Six Yeomen of the West, The
William Haughton and John Day (1601)
Historical Records
Payments to Playwrights (Henslowe's Diary)
F. 87 (Greg I.137)
| Lent vnto wm hawghton the 20 of maye | ||
| 1601 in earnest of the vj yemon of the weaste | xs | |
| the some of . . .Lent more vnto wm hawghton . . . | vs |
F. 87v (Greg I.138)
| Lent at the a poyntment of Samwell Rowlye | ||
| the 4 daye of June 1601 vnto John daye in | xxxxs | |
| part of payment of a Boocke called the vj yemon | ||
| of the weaste the some of . . . | ||
| pd at the a poyntment of Samell Rowlye | ||
| vnto wm hawghton in parte of paymente of | xvs | |
| a Boocke called the vj yemon of the weste | ||
| the 6 of June 1601 the some of . . . | ||
| Lent vnto Samwell Rowleye the 8 of June | ||
| 1601 to paye vnto wm howghton in fulle paymente | xxxs | |
| of a Boocke called the vj yemon of the weste | ||
| the some of . . . |
Henslowe also mistakenly mentioned the title of "Six Yeomen of the West" when recording a payment intended for "The West Indies" (f. 87; (Greg I.137)):
| Lent vnto John daye the 21 of maye 1601 | ||
| in earnest of a Boocke called the [vj yemen of the] weste | xxs | |
| [enges] enges the some of . . . | ||
| at the a poyntment of Samwell Rowley |
Payments to Playwrights (Henslowe Papers)
Article 35 (Greg, Henslowe Papers, 57)
[Samuel Rowley to Philip Henslowe, 4 June 1601 (?).]
- Mr henchloe J praye ye delyver the Reste of the Monye to John daye & wyll hawton dew to them of the syx yemen of the weste
- Samuell
- Rowlye
[note in Day's hand:]
- J have occasion to be absent about the plott of the Jndyes therfre pray delyer it to will hamton sadler
- by me John Daye
[on the verso side are verses in Day's hand: see History play including the death of Percy]
Article 34 (Greg, Henslowe Papers, 56-57)
[Samuel Rowley to Philip Henslowe, 8 June 1601.]
- Mr hynchlye J praye ye dow so muche for vs Jf Jhon Daye & wyll houghton haue reseved but thre pounde ten shyllynges as to delyver them thurtye shyllynges more & take thare papers
- yors to comande
- Samuell Rowlye
Payments for Properties and Apparel (Henslowe's Diary)
F. 91 (Greg I.143)
| Lent vnto the company the j of July 1601 | ||
| to bye divers thinges for the vj yemen of | xxxxs | |
| the weaste the some of fortye shellengees | ||
| Lent vnto the littell tayller at the apoynt | ||
| ment of the 2 of July 1601 to bye divers | xxs | |
| thinges for the vj yemen of the weste some of . . . | ||
| pd vnto the copere lace man the 2 of July 1601 | ||
| at the a poyntment of the company for copere | xs | |
| lace for the vj yemen of the weaste some . . . | ||
| pd at the a poyntment of the company the 3 of | ||
| Julye 1601 vnto the copere lace man for [die] lace | xs | |
| for the vj yemon of the weaste some of | ||
| vmfrey geffes sewte | ||
| pd vnto the copere lace man for copere lace | ||
| for the vj yemen of the west the 4 of July | vjs | |
| 1601 the some of . . 10 a ownc . .36 onces . . |
F. 91v (Greg I.144)
| Lent vnto Robart shawe the 6 of | ||
| July 1601 to paye vnto the tayller | xviij | |
| for mackynge of vmfry Jeaffes sewt | [xvjsjjs] | |
| in the vj yemen the some of . . . | ||
| pd at the a poyntment of Robart shawe | ||
| the 6 of Julye 1601 vnto the littell | xvijs | |
| tayller for mackynge of sewtes for | ||
| the vj yemen the some of . . . |
Theatrical Provenance
The Admiral's Men would have performed the play in the Fortune Theatre, although no performance dates are recorded. Henslowe's records indicate that Humphrey Jeffes performed in the play.
Probable Genre(s)
Comedy (?) (Harbage). Romance (Wiggins).
Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues
The play almost certainly dramatized Thomas Deloney's prose fiction Thomas of Reading, or, The Six Worthy Yeomen of the West. (The earliest extant copy is the fourth edition of 1612, although Will Kemp refers to Deloney's book in Kemp's Nine Days' Wonder, S.R. 22 April 1600.) It's unclear, however, how much of Deloney's narrative Day and Haughton would have adapted for their play, since several other proximate titles in Henslowe's Diary suggest that the Admiral's staged sequels based on the same source: "Tom Dough, Part 2" by Day and Haughton (July-Sept 1601) and the two-part "Six Clothiers of the West" by Hathway, Haughton, and Smith(Oct-Nov 1601). It's possible that Day and Haughton's "Six Yeomen of the West" only dramatized a portion of Deloney's book.
References to the Play
(Content welcome.)
Critical Commentary
Collier (99-100) noted that the play was likely based on Deloney's Thomas of Reading and assumed the identity of the present play with "The Six Clothiers of the West," chastising Malone for having "deprived Hathwaye of his share" in the play by "erroneously represent[ing] them as distinct performances."
Hazlitt (213), like Collier, assumed the present play was the same as "The Six Clothiers of the West," which he thought the correct title.
Fleay proposed that "2 Tom Dough" was a sequel to "The Six Yeomen" (BCED, 1:108) and noted that "The Six Clothiers" was "[e]vidently not the same story as The Six Yeomen of the West, as usually asserted" (274).
Devine (591) categorizes "Six Yeomen" as a "citizen comedy" such as Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday and William Rowley's The Shoemaker a Gentleman.
Wiggins (4:301) suggests that "Six Yeomen" dramatized the first seven chapters of Thomas of Reading, ending before the murder of the eponymous Thomas Cole: "The resultant narrative, drawn from the first seven chapters, is structurally not dissimilar to that of another Admiral's Men dramatization of Deloney, The Gentle Craft (that is, The Shoemaker's Holiday).
For What It's Worth
Some scholars (e.g. Wiggins, 4:302) encounter difficulty reconciling the payment record in the Diary with Rowley's letter to Henslowe saying that Day and Haughton had received £3 10s and required 30s more. However, no difficulty arises if one considers the 5s disbursed to Haughton on May 20 as payment for the play and attributes the May 21 payment to "The West Indies," as is clear from the Diary.
Works Cited
Site created and maintained by Misha Teramura, Reed College; updated 10 June 2017.