Square Play, The
Historical Records
Bodleian MS.Eng.hist./c.476/fol.134 is described, in the library catalogue, simply as a "Prologue to the Square Play". For the catalogue itself see here: [[1]]. It consists of a prose prologue addressed to an unnamed nobleman in which "poor Amintas" apologies for the entertainment he is about to offer with the aid of his "silly boys".
Theatrical Provenance
Acted by schoolboys in front of a nobleman
Probable Genre(s)
Pastoral? (References to Amintas) Or not a play at all? (as suggested by Nichols)
Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues
Unknown
References to the Play
None known
Critical Commentary
At first glance, this appears to be a completely unknown lost play. However, it is listed by Harbage in his Supplementary List II, who dates it 1570-1590, and the text of the prologue was published by J.G.N[ichols] in Notes and Queries in 1860. Nichols doubts that it was necessarily a play, thinking it might merely have been an exhibition of skil
For What It's Worth
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Works Cited
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J. G. N., "A Prologue to Square Play", Notes and Queries 2nd series 10 (1860) 127-8.
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