Burbon (i.e. Bourbon?)

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Historical Records

Performance Records

Playlists in Philip Henslowe's diary

Fol. 27^v (Greg, 1.54)

novembƺ 1597
		|2|		. . . . .		tt at burbon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .		00|16|30 — 24 — 00

Inventories

Philip Henslowe's papers in the Dulwich College Library

Greg, Papers (APX. I, art. 1, p. 121. l. 193)

Under the heading “A Note of all suche bookes as belong to the Stocke, and such as I have bought since the 3d of Marche 1598

Borbonne.

Theatrical Provenance

The fact that "Burbon" appeared in Henslowe's playlists for the Admiral's men in November 1597 (after the company added players from Pembroke's men), added to the fact that the play was not marked "ne" (as if new), led Greg II to declare it an acquisition from Pembroke's men (#115, p. 187). Wiggins, Catalogue inclines also to the opinion that "Burbon" had made its debut with Pembroke's men, who had most recently been playing at the Swan (#1076).

Probable Genre(s)

History

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

Greg II, beyond accepting a Duke of Bourbon as the character referred to in the title of the play, did not suggest a story line for the play; he rejected the lumping by Fleay, BCED of "Burbon" with a later play,The Trial of Chivalry, in which a Duke of Bourbon is a character.

Wiggins, Catalogue, also rejecting the linkage with The Trial of Chivalry, suggests that the title character of "Burbon" was Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, who betrayed his king (Francis I) and fought instead for the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, in whose service he died during the Sack of Rome in 1527.

References to the Play

None known.

Critical Commentary

Malone lists "Bourbon" with October and November plays in 1597 but does not comment on it; Collier likewise records but does not comment on the play (p. 91).

All Fleay BCED has to say is that "Burbon" is not the same as (or a precursor of) "Berowne," by which he could have meant one of several plays including the "Biron" owned by Worcester's men in 1602 or even the lost Charles, Duke of Bourbon in the Stationers' Register on 15 April 1641 but apparently not printed (2.#200, p. 306).

Greg II, assuming Fleay is referring to Worcester's "Biron" (#267, p. 231), rejects that guess and complicates the identification further by suggesting that the 1597 "Burbon" might have been "2 Fortune's Tennis" (#115, p. 187).

Wiggins, Catalogue makes the only plausible observation about the Admiral's "Burbon," which is that it belonged to a family of plays in the Admiral's repertory on relatively current French history (#1076).

Works Cited

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