Early English Dramatists

"LOST" TUDOR
PLAYS WITH
SOME OTHERS

[Pg ii]
[Pg iii]

[Pg iv]
[Pg v]

PREFACE

Unquestionably the chief interest of this volume will centre in the three recently recovered "lost" Tudor Plays: Wealth and Health, Impatient Poverty, and John the Evangelist. It was, in truth, a unique and notable "find"—one that gladdened the world's scholarship. In June 1906 it was announced that no fewer than seventeen of the rarest pre-Shakespearean interludes, including three "lost" plays and four apparently unknown or unrecorded editions, had been unearthed in an Irish country house. Yet the owner of this quarto volume of old plays, the hammer value of which ultimately proved to be over £2600, thought so little, or knew so little, of its value that it was sent over to the London auctioneers without a cover!

It is a matter of surmise, perhaps idle enough, how these old plays got so far afield from the usual centres of early dramatic interest and effort. Still it shows that we need not despair of further "recoveries"; in the most unlikely quarters and when least expected other lost plays of the Tudor period may turn up; and, it must be confessed, if only a tithe of known plays not now traceable are restored, the gain to scholarship will be invaluable.

Public interest in this recent recovery was at once aroused; and the contest for possession, when brought to the hammer, was of the keenest. Mr. Bernard Quaritch secured every one. It is, however, a matter of profound satisfaction to know that the rarest and best items of the collection, the "lost" plays and unrecorded editions, were bought for the nation.

As a matter of record I may state that the British Museum authorities secured—the prices given are the hammer prices—King Darius (unknown edition, £132); John the Evangelist (lost play, £102); The Nice Wanton (unknown edition, £169); Play of the Weather (unknown edition, £90); Wealth and Health (lost play, £95); Lusty Juventus (unknown edition, £140); and Impatient Poverty (lost play, £150).

America took The Trial of Treasure (£160) and Apius and Virginia (£101). I have not, however, as yet, been able to locate them more definitely.

Mr. T. J. Wise purchased Cambyses (£169) and Gammer Gurton's Needle (£180).

Octavia (£82) was purchased for Mr. J. H. Wrenn.

Others were announced for sale by Mr. Quaritch in his catalogue (No. 254) dated Dec. 1906. The titles of these plays and the auction price were: Jacob and Esau (£148); The Tide Tarrieth for no Man (£176); The Disobedient Child (£233); Youth; and The New Custom (£155).

It is my good fortune in the present volume to be the first to make the three "lost" plays available for scholars. The greatest care has been taken to furnish a faithful rendering of the original texts; these have been set from rotary-bromide photographs of the unique copies now in national custody. Moreover, to meet the requirements of "textual experts" and the "higher criticism" these three plays form the first series of my Tudor Fascimile Texts, and will shortly be available in collotype. The four "unknown" editions already noted are also being reproduced by the same process and will form Series II. of the same collection.

Space—this volume is already much over-grown—forbids further comment. Nor would it be proper here and now. The recovery is too recent to have afforded an adequate opportunity for more than the most cursory examination; indeed, my strong feeling has been that I should best serve the wishes of the subscribers to the Early English Drama Society's publications by losing no time in placing these texts before them.

The other early interludes which complete the present collection are likewise rare and more or less difficult of access.

JOHN S. FARMER.

18 Bury Street, W.C.

CONTENTS

[MANKIND
c. 1475
A MORALITY PORTRAYING THE LIFE OF NE'ER-DO-WEELS IN LATE PLANTAGENET AND EARLY TUDOR TIMES]

[The Names of the Players:

• Mercy
• Mankind
• Mischief