The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 12.2460  Friday, 26 October 2001

[1]     From:   Brian Willis <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 25 Oct 2001 12:06:25 -0700 (PDT)
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.2450 Surviving Play Scripts

[2]     From:   David Kathman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Thursday, 25 Oct 2001 18:50:08 -0600
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.2450 Surviving Play Scripts

[3]     From:   Gary Allen <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Friday, 26 Oct 2001 01:14:24 EDT
        Subj:   Re: SHK 12.2450 Surviving Play Scripts


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Brian Willis <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 25 Oct 2001 12:06:25 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: 12.2450 Surviving Play Scripts
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.2450 Surviving Play Scripts

In a related issue, there is a great list at the back of Andrew Gurr's
The Shakespearean Stage. It lists every known production of plays
between 1574-1642, their companies and their known or theorized
theatre.  I'm sure that the index must correspond closely to a "list" of
extant plays of the period.

Brian Willis

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           David Kathman <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Thursday, 25 Oct 2001 18:50:08 -0600
Subject: 12.2450 Surviving Play Scripts
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.2450 Surviving Play Scripts

Thomas Larque wrote:

>Has anybody ever made a comprehensive list of the surviving play scripts
>from the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods?  If so, where can I find this
>information?  How many plays are extant?

See William B. Long's "'Precious Few': English Manuscript Playbooks" in
*A Companion to Shakespeare*, edited by David Scott Kastan.  He
discusses the eighteen surviving pre-Restoration manuscript playbooks in
some detail.  A pretty interesting article, in my opinion.

Long also wrote a shorter piece about the same eighteen MS playbooks,
plus the two surviving printed play quartos annotated for theatrical
use, in the Spring 1994 *Shakespeare Newsletter* ("Bookkeepers and
Playhouse Manuscripts:  A Peek at the Evidence").

Dave Kathman
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

[3]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Gary Allen <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Friday, 26 Oct 2001 01:14:24 EDT
Subject: 12.2450 Surviving Play Scripts
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.2450 Surviving Play Scripts

Thomas Larque asks:

>Has anybody ever made a comprehensive list of the surviving play scripts
>from the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods?  If so, where can I find this
>information?  How many plays are extant?

There are approximately 600 surviving plays from the period of the
public theaters (1576-1642).  Checking my notes derived primarily from
Chambers and Bentley (and therefore not to be taken as expert testimony
on my part), here are plays mentioned as having surviving manuscripts:

anon., Absalon (Latin, bef. 1590)
anon., The Fatal Marriage, or a Second Lucretia (c. 1590-1600)
anon., Edmond Ironside or War Hath Made All Friends (c. 1590-95) Egerton
1994
John of Bordeaux (c. 1592)
anon., Woodstock (c. 1591-95)
Munday, The Wise Man of Westchester (c. 1594)
Munday, John a Kent and John a Cumber (1595)
Percy, Necromantes, or The Two Supposed Heads (1602)
anon., Risus Anglicanus (Latin, c. 1608-09)
Daborne, The Poor Man's Comfort (c. 1610-17) Egerton 1994
anon., Hannibal (Latin, incomplete, c. 1610-20)
Middleton(?), The Second Maiden's Tragedy (1611)
Heywood, Tom a Lincoln (c. 1611)
Middleton, The Witch (c. 1613-14)
Beaumont(?) & Fletcher, The Faithful Friends (1614)
anon., Romeus et Julietta (Latin, incomplete, c. 1615)
anon., The Two Noble Ladies and the Converted Conjurer (c. 1619-23)
Egerton
1994
anon., The Cyprian Conqueror, or The Faithless Relict (c. 1620-40)
anon., Love's Victory (incomplete, c. 1620-40)
anon., Medea (trans. Seneca, c. 1620-40)
anon., The Partial Law (c. 1620-40)
anon., Publius Cornelius Scipio Sui Victor (Latin, incomplete, c.
1620-40)
anon., Ghismonda, or Tancred and Ghismonda (after 1623)
Heywood, The Captives, or The Lost Recovered (c. 1624)
Massinger & Rowley(?), The Parliament of Love (1624) Dyce 39
anon., The Wizard (c. 1625)
Crowther, Cephalus et Procris (Latin, c. 1626-28)
Massinger, Believe as You List (1630) Egerton 2828
anon., Love's Changelings' Change (c. 1630-40)
anon., Antoninus Bassianus Caracalla (Latin, incomplete, c. 1630-50)
anon., Pygmalion (c. 1630-50)
Wilson, The Corporal (fragment, 1633)
anon., The Wasp (c. 1634-36)
anon., Wit's Triumvirate, or The Philosopher (1635)
Glapthorne, The Lady Mother (1635) Egerton 1904
anon., The Fairy Knight, or Oberon the Second (c. 1637-58)
anon., Nottola (Latin, c. 1640-48)
Jaques, The Queen of Corsica (1642)
Shirley, The Court Secret (1642)
Formido, The Governor (1656) BM Add. MS.10419

There are more university and Latin plays, but I think this list
includes all the commercial plays, unless more have been found recently.

Gary

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