Edition by J. S. Farmer (1914, S. F. T.).
The facts of Lodge’s (q.v.) life leave 1588, before the Canaries voyage, or 1589–91, between that voyage and Cavendish’s expedition, as possible dates for the play. In favour of the former is Lodge’s expressed intention in 1589 to give up ‘penny-knave’s delight’. On the other hand, the subject is closely related to that of Greene’s moral pamphlets, the series of which begins in 1590, and the fall of Nineveh is referred to in The Mourning Garment of that year. Fleay, ii. 54, and Collins, i. 137, accept 1590 as the date of the play. Gayley, 405, puts it in 1587, largely on the impossible notion that its ‘priest of the sun’ (IV. iii. 1540) is that referred to in the Perimedes preface, but partly also from the absence of any reference to the Armada. It is possible that ‘pleasing Alcon’ in Spenser’s Colin Clout’s Come Home Again (1591) may refer to Lodge as the author of the character Alcon in this play. The Looking Glass was revived by Strange’s men on 8 March 1592. The clown is sometimes called Adam in the course of the dialogue (ll. 1235 sqq., 1589 sqq., 2120 sqq.), and a comparison with James IV suggests that the original performer was John Adams of the Queen’s men, from whom Henslowe may have acquired the play. Fleay, ii. 54, and Gayley, 405, make attempts to distinguish Greene’s share from Lodge’s, but do not support their results by arguments. Crawford, England’s Parnassus, xxxii, 441, does not regard Allot’s ascription of the passages he borrowed to Greene and Lodge respectively as trustworthy. Unnamed English actors played a ‘comedia auss dem propheten Jona’ at Nördlingen in 1605 (Herz, 78).
Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, c. 1589
S. R. 1594, May 14. ‘A booke entituled the Historye of ffryer Bacon and ffryer Boungaye.’ Adam Islip (Arber, ii. 649). [Against this and other plays entered on the same day, Adam Islip’s name is crossed out and Edward White’s substituted.]
1594. The Honorable Historie of frier Bacon, and frier Bongay. As it was plaid by her Maiesties seruants. Made by Robert Greene Maister of Arts. For Edward White. [Malone dated one of his copies of the 1630 edition ‘1599’ in error; cf. Gayley, 430.]
1630.... As it was lately plaid by the Prince Palatine his Seruants.... Elizabeth Allde. [The t.p. has a woodcut representing Act II, sc. iii.]
1655. Jean Bell.
Editions by A. W. Ward (1878, &c.), C. M. Gayley (1903, R. E. C. i), W. A. Neilson (1911, C. E. D.), and J. S. Farmer (1914, S. F. T.).—Dissertation: O. Ritter, De R. G. Fabula: F. B. and F. B. (1866, Thorn diss.).
Fleay, in Appendix B to Ward’s ed., argues from I. i. 137, ‘next Friday is S. James’, that the date of the play is 1589, in which year St. James’s Day fell on a Friday. This does not seem to me a very reliable argument. Probably the play followed not long after Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus (q.v.), itself probably written in 1588–9. The date of 1589, which Ward, i. 396, and Gayley, 411, accept, is likely enough. Collins prefers 1591–2, and notes (ii. 4) a general resemblance in tone and theme to Fair Em, but there is nothing to indicate the priority of either play, and no charge of plagiarism in the pamphlets (vide supra) to which Fair Em gave rise. Friar Bacon was revived by Strange’s men on 19 Feb. 1592, and again by the Queen’s and Sussex’s men together on 1 April 1594. Doubtless it was Henslowe’s property, as Middleton wrote a prologue and epilogue for a performance by the Admiral’s men at Court at Christmas 1602 (Greg, Henslowe, ii. 149).
Orlando Furioso. c. 1591