The Noble Spanish Soldier | Page 2

imagined, these facts offer a considerable range of
possibilities as to authorship and provenance of the play. Various

critics, such as Fleay and Bullen, have tried to make sense of all of
them by postulating, largely without evidence, a variety of
permutations of collaboration and revision so as to give all of the
authorship candidates a role in the production of the text we now have.
The most persuasive contribution however, comes from Julia Gasper
who, building on work by R. Koeppel, convincingly identifies the
source of NSS as being Volume V of Jacques-Augueste de Thou's
Latin 'Historiarum Sui Temporis', published in 1620 <1>.
The de Thou volume tells of how Henri IV of France reneged on a
written promise of marriage to Hentiette d'Entragues, by marrying
Marie be Medicis in 1600; both women bore sons by the King, who is
later assassinated. This closely anticipates the marriage plot of NSS but
the critical detail which seals the identification of de Thou as the source,
is his reference to a soldier called Balthazare Sunica who acted against
the King and was clearly, the original of the character Balthazar in NSS.
This evidence demonstrates that the earliest date for composition of
NSS is 1620. Furthermore, due to the likelihood that NSS predated 'The
Welsh Embassador' of 1623/4, a last possible date for the writing of
NSS, can also be deduced and a composition date of around 1622 can
be established with some certainty.
With respect to the relationship with other plays, any connection with
the 'The Spanish Fig' would seem to be ruled out on the grounds that it
pre-dates the publication of de Thou's Historiarum. In the case of the
later play 'The Spanish Contract', a connection is possible although any
theories that may be advanced little more than conjecture. One such
theory, put forward by Tirthanker Bose <2>, is that 'the Spanish
Contract' is a version of NSS, reworked as a comedy and thus is an
intermediate stage on the road to 'The Welsh Embassador'.
The more pressing matter, the question of the connection with 'The
Parliament of Bees', is also addressed by Julia Gasper. The crucial
evidence here relates to instances where details, meaningful only in the
context of NSS, have become embedded in the text of 'The Parliament
of Bees'. The most significant example of this occurs in Scene 1, Line
29 of 'The Parliament of Bees' where a character asks 'Is Master Bee at

leisure to speak Spanish / With a Bee of Service?'. There is no
connection between 'The Parliament of Bees' and Spain or indeed, the
Spanish language, so it would seem strong evidence that NSS was the
source for 'The Parliament of Bees' and not the other way around. This
evidence is supplemented by an analysis of NSS, Act 2 Scene 1, a
scene common to both plays, when Balthazar sets out his credentials of
loyal service in seeking to advise the King. Gasper points out that this
scene in NSS contains elements from de Thou, not to be found in The
Parliament of Bees, principally the need to intervene on behalf of
Onaelia. The only plausible order of composition for the plays therefore
places NSS before 'The Parliament of Bees'. Furthermore as Day's
name has never been associated with NSS, there is no reason to
suppose he was involved in its
composition. The likelihood is
therefore that he was lifting dialogue from an earlier work by another
writer in order to serve his own convenience.
The remaining question to be considered concerns the relative claims to
authorship of Dekker and Rowley. In weighing the evidence, it is
important to consider that that the first records, those on the Stationer's
Register, unequivocally record Dekker as the sole author. Furthermore,
textual scholarship is happy to place NSS within the Dekker cannon,
while, as Hoy says 'no scholar has ever succeeded in demonstrating
Rowley's share in the play' <3>. Given that is has been established that
the play post-dates 1620, the possibility of a Dekker revision of an
earlier Rowley text would appear to be implausible. The attribution to
'S.R.' remains unexplained, although it may be noted in passing that the
initials are the final letters of Dekker's names, so it may just be a coded
reference to Dekker. More likely perhaps, it could be the result of the
editorial confusion which also pervades the compilation of the cast list.
Performance
There is no firm record of the play being performed, although the
foreword does make mention of it being enthusiastically received. Such
references are not, of course, to be taken at face value as they would
hardly be expected to say anything else; nevertheless, it does strongly
suggest that the play has been staged. In practice, the printing of a text

suggests either high popularity, in which case