The Elizabethan Stage, Vol. 3

by E. K. Chambers

1611; 1629; 1637.

Editions in Dodsley^2–4 (1780–1874) and by W. Scott (1810, A. B. D. ii) and J. S. Farmer (1913, S. F. T.).

The play, which was based on the life of Walter Calverley, as given in pamphlets of 1605, appears to have been still on the stage when it was printed. An allusion in III. ii to fighting with a windmill implies some knowledge of Don Quixote, but of this there are other traces by 1607. The Clown is called Robin in II. ii, and Fleay, ii. 276, suggests that Armin took the part. He comes in singing:

From London am I come,

Though not with pipe and drum,

in reference to Kempe’s morris.

Doubtful Plays

Wilkins probably wrote Acts I, II of Pericles, and it has been suggested that he also wrote certain scenes of Timon of Athens; but the relation of his work to Shakespeare’s cannot be gone into here.

The anonymous Yorkshire Tragedy has also been ascribed to him.

ROBERT WILMOT (> 1566–91 <).