George Scanderbeg
Historical Records
Stationers' Register, 3 July 1601:
"The true historye of George Scanderbarge as yt was lately playd by the right honorable the Earle of Oxenforde his servantes." E. Allde
(Arber, iii.187; qtd. in Chambers 4.400)
Theatrical Provenance
From the S.R. entry it appears to have been played by the Earl of Oxford's servants in or around 1601.
Probable Genre(s)
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Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues
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References to the Play
Gabriel Harvey's poem, "Gorgon" (September 1593) is sometimes thought to contain references to the lost play and to associate Marlowe with the title:
III The Writer's Postscript: or a frendly Caueat to the Second Shakerley of Powles.
Slumbring I lay in melancholy bed,
Before the dawning of the sanguin light:
When Eccho shrill, or some Familiar Spright,
Buzzed an Epitaph into my hed.
Magnifique Mindes, bred of Gargantuas race,
In grisly weedes His Obsequies waiment,
Whose Corps on Powles, whose mind triumph'd on Kent
Scorning to bate Sir Rodomont an ace.
I mus'd awhile: and hauing mus'd awhile,
Iesu, (quoth I) is that Gargantua minde
Conquerd, and left no Scanderbeg behinde?
Vowed he not to Powles A Second bile?
What bile or kibe? (quoth that same early Spright)
Haue you forgot the Scanderbegging wight?
(qtd. in Moore 344)
Critical Commentary
Chambers (4.400) asserted that "There seems no adequate reason for ascribing this to Marlowe (q.v.) or Nashe."
Hale Moore, analysing Gabriel Harvey's ostensible references to Marlowe, begins by dismissing the notion of any Scanderbeg connection on the Occam's Razor grounds that "The N.E.D. notes the word as an epithet of abuse, a rascal," observing that "Like Tamberlaine and Ismail, Scanderbeg was regularly used as a synonym for the mighty warrior and conqueror" (353). He thus initially concludes that "it is possible to understand the words without seeking for a hidden meaning" (353). However, Moore proceeds to analyse Harvey's line, "is that Gargantua mind conquered and left no Scanderbeg behind? Vowed he not to Paul's a second bile?" and observes:
This seems to indicate an affected surprise that Marlowe had not published Scanderbeg as well as Tamberlane, and surely attributes its authorship to Marlowe. The dates would suit very well, for a play performed by the Earl of Oxford's men could not be later than 1588; and Harvey would be likely to know of such plays of Marlowe's as were written at Cambridge and taken with him to London in 1587. This may, then,- have been a play performed before any of Marlowe's extant plays, in 1587; and Marlowe may have 'vowed a second bile' to Paul's by an intended publication of it. (353)
For What It's Worth
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Works Cited
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