Edition by S. de Ricci (1920, Huntingdon Reprints, ii).
F. S. Boas (T. L. S. 20 Feb. 1919) describes the play as ‘a morality with a controversial Protestant flavour’; at the end Satan carries off the Vice, Covetouse, on his back. Elizabeth is prayed for.
The Cruel Debtor. c. 1565
S. R. 1565–6. ‘A ballet intituled an interlude the Cruell Detter by Wager.’ Thomas Colwell (Arber, i. 307).
N.D. Fragments. C. iii in Bagford Collection (Harl. MS. 5919); D and D 4(?) formerly in collection of W. B. Scott, now in B.M. (C. 40, e. 48).
Editions by F. J. Furnivall (1878, N. S. S. Trans. 1877–9, 2*) and W. W. Greg (1911, M. S. C. i. 314).
The speakers are Rigour, Flattery, Simulation, Ophiletis, Basileus, and Proniticus.
R. Imelmann in Herrig’s Archiv, cxi. 209, would assign these fragments to Lewis Wager, rather than W. Wager, but the stylistic evidence is hardly conclusive either way, and there is no other.
Lost Play
Warburton’s list of manuscripts burnt by his cook (3 Library, ii. 232) includes ’Tis Good Sleeping in A Whole Skin W. Wager’.