Black Lady, The

Anon. (1622)


Historical Records

The Office-Book of Sir Henry Herbert

The records of the play's licensing on 10 May 1622 were first printed in 1799 by George Chalmers, who reproduced extracts from "Sir Henry Herbert's Official Register" (although the Master of the Revels at the time was Sir John Astley):

"1622 May 10 – A new Play, called, The Blacke Ladye, was allowed to be acted by the Lady Elizabeth's Servants."
(Chalmers 213; see also Herbert 23)


In 1996, N. W. Bawcutt published new records deriving from hitherto overlooked transcriptions and cuttings from the Ord manuscript, made by its previous owner (i.e. previous to Halliwell-Phillipps) the nineteenth-century scholar Jacob Henry Burn (Beinecke Library, Osborn d1):

A New Play called the Black Lady, alld 10 May 1622, by the Lady Elizabeth's Servants   1li

Burn Transcript 1467725 Black Lady sml.jpg

(Jacob Henry Burn, "Collection towards forming a history of the now obsolete office of the Master of the Revells", [1874], fol. 194r. James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Reproduced with permission).




Theatrical Provenance

Licensed for the Lady Elizabeth's Men, presumably at the Cockpit.


Probable Genre(s)

Comedy (?) (Harbage)


Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

Unknown. Information welcome. EEBO-TCP does not currently shed any light on the phrase "black lady" any earlier than Aphra Behn's work.


References to the Play

None known; information welcome.


Critical Commentary


Adams (23) cited Fleay (History of the Stage, p. 301) and others who "have altered this to 1623, possibly rightly, for the children of the Revels, mentioned in the second entry, were not granted their patent until July 8, 1622." However, Bentley (JCS, 1:205n5) pointed out that "the patent in question is for the 'Children of the Revels', not the 'players' of the Revels, and even assuming that the two companies were the same, which is highly improbable […], it is not unprecedented for a company to function before it had been officially born" and saw "no reason to question" the 1622 date.



For What It's Worth

Information welcome.


Works Cited




Site created and maintained by David McInnis, University of Melbourne; updated 28 March 2016.