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Blue cloth with gilt titling on spine. White catalogue number at base of spine. No ownership inscription. Catalogue number written onto to verso of ffep. No ownership inscription. Printed on laid paper with watermark. Frontis plate. vii, 135 pages clean and tight. "By Way of Preface: - I have not the slightest doubt that the small group of scholars who will read my little book will agree with me that in the chronicle play of Sir Thomas Moore, written in the last decade of the sixteenth century, we have one of the most valuable and interesting relics of the Age of Shakspere. This play, preserved to us in manuscript form, is unique in many respects. Not only was it never acted, though it has some very effective and affecting scenes, but it was not printed until almost the middle of the nineteenth century. Of the three thousand plays which it has been estimated were written during the reigns of Elizabeth and James, this is the only one that is known to have been written by six authors, one more than its nearest rival in regard to the number of authors engaged in the writing of a single play: Webster's Caesar's Fall. Of these six authors, of whom only two-Anthony Mundy and Thomas Dekker-have hitherto been identified, one is by many competent scholars believed to have been no less a man than William Shakspere himself. The identity of the other three, one of whom is generally-and wrongly-regarded as having been only a copyist, has not heretofore even been guessed at. I think I may claim to have demonstrated in the following pages not only the identity of these three poets but also the exact date when the play was written, the purpose for which it was written and why it was never completed, as well as the reason why Sir Edmund Tyllney, the official censor of plays, refused to permit it to be acted. As a corollary to these conclusions, I have, I believe, established that, contrary to the generally received opinion, Thomas Kyd, the most popular tragedian before Marlowe and Shakspere, and the writer of the first Hamlet, had not ceased writing for the stage in 1587, and, furthermore, that the hitherto unidentified Lord whom he served was none other than Ferdinando Stanley, the fifth Earl of Derby. From this it follows that in the early nineties Thomas Kyd, Marlowe and Dekker were writing for Lord Strange's Company, the company to which Shakspere is by many considered to have been attached. The significance of this will be realized when it is remembered that three pages of the play of Sir Thomas Moore are by some regarded as being in Shakspere's own hand. The other contributors to this play I have identified as Henry Chettle, who has not hitherto been known to have written for the stage prior to 1596, and Thomas Heywood, who was not known to have written drama prior to 1598. Here, then, we have specimens of very early work by two of Shakspere's best known and most prolific contemporaries-and in their own handwritings! The scholar acquainted with the works of these poets will have no difficulty in recognizing their peculiar qualities in their contributions to this play. In the preparation and publication of this book I have been greatly assisted in various ways by Professor Ashley H. Thorndike, who not only read the book and recommended it for publication, but gave me excellent and sound criticism concerning many of the matters discussed; by Professor E. H. C. Oliphant, who read and discussed the manuscript with me almost from the first word to the last, and but for whose great learning and critical acumen this would undoubtedly have been a very different book from what it is; by Professor Joseph Q. Adams, who was no less generous in his suggestions and criticisms than the forementioned scholars; and by Mr. Alexander Green who, notwithstanding the limited time at his disposal, made time to consider the argument's and the language very carefully and to make valuable suggestions as to both. To Professor Joseph V. Crowne and Mr. Harris J. Gri. Seller Inventory # 135526
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Bibliographic Details
Title: The Booke of Sir Thomas Moore - A Bibliotic ...
Publisher: Tenny Press, New York
Publication Date: 1927
Binding: Hard Cover
Illustrator: Illustrations
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No DJ
Edition: Privately Printed.
