Pandorae Pyxis

Anon. (Unknown)

Historical Records

The fiftieth and fifty-first items on Hill's List of Early Plays in Manuscript are:

Pandorae Pyxis

Aleumista

They are covered with a brace, and the annotation "Latin".

Theatrical Provenance

This play is not known except on Hill's List, and therefore cannot be ascribed to a particular company or dated beyond Bentley's usual formula: "The list seems to have been Hill's record of the stock of some bookseller, set down between 1677 and 1703, but it is notable that nearly all the identifiable plays and playwrights of the list are Jacobean or Caroline" (Bentley, 5.1283).

Probable Genre(s)

Unknown

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

None known

References to the Play

None known

Critical Commentary

The play dealt with the story of Pandora's box. Beyond this, it is difficult to go.

Adams noted that "The story of Pandora's box might well have served an academic dramatist, but no record of a Latin play on the theme is to be found. (Killigrew's Pandora, acted in 1663 and printed in 1664, was in English)" (98).

For What It's Worth

(Information welcome)

Works Cited

Adams, Joseph Quincy. “Hill’s List of Early Plays in Manuscript.” The Library 4th Ser., 20.1 (1939): 71-99.


Site created and maintained by Matthew Steggle, Sheffield Hallam University; updated 13 June 2011.