S. R. 1578, July 31. ‘The famous historie of Promos and Casandra Devided into twoe Comicall Discourses Compiled by George Whetstone gent.’ Richard Jones (Arber, ii. 334).
1578. The Right Excellent and famous Historye, of Promos and Cassandra; Deuided into two Commicall Discourses.... The worke of George Whetstones Gent. Richard Jones. [Epistles to his ‘kinsman’ William Fleetwood, dated 29 July 1578, and signed ‘George Whetstone’, and from the Printer to the Reader, signed ‘R.I.’; Argument; Text signed ‘G. Whetstone’; Colophon with imprint and date ‘August 20, 1578’.]
Editions in Six Old Plays, i. 1 (1779), and by W. C. Hazlitt, Shakespeare’s Library, vi. 201 (1875), and J. S. Farmer (1910, T. F. T.). There are two parts, arranged in acts and scenes. Whetstone’s epistle is of some critical interest (cf. App. C, No. xix). In the Heptameron he says the play was ‘yet never presented upon stage’. The character of the s.ds. suggests, however, that it was written for presentation.
NATHANIEL WIBURNE (c. 1597).
Possible author of the academic Machiavellus (cf. App. K).
GEORGE WILKINS (fl. 1604–8).
Lee (D. N. B.) after personally consulting the register of St. Leonard’s Shoreditch, confirms the extract in Collier, iii. 348, of the burial on 19 Aug. 1603 of ‘George Wilkins, the poet’. It must therefore be assumed that the date of 9 Aug. 1613 given for the entry by T. E. Tomlins in Sh. Soc. Papers, i. 34, from Ellis’s History of Shoreditch (1798) is an error, and that the ‘poet’ was distinct from the dramatist. Nothing is known of Wilkins except that he wrote pamphlets from c. 1604 to 1608, and towards the end of that period was also engaged in play-writing both for the King’s and the Queen’s men. A George Wilkins of St. Sepulchre’s, described as a victualler and aged 36, was a fellow witness with Shakespeare in Belott v. Mountjoy on 19 June 1612 (C. W. Wallace, N. U. S. x. 289).
The Miseries of Enforced Marriage. 1607
S. R. 1607, July 31 (Buck). ‘A tragedie called the Miserye of inforced Marriage.’ George Vyncent (Arber, iii. 357).
1607. The Miseries of Inforst Manage. As it is now playd by his Maiesties Seruants. By George Wilkins. For George Vincent.