Duke Humphrey

William Shakespeare (attrib.) (1613?)

Historical Records

Stationers' Register

29 June 1660 (SR2, 2.271, CLIO)

Master Hum. Moseley

Entred for his copies under the hand of MASTER THRALE warden, the severall plays following that is to say . . . . xiijs . . . The History of King Stephen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . } Duke Humphrey, a Tragedy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . } by Will: Shakespeare. Iphis & Iantha, or a marriage without a man, a comedy . }

Warburton's list

"Duke Humphrey" appears as the 5th play noted by John Warburton (1682-1759) in his list of the unprinted MS plays allegedly in his collection until destroyed by Warburton’s cook (Greg, "The Bakings of Betsy" 231):

The Honr. Loves by Will. Rowley

Henry ye 1st. by Will. Shakespeare & Rob. Davenport

The fair favourit

Minervas Sacrifise Phill. Masenger

Duke Humphery Will. Shakespear

See the full list from British Library Lansdowne MS. 807 here.

Theatrical Provenance

Unknown; presumably it would have been performed by the Lord Chamberlain's / King's men.

Probable Genre(s)

Tragedy.

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

Humphrey of Lancaster, Duke of Gloucester (also known as Good Duke Humphrey) (1390-1447) was the youngest son of the future King Henry IV, brother to the future Henry V, and uncle to the future Henry VI. He fought at Harfleur and Agincourt (where Henry V saved his life), and although being denied the regency upon Henry V's death, was made protector to his nephew, Henry VI (ODNB).

His first marriage, to Jacqueline of Hainault (by 1423), saw him pursue Jacqueline's claims to Holland, Zeeland and Hainault (which then rested with her estranged first husband and her uncle). When he returned to England from the low countries in 1425 he received financial support from those keen to protect the market for English cloth in the Netherlands. Jacqueline's rivals to her claim to territory referred the matter of her marriage to the Pope, and in 1428 the Papal verdict determined that her earlier marriage to John of Brabant remained valid (he had, however, died by this time). To continue his claim to the territories in the low countries, Duke Humphrey would have to remarry Jacqueline, since their marriage had been annulled. Instead he married his sometime mistress, the notorious Eleanor Cobham (who was convicted of necromancy in 1441). G. L. Harriss explains the crux of the notoriety:

At court she exercised some influence over the young king and became obsessed with the possibility of her husband's succeeding the unmarried and inert Henry VI. It was in this context that she began—certainly by April 1440—to consult astrologers to cast the king's horoscope and to predict her personal fortunes. This of itself was neither suspicious nor unusual. Mathematical astrology had become socially and academically respectable and other great noblemen had astrologers in their employ. Those whom Eleanor consulted were Thomas Southwell, her physician, canon of St Stephen's, Westminster, and Roger Bolingbroke, principal of St Andrew's Hall, Oxford—both men of high reputation. Unwisely, if honestly, from their reading of Henry VI's horoscope they predicted that a serious illness would endanger his life in July or August 1441. Rumours of this spread in London and reached the court. The authorities thereupon commissioned an alternative horoscope to reassure the king and took steps—on 28 and 29 June 1441—to examine Southwell, Bolingbroke, and Eleanor's chaplain, John Home, canon of Hereford. Between 10 and 12 July they were arrested and charged with necromancy and heretical practices and Eleanor fled to sanctuary in Westminster. ... [After a series of examinations into her actions,] on her insistence it was again before an ecclesiastical tribunal that she was judged on 21 October; she denied most of the charges but admitted procuring potions from Margery Jourdemayne, the Witch of Eye (Ebury, near Westminster), in order to conceive and bear Duke Humphrey's child. On 27 July she abjured her errors and on 9 November penance was imposed on her to walk barefoot to three London churches on successive market days in November bearing a taper. She was forcibly divorced and condemned to perpetual imprisonment. Her associates suffered more harshly: Southwell died in the Tower of London, Bolingbroke was hanged, drawn, and quartered, and Margery was burnt.

Eleanor was imprisoned initially at Chester, then in 1443 moved to Kenilworth, in July 1446 to the Isle of Man, and finally in March 1449 to Beaumaris, where she died on 7 July 1452...

(ODNB)

Michael Drayton's England's Heroical Epistles (1598) includes a letter from "Elenor Cobham to Duke Humphry" and the matching letter of "Duke Humphry to Elenor Cobham".

This latter aspect of Duke Humphrey's life would seem the most fitting subject matter for a tragedy; but why, then, would such a play not be named (at least in part) after Eleanor Cobham, whose tragedy it really is? (See Matthew Steggle's suggestion of Eleanor as subject of The White Witch of Westminster).

There was also a (probably apocryphal) story in circulation in the 17th century, in which Duke Humphrey correctly deduced that an allegedly blind man who miraculously regained his sight was in fact a trickster. George Hakewill reports the incident as follows, in his The vanitie of the eye (Oxford, 1615):

In the yong daies of Henry the 6. being yet vnder the governance of Duke Humphry his Protectour, there came to S. Albones a certaine Beggar with his Wife ... saying that he was borne blind & never saw in his life, and was warned in his dreame, that hee shoulde come out of Barwike, where hee said he had ever dwelled to seeke S. Albon ... . [W]hen the King was commen, & the towne full, suddainly this blind man at S. Albones shryne had his sight again & a Miracle solemnly rong, & Te Deum song, so that nothing was talked of in all the towne, but the miracle. So hapened it then, that Duke Humfry of Glocester, a man no lesse wise, then also well learned, hauing great ioy to see such a Miracle, called the poore man vnto him[,] ... looked wel vpon his eyne, & asked whether he could see nothing at all, in all his life before. And when as well his Wife as himselfe affirmed fastly no, then he looked advisedly vpon his eyne againe & saide: I beleeue you very well, for me thinketh ye cannot see well yet. Yes sir, qutoh hee, I thinke God and his holy Martyr, I can see now as well as any man. Yea can? (quoth the Duke) what colour is my Gowne? Then anon the Beggar told him. What colour (quoth hee) is this mans Gowne? He told him also, & so forth without any sticking, hee told him the names of all the colours that could be shewed him. And when the Duke saw that, he bad him walke Traitour, & made him to be set openly in the stockes: for though hee could haue suddainly by miracle the the [sic] difference betweene divers colours, yet could hee not by the sight so suddainly tel the names of all these colours, except he had known them before no more then the Names of all the men that he should sodainely see. (148-151)

(The story is referenced, e.g., in Thomas Jackson, The third booke of commentaries vpon the Apostles Creede [1614], sig.T1v).

References to the Play

<List any known or conjectured references to the lost play here.>

Critical Commentary

As Bentley notes (5.1323), "The occurrence of Moseley's title in Warburton's list of plays that were allegedly burnt by his cook is no evidence that Warburton ever owned the manuscript, or had even seen it." He adds: "It is quite unlikely that Shakespeare wrote the tragedy of Duke Humphrey, for no other reference to the title has been found. I know of no evidence as to the date or authorship of the manuscript Moseley had in 1660".

For What It's Worth

Duke Humphrey does appear as a character in Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 1 and Henry VI, Part 2 (which features "the death of the good Duke Humphrey") and has minor parts in Henry IV, Part 2 and Henry V.

"Duke Humphrey's Walk" was an aisle in St. Paul's Cathedral (before the fire); it was so named in the belief that Humphrey was buried there, and it was frequented by thieves and the impoverished. To "dine with Duke Humphrey" meant to go hungry (i.e. as the beggars there did), e.g. in Robert Greene's Theeues falling out, true-men come by their good (1615): "Some threed-bare Citizens, that from Marchants, and other good Trades, grow to be base Informers and Knights of the Post, crye out when they dine with Duke Humphrey: O what wickednesse comes from Whoores" (sig.C3), or in William Haughton's Englishmen for my money (1616): "I haue been told, that Duke Humfrie dwelles here, and that he keeps open house, and that a braue sort of Cammileres dine with him euery day" (sig.D3).

Works Cited

Drayton, Michael. England's Heroical Epistles. 1598. (Works, Internet Archive)

Greene, Robert. Theeues falling out, true-men come by their goods: or, The belman wanted a clapper A peale of new villanies rung out; the sound being musicall to all gentlemen, lawyers, farmers, and all sorts of people that come vp to the tearme: shewing that the villanies of leawd women, excell those of men. Imprinted at London : [By W. White and another?] for T. G[ubbin] and are to be sould by R. [i.e. E.] Marchant at the crosse in Pauls Church-yard, 1615.

Hakewill, George. The vanitie of the eye. Oxford, 1615.

Harriss, G. L. "Humphrey, duke of Gloucester (1390–1447)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, May 2011

---. "Eleanor , duchess of Gloucester (c.1400–1452)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008

Haughton, William. English-men for my money: or, A pleasant comedy, called, A woman will haue her will. Imprinted at London : By W. White, dwelling in Cow-lane, 1616.

Jackson, Thomas. The third booke of commentaries vpon the Apostles Creede. 1614.

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