Clorys and Orgasto

Playwright's Name ([[>1592]])

Historical Records

A single record of performance survives in Henslowe’s accounts for early 1592 (new style):

Fol. 7/ Greg I, 13

.9.……….	Res at clorys & orgasto the 28 of febreary 1591	……….	……….	xviijs

Theatrical Provenance

The sole record of this play is its appearance in the playlists of Lord Strange's men at the Rose playhouse during the first run of theirs recorded at that venue. Philip Henslowe began to list the plays performed at his playhouse (the Rose) on 19 February 1592, heading that list with the name of the company in residence: Strange's men. "Cloris and Ergasto" (the title as modernized by Wiggins #878) is entered for 28 February and not entered again.

Probable Genre(s)

Harbage guesses that the play was a pastoral; Wiggins follows suit (#878), adding that the names of the title characters are "standard pastoral names."

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

Information welcome.

References to the Play

Information welcome

Critical Commentary

Manley and MacLean note that this play is one of several "[e]specially vexing" in that the title is "difficult to match to extant sources or stories" (127).

Wiggins, #878, includes this play in his general assessment of Strange's men's repertory items (now lost) that show up only in Henslowe's diary, 1592-3. Noting that the play is not marked "ne" and that it has just one performance, he considers it the most likely play in the company's repertory at this time to have been in production for some time already and thus by February 1592 to be at "the fag end" of a possibly successful run. Even so, he allows that it might be one of those which were experiencing "the last gasp of an ignominiously brief stage life."

Works Cited

Site created and maintained by Roslyn L. Knutson, Professor Emerita, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; updated 1 November 2018.