THE DISGUISING AT HERTFORD

By John Lydgate

c.1370 - 1449

A verse play written circa 1427.

This version is made available with the permission of the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge, England, the owners of the unique original manuscript.

For the purposes of this multi-platform electronic text, the medieval 'thorn' (a character representing 'th') has been changed to 'th'. It was impracticable to reproduce the original punctuation, which mainly consisted of the virgule or slash. Modern commas and full stops have been sparingly imposed. Superscript tildes and mid-script tildes have been removed. Mid-script dots have been changed to colons as they seem to indicate a deliberate suspension. The last four words of the initial rubric (Brys : slayne at Loviers) appear to have been added to the manuscript at a date slightly later than when it was first written. Section marks occur in the original without consistency; where these clearly indicate a new section, a blank line has been inserted to produce a similar effect.

The endnotes include the original stage directions. Two lacunae in the manuscript have been supplied by reference to John Stow's late 16th- century manuscript copy of the text. The other endnotes are glosses of particular words in the text.

The transcription of Lydgate's text has also been published in book form under the title 'Lydgate's Disguising at Hertford Castle', including a modern verse translation of the text, an editor's introduction and notes, and a study of the literary and historical background of the play and of its first performance, which took place at Hertford Castle as part of the royal Christmas festivities of, probably, 1427. It is hoped that this additional material will become available as a Project Gutenberg etext. Readers interested in the book may wish to have its publication details

Copies of the book were distributed by the Society for Theatre Research to its members worldwide in 1998, and can be consulted in the libraries of institutions which subscribe to the Society.

THE DISGUISING AT HERTFORD

GLOSSARY, STAGE DIRECTIONS, NOTES

THE DISGUISING AT HERTFORD

Nowe folowethe here the maner of a bille by