The Humorous Magistrate' is a seventeenth-century satiric comedy extant in two highly distinctive manuscripts. This, the earliest and clearly working draft of the play is bound with three other plays (including 'The Emperor's Favourite', published by the Malone Society in 2010) in a volume in the library of the Newdigate family of Arbury Hall, Nuneaton, Warwickshire. The second version, showing yet another stage of revision not found in the Arbury manuscript and orientated towards performance, was purchased by the University of Calgary from the English antiquarian Edgar Osborne in 1972. The relationship between the manuscripts was discovered in 2005. The anonymous play has been attributed to John Newdigate III (1600-1642). Like 'The Emperor's Favourite', it takes aim at the court; its particular object of satire is governmental strategies under the Personal Rule of Charles I. The play appears in print for the first time in these separate editions. The volumes are illustrated with several plates, some provided for comparative purposes.

The Humorous Magistrate (Arbury) (The Malone Society)

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

The Malone Society

The Humorous Magistrate' is a seventeenth-century satiric comedy extant in two highly distinctive manuscripts. The earliest and clearly working draft of the play is bound with three other plays (including 'The Emperor's Favourite', published by the Malone Society in 2010) in a volume in the library of the Newdigate family of Arbury Hall, Nuneaton, Warwickshire. This, the second version, showing yet another stage of revision not found in the Arbury manuscript and orientated towards performance, was purchased by the University of Calgary from the English antiquarian Edgar Osborne in 1972. The relationship between the manuscripts was discovered in 2005. The anonymous play has been attributed to John Newdigate III (1600-1642). Like 'The Emperor's Favourite', it takes aim at the court; its particular object of satire is governmental strategies under the Personal Rule of Charles I. The play appears in print for the first time in these separate editions. The volumes are illustrated with several plates, some provided for comparative purposes.

The Humorous Magistrate (Osborne) (The Malone Society)

This edition of Two Lamentable Tragedies, a quarto printed in 1601 by Richard Read for Matthew Law, and ascribed on the title-page to Robert Yarington, is the first to be published since 1913. It offers a photographic facsimile of the copy in the British Library (C.34.e.23), one of only five to have survived. The play combines a plot based on a real-life London murder case of 1594 with one deriving from an Italian tale of an evil father and his son. The introduction contains an up-to-date consideration of many aspects of the text, including a detailed bibliographical analysis of types, page dimensions, headlines, watermarks and paper; an analysis of compositorial divisions, and of a range of books printed and published by Read and Law; and the nature of the copy-text, which can be deduced from the visualised stage directions and other indications of imaginative staging. There has long been controversy surrounding the authorship of the play, and a full discussion of the issues is provided, including possible identifications of Yarington in contemporary documents, and the question of collaboration. The volume will be essential reading for students of Renaissance drama, book history and bibliography.

Two lamentable tragedies (The Malone Society)

Literature & Fiction

British & Irish

Thomas May's The Tragedy of Antigone (1631), edited by Matteo Pangallo, is the first English treatment of the story made famous by Sophocles. This edition contains a facsimile of the copy held at the Beinecke Library of Yale University, making the play commercially available for the first time since its original publication. The extensive introduction discusses, among other things, the ownership history of existing copies and their marginal annotations, and of the play's topical political implications in the light of May's wavering between royalist and republican sympathies. Writing during the contentious early years of Charles I's reign, May used Sophocles' Antigone to explore the problems of just rule and justified rebellion. He also went beyond the scope of the original, adding content from a wide range of other classical and contemporary plays, poems and other sources, including Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. This volume will be essential reading for advanced students, researchers and teachers of early English drama and seventeenth-century political history.

The Tragedy of Antigone, The Theban Princesse: by Thomas May (The Malone Society)

Dramas & Plays

The Twice-Chang'd Friar is one of four early seventeenth-century plays preserved in a manuscript miscellany in the library of the Newdigate family of Arbury Hall, Nuneaton (Arbury Hall MS A414). The play, which appears to have been written by family member and drama lover John Newdigate III, is thought to be unique to this manuscript. This edition makes the play available in print for the first time. The Twice Chang'd Friar is an Italianate city comedy based on a tale from Boccaccio's Decameron. It tells the story of Albert, a friar who seduces Lisetta, a beautiful Venetian merchant's wife by persuading her that he is the incarnation of Cupid. Albert's plot is eventually uncovered by Lisetta's brothers, whom he escapes by disguising himself in a bear's skin. The play is a fascinating example of an amateur manuscript drama, of interest to all scholars and students of early modern drama.

The Twice-Chang'd Friar (The Malone Society)

This is an edition of Christopher Marlowe's play Dr Faustus as it was printed in its revised and augmented form in 1616. It follows the publication of the Malone Society edition of the 1604 text in 2018. This is one of the most celebrated of all Elizabethan plays, famous for its treatment of the damnation of Faustus and his struggles with his divided conscience. It combines spectacular visual effects with sophisticated theological discussion. The edition reproduces in facsimile the only surviving copy of the play, which is held in the British Library. The differences from the 1604 text, including revisions and additional passages, are fully described and analysed, and placed in the context of changing theatre practices at the time. A major feature of the edition is that it identifies the printer of the 1616 text, whose name has been hitherto unknown.

Dr Faustus 1616 (The Malone Society)

This is an edition of Christopher Marlowe’s play Dr Faustus as it was first printed in 1604. This is one of the most celebrated of all Elizabethan plays, famous for its treatment of the damnation of Faustus and his struggles with his divided conscience. It combines spectacular visual effects with sophisticated theological discussion. The edition reproduces the only surviving copy, held in the Bodelian Library, Oxford, in photofacsimile. The introduction offers up-to-date analysis of the authorship, sources, staging and printing of the play. The edition will be invaluable for advanced students and established scholars working on Marlowe, Elizabethan drama generally, demonology, and early modern book production. An edition of the revised text of 1616 will be published by the Malone Society in early 2019.

Dr Faustus 1604 (The Malone Society)

Collections XVIII: Two Plays from ‘The Decameron’ (The Malone Society)

The Aphrodysial is one of six plays written by William Percy (c. 1570-1648), brother of the Ninth Earl of Northumberland (1564-1632). This edition reproduces the copy of the text preserved in Huntington Library MS HM4, with a substantial collation of variants between it and the other extant version preserved in Alnwick Castle Library MS 509. This 'Marinall' is set at the underwater court of Oceanus. The action is concerned with piscatory and amatory pursuits that take place during Cytheræa's Aphrodysial feast-day. The play offers a retelling of the Hero and Leander story, Jupiter and Neptune's quest for Thetis's lost magic bracelet, and the comical attempts of some fishermen, led by Proteus, to capture a talking whale. The play is notable for its extensive stage directions, which envisage performance by boy actors and adult actors respectively.

The Aphrodysial or Sea-Feast (The Malone Society)

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