Love of an English Lady, The

Anon. Play Titles A (1594)Property "Paratext" (as page type) with input value "{{{paratexts}}}" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.Property "Contributor" (as page type) with input value "{{{contributors}}}" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.Property "Partnering Institution" (as page type) with input value "{{{partneringInstitutions}}}" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.

Historical Records

Performance Records

Playlists in Henslowe's diary

F. 10 (Greg, I.19)

ye 24 of septembʒ 1594

. . . ne . .

Res at venesyon & the love of &Jngleshelady . . . . . . . .

xxxxvijs

F. 10^v (Greg, I.20)

ye 24 of octobʒ 1594

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Res at love of & Jngleshe ladey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

xxiijs

Theatrical Provenance

Philip Henslowe's entry of "The Love of an English Lady" on 24 October 1594 confirms as much as is possible that a script by that title existed and was performed by the Admiral's men at the Rose playhouse.

The earlier entry, muddled as it is with the apparently errant inclusion of "venesyon," raises the question of what was actually performed on 24 September (given that a play named "venesyon" had appeared [not marked "ne"] in playlists at the Rose a month earlier [25 August] and had by 24 September already received four performances). One explanation is that the inclusion of "The Venetian Comedy" was simply a mistake left uncorrected and that the debut of "The Love of an English Lady" occurred on 24 September 1594. See Critical Commentary below for other explanations of the 24 September entry.

Probable Genre(s)

Comedy

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

Information welcome.

References to the Play

Information welcome.

Critical Commentary

Malone and Fleay, BCED made no comment on the appearance of "The Love of an English Lady" in Henslowe's playlists (p. 295 and 2.303 #157, respectively). Collier commented cryptically on the 24 September entry that the "play ... here mentioned" was being given "its first performance," later to be called simply "Love of and Ingleshe ladey." Instead of reading "venesyon" in the context of the previous four offerings of "The Venetian Comedy", Collier looked for a ballad that linked a love-sick Venetian with an English lady but found none (p. 42, n.2). Greg II, however, though it "probable" that Henslowe's entry had recorded "a double" bill of "The Venetian Comedy" and "The Love of An English Lady. (p. 168, #54). <br

Gurr does not comment on "The Love of an English Lady" as a repertorial piece in the Admiral's offerings; he reads the 24 September entry as the play's being "a sequel to The Venetian Comedy" or a mistake in that "Henslowe may have started to write the title of the older play, corrected it, and then forgot to delete the first words" (p. 208, n20).

Wiggins, Catalogue #967 considers in some detail the relationship of "The Love of an English Lady" both to "The Love of a Grecian Lady and "The Venetian Comedy." He favors independent scripts for each but does propose that two of the plays represent "a linked pair ... one new and one old, which dealt with the loves of English and Grecian ladies respectively." Considering "The Love of an English Lady" as a repertorial item, he notes its lack of success compared to "The Love of a Grecian Lady."