Catiline's Conspiracy (Catiline)

Robert Wilson and Henry Chettle (1598)

Historical Records

Payments to Playwrights (Henslowe's Diary)

F. 49^v (Greg I.94)

Lent mr willsone the 21 of aguste 1598 in <e>	}
earnest of a Boocke called cattelyne some of	}	xs

Lent vnto harey cheattell the 26 of aguste	}
1598 earneste of a Boocke called	}	vs
cattelanes consperecey the some of	}

Lent vnto mr willsone the 29 of aguste	}
1598 at the request of hary cheattell in	}	xs
earneste of cattelyne the some of	}

Theatrical Provenance

There is no evidence of performance (as in the case with "Hannibal and Hermes" and "Conan, Prince of Cornwall"), but "it remains overwhemingly likely" that the played was staged by the Lord Admiral's Men at the Rose in 1598 (Wiggins, 1137). However, Wiggins also adds that "we cannot rule out the possibility that, in a year of heavy surplus in his play purchasing, Henslowe might have had some other purpose in mind for the plays"

Probable Genre(s)

Classical history (Harbage), tragedy (Wiggins).

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

The main sources are likely to have been Sallust's De coniuratione Catilinae and Cicero's In Catilinam. However, Sallust's text had not been translated into English yet in 1598 (the first English translation by Thomas Heywood was only published in 1608). The only English version available to Wilson and Chettle would have been The Conspiracie of Lucius Catiline, translated into Englishe by Thomas Paynell; worthy, profitable, and pleasaunt to be red (London, in officina T. Bertheleti, 1541), a translation of Costanzo Felici's Historia Coniurations Catilinariae, published in Latin in 1518. Felici's account was reprinted in The conspiracie of Catiline, written by Constancius Felicius Durantinus, translated by T. Paynell, with the historye of Jugurth, writen by the famous Romaine Salust, and translated into Englyshe by A Barcklaye (London, John Waley, 1557), thereby essentially replacing Sallust's account of the conspiracy. We known that Ben Jonson drew heavily on the Latin original by Felici for his 1611 Catiline His Conspiracy (see Duffy, Worden, Lovascio); consequently, it is legitimate to conceive that Wilson and Chettle may have resorted to Felici's work too. Interestingly, as Wiggins (serial number 1145) notes, the Admiral's Men also produced "Jugurth, King of Numidia" only two years later. If Wilson and Chettle did indeed draw on Felici, one may even wonder whether Jonson was following their example in his Catiline.

References to the Play

None known; information welcome.

Critical Commentary

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For What It's Worth

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Works Cited

Bolton, Whitney French, Jane F. Gardner, "Jonson’s Classical Sources." Catiline, by Ben Jonson (London: Arnold, 1972). 176-193.

Duffy, Ellen M.T. "Ben Jonson’s Debt to Renaissance Scholarship." Modern Language Review 42 (1947): 24-30.

Lovascio, Domenico. "Jonson’s Catiline: A Few Unrecorded Borrowings from Felici’s Historia Coniurationis Catilinariae." Notes and Queries 58 (2011): 278-282.

Site created and maintained by Domenico Lovascio, University of Genoa; updated 04 March 2015.