And to sende them grace so the yssue to obtayne
After them to rule this most chrysten realme.
The form of the companion stanzas suggests that the two last lines originally rhymed, and that a line has dropped out before them. Possibly an ending originally meant for Henry VIII and Jane Seymour has been altered with a view to making it appropriate to Elizabeth. The play is offered with other pre-Elizabethan plays by the company in Sir Thomas More, IV. i. 42, and was also in the obsolete library of Captain Cox (Robert Laneham’s Letter, ed. Furnivall, 30).
Jack Drum’s Entertainment. 1600
S. R. 1600, Sept. 8. ‘A booke Called Jack Drum’s enterteynmente. A commedy as yt bathe ben diuerse tymes Acted by the Children of Paules.’ Felix Norton (Arber, iii. 172).
1600, Oct. 23. Transfer from Norton to Richard Oliff (Arber, iii. 175).
1601. Iacke Drums Entertainment: Or the Comedie of Pasquill and Katherine. As it hath bene sundry times plaide by the Children of Powles. For Richard Olive. [Introduction, i.e. Induction.]
1616.... Newly Corrected. W. Stansby for Philip Knight.
1618.... The Actors 12 men, and 4 women. For Nathaniel Fosbrooke.
Editions by R. Simpson (1878, S. of S. ii. 125) and J. S. Farmer (1912, T. F. T.).