ENGLISH HISTORICAL PLAYS BY SHAKESPEARE, MARLOWE, PEELE, HEYWOOD, FLETCHER, ARRANGED FOR ACTING, AS WELL AS FOR READING BY THOMAS DONOVAN IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I London MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO. 1896 All rights reserved PREFACE ERRATA Vol. I., page 257, line 8 from bottom, for I hope, the king read I hope the king Vol. II., page 10, line 9 from bottom, for out read out: Donovan's English Historical Plays. It dramatists, representing the chief incidents of three hundr years, among the most eventful in English history. These are not, however, mere reprints of the old plays, but they are resettings of them in what is thought to be the simplest and most effective form for dramatic performance. need hardly be said that all these plays were written to be acted, and yet fully one half are unknown to the modern stage, while many of them have not been produced in an English theatre since the time of the Stuarts; the reason commonly assigned for this neglect being that, as written, they cannot be acted. Indeed, in the form in which we 250151 PREFACE In these two volumes are collected the best of those plays founded on English history that have been spared to us from the larger supply existing in Shakespeare's time,—fire, neglect, and perhaps fanaticism, having deprived us of many others. Taking Shakespeare's ten chronicles as a basis, nearly all the gaps that he left in the continuity of his English history are here filled in with plays written by his contemporaries: Peele, Marlowe, Heywood, and Ford having all lived in the time of the great master. We have thus placed before us a series of plays by our greatest dramatists, representing the chief incidents of three hundred years, among the most eventful in English history. These are not, however, mere reprints of the old plays, but they are resettings of them in what is thought to be the simplest and most effective form for dramatic performance. need hardly be said that all these plays were written to be acted, and yet fully one half are unknown to the modern stage, while many of them have not been produced in an English theatre since the time of the Stuarts; the reason commonly assigned for this neglect being that, as written, they cannot be acted. Indeed, in the form in which we It 250151 |