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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY ROBERT DODSLEY IN THE YEAR 1744.
NOW FIRST CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED, REVISED AND ENLARGED, WITH THE NOTES OF ALL THE COMMENTATORS AND NEW NOTES
Since the Preface to this Work appeared, a very important augmentation of the new matter has been decided on, and the following early Dramas, never hitherto reprinted, have already been transcribed for insertion in our series under their respective dates. All are of the greatest rarity; and each, in its own way, seemed to possess literary and illustrative value:--
Life and Death of Jack Straw, 1593. ⁂ _The first dramatisation of the story of Wat Tyler._ Mucedorus, 1598. Look About You, 1600. The Contention between Liberality and Prodigality, 1602. The London Chanticleers, 1659. Lady Alimony; or, The Alimony Lady, 1659. ⁂ _Both of the two last named are earlier than the period of publication._
On the other hand, new collected editions of Randolph and Suckling have quite recently been announced; and, in consequence, the “Muses’ Looking-Glass,” by the former, and Suckling’s “Goblins,” will be excluded from the present Collection, agreeably to the principle explained in our Preface.
_For the titles of the two old copies, see Hazlitt’s “Handbook,” p. 177._
Richard Edwards (the elder), a Somersetshire man, was born about the year 1523, and is said to have received his education at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, whence “in youthful years,” as he himself narrates, in the “Paradise of Dainty Devices,” but not until after August 1544, “his young desires pricked him forth to serve in court, a slender, tall young man.” What his service at court may have been, does not appear, and he relinquished it for a time in 1547, when he was nominated a Senior Student of Christ Church, Oxford, then newly founded by Henry VIII., and created M.A. Here, among other studies, he applied himself to that of music, under George Etheridge, with a view, probably, to further service at court. On his return to London, he entered himself of Lincoln’s Inn, and ultimately was constituted by Queen Elizabeth a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and, in 1561, Master of the Children or singing boys of that establishment. Warton, after stating that Edwards “united all those arts and accomplishments which minister to popular pleasantry,” which may be very true, adds what (as Collier points out) is unquestionably a mistake, that the children of the chapel were first formed by him into a company of players; for they had regularly acted plays long before.