Andronicus

Samuel Bernard (1617/18)

Historical Records

Bodleian Library ms. Crynes 701, an eighteenth-century auction catalogue:

Jacob Hooke (comp), Bibliotheca Bernardiana: Or, A Catalogue Of the Library of the Late Charles Bernard, Esq; Serjeant Surgeon to Her Majesty. Containing a curious Collection of the best Authors in Physick, History, Philology, Antiquities, &c. With several MSS. Ancient and Modern which will begin to be sold by Auction on Thursday the 22d of March, 1710-11. At the Black-Boy Coffee-House in Ave-Mary-Lane, near Ludgate-Street (London, 1711).

It is described by Elliott-Nelson, REED Oxford 2.899:

A copy preserved in the Bodleian Library (Crynes 701) has auction prices recorded in the margins. Lot 674 (p 217), which fetched 10s from an unknown buyer, was a folio-sized manuscript of tragedies by Charles Bernard's ancestor, Samuel Bernard, containing:

1) Julius and Gonzaga, performed in the president's house in Magdalen College, 23 January 1616/17 (this may be the play referred to by Peter Heylyn on 8 March 1616/17);

2) Andronicus, performed on 26 January 1617/18, in the Magdalen College hall; and

3) Phocas, performed on 27 January 1618/19, in the Magdalen College hall.

A second item, lot 925 (p 218) which fetched 2s, was a quarto-sized manuscript containing three tragedies and other poetical works by 'Sarmueli Bernardi': since the plays are not named, it is uncertain whether or not these were the same three plays. Neither volume has been traced.

Theatrical Provenance

Performed 26 January 1617/18 at Magdalen College, Oxford. (REED Oxford 2.851)

Probable Genre(s)

(Latin) Tragedy (Elliott-Nelson)

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

(Information welcome)

References to the Play

Only the eighteenth-century auction catalogue described above, in Historical Records.

Critical Commentary

The REED editors note that "It is important to distinguish Bernard’s plain from British Library ms. Sloane 1767, ff 17-66, a Jesuit neo-Latin play with the same title" (Elliott-Nelson 826).

For What It's Worth

(Information welcome)

Works Cited

REED Oxford 2


Site created and maintained by Dana F. Sutton, University of California, Irvine; updated David McInnis 14 March 2010.