French Doctor: Difference between revisions

 
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{{Play
{{Play
|isStub=No
|isSparse=No
|dramatists=Anon.
|dramatists=Anon.
|year=1594
|year=1594
|probableGenres=Comedy? (Harbage)
}}
}}
== Historical Records ==
== Historical Records ==


=== Performance Records (''Henslowe's Diary'')===
=== Performance Records ===
<lpd-pre>
==== Playlists in Philip Henslowe's diary ====
<br>


'''F. 10 ([https://archive.org/details/henslowesdiary00unkngoog/page/n79 Greg, I.19])'''
Fol. 10 ([https://archive.org/details/henslowesdiary00unkngoog/page/n79 Greg, I.19])
: :{| {{table}}
 
| y<sup>e</sup> 18 of octobʒ 1594                 R''es'' at the frenshe docter               xxij<sup>s</sup>
::{| {{table}}
|-
| y<sup>e</sup> 18 of octobʒ 1594
| . . . . . . . . . .
| R''es'' at the frenshe docter
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxij<sup>s</sup>
|- 
|}
|}
'''F. 10<sup>v</sup>''' ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog#page/n78/mode/2up Greg, I.20])
<br>
: :{| {{table}}
Fol. 10 ([https://archive.org/details/henslowesdiary00unkngoog/page/n79 Greg, I.19])
| y<sup>e</sup> 28 of octobʒ 1594                 R''es'' at the frenshe docter                 xv<sup>s</sup>
 
::{|
|-
| y<sup>e</sup> 28 of octobʒ 1594
| . . . . . . . . . . |
| R''es'' at the frenshe docter
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv<sup>s</sup>
|-
| y<sup>e</sup> 18 of novmbʒ 1594
| ————
| R''es'' at the frenshe docter
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxvij<sup>s</sup>
|-
|-
| y<sup>e</sup> 18 of novmbʒ 1594              R''es'' at the frenshe docter                xxvij<sup>s</sup>
|}
|}
'''F. 11''' ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog#page/n81/mode/1up Greg, I.21])
<br>
: :{| {{table}}
Fol. 11 ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog#page/n81/mode/1up Greg, I.21])
| y<sup>e</sup> 3 of Jenewary 1594                 R''es'' at the frenshe docter                 xxj<sup>s</sup>
 
::{|
|-
| y<sup>e</sup> 3 of Jenewary 1594
| . . . . . . . . . 
| R''es'' at the frenshe docter
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxj<sup>s</sup>
|-
| y<sup>e</sup> 30 of Jenewary 1594
| . . . . . . . . . .|
| R''es'' at the frenshe docter
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  xviij<sup>s</sup>
|-
|-
| y<sup>e</sup> 30 of Jenewary 1594               R''es'' at the frenshe docter                 xviij<sup>s</sup>
| y<sup>e</sup> 7 of febreary 1594
| . . . . . . . . . . |
| R''es'' at the frenshe docter
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxj<sup>s</sup>
|-
|-
| y<sup>e</sup> 7 of febreary 1594                    R''es'' at the frenshe docter                xxj<sup>s</sup>
|}
|}
'''F. 11 <sup>v</sup>''' ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog#page/n82/mode/1up Greg, I.22])
<br>
: :{| {{table}}
Fol. 11 <sup>v</sup> ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog#page/n82/mode/1up Greg, I.22])
| y<sup>e</sup> 24 of febreary 1594                  R''es'' at the frensh doctor                  xxxxxiiij<sup>s</sup>
 
::{|
|-
|-
| y<sup>e</sup> easter mondaye 1595             R''es'' at the ffrenshe doctor             liij<sup>s</sup>
| y<sup>e</sup> 24 of febreary 1594
| . . . . . . . . 
| R''es'' at the frensh doctor
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxxxiiij<sup>s</sup>
|-
| y<sup>e</sup> easter mondaye 1595
| . . . . . . . . . |
| R''es'' at the ffrenshe doctor
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . liij<sup>s</sup>
|-
| y<sup>e</sup> 3 of may 1595
| . . . . . . . . . . |
| R''es'' at the frenshe docter
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  xj<sup>s</sup>
|-
|-
| y<sup>e</sup> 3 of may 1595                              R''es'' at the frenshe docter              xj<sup>s</sup>
|}
|}
'''F. 12 <sup>v</sup>''' ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog#page/n84/mode/1up Greg, I.24])
<br>
: :{| {{table}}
Fol. 12 <sup>v</sup> ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog#page/n84/mode/1up Greg, I.24])
|y<sup>e</sup> 2[3]4 of maye 1595                   R''es'' at the frenshe docter                   xxij<sup>s</sup>
 
::{|
|-
| y<sup>e</sup> 2[3]4 of maye 1595
| . . . . . . . . . .
| R''es'' at the frenshe docter
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxij<sup>s</sup>
|-
|}
|}
'''F. 13''' ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog#page/n85/mode/1up Greg, I.24])
<br>
: :{| {{table}}
Fol. 13 ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog#page/n85/mode/1up Greg, I.24])
| y<sup>e</sup> 19 of septmbʒ 1595                 R''es'' at the frenshe docto<sup>r</sup>                 xvj<sup>s</sup>
 
::{|
|-
| y<sup>e</sup> 19 of septmbʒ 1595  
| . . . . . . . . . .
| R''es'' at the frenshe docto<sup>r</sup>  
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvj<sup>s</sup>
|-
|}
|}
'''F. 21<sup>v</sup>''' ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog#page/n102/mode/1up Greg, I.42])
<br>
: :{| {{table}}
Fol. 21<sup>v</sup> ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog#page/n102/mode/1up Greg, I.42])
| y<sup>e</sup> 4 of July 1596                               R''es'' at frenshe dacter                       xiiij<sup>s</sup>
 
::{|
|-
| y<sup>e</sup> 4 of July 1596
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
R''es'' at frenshe dacter  
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . xiiij<sup>s</sup>
|-
|}
|}
'''F. 25''' ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog#page/n109/mode/1up Greg, I.49])
 
: :{| {{table}}
<br>
| y<sup>e</sup> 29 of octobʒ 1596 R''es'' at the frenshe docter                               xv<sup>s</sup>
Fol. 25 ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog#page/n109/mode/1up Greg, I.49])
:
::{|
|-
| y<sup>e</sup> 29 of octobʒ &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 1596 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; R''es'' at the frenshe docter
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv<sup>s</sup>
|-
|-
| y<sup>e</sup> 9 of novmbʒ 1596            R''es'' at the frenshe docter                  xiiij<sup>s</sup>
|}
|}
</lpd-pre>
::{|
|-
| y<sup>e</sup> 9 of novmbʒ 1596
| . . . . . . . . . .     
| |<nowiki>|</nowiki> R''es''| at the frenshe docter
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiiij<sup>s</sup>
|-
|}
<br><br>


=== Payments to Edward Alleyn for Playbooks ===
=== Payments ===
==== Purchase of the play from Edward Alleyn in Philip Henslowe's diary: ====
<br>
<br>
'''F. 96 ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog#page/n213/mode/1up Greg. I.153])
Fol. 96 ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog#page/n213/mode/1up Greg. I.153])
<br>
<br>
:pd at the apoyntment of the companye the }
:pd at the apoyntment of the companye the }
Line 63: Line 141:
:w<sup>ch</sup> were played called the french docter the } vj<sup>li</sup>
:w<sup>ch</sup> were played called the french docter the } vj<sup>li</sup>
:massaker of france & the nvtte the some of }
:massaker of france & the nvtte the some of }
<br>
<br>
<br>


Line 71: Line 150:


But where had it been when new, and with which company?
But where had it been when new, and with which company?
<blockquote>
<br>
[[WorksCited|'''Harbage''']], under the heading "1590, Addenda," listed "The French Doctor" with more than several dozen plays that appear in Henslowe's diary in playlists for Strange's men (1592-3) and the Admiral's men (1594-5) without that distinguishing "ne" (Harbage includes also "Hester and Ahasuerus"). He thus implied a pre-1590 debut for each item, though he assigned each to the company that performed it in Henslowe's 1592-4 records.  
 
[[WorksCited|Harbage]], under the heading "1590, Addenda," lists "The French Doctor" with more than several dozen plays that appear in Henslowe's diary in playlists for Strange's men (1592-3) and the Admiral's men (1594-5) without that distinguishing "ne" (Harbage includes also "[[Hester and Ahasuerus|Hester and Ahasuerus]])". He thus implies a pre-1590 debut for each item, though he assigns each to the company that performed it in Henslowe's 1592-4 records.  
<br>


[[WorksCited|Wiggins, ''Catalogue'', #833]] focuses on Edward Alleyn as the key to the pre-1594 provenance of "The French Doctor" (see also #785 for a broader treatment of the Admiral's non-"ne" plays in 1594-5). Offering several scenarios for the stage life and company/player ownership of "The French Doctor" before October 1594, he is comfortable only with the conclusion that the play had been in Alleyn's hands for some time before its sale to the Admiral's men in 1602.
<br>
<br>
[[WorksCited|'''Wiggins, ''Catalogue''''']] focuses on Edward Alleyn as the key to the pre-1594 provenance of "The French Doctor" (#833; see also #785 for a broader treatment of the Admiral's non-"ne" plays in 1594-5). Offering several scenarios for the stage life and company/player ownership of "The French Doctor" before October 1594, he is comfortable only with the conclusion that the play had been in Alleyn's hands for some time before its sale to the Admiral's men in 1602.
</blockquote>


See [[#Critical Commentary|Critical Commentary]] for more on issues of provenance.)
See [[#Critical Commentary|Critical Commentary]] for more on issues of provenance.)
<br><br>


== Probable Genre(s) ==
== Probable Genre(s) ==
<!-- This template outputs the probable genres entered in the data section above. You can replace this comment and the line below if you'd like to write about the probable genres in more detail -->
: Comedy? [[WorksCited|Harbage]]
{{Play/Probable Genres}}
<br><br>
<br><br>


Line 96: Line 177:
== Critical Commentary ==
== Critical Commentary ==


[[WorksCited|Collier]], seeking an extant play that featured a French doctor, associated ''The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypol'' with "The French Doctor" (p. 43, n1).  
[[WorksCited|Malone]] offers no comment on this play (p. 296). [[WorksCited|Collier]], seeking an extant play that featured a French doctor, associates ''The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypol'' with "The French Doctor" (p. 43, n1). [[category:John Payne Collier]]


<br>
[[WorksCited|Fleay, ''BCED'']] follows Collier's logic to a different play, suggesting that "The French Doctor" was "[p]robably" Thomas Dekker's lost "[[Jew of Venice|Jew of Venice]]" (I, Dekker, #3; II, Anon., #137). Pursuing the Dekker connection, Fleay suggests further a connection with the German play, ''The Righteous Judgment of a Girl Graduate,'' or ''The Jew of Venice."
[[WorksCited|Fleay, ''BCED'']] followed Collier's logic to a different play, suggesting that "The French Doctor" was "[p]robably" Thomas Dekker's lost "[[Jew of Venice|Jew of Venice]]" (I, Dekker, #3; II, Anon., #137). Pursuing the Dekker connection, Fleay suggested further a connection with the German play, ''The Righteous Judgment of a Girl Graduate,'' or ''The Jew of Venice."


<br>
[[WorksCited|Greg II]] adds "The Venetian Comedy," a play sharing the 1594-5 repertory of the Admiral's men with "The French Doctor," to the brew of plays in some way duplicating one another (p. 170, #57). Influenced (apparently) by Fleay's linking of "The French Doctor" with Dekker's "[[Jew of Venice, The|Jew of Venice,]]" Greg offers this explanation: "If then VC ["the Venetian Comedy"] and FD ["The French Doctor"] were identical, they must have contained the story of the Jew of Venice, and were presumably the same as Dekker JV ["Jew of Venice"]."
[[WorksCited|Greg II]] added "The Venetian Comedy," a play sharing the 1594-5 repertory of the Admiral's men with "The French Doctor," to the brew of plays in some way duplicating one another (p. 170, #57). Influenced (apparently) by Fleay's linking of "The French Doctor" with Dekker's "[[Jew of Venice, The|Jew of Venice,]]" Greg offered this explanation: "If then VC ["the Venetian Comedy"] and FD ["The French Doctor"] were identical, they must have contained the story of the Jew of Venice, and were presumably the same as Dekker JV ["Jew of Venice"]."


<br>
'''Knutson''' applies the concept of duplication to plays "with similar characters or with similar titles" (''Repertory'', p. 49). She sees these duplications not as "mistakes in the diary for one seminal text and/or versions, revisions, or thefts of a single text" (as Fleay's duplications imply), but as evidence that companies copied "the subject matter and genre of popular offerings" in their own repertory and that of their competitors (''Repertory'', p. 50). As an example, she examines the scheduling of two plays staged by the Admiral's men along with "The French Doctor": "[[Wise Man of West Chester, The|The Wise Man of West Chester]]" and Marlowe's ''Doctor Faustus'' in 1594-5 when the three appear "to have formed a trio ... in the sense that one play or another was offered in twenty-eight of the thirty-two weeks" from late September 1594 through June 1595 ("Marlowe Reruns," p. 37). To this confluence, she adds closely related scheduling in October 1596 ("The French Doctor," ''Doctor Faustus'') and the revivals of friar/doctor plays in 1602-3, now including a "Friar Bacon."  
'''Knutson''' applies the concept of duplication to plays "with similar characters or with similar titles" (''Repertory'', 49). She sees these duplications not as "mistakes in the diary for one seminal text and/or versions, revisions, or thefts of a single text" (as Fleay's duplications imply), but as evidence that companies copied "the subject matter and genre of popular offerings" in their own repertory and that of their competitors (''Repertory'', 50). As an example, she examines the scheduling of two plays staged by the Admiral's men along with "The French Doctor": "[[Wise Man of West Chester, The|The Wise Man of West Chester]]" and Marlowe's ''Doctor Faustus'' in 1594-5 when the three appear "to have formed a trio ... in the sense that one play or another was offered in twenty-eight of the thirty-two weeks" from late September 1594 through June 1595 ("Marlowe Reruns, 37). To this confluence, she adds closely related scheduling in October 1596 ("The French Doctor," ''Doctor Faustus'') and the revivals of friar/doctor plays in 1602-3, now including a "Friar Bacon."  


<br>
'''Gurr''' tentatively assigns "The French Doctor" a date of 1593 (p. 210); commenting on its age, he observes that the "relatively small initial takings also suggest that it was not new" (p. 210, n.26).
'''Gurr''' tentatively assigns "the French Doctor" a date of 1593 (210); commenting on its age, he observes that the "relatively small initial taking also suggest that it was not new" (210, n26).


<br>
[[WorksCited|Wiggins, ''Catalogue'' #833]], questions the genre of the play; he points out that, based on doctor characters generally, this French doctor "may have been either a comic figure or a poisoner."  
[[WorksCited|Wiggins, ''Catalogue'' #833]], questions the genre of the play; he points out that, based on doctor characters generally, this French doctor "may have been either a comic figure or a poisoner."  
<br>
<br>
Line 116: Line 192:


== For What It's Worth ==
== For What It's Worth ==
====Folk Tradition====
There is a definable pattern in English folk drama for the character of doctor. As Richard F. Hardin explains, folk-play doctors "have a medicine that will bring the dead to life; they brag about their achievements, travels, or high fees; they use an often preposterous medical jargon" (p. 59). Hardin sees this folk character as cultural ancestor of the phenomenon tagged by Philip C. Kolin as "the essentially comic fifth-act physician" in Elizabethan plays (p. 71; Kolin, ''The Elizabethan Stage Doctor as a Dramatic Convention'', 1975). Citing parallels in non-Shakespearean drama, Hardin includes ''All Fools'' by George Chapman (1599) in which a doctor named Pock claims that his "pedigree comes 'Out of France'" (p. 66).


====Commercial Value====
Although an old play in October 1594, “The French Doctor” continued to have significant commercial value.
Although an old play in October 1594, “The French Doctor” continued to have significant commercial value.


Line 125: Line 205:
<br>
<br>


3. Its commercial value was further demonstrated in the autumn of 1596. The season at the Rose started late: October 27 (compared to June 15 in 1594 and August 25 in 1595). Further, the Admiral’s men did not introduce a “ne” play for more than a month (“Valteger,” December 4; comparatively, in June 1594 and August 1595, they had a new play up in about a week). The company therefore was relying on nine plays from its old repertory to begin its season, one of which was “The French Doctor.”  
3. Its commercial value was further demonstrated in the autumn of 1596. The season at the Rose started late: October 27 (compared to June 15 in 1594 and August 25 in 1595). Further, the Admiral’s men did not introduce a “ne” play for more than a month (“[[Vortigern|Vortigern]],” December 4, also called "Valteger"; comparatively, in June 1594 and August 1595, they had a new play up in about a week). The company therefore was relying on nine plays from its old repertory to begin its season, one of which was “The French Doctor.”  
<br>
<br>


4. Five years later (January 1602), "The French Doctor" was still a valuable enough property for the Admiral's men to buy it from Edward Alleyn, along with another old play (“Crack Me This Nut,” which also had last been on stage in 1596-7) and even older but more recently revived ''Massacre at Paris'' (''c''. November 1601).
4. Five years later (January 1602), "The French Doctor" was still a valuable enough property for the Admiral's men to buy it from Edward Alleyn, along with another old play (“[[Crack Me This Nut|Crack Me This Nut]],” which also had last been on stage in 1596-7) and even older but more recently revived ''Massacre at Paris'' (''c''. November 1601).
<br><br>
<br><br>


== Works Cited ==
== Works Cited ==
[[category:Henslowe's records]]
[[category:Henslowe's records]]
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Collier, John Payne, ed. ''The Diary of Philip Henslowe, from 1591 to 1609''. London: Shakespeare Society, 1845.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;">Gurr, Andrew. ''Shakespeare's Opposites: The Admiral's Company 1594-1625''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;">Gurr, Andrew. ''Shakespeare's Opposites: The Admiral's Company 1594-1625''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Knutson, Roslyn L. "Marlowe Reruns." In ''Marlowe's Empery''. Ed. Sara Munson Deats and Robert A. Logan. Cranbury, NJ: Univeristy of Delaware Press, 2002. 25-42.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Hardin, Richard F. "Playhouse Calls: Folk Play Doctors on the Elizabethan Stage." ''Early Theatre'' 5.1 (2002), 59-76.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Knutson, Roslyn L. ''The Repertory of Shakespeare's Company, 1594-1613''. Fayetteville, AR: The University of Arkansas Press, 1991.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Knutson, Roslyn L. ''The Repertory of Shakespeare's Company, 1594-1613''. Fayetteville, AR: The University of Arkansas Press, 1991.</div><div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">— — —.  "Marlowe Reruns." In ''Marlowe's Empery''. Ed. Sara Munson Deats and Robert A. Logan. Cranbury, NJ: Univeristy of Delaware Press, 2002. 25-42.</div>
 
<br><br>
<br><br>
Site created and maintained by [[Roslyn L. Knutson]], Professor Emerita, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; updated 17 June 2019.
Site created and maintained by [[Roslyn L. Knutson]], Professor Emerita, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; updated 17 June 2019.
[[category:all]][[category:Roslyn L. Knutson]][[category:Updated]]
[[category:all]][[category:Roslyn L. Knutson]][[category:Update]][[category:Secondhand plays]][[category:Admiral's]][[category:Rose]][[category:Edward Alleyn]][[category:Doctors]][[category:Duplicate plays]]

Latest revision as of 10:03, 15 September 2022

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Historical Records

Performance Records

Playlists in Philip Henslowe's diary


Fol. 10 (Greg, I.19)

ye 18 of octobʒ 1594 . . . . . . . . . . Res at the frenshe docter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxijs


Fol. 10 (Greg, I.19)

ye 28 of octobʒ 1594 Res at the frenshe docter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvs
ye 18 of novmbʒ 1594 ———— Res at the frenshe docter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxvijs


Fol. 11 (Greg, I.21)

ye 3 of Jenewary 1594 . . . . . . . . . Res at the frenshe docter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxjs
ye 30 of Jenewary 1594 Res at the frenshe docter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviijs
ye 7 of febreary 1594 Res at the frenshe docter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxjs


Fol. 11 v (Greg, I.22)

ye 24 of febreary 1594 . . . . . . . . Res at the frensh doctor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxxxiiijs
ye easter mondaye 1595 Res at the ffrenshe doctor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . liijs
ye 3 of may 1595 Res at the frenshe docter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xjs


Fol. 12 v (Greg, I.24)

ye 2[3]4 of maye 1595 . . . . . . . . . . Res at the frenshe docter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxijs


Fol. 13 (Greg, I.24)

ye 19 of septmbʒ 1595 . . . . . . . . . . Res at the frenshe doctor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvjs


Fol. 21v (Greg, I.42)

ye 4 of July 1596 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Res at frenshe dacter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiiijs


Fol. 25 (Greg, I.49)

ye 29 of octobʒ     1596     Res at the frenshe docter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvs
ye 9 of novmbʒ 1596 . . . . . . . . . . | Res| at the frenshe docter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiiijs



Payments

Purchase of the play from Edward Alleyn in Philip Henslowe's diary:


Fol. 96 (Greg. I.153)

pd at the apoyntment of the companye the }
18 of Janewary 1601 vnto E Alleyn for iij boockes }
wch were played called the french docter the } vjli
massaker of france & the nvtte the some of }



Theatrical Provenance

The Admiral's men brought "The French Doctor" to the stage of the Rose in October 1594 and continued it into the autumn season of 1596-7. However, any clarity about its pre-October provenance is complicated by the fact that Henslowe did not mark the play "ne" at its debut in his records (autumn, 1594). Theater historians consequently assume that the play was in revival.

But where had it been when new, and with which company?

Harbage, under the heading "1590, Addenda," lists "The French Doctor" with more than several dozen plays that appear in Henslowe's diary in playlists for Strange's men (1592-3) and the Admiral's men (1594-5) without that distinguishing "ne" (Harbage includes also "Hester and Ahasuerus)". He thus implies a pre-1590 debut for each item, though he assigns each to the company that performed it in Henslowe's 1592-4 records.

Wiggins, Catalogue, #833 focuses on Edward Alleyn as the key to the pre-1594 provenance of "The French Doctor" (see also #785 for a broader treatment of the Admiral's non-"ne" plays in 1594-5). Offering several scenarios for the stage life and company/player ownership of "The French Doctor" before October 1594, he is comfortable only with the conclusion that the play had been in Alleyn's hands for some time before its sale to the Admiral's men in 1602.

See Critical Commentary for more on issues of provenance.)



Probable Genre(s)

Comedy? Harbage



Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

See Critical Commentary for scholarly thinking on plays and narratives related to "The French Doctor" if its title is a mask for some other play.

References to the Play

None known.

Critical Commentary

Malone offers no comment on this play (p. 296). Collier, seeking an extant play that featured a French doctor, associates The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypol with "The French Doctor" (p. 43, n1).

Fleay, BCED follows Collier's logic to a different play, suggesting that "The French Doctor" was "[p]robably" Thomas Dekker's lost "Jew of Venice" (I, Dekker, #3; II, Anon., #137). Pursuing the Dekker connection, Fleay suggests further a connection with the German play, The Righteous Judgment of a Girl Graduate, or The Jew of Venice."

Greg II adds "The Venetian Comedy," a play sharing the 1594-5 repertory of the Admiral's men with "The French Doctor," to the brew of plays in some way duplicating one another (p. 170, #57). Influenced (apparently) by Fleay's linking of "The French Doctor" with Dekker's "Jew of Venice," Greg offers this explanation: "If then VC ["the Venetian Comedy"] and FD ["The French Doctor"] were identical, they must have contained the story of the Jew of Venice, and were presumably the same as Dekker JV ["Jew of Venice"]."

Knutson applies the concept of duplication to plays "with similar characters or with similar titles" (Repertory, p. 49). She sees these duplications not as "mistakes in the diary for one seminal text and/or versions, revisions, or thefts of a single text" (as Fleay's duplications imply), but as evidence that companies copied "the subject matter and genre of popular offerings" in their own repertory and that of their competitors (Repertory, p. 50). As an example, she examines the scheduling of two plays staged by the Admiral's men along with "The French Doctor": "The Wise Man of West Chester" and Marlowe's Doctor Faustus in 1594-5 when the three appear "to have formed a trio ... in the sense that one play or another was offered in twenty-eight of the thirty-two weeks" from late September 1594 through June 1595 ("Marlowe Reruns," p. 37). To this confluence, she adds closely related scheduling in October 1596 ("The French Doctor," Doctor Faustus) and the revivals of friar/doctor plays in 1602-3, now including a "Friar Bacon."

Gurr tentatively assigns "The French Doctor" a date of 1593 (p. 210); commenting on its age, he observes that the "relatively small initial takings also suggest that it was not new" (p. 210, n.26).

Wiggins, Catalogue #833, questions the genre of the play; he points out that, based on doctor characters generally, this French doctor "may have been either a comic figure or a poisoner."

For What It's Worth

Folk Tradition

There is a definable pattern in English folk drama for the character of doctor. As Richard F. Hardin explains, folk-play doctors "have a medicine that will bring the dead to life; they brag about their achievements, travels, or high fees; they use an often preposterous medical jargon" (p. 59). Hardin sees this folk character as cultural ancestor of the phenomenon tagged by Philip C. Kolin as "the essentially comic fifth-act physician" in Elizabethan plays (p. 71; Kolin, The Elizabethan Stage Doctor as a Dramatic Convention, 1975). Citing parallels in non-Shakespearean drama, Hardin includes All Fools by George Chapman (1599) in which a doctor named Pock claims that his "pedigree comes 'Out of France'" (p. 66).


Commercial Value

Although an old play in October 1594, “The French Doctor” continued to have significant commercial value.

1. Its receipts for the dozen performances in the 1594-5 season averaged a respectable 26s per show.

2. Its receipts for two shows in the 1595-6 season and two more at the start of the 1596-7 season dropped to an average of 15s, but the very fact that it continued to be staged suggests another category of value: playability. That is, after having been retired in September 1595, it could be revived months later (July 1596) for a single show.

3. Its commercial value was further demonstrated in the autumn of 1596. The season at the Rose started late: October 27 (compared to June 15 in 1594 and August 25 in 1595). Further, the Admiral’s men did not introduce a “ne” play for more than a month (“Vortigern,” December 4, also called "Valteger"; comparatively, in June 1594 and August 1595, they had a new play up in about a week). The company therefore was relying on nine plays from its old repertory to begin its season, one of which was “The French Doctor.”

4. Five years later (January 1602), "The French Doctor" was still a valuable enough property for the Admiral's men to buy it from Edward Alleyn, along with another old play (“Crack Me This Nut,” which also had last been on stage in 1596-7) and even older but more recently revived Massacre at Paris (c. November 1601).

Works Cited

Gurr, Andrew. Shakespeare's Opposites: The Admiral's Company 1594-1625. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Hardin, Richard F. "Playhouse Calls: Folk Play Doctors on the Elizabethan Stage." Early Theatre 5.1 (2002), 59-76.
Knutson, Roslyn L. The Repertory of Shakespeare's Company, 1594-1613. Fayetteville, AR: The University of Arkansas Press, 1991.
— — —. "Marlowe Reruns." In Marlowe's Empery. Ed. Sara Munson Deats and Robert A. Logan. Cranbury, NJ: Univeristy of Delaware Press, 2002. 25-42.



Site created and maintained by Roslyn L. Knutson, Professor Emerita, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; updated 17 June 2019.