PLAYS
John a Kent and John a Cumber. 1594
[MS.] Autograph MS. in possession of Lord Mostyn, with title ‘The Booke of John a Kent and John a Cumber’, and at end the signature ‘Anthony Mundy’, and in another hand the date ‘—— Decembris 1596’. A mutilation of the paper has removed the day of the month and possibly some memorandum to which the date was appended. The wrapper is in part formed of a vellum leaf of which another part was used for Sir Thomas More (cf. ch. xxiv).
Editions by J. P. Collier (1851, Sh. Soc.) and J. S. Farmer (1912, T. F. T.).
The date has been misread ‘1595’. Greg (Henslowe, ii. 172) agrees with Fleay, ii. 114, that the play, of which the scene is at West Chester, must be The Wise Man of West Chester, produced by the Admiral’s on 3 Dec. 1594 and played to 18 July 1597. Their inventory of 1598 (Henslowe Papers, 117) includes ‘Kentes woden leage’. This is not required by the extant text, but two or three leaves of the MS. appear to be missing. If the identification is correct, it is not easy to see how the MS. can be earlier than 1594, although Sir E. M. Thompson’s warning that the date of 1596 may be a later addition is justified. On 19 Sept. 1601 the Admiral’s bought the book from Alleyn. Greg further suggests that Randal Earl of Chester, written by Middleton for the same company in Oct. and Nov. 1602, may have been a ‘refashioning’ of the earlier play, in which Randal is a character.
The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon. 1598
S. R. 1600, Dec. 1. ‘The Downe falle of Robert Erle of Huntingdone after Called Robin Hood.’ Leake (Arber, iii. 176).
1601. The Downfall of Robert, Earle of Huntington, Afterward called Robin Hood of merrie Sherwodde: with his loue to chaste Matilda, the Lord Fitzwaters daughter, afterwardes his faire Maide Marian. Acted by the Right Honourable, the Earle of Notingham, Lord high Admirall of England, his seruants. For William Leake. [Induction.]
Editions by J. P. Collier (1833, Five Old Plays), in Dodsley4 viii (1874), and by J. S. Farmer (1913, S. F. T.).—Dissertation: A. Ruckdeschel, Die Quellen des Dramas ‘The Downfall and Death of Robert, Earle of Huntington, otherwise called Robin Hood’ (1897).
Henslowe paid Munday £5 on behalf of the Admiral’s for ‘the firste parte of Robyne Hoode’ on 15 Feb. 1598. From 20 Feb. to 8 March he paid Munday and Chettle sums amounting to £5 in all for a ‘seconde parte’, called in the fullest entry ‘seconde parte of the downefall of earlle Huntyngton surnamed Roben Hoode’. The books and apparel and properties are in the Admiral’s inventories of March 1598 (Henslowe Papers, 114, 115, 120, 121). Both parts were licensed for performance on 28 March. On 18 Nov. he paid Chettle 10s. for ‘the mendynge of’ the first part, and on 25 Nov., apparently, another 10s. ‘for mendinge of Roben Hood for the corte’. Greg (Henslowe, ii. 190) suggests that the last payment was for the second part, and that the two Court performances by the Admiral’s at Christmas 1598 are of these plays. However this may be, Henslowe’s 1, 2 Robin Hood are doubtless the extant Downfall and Death. There is an allusion in The Downfall, IV. ii, to the ‘merry jests’ of an earlier play, which may be The Pastoral Comedy of Robin Hood and Little John, entered in S. R. on 14 May 1594, but not now known. Fleay, ii. 114, thinks that Chettle, besides revising some of Munday’s scenes, added the Induction and the Skeltonic rhymes.