Iphis and Ianthe, or Marriage without a Man

William Shakespeare (attrib.) (1613)

Historical Records

Stationers' Register

29 June 1660 (SR2, 2.271, CLIO)

Master Hum. Moseley

Entred for his copies under the hand of MASTER THRALE warden, the severall plays following that is to say . . . . xiijs . . . The History of King Stephen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . } Duke Humphrey, a Tragedy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . } by Will: Shakespeare. Iphis & Iantha, or a marriage without a man, a comedy . }

Theatrical Provenance

Unknown; presumably it would have been performed by the Lord Chamberlain's / King's men.

Probable Genre(s)

Comedy.

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

Ovid.

References to the Play

<List any known or conjectured references to the lost play here.>

Critical Commentary

In a variant of the formulation applied to each of the three plays registered by Moseley in 1660, Bentley writes: “It is quite unlikely that this comedy was written by Shakespeare, for no other reference to the title is known. Presumably the story came from Ovid, but I know of no evidence of the date or authorship of the manuscript Moseley had in 1660” (5.1355).

For What It's Worth

<Enter any miscellaneous points that may be relevant, but don't fit into the above categories. This is the best place for highly conjectural thoughts.>

Works Cited

Ovid. Metamorphoses. Trans. Arthur Golding. 1567. EEBO-TCP open-access

Site created and maintained by David McInnis, University of Melbourne; updated 19 Feb 2015.