Hill's List of Early Plays in Manuscript

Hill's List of Early Plays in Manuscript (British Library Sloane MS 2893).

Background

The following list of early plays in manuscript was recorded by book collector Abraham Hill (1635-1721): "The list seems to have been Hill's record of the stock of some bookseller, set down between 1677 and 1703, but it is notable that nearly all the identifiable plays and playwrights of the list are Jacobean or Caroline" (Bentley V.1283). It is reproduced from pages 73-74 of Adams. (NB. the numbers were provided by Adams for ease of reference; they did not appear in the original document).

Bibliographical Description

Adams 72-3: The Hill note-books, ten in number and representing miscellaneous material assembled by him at various times (probably between 1660, when after inheriting a fortune he took chambers at Gresham College, and 1703, when he retired from London to his estate in Sutton-at-Hone), consist chiefly of excerpts dealing with ecclesiastical matters, though with occasional notes on science, politics, and book-sales.

The list of plays in manuscript . . . is to be found in the third note-book, a curious volume made up of 218 leaves and even scraps of paper, of different sizes, tipped in by the binder and here brought together, it would seem, merely for the purpose of preservation. No system is apparent in the arrangement of the materials, though it may be significant that folios 150-92 consist of lists of books and detailed notes on certain London auctions....

The list of plays in manuscript is written on both sides of a fairly large sheet of paper measuring about 28 by 17.6 cm.

Digitisation

The following images from British Library Sloane MS 2893, pp.190-92 are reproduced by permission of the British Library.

A further scrap of paper, given the foliation 191 but inserted after the two pages digitised above, contains further playtitles:

Transcription

(Titles in blue are linked to LPD entries)

1		The Conquerors custome or the fair prisoner		Tho Middleton
2		The white Moor		Tho Decker
3		Christianetta or Marriage & hanging goe by destiny		Chapman & Brome
4		The wrongd Widows tragedy
5		The Lovers holiday or the Beare
6		All is not Gold that glisters
7		Look on me & Love me or marriage in the dark
8		The Witch of Edmonton		Will. Sh
9		The painted Lady
10		Spanish preferment
11		disguises or love in disguise, a pettycoat voyage		Th. Decker
12		mull sack or the looking glass the Bachelor or the Hawk
13		the Welch Embassador or a Comedy in disguises		Tho Dekker
14		Your 5 gallants (is in print)
15		The Wandring Jew
16		a Citty shew on the L. Mayors day		Tho Dekker
17		Roxolana or the Ambitious stepdame
18		Osman the Turk or the Ottoman custome
19		More then 9 days wonder Two constant women
20		The fatal banquet
21		Valentinian or Rapes Revenge
22		a match without money or the Wiues prise
23		The younger Brother or male Curtesan
24		the widdow captain
25		the white witch of Westminster or Love in a Lunacy
26		the Dutch painter & the french brawle
27		a Gentleman no Gentleman a metamorphosed Courtier
		Actors Eustace, frampole, friswood &c
28		Philip of macedon
29		the Triumph of Jnnocence
30		2 Christmas tale or the Knight & the Cobbler		Philip Lane
31		a Court Purge
32		The Cloudy Queen & singing moor.	(2 Copies)
33		The City night cap.
34		Tereus with a pastoral		M.A
		Actors. Agnostus Eupathus &c
		Actors Mufti Nassuf &c
35		the 2 Spanish Gentlemen
36		Challenge for beauty (is in print)		Tho Heywood
37		The unfaithfull wife
38		a way to make a knaue honest.
39		the ambitious brother		G. Buc
40		Mustpaha
41		the noble husbands		Henry Glapthor[ne]
		Actors Cataloche le dirard &c
42		the widdows prise or the woman Captain
43		Believe it is so & tis so		Th. Decker
44		the Lovers holyday
45		Loves infancy
46		The marriage night
47		the tragedy of Tomerania
48		the false friend
49		Tradeways Tragedy
50		Pandorae Pyxis	} Latin.
51		Aleumista	}

Works Cited

Adams, Joseph Quincy. “Hill’s List of Early Plays in Manuscript.” The Library 4th Ser., 20.1 (1939): 71-99.


Site created and maintained by David McInnis, University of Melbourne; updated, 10 May 2018.