Narcissus. 6 Jan. 1603
[MS.] Bodl. MS. 147303 (Rawl. Poet. MS. 212), f. 82v. ‘A Twelfe Night Merriment. Anno 1602.’ [Porter’s speech ‘at the end of supper’, Wassail Song, Prologue, and Epilogue.]
Edition by M. L. Lee (1893).
The porter’s name is Francis, and from some speeches and a letter composed for him, which appear in the same manuscript, it is clear that he was Francis Clark, who became porter of St. John’s, Oxford, on 8 May 1601, at which house therefore the play was doubtless given. It has borrowings from M. N. D. and 1 Hen. IV.
New Custom. 1558 < > 73
1573. A new Enterlude No less wittie: then pleasant, entituled new Custome, deuised of late, and for diuerse causes nowe set forthe, neuer before this tyme Imprinted. William How for Abraham Veale.
Editions in Dodsley4 (1874, iii) and by J. S. Farmer (1908, T. F. T.).
A moral of Protestant controversy, with typical personages, bearing allegorical names, arranged for four actors.
The final prayer is for Elizabeth, and Avarice played in the days of Queen Mary. Fleay, 64; ii. 294, thinks it a revised Edward VI play, on the ground of an allusion to a ‘square caps’ controversy of 1550. But this was still vigorous in 1565 (cf. Parker’s Letters, 240). Fleay also says that the Nugize of Captain Cox’s collection (Laneham, 30) is Mankind (Med. Stage, ii. 438) in which New Gyse is a character. But Mankind was first printed in 1897, and probably this play is the one Laneham had in mind.