Charlemagne

Anon. (1588)

Historical Records

Alleyn's list of theatrical costumes

A single folio leaf acquired by the Houghton Library in the early 1970s as part of a larger MS collection includes a costed inventory of theatrical costumes, apparently compiled by John Alleyn and at one time in the possession of Edward Alleyn. It was first found in a copy of John Payne Collier's The History of English Dramatic Poetry (1831), which Collier had presented to Joseph Hazlewood the year it was published. Hazlewood had it inserted between pp.88-89 of volume 3. It thereafter passed to Augustus, sixth Lord Vernon, and ultimately to Arthur Freeman before Harvard acquired it (see Evans 254-55).

(Digital image ordered)
f MS Thr 276, Houghton Library, Harvard University; reproduced by permission.

[fol. 1^r] includes the following items pertaining to the lost "Charlemagne" play:

X    Itm Charlemains cloake w^t fur. _____________________________1-6-8^d

...

X    Itm saull and dauid.     Charlemayn __________________________iiij^ll

X    Itm a hare & beard for Charlemayn And Saull & dauid ___________x^s

Theatrical Provenance

Unknown; Peele's reference (below) implies general familiarity with the play by 1589, and the association (in that poem) with Tamburlaine and plays about "Mahomet" and "Tom Stukely" at "theatres" with "proud tragedians" implies a London commercial company as the likely auspices, but the play has not been associated with any specific company. Wiggins (#808) suggests the play "may have entered the repertory of a touring company, perhaps one bound for the Continent".

Probable Genre(s)

Tragedy (?) (Wiggins).

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

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References to the Play

In his poem, A farewell Entituled to the famous and fortunate generalls of our English forces: Sir Iohn Norris & Syr Frauncis Drake Knights, and all theyr braue and resolute followers (1589), George Peele encourages the imminently departing soldiers to bid farewell to fictional adventures and prepare for actual battle:

Bid all the louelie brittish Dames adiewe,
That vnder many a Standarde well aduaunc'd,
Haue bid the sweete allarmes and braues of loue.
Bid Theaters and proude Tragædians,
Bid Mahomets Poo, and mightie Tamburlaine,
King Charlemaine, Tom Stukeley and the rest
Adiewe: to Armes, to Armes, to glorious Armes,
With noble Norris, and victorious Drake,
Vnder the Sanguine Crosse, braue Englands badge...

sig.A3 (EEBO-TCP, Open Access)

Critical Commentary

Harbage does not list this play, but the date range of 1584-c.1605 that he provides for the MS play Charlemagne, or the Distracted Emperor (poss. Chapman) implies that he may have considered the inventory list or Peele's reference in 1589 to refer to that surviving play.

Wiggins (#808) notes that Peele's "poem cannot refer to the extant MS play about him [i.e. Charlemagne], which dates from the 1610s or early 1620s". Consequently, the Alleyn inventory and the Peele reference appear to refer to a lost play.

For What It's Worth

<Enter any miscellaneous points that may be relevant, but don't fit into the above categories. This is the best place for highly conjectural thoughts.>

Works Cited

Evans, G. Blakemore. "An Elizabethan Theatrical Stock List". Harvard Library Bulletin 21.3 (July, 1973): 254-70.

Peele, George. A farewell Entituled to the famous and fortunate generalls of our English forces: Sir Iohn Norris & Syr Frauncis Drake Knights, and all theyr braue and resolute followers. VVhereunto is annexed: a tale of Troy. Doone by George Peele, Maister of Artes in Oxforde. London, 1589. (STC 19537) (EEBO-TCP, Open-Access)

Site created and maintained by David McInnis, University of Melbourne; updated 20 April 2017.