Wise Man of West Chester, The

Anon. (1595)

Historical Records

Henslowe's Diary

F.10^v (Greg I.20)

ye 2 of desember 1594	................	ne	.....	Rd at the wise man of chester	................	xxxiijs
ye 6 of desember 1594	................	.....	.....	Rd at wiseman of weschester	................	xxxiiijs

F. 11 (Greg I.21)

ye 29 of desember 1594	................	.....	.....	Rd at the wissman of weschester	................	iijli ijs
ye 16 of Jenewarye 1594	................	.....	.....	Rd at the wiseman of weaschester	................	iijli
ye 23 of Jenewary 1594	................	.....	.....	Rd at the wiseman of wescheaster	................	iijli vjs
ye 4 of febreary 1594	................	.....	.....	Rd at the wysman of weschester	................	iijli iiijs
ye 12 of febreary 1594	................	.....	.....	Rd at wisman of weschester	................	liijs

F.11^v (Greg I.22)

ye 19 of febrey 1594	................	.....	.....	Rd at wisman of weschester	................	xxxxvjs
ye 28 of febreary 1594	................	.....	.....	Rd at the wisman of weschester	................	xxxixs
ye 25 of Aprrell 1595	................	.....	.....	Rd at the wissman	................	xxxixs
ye 26 of Aprrell 1595	................	.....	.....	Rd at the wisseman of weschester	................	iijli
ye 6 of may 1596	................	.....	.....	Rd at wiseman	................	xxxxs
ye 15 of may 1596	................	.....	.....	Rd at wisse man of weschester	................	xxxxiiijs

F.12^v (Greg I.24)

ye 26 of maye 1595	................	.....	.....	Rd at weschester	................	xxxjs
ye 4 of June 1595	................	.....	.....	Rd at the wisman of weschester	................	xxijs
ye 11 of June 1595	................	.....	.....	Rd at the wissman of weschester	................	xxxxvijs
ye 26 of aguste 1595	................	.....	.....	Rd at the wisman of wescheaster	................	xxxixs
ye 9 of septmber 1595	................	.....	.....	Rd at the wise man	................	xxxxiiijs

F.13 (Greg I.25)

ye 29 of septmber 1595	................	.....	.....	Rd at the wiseman	................	xvs
ye 6 of october 1595	................	.....	.....	Rd at the wisman	................	xvijs
ye 19 of october 1595	................	.....	.....	Rd at the wisman	................	xvijs
— mr pd—	................	.....	.....	Rd at weschester	................	xxs

F.14 (Greg I.27)

ye 29 of desember 1595	................	.....	.....	Rd at the wisman of weschester	................	xxijs
	................	.....	.....	Rd at the wissman of weschester	................	xviijs

F.14^v (Greg I.28)

ye 4 of febreary 1595

................

.....

.....

Rd at the wissman of weschester

................

xxijs

F.15^v (Greg I.30)

ye 17 of aprrell 1596	................	.....	.....	Rd at the wisman of weschester	................	xxxs
ye 30 of aprrell 1596	................	.....	.....	Rd at wisman	................	xs

F.21^v (Greg I.42)

ye 8 of June 1596	................	.....	.....	Rd at the wisman of weschester	................	xxs
ye 7 of July 1596	................	.....	.....	Rd at wisman of weschester	................	xvjs

F.27 (Greg I.53)

[July 1597]

.....

8

....................

tt at wismane of weschester

...............

01—

00—

01-00-03

F.27^v (Greg I.54)

[July 1597]

.....

12

....................

tt at wismane of weschester

...............

00—

18—

00-01-00

(marginal note: "marten slather went for the company of my lord admeralles men the 18 of July 1597")

[July 1597]

.....

18

....................

tt at wisman

...............

01—

10—

00-00-00

F.93^v (Greg I.148)

pd at the apoyntment of the 19 of septmber

1601 for the playe of the wysman of weschester

vnto my sonne E Alleyn the some of ............... xxxx^s

Theatrical Provenance

The Wise Man of West Chester was performed at the Rose playhouse beginning on 2 December 1594 by the Admiral's players; its initial entry carries Philip Henslowe's enigmatic "ne." Its purchase in 1601 makes it second among the nine playbooks sold by Edward Alleyn to the company in the early years of the Fortune playhouse.

Probable Genre(s)

Pseudo-History (Harbage, identifying it as John a Kent and John a Cumber [see Critical Commentary, below]); Magician play

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

None known (unless it is John a Kent and John a Cumber [see Critical Commentary, below])

References to the Play

None known (unless it is John a Kent and John a Cumber [see Critical Commentary, below]).

Critical Commentary

The presiding critical question about The Wise Man of West Chester is whether its title is a variant of the extant John a Kent and John a Cumber by Anthony Munday. Malone, who first saw Henslowe's manuscript of the diary (loaned to him by Dulwich College shortly before 1790), did not make the identification; however, he did transcribe the title as "the wise men of chester" (Malone, 3.304). Collier also did not make the identification. In fact, he noted that it "was a new play" (Collier, 45). F. G. Fleay appears to be the first one to specify a link between the two plays in A Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama, 1559-1642 (1891).

Fleay entered The Wise Man of West Chester in his list of anonymous plays, saying nothing more after referring the reader to the entry for John a Kent and John a Cumber except that the Admiral's players bought the script from Alleyn on 19 September 1601 (Fleay, 2.303). At the entry for Munday's play, he gave the date of the manuscript as 1595, emphasizing that the date was not necessarily "the date of production"; then, he stated: "I have no doubt that it [John a Kent] is the same as The Wiseman of West Chester produced by the Admiral's men at the Rose 2nd Dec. 1594" (Fleay, 114).

Greg thought Fleay was "almost certainly right" in making the identification. He too pointed out the 1595 date of the manuscript (John a Kent), adding that it could not "be the original" because Wise Man had been in production for some months. He suggested then that the manuscript might be a revision. He apparently wanted to account for the item in inventory, "Kentes woden leage," which logically belonged to The Wise Man of West Chester if it had a character named Kent or from Kent. However, inconveniently, the Munday play in the manuscript extant has no episode in which John a Kent makes use of a wooden leg (Greg, II.172).

St. Clare Byrne, editor of the Malone Society Reprint of John a Kent and John a Cumber, acknowledged the scholarly interest in linking Munday's play with The Wise Man of West Chester as well as Randal Earl of Chester. She thought the relationship of the plays, through serial revision, was "by no means impossible" but saw "no secure basis for speculation" (x).

Shapiro briefly cooled speculation on the link between the two plays by rereading the date of the manuscript of John a Kent as 1590. This date gladdened the hearts of those intent on a competition among magician plays c. 1590, including Doctor Faustus and Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, but it necessarily loosened the relationship of the Munday manuscript as in some way current with the debut of The Wise Man of West Chester on the stage at the Rose.

Gurr not only accepts the identification of The Wise Man of West Chester as John a Kent and John a Cumber, but he also defines the personality of the Admiral's players at the Rose in 1594-5 in terms of disguise plays, the initial one of which was Wise Man a.k.a. John a Kent. So confident is Gurr of the identification that he changes the name of the play to The Wise Men of West Chester and indexes it by its revised name (Shakespeare's Opposites, 317; see also Playgoing in Shakespeare's London, 140, 152, and 307). __Ioppolo __ and Hand C

Ashton

Knutson
Mac Jackson

Works Cited

Malone, Edmond. The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare. 21 vols. London: R. C. and J. Rivington, 1821.

Collier, John Payne, ed. The Diary of Philip Henslowe, from 1591 to 1609. London: Shakespeare Society, 1845.

St. Clare Byrne, Muriel, ed. John a Kent and John a Cumber. Malone Society Reprint, 1923.

Ashton Gurr (Playgoers; Sh Opposites)
Shapiro & Ioppolo (date)
Knutson
Mac Jackson

Site created and maintained by Roslyn L. Knutson, Professor Emerita, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; updated 16 January 2012].