Contents

href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@43668@[email protected]#IV_i" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">IV. i. 1547 IV. ii. 1559 IV. iii. 1625 IV. iv. 1743 IV. v. 1821 V. Chor. 1922 V. i. 1940 V. ii. 2051 V. iii. 2094 V. iv. 2143 V. v. 2255 V. vi. 2338

PRINTED FOR THE MALONE SOCIETY BY FREDERICK HALL AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

THE SCOTTISH HISTORY
OF JAMES THE FOURTH

1598

THE MALONE SOCIETY
REPRINTS
1921

This reprint of James IV has been prepared by A. E. H. Swaen with the assistance of the General Editor.

Nov. 1921.

W. W. Greg.

The following entries are found in the Register of the Stationers’ Company for 1594:

No edition, however, is known before 1598, and it would be natural to suspect that the original impression had perished were it not for the fact that 1598 is also the date of the earliest known edition of the Famous Victories. In the circumstances we may suppose that publication was for some reason delayed. The impression of 1598 is a

quarto printed by Creede in roman type of a size approximating to modern pica (20 ll. = 84 mm.). Of this four copies are known to survive. That in the British Museum wants the leaf A 4, which has been supplied in very inaccurate modern reprint. Fortunately the leaf is present in the Dyce copy at South Kensington, though in this H 1 is defective (a corner being supplied in not quite accurate facsimile) and sheet K is wrongly perfected. Another copy, formerly at Bridgewater House, is now in the possession of Mr. Henry E. Huntington; while a fourth is in a collected volume once in the possession of Charles II, which formed lot 8258 in the Huth Sale (25 June 1920). All four want the first leaf, which was presumably blank, except perhaps for a signature. It has not been possible to use more than the first two copies mentioned in preparing the present reprint.

The title-page bears the name of Robert Greene as author, together with a motto used by him in other works, which suggests that the manuscript may have been in some manner prepared for press before his death in 1592. Three passages from the play are quoted, rather inaccurately, in England’s Parnassus, 1600, above Greene’s name. The title-page also states that the play had been ‘sundrie times publikely plaide’, without, however, mentioning any company.

The plot is entirely unhistorical, and P. A. Daniel and W. Creizenach independently traced its source to the first novel of the third day of the Ecatommiti of Giraldi Cintio, a story in which, however, the identity of the characters is quite different. Whether Greene was also acquainted with Cintio’s play Arrenopia, based on the same story, is not known.

List of Doubtful and Irregular Readings.

The play, evidently printed from a much altered and probably illegible manuscript, abounds in errors of every description. The following list is confined to such readings as are to some extent doubtful in the original and to a few literal misprints which might otherwise perhaps be thought due to the reprint. No irregularities recorded by previous editors are included. No variations of any importance have been found between the two copies collated.

784 hath 801 what 834 doo shifting, 880 Ateu. (perhaps Ate u.) 918 denoũced, it 983 same.) 988 to ... too 996 nye. (perhaps ny e.) 1019 consider 1026 tryees 1028 step (perhaps ste p) 1030 becauso 1045 sings. 1048 loue 1078 ean (e not absolutely certain, read can) 1094 Bur 1159 Thon 1163 Exennt. 1175 the 1183 thee 1190 Slip. (there is a faint trace of the i in the Dyce copy only) 1192 Sip. 1205 viutnerd (original viutnerd) 1213 Guatoes 1268 thon (original thon) 1279 (fe-)re ie. (space not certain) 1292 the (perhaps th e) 1294 your (perhaps y our) 1324 bettet 1332 yout 1355 esteemd, (original esteemd‘) 1367 ic pour. Yea 1370 mee, 1378 woman, (comma not quite certain) 1398 Court,, 1399 stricknesse 1405 mstaled: 1411 preuention you (original preuent ion you) 1423 Nauo. 1424 shildish 1433 appooued 1449 displac’ff, (ff broken, read displac’st,) 1451 Auteukin, 1464 bnt
speakie 1497 are 1504 Mistresle 1511 you, drawe a 1546 Exeuut. 1607 Prepare (cf. c.w.) 1621 Hart, 1626 (indentation doubtful) 1626, 1627 Deiu, 1637 (speaker’s name omitted)
ditte 1644 tout, vn 1646 fllattering 1681 thee Shoo-maker. 1702 progenators Cutler. 1706 edge, 1713 a (failed to print in the B.M. copy) 1720 Ohn, o (read Oh, no)

class="right">1763 thing: 1777 fals 1789 strumpet, ta Matressa 1790 foy 1791 me 1796 morglay, 1799 soule, (the comma failed to print in the Dyce copy) 1801 stay. 1803 Ie meu 1845 alreadle 1848 For 1863 alosse, 1897 on 1908 missed, (ss broken, read misled,) 1917 ouerthtow. 1924 slrange (read strange) 1990 wartes: 1993 Dambac 2000 slaine. (sl not quite certain, possibly broken ss) 2002 but 2007 Doro, 2019 effate: (ff broken, read estate:) 2024 but on the (perhaps buton th e) 2037 Nana, 2060 fontre 2092 purschase 2101 place (read plow) 2113 Lyon, (king 2114 slaine? (sl not certain, perhaps broken ss) 2142 Exeunt, (original Exeunt, or Fxeunt, apparently the latter, but the letter may be a broken E) 2144 state, (so the Dyce copy, the B.M. copy apparently has a full point, but this is probably a broken comma) 2162 sect, 2166 countriees (first e not quite certain, possibly c) 2169 toexcept: 2182 greatmens 2189 guise, (perhaps gu ise,) 2204 warre? 2215 summonies 2241 ofcontention: 2254 true,
.Exeun.. (what appears like a full point after the n may be the remains of a very broken t) 2260 sarre
Twearde. 2283 mistresse: 2294-5 he ... she 2300 Alhough 2310 Qeene, 2331 change, 2355 these (perhaps th ese) 2370 wasmisled, (sl not quite certain, possibly broken ss) 2383 K. of S. (apparently S: in the B.M. copy, but the upper dot is accidental) 2424 (indentation doubtful) 2426 for (perhaps fo r) 2438 ttumpets 2443 Cutber tohis 2463 Scortish 2509 missed: (ss

broken, read misled:) 2522 Thou (original Thou) 2540 our (perhaps ou r) 2545 ffaies, (ff broken, read staies,) 2547 reeoncile 2562 Auteukin, 2579 when,

In ll. 1062, 1090 the speaker’s name is given as ‘8. Atten.’ Whatever this may be meant for it is clear that the speeches belong to the Bishop of St. Andrews. In ll. 2015-6 a complicated error has occurred, the ‘e’ of ‘her’ in the lower line having worked its way up into an accidental space after the ‘d’ of ‘and’ in the upper.

List of Characters

in order of appearance.

In V. iii the speeches of the King of England have the prefix ‘Arius’ (ll. 2095, 2105, 2126, 2129), a name which in a stage-direction in II. ii (l. 1050) is apparently applied to the King of Scots. Ateukin (twice misprinted ‘Auteukin’, ll. 1451, 2562) is repeatedly called Gnato, which would seem to have been the original name of the character, subsequently altered, for in I. i ‘Ateukin’ several times scans as a dissyllable (ll. 355, 362, 365). Twice Ateukin and Gnato are mentioned together in a stage-direction (ll. 1550, 2053), apparently through misunderstanding of an alteration. Sir Eustace, who is also addressed as Lord Eustace, is several times called Dick (ll. 565, 568, 571, 601, 608, 629). One speech (l. 629) assigned to him, clearly belongs to a servant, who has therefore been added to the characters. In II. ii Nano is throughout called ‘Dwarfe’ except in the exit at l. 1049. Andrew’s surname appears from l. 551. The name of

the King of Fairies is Oberon: ‘Oboram’ on the title and ‘Obiran’ in l. 1934. seem to be mere misprints, and ‘Obiron’ (ll. 1164, 1923, 1931) a sporadic variant. In l. 2 his name is given as ‘After Oberõ’, but this is most likely a misprint for ‘after Oberõ’. Dyce supposed that Oberon entered at l. 2398, and Grosart assumed that ‘Adam’ was the name of the actor who played the part, but it is more likely to be a compositor’s misreading of ‘A danc(e)’. At l. 1953 the direction ‘Ladie Anderson ouerheares’ is due to a misunderstanding; it should be ‘Sir Cutbert’. Lady Douglas and Sir Egmond are mentioned in l. 1606 as present, but nothing further is known of them: Lord Percy and Samles enter in V. iii (l. 2094), and the former again in V. vi (l. 2407), also the English herald in V. vi (l. 2338), but none of them speak. Nano does not speak in the Induction.

In l. 656 (cf. 666) the form ‘Staurobates’, in place of Stabrobates, proves that Greene drew from Poggio’s Latin translation of Diodorus Siculus and not from the original.

The text of the play contains nothing to identify either the English or the Scottish king, and the date 1520 given in the Induction is seven years after the death of James IV at Flodden.

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The two collotype plates represent A2 recto (title page) and A3 recto in the Dyce copy of the original.

THE
SCOTTISH
Historie of Iames the
fourth, slaine at Flodden.

Entermixed with a pleasant Comedie, presented by
Oboram King of Fayeries:

As it hath bene sundrie times publikely
plaide.

Written by Robert Greene, Maister of Arts.

Omne tulit punctum.

LONDON
Printed by Thomas Creede. 1598.

THE SCOTTISH
Hystorie of Iames the
fourth, slaine at Flodden.