Black Lady, The

Historical Records

The Office-Book of Sir Henry Herbert

1622, May 10. "A new Play, called, The Blacke Ladye, was allowed to be acted by the Lady Elizabeth's Servants." (S. A. 213.)

(Herbert 23 [Adams is citing Chalmers])

In 1996, N. W. Bawcutt published new records deriving from hitherto overlooked transcriptions and cuttings from the Ord manuscript, made by its previous owner (i.e. previous to Halliwell-Phillipps) the nineteenth-century scholar Jacob Henry Burn (Beinecke Library, Osborn d1):

A New Play called the Black Lady, alld 10 May 1622, by the Lady Elizabeth's Servants 1^li

(Jacob Henry Burn, "Collection towards forming a history of the now obsolete office of the Master of the Revells", [1874]. James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Reproduced with permission).

Theatrical Provenance

Licensed for the Lady Elizabeth's Men, presumably at the Cockpit.

Probable Genre(s)

Comedy (?) (Harbage)

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

Unknown. Information welcome. EEBO-TCP does not currently shed any light on the phrase "black lady" any earlier than Aphra Behn's work.

References to the Play

None known; information welcome.

Critical Commentary

For What It's Worth

Information welcome.

Works Cited

Site created and maintained by David McInnis, University of Melbourne; updated 28 March 2016.