Samson, The Story of

Anon. (>1567)

Historical Records

Complaint brought before the wardens of the Carpenters' Company, 15 July 1567

GL. MS 4329/1
(as qtd in Wickham, 291, from the transcription in Records of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters, ed. Bower Marsh, III, 95-6 [Oxford, 1915])

... And that the said John Brayne on saturday [19 July] next ensuing the date above written shall pay to the said William Sylvester the sum of £8 10s lawful money of England, and that after the play which is called The Story of Samson be once played at the place aforesaid the said John shall deliver to the said William such bonds as are now in his custody for the performance of the bargain. ...

Theatrical Provenance

The Story of Samson was to be performed at the Red Lion playhouse. On 15 July 1567 John Brayne, grocer, lodged a complaint with the wardens of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters against William Sylvester, carpenter, about the quality of Sylvester's carpentry on "the house called the Red Lion in the parish of Stepney" (as qtd in Wickham, 291).

A lawsuit in the Court of King's Bench in Hilary term 11 Elizabeth (1569) provides further details about the structure of the playhouse, its workmen, and its finances but does not mention a playing company or players (TNA. KB 27/1229/m. 30).

Probable Genre(s)

Biblical tragedy

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

The story had to have been based on the Old Testament narrative of Samson and Delilah. In the Miles Coverdale translation (1535), the narrative begins in Judges 13.2 and continues through Judges 16.31. Its major episodes include the following:

1. the birth narrative:

But there was a man at Zarga, of one of ye kynreds of the Danites, named Manoah, and his wife was vnfrutefull & bare him no children. 3 And the angell of the LORDE appeared vnto ye woman, & sayde vnto her: Beholde, thou art baren, & bearest not: but thou shalt conceaue, & beare a sonne. 4 Take hede therfore, yt thou drynke no wyne ner stronge drynke, and yt thou eate no vncleane thinge, 5 for thou shalt conceaue, and beare a sonne, vpo whose heade there shal come no rasoure: for ye childe shal be a Nazaree of God, euen from his mother wombe, and shall begynne to delyuer Israel out of the hande of the Philistynes. (Judges 13.2-4)

Works Cited

Loengard, Janet S. "An Elizabethan Lawsuit: John Brayne, his Carpenter, and the Building of the Red Lion Theatre," Shakespeare Quarterly 34 (1983): 298-310.

Site created and maintained by Roslyn L. Knutson, Professor Emerita, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; updated 14 June 2011.biblical plays