May Day. c. 1609
1611. May Day. A witty Comedie, diuers times acted at the Blacke Fryers. Written by George Chapman. For John Browne.
Edition by C. W. Dilke (1814, O. E. P. iv).—Dissertation: A. L. Stiefel, G. C. und das italienische Drama (1899, Jahrbuch, xxxv. 180).
The chorus iuvenum with which the play opens fixes it to the occupancy of the Blackfriars by the Chapel and Revels in 1600–9. Parrott suggests 1602 on the ground of reminiscences of 1599–1601 plays, of which the most important is a quotation in IV. i. 18 of Marston’s 2 Antonio and Mellida (1599), V. ii. 20. But the force of this argument is weakened by the admission of a clear imitation in I. i. 378 sqq. of ch. v. of Dekker’s Gull’s Hornbook (1609), which it seems to me a little arbitrary to explain by a revision. The other reasons given by Fleay, i. 57, for a date c. 1601 are fantastic. So is his suggestion that the play is founded on the anonymous Disguises produced by the Admiral’s on 2 Oct. 1595, which, as pointed out by Greg (Henslowe, ii. 177), rests merely on the fact that the title would be appropriate.
The Widow’s Tears. 1603 < > 9
S. R. 1612, Apr. 17. John Browne [see The Revenge of Bussy D’Ambois].
1612. The Widdowes Teares. A Comedie. As it was often presented in the blacke and white Friers. Written by Geor: Chap. For John Browne. [Epistle to Jo. Reed of Mitton, Gloucestershire, signed ‘Geo. Chapman’.]
Edition in Dodsley1, 2, 3 (1744–1827).
The play was given at Court on 27 Feb. 1613, but the reference on the title-page to Blackfriars shows that it was originally produced by the Chapel or Revels not later than 1609 and probably before Byron (1608). Wallace, ii. 115, identifies it with the Chapel play seen by the Duke of Stettin in 1602 (cf. ch. xii), but Gerschow’s description in no way, except for the presence of a widow, fits the plot. The reference to the ‘number of strange knights abroad’ (iv. 1. 28) and perhaps also that to the crying down of monopolies (I. i. 125) are Jacobean, rather than Elizabethan (cf. M. d’Olive). Fleay, i. 61, and Parrott think that the satire of justice in the last act shows resentment at Chapman’s treatment in connexion with Eastward Ho!, and suggest 1605. It would be equally sound to argue that this is just the date when Chapman would have been most careful to avoid criticism of this kind. The Epistle says, ‘This poor comedy (of many desired to see printed) I thought not utterly unworthy that affectionate design in me’.
Charles, Duke of Byron. 1608