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A Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 2 — Story, Setting & Ideas

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In Category - Adventure Picaresque Fiction

Authors: Bullen, A. H. (Arthur Henry), 1857-1920 [Editor] Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2004 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 107,047

Reading time 466 min

Text sections 13

For A Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 2 — Story, Setting & Ideas, the stored edition analysis reports 107,047 words, 7 hr 46 min estimated reading time, and 13 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 15.7 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #10656

A scholarly edition of four anonymous plays from manuscript sources, with editorial attributions to Fletcher, Massinger, Shirley, and Glapthorne. The volume includes a preface detailing textual challenges and an appendix on the Egerton manuscript. The excerpts reveal political rhetoric in Barnavelt and a plain-style soldier-author in Dick of Devonshire.

Editorial Edition Score 4.8/5

★★★★★ ★★★★★

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Description quality20 pts
Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
EPUB file integrity20 pts

Total of 100 points, scaled to a 2.5-5.0 range. Editions with an empty description or a missing EPUB file are not scored.

Edition quality

File: pg10656

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But had no faith in't: a mere Potgun![5]

_Bust_. Nay, sir, 'Tis certaine there hath bene great preparation, If our Intelligence be true to us; And a mighty Navy threatens the sea.

_Fer_. What's that to us? How long hath it bene a voyce they were at sea! I have ventured to discharge the soldiers Which to keepe here in pay upon the rumour Of a great fleete a comming, would both pester The Towne and be unnecessary charge To the King our Master.

_Ten_. But how if they intend us?

_Fer_. 'Tis not probable: The time of yeare is past, sir, now; more then The middle of October. Had they meant us We should have heard their message in loud Cannon Before this time.

_Bust_. I am of that opinion.

_Ten_. But _Don Fernando_ and _Bustamente_, call to mind The time hath bene, when we supposed too The season past, they have saluted us With more then friendly Bulletts; tore the ribbs Of our Towne up, made every house too hott For the Inhabitants; had a spoyle of all, Spight of our hearts.

_Fer_. One Swallow makes not Summer: because once Our City was their prize, is't of necessity It must be so againe?

_Bust_. Or were the Navy Greater, as fame gives out it is the fayrest That ever danced upon these Seas, why yet Should we suspect for this Citty?

_Fer_. Because we dreame soe.

_Ten_. If you did dreame it may be as neare truth: I wish the contrary, but know them daring Enemyes.

_Fer_. The world, we doe acknowledge, cannot boast More resolution then the _English_ hearts Seasond for action.

_Ten_. _Francisco Bustamente_, how is the Castle? what strength?

_Bust_. A fort impregnable, wanting neyther soldiers nor munition.

_Ten_. Well, looke to't.

_Fer_. How ere That wilbe necessary; the fort lyes in The mouth of danger, and it will become You to discharge that duty, _Bustamente_.

_Bust_. With my best care.

_Ten_. I wish all well, and that you had not yet Discharg'd your Companyes, _Don Fernando_.

_Fer_. Come, come; putt of your Jelousy, Drinke downe the remembrance. We forget Our fleetes arrivall; send your feares away; Nothing but wine and mirth should crowne this day.

_Enter two Devonshire Merchants, as being in Sherryes_[6]

1. Heare you the newes?

2. Yes, that an English fleete Is making up to Cales.[7]

1. Our _Sherryes_ merchants, Though few of us be heere, shall soundly pay To the furnishing of this Navy.

2. Nay, I assure you Our shipps wilbe fast bound by _Spanish_ charmes Not to get hence in hast.

1. The Divell allready Is furling up the sayles; would all the sackes Which we have bought for _England_ were in _Devonshire_ Turnd to small Beere, so we were but in _Tavistocke_ To see it drawne out; were it nere so thin I'de drink a health to all the Dons in _Sherryes_ And cry a pox upon 'em.

2. That word heard By any lowsy _Spanish_ Picardo[8] Were worth our two neckes. Ile not curse my Diegoes But wish with all my heart that a faire wind May with great Bellyes blesse our _English_ sayles Both out and in; and that the whole fleete may Be at home delivered of no worse a conquest Then the last noble voyage made to this Citty, Though all the wines and merchandize I have here Were ith' Seas bottome.

1. Troth, so would I mine.

2. I nere could tell yet from what roote this huge Large spreading Tree of hate from _Spayne_ to us, From us agayne to _Spayne_, took the first growth.

1. No? then lie tell you: let us season our sorrow With this discourse.

2. With all my heart I long for't.

1. You shall not loose your longing: then, sir, know The hate a _Spanyard_ beares an _Englishman_ Nor naturall is, nor ancient; but as sparkes, Flying from a flint by beating, beget flames, Matter being neere to feed and nurse the fire, So from a tinder at the first kindled[9] Grew this heartburning twixt these two great Nations.

1. Heare me: any _Englishman_ That can but read our Chronicles can tell That many of our Kings and noblest Princes Have fetcht their best and royallest wives from _Spayne_, The very last of all binding both kingdomes Within one golden ring of love and peace By the marriage of Queene _Mary_ with that little man (But mighty monarch) _Phillip_, son and heire To _Charles_ the Emperour.

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This volume presents four plays printed for the first time from manuscript, edited by A. H. Bullen with attributions that remain partly conjectural. The preface frankly acknowledges the labor of transcription and the uncertainty surrounding authorship: Bullen is “not at all sure” about assigning Dick of Devonshire to Heywood, while declaring Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt “absolutely certain” to be by Fletcher and Massinger. The editorial apparatus—a preface, an appendix on the Egerton manuscript, and a contributed note from Robert Boyle—frames the plays as recovered texts rather than polished literary artifacts.

Political Speech in <em>Barnavelt</em>

The excerpt from Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt is dominated by a single long speech in which the title character denounces the Prince of Orange and his followers. Barnavelt’s language is consistently martial and self-justifying: he calls himself “a strong demolishd Tower” and threatens that his fall will “fright the neighbour Cuntries with my murmour.” The speech relies on a repeated contrast between his own past service—finding the state “naked, Floung out a dores and starvd”—and the ingratitude of a “wanton State” that now prefers younger favorites. The rhetoric is built on parallel structures and imperatives (“begon and flatter”), and it ends with a refusal to sue for mercy. The scene provides no counter-argument; Bredero’s interjections are brief and lamenting. The play’s political stance is not directly stated, but the excerpt gives Barnavelt an extended, unopposed platform for his grievances.

The Soldier-Author in <em>Dick of Devonshire</em>

Bullen’s introduction to Dick of Devonshire quotes the historical Richard Pike’s own pamphlet, Three to One, in which Pike apologizes for his “rude” style, saying his fingers are “fitter for the pike than the pen.” This self-deprecation is used by the editor to characterize the play’s source material as blunt and unpolished, yet the play itself is described as “well-written” and “the work of a practised hand.” The tension between the plain soldier’s account and the crafted drama is a central editorial observation. Bullen notes that the playwright had “ample opportunities” for “boisterous riot” but chose restraint, producing a style “at once so equable and strong.” The excerpt does not include any of Pike’s own words beyond the quoted apology, so the reader cannot verify the pamphlet’s tone directly from this volume.

Manuscript Provenance and Editorial Labor

The preface and appendix emphasize the material conditions of the edition. Bullen states that “everything has been transcribed by my own hand” and that “tedious delay in publication has been due in great part to circumstances beyond my control.” The plays are drawn from Egerton MS. 1994, described in Appendix I. The editor thanks Robert Boyle for a note on Barnavelt and F. G. Fleay for “valuable help.” These details foreground the work of textual recovery: the volume is not a reading edition but a scholarly transcription of previously unpublished manuscripts. The catalog subjects list the plays as “English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600,” but the excerpts show that the editor’s own attributions and the manuscript’s provenance are as much a part of the content as the plays themselves.

Readers approaching this volume should expect to encounter editorial commentary as a primary feature. The plays are presented with attributions that are sometimes speculative, and the preface openly discusses the difficulty of assigning authorship. The excerpts suggest that political rhetoric and the figure of the plain-speaking soldier are prominent, but the incomplete text limits any broader thematic judgment. The edition is best understood as a work of recovery, where the editor’s labor and the manuscript’s history are part of the reading experience.

That rainy afternoon, the cracked spine of A Collection of Old English Plays kept me company while Barnavelt’s political fury rattled against Massinger’s careful notes. Somewhere between the preface’s textual puzzles and Dick’s plain soldier voice, I set it down for no reason at all. My hand found, on the same shelf, King John — A Closer Reading, and the day quietly turned toward another kind of kingship, softer but no less thorny.