Edward the Fourth > 1599
S. R. 1599, Aug. 28. ‘Twoo playes beinge the ffirst and Second parte of Edward the iiijth and the Tanner of Tamworth With the history of the life and deathe of master Shore and Jane Shore his Wyfe as yt was lately acted by the Right honorable the Erle of Derbye his seruantes.’ John Oxonbridge and John Burby (Arber, iii. 147).
1600, Feb. 23. Transfer of Busby’s interest to Humphrey Lownes (Arber, iii. 156).
1600. The First and Second Parts of King Edward the Fourth. Containing His mery pastime with the Tanner of Tamworth, as also his loue to faire mistrisse Shoare, her great promotion, fall and miserie and lastly the lamentable death of both her and her husband. Likewise the besieging of London, by the Bastard Falconbridge, and the valiant defence of the same by the Lord Maior and the Citizens. As it hath diuers times beene publikely played by the Right Honorable the Earle of Derbie his seruants. F. K. for Humfrey Lownes and John Oxenbridge.
1605; 1613; 1619; 1626.
Edition by B. Field (1842, Sh. Soc.).—Dissertation: A. Sander, T. Heywood’s Historien von König Edward iv und ihre Quellen (1907, Jena diss.).
Sander and others date the play 1594, by an identification with the anonymous Siege of London revived by the Admiral’s on 26 Dec. 1594. Greg (Henslowe, ii. 173) more cautiously says that the play of 1594 ‘may underlie’ certain scenes of 1 Edward iv. He regards Edward iv, ‘on internal evidence, as unquestionably Heywood’s’. This is the usual view, but Fleay, ii. 288, had doubted it. There is no external evidence for Heywood’s authorship, or for any connexion between him and Derby’s men. Moreover, in May 1603, he authorized Henslowe, on behalf of Worcester’s, to pay Chettle and Day for ‘the Booke of Shoare, now newly to be written’, also described as ‘a playe wherein Shores wiffe is writen’. If this was a revision of his own play, he would hardly have left it to others. It is fair to add that in the previous January he had himself received payment with Chettle for an unnamed play, which might be the same (Henslowe, ii. 234). The ‘three-mans song’ on Agincourt in iii. 2 of Part I closely resembles Drayton’s Ballad of Agincourt (ed. Brett, 81), and must, I think, be his. Jane Shore is mentioned as a play visited by citizens in The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1607), ind. 57, and ‘the well-frequented play of Shore’ in Pimlyco or Runne Redcap (1609). A play, apparently on the same subject, was performed by English actors at Graz on 19 Nov. 1607 (Herz, 98).
Every Woman in Her Humour. 1607–8?
1609. Everie Woman in her Humor. E. A. for Thomas Archer. [Prologue.]
Editions by A. H. Bullen (1885, O. E. P. iv) and J. S. Farmer (1913, S. F. T.).—Dissertation: J. Q. Adams, E. W. I. and The Dumb Knight (1913, M. P. x. 413).