Orphans Tragedy, The: Difference between revisions

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[[Chettle, Henry|Henry Chettle]] [[category:Henry Chettle]] ([[1599]], [[1601]]?)
[[Chettle, Henry|Henry Chettle]] ([[1599]], [[1601]]?)




==Historical Records==
==Historical Records==


===Henslowe's ''Diary''===
===Payments to Playwrights (''Henslowe's Diary'')===
[[category:Partial payment]][[category:Henslowe's records]]
[[category:Partial payment]][[category:Henslowe's records]]
<br>


 
'''F. 29 ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog#page/n116/mode/2up Greg I.57])'''
F. 29 (Greg I.57)


:[1599]
:[1599]
Line 21: Line 21:


<br>
<br>
F. 65<sup>v</sup> (Greg I.114)
'''F. 65<sup>v</sup> ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog#page/n174/mode/2up Greg I.114])'''


:Lent vnto harey chettell the 27 of novmb[er]
:Lent vnto harey chettell the 27 of novmb[er]
Line 29: Line 29:
<br>
<br>


F. 93<sup>v</sup> (Greg I.148)
'''F. 93<sup>v</sup> ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog#page/n208/mode/2up Greg I.148])'''


:Lent vnto Samwell Rowley the 24 of septmb[er] 1601
:Lent vnto Samwell Rowley the 24 of septmb[er] 1601
:to paye vnto harey chettell in pt of payment
:to paye vnto harey chettell in pt of payment
:for a Boocke called the orfenes tragedy some of ...  x<sup>s</sup>
:for a Boocke called the orfenes tragedy some of ...  x<sup>s</sup>
<br>
===Stationers' Register===
Arber 3.3b/50
xv<sup>to</sup> die Octobris./. [1595] Thomas Millington./.
:Entred for his Copie vnder th[e h]andes of bothe the wardens
:ballad intituled ''The Norfolk gent his will and Testament and howe he''
:''Commytted the keepinge of his Children to his owne brother whoe delte''
:''moste wickedly with them and howe GOD plagued him for it''  ... vj<sup>d</sup>
[Arber's note: This story is now known as ''The Babes in the Wood''.]
<br>
<br>
<br>


==Theatrical Provenance==
==Theatrical Provenance==


The Admiral's Men paid Henry Chettle 20s. in the fall of 1599 toward a play called ''The Orphans' Tragedy''. Unless Chettle received moneys not tabulated by Henslowe, such as relief on some loan, this play appears to have been unfinished at this time. In 1601 Chettle received 10s. more apparently for the same play-project. The language of the entry ("in p[ar]t of payment") suggests that the play was still not completed. In 1599 the company was preparing for its last year at the Rose; by 1601, it had moved to the Fortune.
The Admiral's Men paid Henry Chettle 20s. in the fall of 1599 toward a play called "The Orphans Tragedy". Unless Chettle received moneys not tabulated by Henslowe, such as relief on some loan, this play appears to have been unfinished at this time. In 1601 Chettle received 10s. more apparently for the same play-project. The language of the entry ("in p[ar]t of payment") suggests that the play was still not completed. In 1599 the company was preparing for its last year at the Rose; by 1601, it had moved to the Fortune.
 


==Probable Genre(s)==
==Probable Genre(s)==
Line 64: Line 48:


The ballad familiarly known as "The Babes in the Wood" is cited by scholars as a narrative analogue of Chettle's play. [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19361/19361-h/19361-h.htm Gutenburg]
The ballad familiarly known as "The Babes in the Wood" is cited by scholars as a narrative analogue of Chettle's play. [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19361/19361-h/19361-h.htm Gutenburg]
<br>
<blockquote>'''S. R. I, 3.3b/50 ([http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/texts/ldpd_6177070_003/pages/ldpd_6177070_003_00000052.html?toggle=image&menu=maximize&top=&left= ''CLIO''])'''


xv<sup>to</sup> die Octobris./. [1595] Thomas Millington./.[[category:Thomas Millington]]


If the play was indeed completed but is now lost, its story might be reflected in the 1601 publication, ''Two Lamentable Tragedies'', [http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924013167238#page/n9/mode/2up Internet Archive] [[category:Lamentable]], the second story of which is described on the title page as one of "a young childe murthered in a Wood by two Ruffins, with the consent of his Vncle." The publication carries the name of Robert Yarington [[category:Robert Yarington]] on the title page.
:Entred for his Copie vnder th[e h]andes of bothe the wardens
:ballad intituled ''The Norfolk gent his will and Testament and howe he''
:''Commytted the keepinge of his Children to his owne brother whoe delte''
:''moste wickedly with them and howe GOD plagued him for it''  ... vj<sup>d</sup>
 
[Arber's note: This story is now known as ''The Babes in the Wood''.]</blockquote>
 
 
Scholars have suggested that Chettle's source material might be reflected in the 1601 publication, ''Two Lamentable Tragedies'' ([http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924013167238#page/n9/mode/2up Yarington]) [[category:Lamentable]], the second story of which is described on the title page as one of "a young childe murthered in a Wood by two Ruffins, with the consent of his Vncle." The publication carries the name of Robert Yarington [[category:Robert Yarington]] on the title page, as well as the name of the printer, Matthew Lawe. [[category:Matthew Lawe]]
<br>
<br>


==References to the Play==
==References to the Play==
Line 75: Line 73:
==Critical Commentary==
==Critical Commentary==


Fleay claimed that the play in the Yarington publication is the same story as in the ballad, "The Babes in the Wood," but he did not reference the S. R. entry in 1595 specifically [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19361/19361-h/19361-h.htm (2.285-6).] He believed that "Yarington" was a fictional name, and that Chettle in 1601 was being paid to combine his still-rough tragedy based on the ballad with Haughton and Day's [[Thomas Merry (Beech’s Tragedy) | ''Tragedy of Thomas Merry'']]. Fleay believed further that [[Italian Tragedy, The | ''The Italian Tragedy'']] for which John Day was paid 40s. on 10 January 1600 was somehow implicated in the shift of the orphans' ballad story (which is set in Norfolk and features two children, a boy and girl) to the story in Yarington's publication that is set in Italy and features one boy child.
'''Collier''' noted the coincidence of the plays commissioned in November 1599 as "The Tragedy of Thomas Merry" (or, "Beech's Tragedy") and "The Orphans Tragedy" and the two stories in ''Two Lamentable Tragedies'' by Robert Yarington, but he made no further conjecture about the lost plays [http://www.archive.org/stream/diaryphiliphens00hensgoog#page/n130/mode/2up Collier].[[category:John Payne Collier]]


<br>
'''Fleay''' claimed that the play in the Yarington publication is the same story as in the ballad, "The Babes in the Wood," but he did not reference the S. R. entry in 1595 specifically (2.285-6) [http://www.archive.org/stream/biographicalchro02flea#page/284/mode/2up Fleay]. He believed that "Yarington" was a fictional name, and that Chettle in 1601 was being paid to combine his still-rough tragedy based on the ballad with Haughton and Day's [[Thomas Merry (Beech’s Tragedy)|"Tragedy of Thomas Merry."]] Fleay believed further that [[Italian Tragedy (Admiral's)|"The Italian Tragedy"]] for which John Day was paid 40s. on 10 January 1600 was somehow implicated in the shift of the orphans' ballad story (which is set in Norfolk and features two children, a boy and girl) to the story in Yarington's publication that is set in Italy and features one boy child.


Greg agreed only partially with Fleay (II.209, Item # 191). He believed Yarington was a scribe, and he gave a half-hearted "maybe" to the possibility that Chettle reworked Haughton and Day's [[Thomas Merry (Beech’s Tragedy) | ''Tragedy of Thomas Merry'']] with his own ''Orphans Tragedy'' for the Yarington print.
<br>
'''Greg''' agreed only partially with Fleay (II.209, Item # 191 [http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary02hensuoft#page/208/mode/2up Greg II]). He believed Yarington was a scribe, and he gave a half-hearted "maybe" to the possibility that Chettle reworked Haughton and Day's [[Thomas Merry (Beech’s Tragedy)|"Tragedy of Thomas Merry"]] with his own "Orphans Tragedy" for the Yarington print.


<br>
'''Law''' argued that Yarington was the author of ''Two Lamentable Tragedies'' and that Chettle's play on the orphans is not concealed in Yarington's rendering of the "Babes in the Wood" ballad (170).


Law argued that Yarington was the author of ''Two Lamentable Tragedies'' and that Chettle's play on the orphans is not concealed in Yarington's rendering of the "Babes in the Wood" ballad (170).
<br>
'''Wagner''' found an entry for the freedom in 1603 of "Rob<sup>t</sup>. Yarrington jun<sup>r</sup>." in ''An Annuall Catalogue ... of the Company of Scrivenors of the Citty of London'' (Bodleian MS., Rawl. D. 51), which settled ''for the moment'' the identity of the "Rob. Yarington" on the title page of the 1601: he was a scribe, as Greg had guessed, and still an apprentice when he copied the manuscript that would be printed as ''Two Lamentable Tragedies''.  


<br>
'''Gurr''' labels "The Orphans Tragedy" (which he calls "The Tragedy of Orphenes") a lost play (248). Disentangling Chettle's project from that of "Thomas Merry," Gurr notes that the name, "Orphenes," could point to "the story of Orphe, to whom Apollo gave the gift of prophecy but who Bacchus changed to stone" (249, n. 105).


Wagner found an entry for the freedom in 1603 of "Rob<sup>t</sup>. Yarrington jun<sup>r</sup>." in ''An Annuall Catalogue ... of the Company of Scrivenors of the Citty of London'' (Bodleian MS., Rawl. D. 51), which appears to settle the identity of the "Rob. Yarington" on the title page of the 1601: he was a scribe, as Greg had guessed, and still an apprentice when he copied the manuscript that would be printed as ''Two Lamentable Tragedies''.
<br>
 
'''Wiggins''', influenced by Henslowe's use of the plural ("orphenes"), considers the link to Yarington's work "a red herring" if indeed the play featured "more than one orphan"; he notes also that the final payment for Chettle's play was in "the autumn of 1601" and thus "rather late … to be incorporated" by Yarington, whose work was published in 1601 (#1302).
 
Gurr labels ''The Orphans' Tragedy'' (which he calls "The Tragedy of Orphenes") a lost play (248).


<br>
'''Hanabusa''' surveys recent research on Robert Yarington and decides that Yarington was indeed a dramatist (xxvii). Laying out five candidates for the "Rob. Yarington" on the title page of ''Two Lamentable Tragedies'', he chooses Candidate #2 as the most likely. That Yarington (or "Yarranton") was a draper "freed on 2 August 1593" (xxviii). Hanabusa notes that Matthew Law, who commissioned ''Two Lamentable Tragedies'', was also a draper by guild membership, though a practicing stationer (xxii). In regard to the 1601 payment to Chettle, apparently for further work on the unfinished tragedy about "or fens," Hanabusa avers that Henslowe's entry should be taken literally (xxvi).
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>


==For What It's Worth==
==For What It's Worth==
<br>
Information welcome.
(Information needed)
[[category:all]]
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
==Works Cited==
==Works Cited==
 
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Collier, John Payne, ed. ''The Diary of Philip Henslowe, from 1591 to 1609''. London: Shakespeare Society, 1851 [http://www.archive.org/stream/diaryphiliphens00hensgoog#page/n6/mode/2up Collier]</div>
Fleay, Frederick Gard. ''A Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama 1559-1642''. 2 vols. 1891; rpt. New York: Burt Franklin, 1962. [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19361/19361-h/19361-h.htm]
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Fleay, Frederick Gard. ''A Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama 1559-1642''. 2 vols. 1891; rpt. New York: Burt Franklin, 1962. [http://www.archive.org/stream/biographicalchro02flea#page/n9/mode/2up Internet Archive [vol 2]]</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">Hanabusa, Chiaki, ed. ''Two Lamentable Tragedies; Robert Yarington''. The Malone Society Reprints, 2013.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Law, R. A. “Yarington’s ‘Two Lamentable Tragedies’, ''Modern Language Review'' 5 (1910): 167-77. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3713332 JSTOR]</div>
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Wagner, Bernard M. "Robert Yarrington," ''Modern Language Notes'' 45.3 (1930): 147-8). [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2913049 JSTOR]</div>
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Yarington, Robert. ''Two Lamentable Tragedies''. 1601 [http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924013167238#page/n9/mode/2up Yarington]</div>


Law, R. A. “Yarington’s ‘Two Lamentable Tragedies’, ''Modern Language Review'' 5 (1910): 167-77. JSTOR [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3713332]
[[category:ballads]]
Wagner, Bernard M. "Robert Yarrington," ''Modern Language Notes'' 45.3 (1930): 147-8). JSTOR [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2913049]
 
Yarington, Robert. ''Two Lamentable Tragedies''. 1601 [http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924013167238#page/n9/mode/2up]
 
 


Site created and maintained by [[Roslyn L. Knutson]], Professor Emerita, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; updated 21 January 2010.
Site created and maintained by [[Roslyn L. Knutson]], Professor Emerita, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; updated 29 February 2016.
[[category:Admiral's]] [[category:Rose]] [[category:Fortune]][[category:S.R.]][[category:executioners]][[category:children]]
[[category:Roslyn L. Knutson]]

Revision as of 07:17, 6 May 2016

Henry Chettle (1599, 1601?)


Historical Records

Payments to Playwrights (Henslowe's Diary)


F. 29 (Greg I.57)

[1599]
Receiued of Mr Henslow in earnest of the orphanes
[Tragedy the] somme of xs. the 27th of nouember./


lent vnto harey chettell the 27 of novmb[er]
1599 in earneste of a Boocke called the
orphenes tragedie the some of xs as maye
a peare a bowe by his hand crossed some of ... xs


F. 65v (Greg I.114)

Lent vnto harey chettell the 27 of novmb[er]
1599 in earnest of a Boocke called the
tragedie of orphenes the some of ... xs
as may a pere


F. 93v (Greg I.148)

Lent vnto Samwell Rowley the 24 of septmb[er] 1601
to paye vnto harey chettell in pt of payment
for a Boocke called the orfenes tragedy some of ... xs


Theatrical Provenance

The Admiral's Men paid Henry Chettle 20s. in the fall of 1599 toward a play called "The Orphans Tragedy". Unless Chettle received moneys not tabulated by Henslowe, such as relief on some loan, this play appears to have been unfinished at this time. In 1601 Chettle received 10s. more apparently for the same play-project. The language of the entry ("in p[ar]t of payment") suggests that the play was still not completed. In 1599 the company was preparing for its last year at the Rose; by 1601, it had moved to the Fortune.

Probable Genre(s)

Tragedy (Harbage)


Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

The ballad familiarly known as "The Babes in the Wood" is cited by scholars as a narrative analogue of Chettle's play. Gutenburg

S. R. I, 3.3b/50 (CLIO)

xvto die Octobris./. [1595] Thomas Millington./.

Entred for his Copie vnder th[e h]andes of bothe the wardens
ballad intituled The Norfolk gent his will and Testament and howe he
Commytted the keepinge of his Children to his owne brother whoe delte
moste wickedly with them and howe GOD plagued him for it ... vjd

[Arber's note: This story is now known as The Babes in the Wood.]


Scholars have suggested that Chettle's source material might be reflected in the 1601 publication, Two Lamentable Tragedies (Yarington), the second story of which is described on the title page as one of "a young childe murthered in a Wood by two Ruffins, with the consent of his Vncle." The publication carries the name of Robert Yarington on the title page, as well as the name of the printer, Matthew Lawe.

References to the Play

None known.


Critical Commentary

Collier noted the coincidence of the plays commissioned in November 1599 as "The Tragedy of Thomas Merry" (or, "Beech's Tragedy") and "The Orphans Tragedy" and the two stories in Two Lamentable Tragedies by Robert Yarington, but he made no further conjecture about the lost plays Collier.


Fleay claimed that the play in the Yarington publication is the same story as in the ballad, "The Babes in the Wood," but he did not reference the S. R. entry in 1595 specifically (2.285-6) Fleay. He believed that "Yarington" was a fictional name, and that Chettle in 1601 was being paid to combine his still-rough tragedy based on the ballad with Haughton and Day's "Tragedy of Thomas Merry." Fleay believed further that "The Italian Tragedy" for which John Day was paid 40s. on 10 January 1600 was somehow implicated in the shift of the orphans' ballad story (which is set in Norfolk and features two children, a boy and girl) to the story in Yarington's publication that is set in Italy and features one boy child.


Greg agreed only partially with Fleay (II.209, Item # 191 Greg II). He believed Yarington was a scribe, and he gave a half-hearted "maybe" to the possibility that Chettle reworked Haughton and Day's "Tragedy of Thomas Merry" with his own "Orphans Tragedy" for the Yarington print.


Law argued that Yarington was the author of Two Lamentable Tragedies and that Chettle's play on the orphans is not concealed in Yarington's rendering of the "Babes in the Wood" ballad (170).


Wagner found an entry for the freedom in 1603 of "Robt. Yarrington junr." in An Annuall Catalogue ... of the Company of Scrivenors of the Citty of London (Bodleian MS., Rawl. D. 51), which settled for the moment the identity of the "Rob. Yarington" on the title page of the 1601: he was a scribe, as Greg had guessed, and still an apprentice when he copied the manuscript that would be printed as Two Lamentable Tragedies.


Gurr labels "The Orphans Tragedy" (which he calls "The Tragedy of Orphenes") a lost play (248). Disentangling Chettle's project from that of "Thomas Merry," Gurr notes that the name, "Orphenes," could point to "the story of Orphe, to whom Apollo gave the gift of prophecy but who Bacchus changed to stone" (249, n. 105).


Wiggins, influenced by Henslowe's use of the plural ("orphenes"), considers the link to Yarington's work "a red herring" if indeed the play featured "more than one orphan"; he notes also that the final payment for Chettle's play was in "the autumn of 1601" and thus "rather late … to be incorporated" by Yarington, whose work was published in 1601 (#1302).


Hanabusa surveys recent research on Robert Yarington and decides that Yarington was indeed a dramatist (xxvii). Laying out five candidates for the "Rob. Yarington" on the title page of Two Lamentable Tragedies, he chooses Candidate #2 as the most likely. That Yarington (or "Yarranton") was a draper "freed on 2 August 1593" (xxviii). Hanabusa notes that Matthew Law, who commissioned Two Lamentable Tragedies, was also a draper by guild membership, though a practicing stationer (xxii). In regard to the 1601 payment to Chettle, apparently for further work on the unfinished tragedy about "or fens," Hanabusa avers that Henslowe's entry should be taken literally (xxvi).

For What It's Worth

Information welcome.

Works Cited

Collier, John Payne, ed. The Diary of Philip Henslowe, from 1591 to 1609. London: Shakespeare Society, 1851 Collier
Fleay, Frederick Gard. A Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama 1559-1642. 2 vols. 1891; rpt. New York: Burt Franklin, 1962. Internet Archive [vol 2]
Gurr, Andrew. Shakespeare’s Opposites: The Admiral’s Company 1594-1625. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Hanabusa, Chiaki, ed. Two Lamentable Tragedies; Robert Yarington. The Malone Society Reprints, 2013.
Law, R. A. “Yarington’s ‘Two Lamentable Tragedies’, Modern Language Review 5 (1910): 167-77. JSTOR
Wagner, Bernard M. "Robert Yarrington," Modern Language Notes 45.3 (1930): 147-8). JSTOR
Yarington, Robert. Two Lamentable Tragedies. 1601 Yarington

Site created and maintained by Roslyn L. Knutson, Professor Emerita, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; updated 29 February 2016.