1612. For John Stepneth and Richard Redmer. [Another issue.]
Fleay, ii. 263, attempts to date the play before the close of the siege of Ostend in 1604, but, as E. E. Stoll, John Webster, 210, points out, this merely dates the historic action and proves nothing as to composition. Stoll himself finds some plausible reminiscences of King Lear (1606) and suggests a date near that of publication.
LOST PLAYS
The Nobleman. c. 1612
S. R. 1612, Feb. 15 (Buck). ‘A play booke beinge a Trage-comedye called, The Noble man written by Cyril Tourneur.’ Edward Blount (Arber, iii. 478).
1653, Sept. 9. ‘The Nobleman, or Great Man, by Cyrill Tourneur.’ Humphrey Moseley (Eyre, i. 428).
The play was acted by the King’s at Court on 23 Feb. 1612 and again during the winter of 1612–13. Warburton’s list of plays burnt by his cook (3 Library, ii. 232) contains distinct entries of ‘The Great Man T.’ and ‘The Nobleman T. C. Cyrill Turñuer’. Hazlitt, Manual, 167, says (1892): ‘Dr. Furnivall told me many years ago that the MS. was in the hands of a gentleman at Oxford, who was editing Tourneur’s Works; but I have heard nothing further of it. Music to a piece called The Nobleman is in Addl. MS. B.M. 10444.’
For The Arraignment of London (1613) v.s. Daborne.
Doubtful Plays
Tourneur’s hand has been sought in the Honest Man’s Fortune of the Beaumont (q.v.) and Fletcher series, and in Charlemagne, Revenger’s Tragedy, and Second Maiden’s Tragedy (cf. ch. xxiv).