A Collection Of Old English Plays, Vol. IV.

A Collection Of Old English
Plays, Vol. IV.

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Vol. IV.
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Title: A Collection Of Old English Plays, Vol. IV.
Author: Editor: A.H. Bullen
Release Date: February 3, 2004 [EBook #10925]
Language: English
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A COLLECTION OF OLD ENGLISH PLAYS, VOL. IV
In Four Volumes
Edited by
A.H. BULLEN
1882-89.

CONTENTS:
Preface Two Tragedies in One. By Robert Yarington The Captives, or
the Lost Recovered. By Thomas Heywood The Costlie Whore. Everie
Woman in her Humor. Appendix Index Footnotes

PREFACE.
The fourth and final volume of this Collection of Old Plays ought to
have been issued many months ago. I dare not attempt to offer any
excuses for the wholly unwarrantable delay.
In the preface to the third volume I stated that I hoped to be able to
procure a transcript of an unpublished play (preserved in Eg. MS. 1,994)
of Thomas Heywood. It affords me no slight pleasure to include this
play in the present volume. Mr. JEAVES, of the Manuscript
Department of the British Museum, undertook the labour of
transcription and persevered to the end. As I have elsewhere stated, the
play is written in a detestable hand; and few can appreciate the
immense trouble that it cost Mr. JEAVES to make his transcript. Where
Mr. JEAVES' labours ended mine began; I spent many days in
minutely comparing the transcript with the original. There are still left
passages that neither of us could decipher, but they are not numerous.
I may be pardoned for regarding the Collection with some pride. Six of
the sixteen plays are absolutely new, printed for the first time; and I am
speaking within bounds when I declare that no addition so substantial
has been made to the Jacobean drama since the days of Humphrey
Moseley and Francis Kirkman. Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt has been
styled by Mr. Swinburne a "noble poem." Professor Delius urged that it
should be translated into German; and I understand that an
accomplished scholar, Dr. Gelbeke of St. Petersburg, has just
completed an admirable translation. Meanwhile the English edition[1]
has been reproduced in Holland.
In the original announcement of this Collection I promised a reprint of
Arden of Feversham from the quarto of 1592; I also proposed to
include plays by Davenport, William Rowley, and Nabbes. After I had
transcribed Arden of Feversham I determined not to include it in the
present series. It occurred to me that I should enhance the value of
these volumes by excluding such plays as were already accessible in
modern editions. Accordingly I rejected _Arden of Feversham, Sir John

Oldcastle, Patient Grissel_, and The Yorkshire Tragedy. The plays of
Davenport, William Rowley, and Nabbes were excluded on other
grounds. Several correspondents suggested to me that I should issue
separately the complete works of each of these three dramatists; and,
not without some misgivings, I adopted this suggestion.
I acknowledge with regret that the printing has not been as accurate as I
should have desired. There have been too many misprints, especially in
the first two volumes;[2] but in the eyes of generous and competent
readers these blemishes (trivial for the most part) will not detract from
the solid value of the Collection.
It remains that I should thank Mr. BERNARD QUARITCH, the most
famous bibliopole of our age (or any age), for the kind interest that he
has shewn in the progress of my undertaking. Of his own accord Mr.
QUARITCH offered to subscribe for one third of the impression,--an
offer which I gratefully accepted. I have to thank Mr. FLEAY for
looking over the proof-sheets of a great part of the present volume and
for aiding me with suggestions and corrections. To Dr. KÖHLER,
librarian to the Grand Duke of Weimar, I am indebted for the true
solution (see _Appendix_) of the rebus at the end of The Distracted
Emperor. Mr. EBSWORTH, with his usual kindness, helped me to
identify some of the songs mentioned in Everie Woman in Her Humor
(see _Appendix_).
17, SUMATRA ROAD, WEST HAMPSTEAD, N.W.
_8th October, 1885_.

INTRODUCTION TO TWO TRAGEDIES IN ONE.
Of Robert Yarington, the author of Two Tragedies in One absolutely
nothing is known. There is no mention of him in Henslowe's Diary, and
none of his contemporaries (so far as I can discover) make the slightest