Fragment of a play in the Journal of Benjamin Greene
Historical Records
Benjamin Greene's journal
The following dramatic fragment appears in the journal of Benjamin Greene, preserved among the India Office Marine Department Records at the British Library (IOR/L/MAR/A/XII). The fragment was first published by William Foster (in "Forged Shakespeariana", 42) as an afterthought, following discussion of the supposed performances of Hamlet on board The Dragon in 1607. It comes from a journal recording a separate voyage (see Theatrical Provenance), but was offered by Foster as evidence of the theatrical interests of East India Company crew members more generally:
Corus | ||
Astorildo emperor coelicia | Carrabunculo R fletruria | |
Cleobulo & Druball his sonnes | Brufard his bastard sonne | |
Corderia his wife | Merinda his wife | |
liuia her daughter | Dionisia his faire daughter | |
Lord Pridamor | Catropus Brufards frend | |
lo: Parracie | flox (?) the hostler | |
Jack Pretty Cleobuloes man | Nibs the coachman | |
Tuckit Druballs man | Racrox & Rabix [illegible] | |
Attendants | ||
Cristobell | ||
Vna | ||
Plebia | ||
Curia &c. |
- Enter at one dore---Corus
& Racrox at thother
- Ra. Welmet frend what newes if thou wilt goe to the rose we will a cupe of merrigoe downe.
- Co. I pray keepe of you are a great disturber of the common.
Theatrical Provenance
Benjamin Greene was a factor (one of the third class of the East India Company's servants) on the Darling, one of three ships (the others being the Peppercorn and Trades Increase) in the EIC's sixth voyage (to Surat in western India, 1610-13), under Sir Henry Middleton's leadership. Greene's journal records events from 15 November 1610 to 22 December 1612, at which point Middleton's ships had reached Bantam on Java. (Greene would die at Bantam, although he was apparently still alive in February 1613 [Jourdain 236, 243].) Greene does not refer to any performances, but the transcription above occurs on a sheet at the end of his diary (Foster 42).
Probable Genre(s)
Unknown.
Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues
While no direct narrative source is obvious, the fragment's characters' names are evocative of the sixteenth-century prose romance tradition. Astorildo is a character in the third installment of the sprawling Spanish romance Espejo de príncipes y caballeros (written by Marcos Martínez, published 1587), which appeared in English translations around the turn of the century, as the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth books of The Mirror of Knighthood series, published from 1598 to 1601. (Astorildo only appears in the last three books; a "Cleobulo" is mentioned once in the Ninth [sig. Qq2v] although the name Cleobulus was more readily familiar as one of the Seven Sages of Greece.) Besides its use in the Espejo, the name Astorildo also appears in Belianís de Grecia (1545). That both of these Spanish texts are found in Don Quixote's library is indicative of their genre. The names Corus, Drubal, and Pridamor all appear in Emanuel Ford's popular English romance Parismus, the Renoumed Prince of Bohemia (1598) and its sequel Parismenos (1599).
On the place names in the fragment, see For What It's Worth below. For a selective list of dramatic allusions to the Mirror of Knighthood series, see the LPD entry for "Torrismount".
References to the Play
None other than Greene's fragment.
Critical Commentary
Sydney Race suggested that the fragment was a Collier forgery, but as Foster points out, "Surely it would have been quite natural for some unknown person to have alleviated the tedium of a voyage by trying his hand at dramatic composition; and in this connexion I may recall that Dr. Boas found in the British Museum a whole play [i.e. William Mountfort's The Launching of the Mary], written by one of the Company's servants on his homeward way" ("Reply", 414).
Frederick S. Boas, who assumed that the play was titled "Corus," cautioned that the fragment "may have been added to the journal after it had left Greene's hands" (88n).
For What It's Worth
If Astorildo is identified as "emperor coelicia," perhaps this indicates Celicia (or Cilicia), north of Cyprus in Asia Minor (map). It might also be logical to understand the two characters names at the top of each column representing different rulers. While Foster's transcription "Carrabunculo R[ex] fletruria" is somewhat perplexing, the final word might perhaps be explained as a transcription error for Hetruria (or Etruria—that is, Tuscany) if the manuscript used an unfamiliar majuscule H graph that could be misread as fl. Cilicia and Etruria, then, would represent two, perhaps antagonistic, mediterranean kingdoms between which the play's narrative could unfold.
The Rose was a fairly common tavern sign in London. In 1636, John Taylor, the Water Poet, counted ten around London and Westminster (sig. D2r). Some of these Roses are mentioned in contemporary drama, such as Haughton's Englishmen for My Money, The London Prodigal, and Dekker and Middleton's The Roaring Girl (Hoy 3:53). While a local tavern allusion would be appropriate in city comedies such as these, it seems somewhat in tension with the apparent Mediterranean setting suggested by the fragment's characters' names. (OED defines "merry-go-down" as "Strong ale," and cites usages in Nashe's Lenten Stuff and Heywood's 2 If You Know Not Me.)
Greene, the "cheefe Marchaunt in the Little Darling," composed his journal in accordance with the Company's commission that "contynuall & true Iournalls be kept of euery dayes Nauigacion duringe the whole voyadge" by the principal members of each ship (Birdwood 329, 331). Foster does not specifically say that the dramatic fragment is written in Greene's hand, but we might assume that if it had been conspicuously different Foster would have noted the discrepancy. If we indulge in conjecture that Greene was the author or the translator of the fragment, the fact that he spoke Spanish, French, and Italian might embolden us in considering sources (CSP Colonial 2:197).
According to John Jourdain, Greene fell ill at Pasaman in October 1612 and died at Bantam (235-36). His will, which he wrote in his sickness, is dated 5 February 1613 (National Archives, PROB 11/137, f. 213v). The will also provides some clues about Greene's background. Besides legacies granted to Sir Henry Middleton and various crew members of the Trade's Increase, Greene also left bequests to his father Edward, his mother Mary, and "the poore of Henbury and Bartley in Glocestershire neere Bristoll" (f. 213r). If this is an accurate indication of his origins, we can then be fairly confident that he is the same "Beniamyn Greene," son of Edward, who was baptized on 29 January 1586 at Saint Augustine the Less, Bristol (Sabin; Ancestry.com). Greene would thus have been twenty-seven when he died.
Works Cited
Site created and maintained by David McInnis, University of Melbourne; updated by Misha Teramura, 01 September 2015.