Capture of Stuhlweissenburg, The
Heywood, Thomas, Smith, Wentworth (1602)
Historical Records
Personal Sources
- Diary
On the 18th of September 1602, Frederic Gerschow, tutor and secretary to Philip Julius, Duke of Stettin-Pomerania, recorded the following in his travel diary:
- 13 [September] On the thirteenth a comedy was played, of the taking of Stuhl-Weissenberg, firstly by the Turks, and thereafter back again by the Christians. Chambers, ES 2.367
Theatrical Provenance
Theater historians have not agreed on which playhouse Duke Philip Julius of Stettin-Pomerania attended to see the play long-identified as "The Capture of Stuhlweissenburg" (obviously echoing the phrasing of the journal entry). They agree that it was one of the commercial houses with adult male companies, making the most obvious choices either the Globe or the Rose. In a note to his entry (cited above), Chambers cites Charles W. Wallace as having assumed "that the theatre visited on 13 Sept. was the Globe, but it might have been the Rose" (ES, 2.367, note #1).
Knutson, without fresh evidence, assigns "Stuhlweissenburg" to the Chamberlain's men at the Globe (p. 204).
Wiggins, #1342, having absorbed "The Capture of Stuhlweissenburg" into Henslowe's entry for "Albere Galles," assigns the play to the Rose, as does Steggle (p. 112).
Probable Genre(s)
Foreign History
Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues
If, as current opinion now has it, the play formerly known to theater historians as "The Capture of Stuhlweissenberg" was indeed the "Albere Galles" for which Philip Henslowe authorized payments for theatrical properties as well as the script, then the play the Duke of Stettin-Pomerania saw on 13 September was yet another in a cluster of plays about military sieges (as Steggle suggests, pp. 113-16).
References to the Play
In 1602 Duke Philip Julius of Stettin-Pomerania visited England, and while in London, the nobleman attended plays. The duke's diary records that "on the 13th a play was acted showing how Stuhl-Weissenberg was gained by the Turks, and then won again by the Christians" (quoted from Steggle, p. 112).
Critical Commentary
Chambers, in a discussion of playhouses (ES II, p. 367), cites the diary of Duke Philip Julius of Stettin-Pomerania. He does himself not specify which theater was the location where the play described by the duke as "a comedy ... of the taking of Stuhl-Weissenberg, firstly by the Turks, and thereafter back again by the Christians" was performed, but in a note to his comment he cites Charles W. Wallace as having assumed "that the theatre visited on 13 Sept. was the Globe," to which Chambers then adds "but it might have been the Rose" (p. 367, n.1).
Knutson echoes the implicit bias among theater historians about the most desirable playhouses in 1602 and assigns "Stuhlweissenburg" to the Chamberlain's men at the Globe: "The attribution is based on the conjecture that the foreign visitors, having been [to] the newest pubic playhouse in London in 1602 (the Fortune), would have attended performances at the second newest one, the Globe" (p. 204).
Wiggins does not have a separate entry for this play. He considers the title, "The Capture of Stuhlweissenburg," to be a formulation "later assigned" to Alba Regalis (#1342, q.v. LPD entry for "Albere Galles").
Steggle, using EEBO-TCP. also identifies the "Stuhlweissenberg" play as the "Albere Galles" performed by Worcester's men at the Rose (a.k.a. Alba Regalis; q.v. LPD entry for "Albere Galles"). He observes that Stuhlweissenberg is the German name for the city known in Hungarian as Székesfehérvár and in Latin as Alba Regalis.
For What It's Worth
The editors of the Lost Plays Database have been scornful of a habit among theater historians of earlier generations for lumping a play for which the text is lost with one that survives. F. G. Fleay is the most enthusiastic lumper from yesteryear. In the instance of "The Capture of Stuhlweissenburg," a lumping with "Albere Galles" is persuasive by a variety and proponderance of evidence.