Philipo and Hippolito

Anon. (1594)

Historical Records

Henslowe's Diary

F. 9^v (Greg I.18)

ye 9 of Julye 1594	ne	Rd at <the> phillipo & hewpolyto		iijli ijs
ye 13 of Julye 1594		Rd at phillipo & hewpolyto		xxxxs
ye 18 of Julye 1594		Rd at phillipo & hewpolyto		xxxs
ye 24 of Julye 1594		Rd at phillipo & hewpolyto		xxxs
ye 3 of aguste 1594		Rd at phillipo & hewpolito		xxxs
ye 7 of aguste 1594		Rd at phillipo & hewpolito		xxixs
ye 15 of aguste 1594		Rd at phillipo & hewpolyto		xxjs

F.10 (Greg I.19)

ye 24 of aguste 1594		Rd at phillipo & hewpolyto		xxviijs
ye 4 of septmb[er] 1594		Rd at phillipo & hewpolito		xxijs
ye 13 of septmb[er] 1594		Rd at phillipo & hewpolito		xxs
ye 19 of septmb[er] 1594		Rd at phillipo & hewpolyto		xiiijs vjd
ye 7 of octob[er] 1594		Rd at phillipo & hewpolito		xijs

Notes:
1. the entry on 7 August 1594 is one of several in the diary that shares a calendar date with another play. Following the entry of Philipo and Hippolito for 7 August and The Massacre at Paris for 8 August, Henslowe repeated those dates, assigning The Jew of Malta to the 7th and Cutlack to the 8th.
2. Henslowe added 3 shillings ("iij") to the already recorded 30s. for the receipts of 18 July, making a total of 33s. (Foakes 22).

Theatrical Provenance

The Admiral's men introduced this play as "ne" in the fourth week of their return to the Rose following the 10-day run at the playhouse at Newington with the Chamberlain's men. It stayed in repertory for 12 performances through 7 October, after which it disappeared from records in the diary.

Probable Genre(s)

Tragi-comedy? (Harbage)

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

See Critical Commentary, below.

References to the Play

None known.

Critical Commentary

This play is a good example of the critical tendency to identify plays with similar titles as versions of the same play. Collier identified Philipo and Hippolito with a play putatively by Philip Massinger, Philenzo and Hippolyta, which he considered "in all probability, revived and altered" from the Admiral's play (55). In an additional note, Collier announced that Massinger's play had been found in manuscript in "the Conway Papers" (xxxi, Google Books). Fleay followed suit, expanding Collier's identification by ascribing Philipo and Hippolito to Dekker (1.121, Internet Archive). Greg added a third incarnation by suggesting that Philipo and Hippolito "was the original of Julio and Hyppolita in the German Collection of 1620" (II.165-6, Item 46).

There has been resistance to such chaining as well: Chambers, his patience tested, considered the long life of Philipo and Hippolito through much later (and lost) plays to be a "game ... hazardous" to play (2.145); Bentley repeated the hypothetical survival of Philipo and Hippolito in Massinger's lost play without endorsement, saying there was "no way of knowing" if the plays were related (4.808).

For What It's Worth

Philenzo and Hippolyta was registered at Stationers' Hall on 29 June 1660 by Humphrey Moseley with a considerable number of other plays. Moseley there attributed authorship to Massinger and assigned the genre of tragicomedy. It also was listed by Thomas Warburton as one of the plays lost to the fire that baked his cook's pies.

Arthur Freeman and Janet Ing Freeman do not list "Conway Papers" in the index of John Payne Collier: Scholarship and forgery in the Nineteenth Century, 2 vols. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. Nor does Bentley identify the source (4.808). Since the Massinger play, Philenzo and Hippolyta, remains lost, one must assume that Collier erred in claiming its survival in the Conway Papers (whatever they are).

Works Cited

Collier, John Payne (ed.) The Diary of Philip Henslowe, from 1591 to 1609. London: Shakespeare Society, 1845. Google Books

Fleay, F. G. A Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama, 1559—1642. 2 vols. 1891; rpt New York: Burt Franklin, 1962. Internet Archive [vol. 1]

Site created and maintained by Roslyn L. Knutson, Professor Emerita; updated 25 July 2010.