Guy of Warwick, Life and Death of

John Day and Thomas Dekker (1620)

Historical Records

John Taylor, The pennyles pilgrimage (1618)

The Water Poet, John Taylor, reported having seen a play by this name on 14 October 1618 at the Maidenhead Inn, Islington:

And so I stole backe againe to Islington, to the signe of the Mayden-head, staying till Wednesday that my friendes came to meete mee, who knewe no other, but that Wednesday was my first comming: where with all loue I was entertained with much good cheere: and after Supper wee had a play of the life and death of Guy of Warwicke, plaied by the Right Honourable the Earle of Darbie his men. (The pennyles pilgrimage, sig.G2v)

Stationers' Register

15 January 1619 [i.e. 1620] (S.R.I, 3.662)

John Trundle		Entred for his copie vnder the handes of Master TAUERNOR and both
		the wardens A Play Called the life and Death of GUY of Warwicke
		written by JOHN DAY and THOMAS DECKER . . . Vjd

Theatrical Provenance

Unknown. If the play registered in 1620 is identical to the play seen by John Taylor in 1618, the Earl of Derby's men were performing it.

Probable Genre(s)

Tragedy (?) (Harbage)

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

<Enter any information about possible or known sources. Summarise these sources where practical/possible, or provide an excerpt from another scholar's discussion of the subject if available.>

References to the Play

<List any known or conjectured references to the lost play here.>

Critical Commentary

Bullen, in his Introduction to The Works of John Day, mentions Halliwell-Phillips's suggestion that this lost play might be identical to the extant Guy Earl of Warwick printed in 1661, but doubts "whether either of the authors, if they had tried, could have written so execrably" (11).

Chambers (3.289) implicitly agrees with Bullen's assessment that printed Guy of Warwick play is "too bad to be Day and Dekker's Life and Death of Guy of Warwick".

Harbage ("Sparrow from Stratford"), arguing that “[t]he Guy Earl of Warwick of 1661, is, I believe, a composition of ca. 1592-1593, cut for itinerant performance but otherwise little altered” (144), suggests that Day and Dekker “may well have reworked a piece written by Dekker at the beginning of his career” (149). He concludes that in the 1661 text we have the extant original (from the 1590s) and that the text registered in 1620 was a revision that has now been lost (149).

For What It's Worth

<Enter any miscellaneous points that may be relevant, but don't fit into the above categories. This is the best place for highly conjectural thoughts.>

Works Cited

Bullen, A. H. The Works of John Day. Tooks Court Chancery Lane: Chiswick Press, 1881.

Harbage, Alfred. “Sparrow from Stratford”. Shakespeare Without Words and Other Essays. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1972. 143-52.

Taylor, John. The pennyles pilgrimage, or The money-lesse perambulation, of Iohn Taylor, alias the Kings Majesties water-poet How he trauailed on foot from London to Edenborough in Scotland, not carrying any money to or fro, neither begging, borrowing, or asking meate, drinke or lodging. With his description of his entertainment in all places of his iourney, and a true report of the vnmatchable hunting in the brea of Marre and Badenoch in Scotland. With other obseruations, some serious and worthy of memory, and some merry and not hurtfull to be remembred. Lastly that (which is rare in a trauailer) all is true. 1618.

Site created and maintained by David McInnis, University of Melbourne; updated 21 Jan 2016.