thorndike, 79, has little difficulty in disposing of this theory, although it may be pointed out that the Privy Council did in fact intervene to suppress a play about the Maréchal in 1617 (Gildersleeve, 113); but he is less successful in attempting to show any special plausibility in a date as early as 1607. A former conjecture by Fleay (E. S. ix. 21) that III and V. i are fragments of the anonymous Branholt of the Admiral's in 1597 may also be dismissed with Greg (Henslowe, ii. 188). Most critics find, in addition to Fletcher, Massinger, as collaborator or reviser, according to the date given to the play, and some add Field or Daborne. Oliphant and Thorndike find Beaumont. So did Macaulay, 196, in 1883, but apparently not in 1910 (C. H. vi. 138).

The Nightwalker or The Little Thief (?)

S. R. 25 April 1639 (Wykes). 'These fiue playes . . . Night walters. . . . Crooke and William Cooke (Arber, iv. 464). 1640. The Night-Walker, or the Little Theife. A Comedy, As it was presented by her Majesties Servants, at the Private House in Drury Lane. Written by John Fletcher. Gent. Tho. Cotes for Andrew Crooke and William Cooke. [Epistle to William Hudson, signed 'A. C.'.] 1661. For Andrew Crook.

Herbert licensed this as 'a play of Fletchers corrected by Sherley'