Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T06:26:54.773Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Appendix C - Chronology of Plays Attributed to Dudley’s Players and Leicester’s Men

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2023

Laurie Johnson
Laurie Johnson
Affiliation:
University of Southern Queensland, Australia
Get access

Summary

A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Chapter
Information
Leicester's Men and their Plays
An Early Elizabethan Playing Company and its Legacy
 , pp. 232 - 235
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Huff, Suff, and Ruff (1560, Wiggins no. 336). Performed at Whitehall during the Christmas revels 1560–1. Lost play, proposed here to be a play of Ireland based on items in the Revels Office accounts for this year.Google Scholar
The Pedlar’s Prophecy (1561, Wiggins no. 344). Extant play with clear resonances of John Heywood’s The Four PP in the collection of John Dudley. Final scene address to the Queen and to the performers’ ‘Lord and maister’ suggests court performance at this time, making Dudley’s Players the best candidate.Google Scholar
Romeus and Juliet (1561, Wiggins no. 343). The dramatic source for Arthur Brooke’s poem, Romeus and Juliet (1562). Lost play but well-known storyline based on ‘Giuletta et Romeo’ in the second volume of Matteo Bandello’s Novelle (1554). Attribution to Dudley’s Players based here on Brooke’s reference to the ‘noble crest’ of Robert Dudley in the address to the reader.Google Scholar
Gammer Gurton’s Needle (c. 1553, Wiggins no. 253). Extant play written earlier, believed to be the Diccon of Bedlam registered in 1562–3 to Thomas Colwell. Possibly acquired by Dudley’s Players during visits to Cambridge in the two years prior. Attribution is loosely based on thematic overlap with other titles in this list and the reference in the Prologue to ‘Tom our clarke’.Google Scholar
The Trial of Treasure (c. 1563, Wiggins no. 446). Extant play normally dated to 1567, but possibly much earlier. Attributed by some to William Wager. Strong connections to Enough is as Good as a Feast suggest the same playwright or high level of influence of one on the other. Suspected specialisation of John Perkin in the many Vice figures in Trial and the Wager plays.Google Scholar
The Cruel Debtor (before 1566, Wiggins no. 421). Interlude attributed to William Wager, of which four leaves survive. Attribution based here on assignment of Wager’s plays to Leicester’s Men by Paul Whitfield White.Google Scholar
The Story of Samson (1567, Wiggins no. 449). Identified in John Brayne’s complaint at the King’s Bench as the play due to be performed at the Red Lion upon construction by 8 July 1567. Lost play but biblical storyline is evident.Google Scholar
Enough is as Good as a Feast (1568, Wiggins no. 468). Extant proverbial play by William Wager with allegorical figures. Attribution based on assignment of Wager’s plays to Leicester’s Men.Google Scholar
The Longer Thou Livest, the More Fool Thou Art (1569, Wiggins no. 477). Extant proverbial play by William Wager with allegorical figures. Attribution based on assignment of Wager’s plays to Leicester’s Men.Google Scholar
’Tis Good Sleeping in a Whole Skin (c. 1570, Wiggins no. 485). Lost play attributed to Wager and assigned to the company here on this basis. Proverbial themes are apparent from the title alone, with likely requirement for swordplay. Possibly among the unnamed plays performed by Leicester’s Men at court after Christmas 1572.Google Scholar
The Cradle of Security (c. 1572, Wiggins no. 532). Lost play known from account by Richard Willis in Gloucestershire. Attribution based on Willis’s description suggesting overlap with apparel and properties prepared for unnamed Leicester’s Men play by the Revels Office at Christmas, 1572.Google Scholar
The Play of Fortune (1573, Wiggins no. 537). Known only from Revels Office accounts for 1572–3 and not linked to any other company so assigned to Leicester’s Men only by process of elimination. Could be the play for which ‘a wilderness’ and a vizard for ‘an apes face’ were prepared, suggesting a play requiring a performer skilled in mime or mimicry.Google Scholar
New Custom (c. 1573, Wiggins no. 544). Extant play with obvious links to the lost play Old Custom (Wiggins no. 155), in the John Dudley collection, based on the older play’s surviving list of characters. Cast size based on doubling chart matches the company personnel following departure of Thomas Clarke.Google Scholar
Predor and Lucia (1573, Wiggins no. 547). Performed at court on 26 December 1573. Lost play, with the name and items in the Revels Office accounts suggesting a story based on The Golden Ass (1566), William Adlington’s translation of Metamorphoses by Lucius Apuleius.Google Scholar
Mamillia (1573, Wiggins no. 550). Performed at court on 28 December 1573. Lost play but the name and stage properties prepared by the Revels Office indicate storyline linked to one of the founding families of Tusculum, the Mamilia gens.Google Scholar
Philemon and Philecia (1574, Wiggins no. 558). Performed at court on 21 or 22 February 1574. Lost play associated here with the story of lovers Felis and Felismena from Jorge de Montemayor’s Diana (1559), which includes the sage Felicia whose potions are central to the plot.Google Scholar
Panecia (1574, Wiggins no. 567). Performed at court 26 December 1574. Lost play, but the elaborate ‘rock’ device prepared for the Revels Office suggests the story is based on Matteo Bandello’s ‘Timbreo and Finecia’, in which the Finecia character fakes her own death.Google Scholar
Plaudina (1575). Proposed as the unnamed play performed at court on 1 January 1575, based on properties indicating a story requiring a chimney, as can be found in ‘Cornelio and Plaudina’ from Geoffrey Fenton’s translation of selections from Bandello (1567).Google Scholar
Captain Mario (c. 1576, Wiggins no. 599). Lost play by Stephen Gosson, assigned here to Leicester’s Men, tentatively, on that basis alone, given the more confident claim for Catiline’s Conspiracies. Gosson’s brief description suggests Bandello’s comical story of Mario Organiero as a source.Google Scholar
The History of the Collier (1576, Wiggins no. 602). Performed at court on 30 December 1576. Possibly revived the original Collier character from Old Custom (not used in New Custom). Lost play but apparel and properties in the Revels Office accounts used here to propose a storyline based on ‘Alerane and Adelasia’ from William Painter’s Palace of Pleasure (1566).Google Scholar
Myngs (1577, Wiggins no. 611 as Mingo). Performed by Leicester’s Men in the Guildhall in Bristol between 20 and 26 October 1577. The title ‘Myngs’ is more accurate but most follow John Latimer’s transcription based on E. K. Chambers preferring this term as a potential reference to song about a French drunkard. Here the term ‘myngs’ is taken to refer to the verb ‘to ming’, for a warning, making this yet another proverbial play in the company’s repertory.Google Scholar
Praise at Parting (c. 1577, Wiggins no. 612). Lost play by Stephen Gosson, the proverbial story and assignment of the following title to Leicester’s Men suggesting this was in their repertory as well.Google Scholar
Catiline’s Conspiracies (c. 1578, Wiggins no. 632). Lost play by Stephen Gosson, assigned to Leicester’s Men on the basis that Gosson links the play to the Theatre before 1579. The story is of the Catiline conspiracy to overthrow the Roman consulate in 63 BC and likely includes Cicero’s exposure of the conspiracy and lobbying for Catiline’s execution without trial.Google Scholar
The Blacksmith’s Daughter (c. 1578, Wiggins no. 647). Lost play assigned to Leicester’s Men with Gosson linking it to the Theatre alongside the previous title. May be the first play to negatively stereotype Turkish people on the English Tudor stage.Google Scholar
A Greek Maid (1578, Wiggins no. 655). Performed at court on 4 January 1579, and before in London. Lost play but identified as a pastoral in Revels Office accounts, making prior assumptions that the play involves Hiren the Greek or Timoclea of Thebes unlikely. A fisherman’s coat means the story is more likely based on a Greek pastoral featuring a fisherman and a siren or a fisher-maid who loses her life at the sea’s edge. Might have recycled the ‘rock’ stage device as a result.Google Scholar
Short and Sweet (c. 1579). Mentioned by Thomas Lodge as ‘a peece surely worthy prayse, the practise of a good scholler’ compared to Gosson’s Catiline’s Conspiracies (q.v.), suggesting Catiline content. Linked to Leicester’s Men on the basis of the attribution to Wilson. See also the Roman court play, 1580.Google Scholar
An unnamed Roman play (1580). Revels accounts omit the title of the play Leicester’s Men performed at court on 6 January 1580, but comparison of apparel and properties lists for other titles this season indicate a play with both a provincial and a city setting in Italy. John Bentley’s potential membership at this time adds scope for this to have been a story featuring a tragic hero. Could this have been Robert Wilson’s Short and Sweet, supposed by some to be a second play on the Catiline conspiracy?Google Scholar
Delight (1580, Wiggins no. 691). Comedy performed at court on 26 December 1580. Lost play but the ‘one cittie, one battlement’ listed in the Revels Office accounts taken to suggest George Whetstone’s ‘Castle of Delight’ from The Rock of Regard (1576). Might also have recycled the old ‘rock’ device as a result.Google Scholar
Another unnamed Roman play (1581). Revels accounts omit the title of the play Leicester’s Men performed at court on 7 February 1581, but use of the same city staging suggests another play based on Roman material.Google Scholar
The Three Ladies of London (1581, Wiggins no. 700). Play by Robert Wilson while still a member of Leicester’s Men, possibly lampoons the departed James Burbage in the Christian-turned-Turk scene, and records two apprentices as potential future sharers in the Wily Will (William Knell) and Tom the Beggar (Thomas Pope) scene.Google Scholar
Telomo (1583, Wiggins no. 736). Performed at court on 10 February 1583. Lost play, but I adopt here the explanation by Domenico Lovascio that the most likely source would be the tale of Telamon and Castibula in Brian Melbancke’s Philotimus (1583). Both this play and Delight would therefore also structure preliminary action around the plot device of the ‘complaint’.Google Scholar
The Forces of Hercules (1586). A performance was recorded during Leicester’s European campaign on 23 April 1586, associated with ‘dauncing, vaulting, and tumbling’, but was most likely not a play, as such.Google Scholar
Rowland (c. 1586–7; Wiggins no. 837). Stage jig written by William Kempe, proposed here as Kempe’s solution to the need for plays with a heavily diminished company as the bulk of the company were stationed in Denmark and Saxony, 1586–7. There being a German version of Rowland, it is proposed here that Kempe probably wrote this jig while stationed in Denmark in 1586, and then his colleagues took a copy with them to Saxony.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×