The T. G. of the 1638 title-page is probably meant for Thomas Goffe, the author of contemporary plays on Turkish history. He, however, was only born in 1591. Six passages from the play are assigned to Greene in R[obert] A[llot’s] England’s Parnassus (1600). This is fairly strong evidence, and Greene’s authorship is supported by Grosart, Brooke (Sh. Apocrypha, xix), and Gilbert. Ward and Gayley (R. E. C. i. 420) take the opposite view. Crawford, who points out (E. P. xxxv, 407) that Allot is not impeccable, prefers Marlowe. Fleay, ii. 315, would divide the play between Greene and Lodge. The problem is bound up with that of the authorship of Locrine (q.v.), from which Selimus clearly borrows. It can therefore hardly be of earlier date than 1591. The Conclusion, or epilogue, promises a second part, of which nothing is known.
Soliman and Perseda c. 1589 < > 92
S. R. 1592, Nov. 20 (Bp. of London). ‘The tragedye of Salamon and Perceda.’ Edward White (Arber, ii. 622).
N.D. The Tragedye of Solyman and Perseda. Wherein is laide open, Loues constancy, Fortunes inconstancy, and Deaths Triumphs. Edward Allde for Edward White. [Induction.]
1599. E. Allde for E. White. [In some copies ‘newly corrected and amended’ is stamped on the t.p.]
[1815]. [A facs. reprint, with date 1599 and imprint Edward Allde for Edward White, of which two copies, C. 57. c. 15 and G. 18612, are in B.M.; cf. W. W. Greg in M. L. Q. iv. 188, and R. B. McKerrow, Bibl. Evid. 302. Some copies have ‘J. Smeeton, Printer, St. Martin’s Lane’ on the vo. of the t.p.]
Editions by T. Hawkins (1773, O. E. D. ii), in Dodsley4, v (1874), and by F. S. Boas (1901, Works of Kyd) and J. S. Farmer (S. F. T.).—Dissertations: E. Sieper (1897, Z. f. vergleichende Litteraturgeschichte, N. F. x); G. Sarrazin, Die Verfasser von S. u. P. (1891, E. S. xv. 250); E. Koeppel, Beiträge zur Geschichte des elisabethanischen Dramas (1892, E. S. xvi. 357); J. E. Routh, T. Kyd’s Rime Schemes and the Authorship of S. P. and 1 Jeronimo (1905, M. L. N. xx. 49); K. Wiehl, Thomas Kyd und die Autorschaft von S. u. P. (1912, E. S. xliv. 343).
Fleay, ii. 26, Sarrazin, and Boas claim the play for Kyd, partly on grounds of style, partly because the plot is an elaboration of the ‘play within the play’ of The Spanish Tragedy (c. 1589), iv. 4; Wiehl doubts on metrical grounds. Schick (Archiv, xc) suggests Peele, who is said in the Merry Conceited Jests (Bullen, Peele, ii. 389) to have written, or pretended to have written, a play of The Knight of Rhodes, a title which would apply to Soliman and Perseda. Robertson, 109, 150, 166, thinks that Greene collaborated with Kyd.
Captain Thomas Stukeley. 1596
S. R. 1600, Aug. 11 (Vicars). ‘Ye history of the life and Deathe of Captaine Thomas Stucley, with his Mariage to Alexander Curtis his daughter, and his valiant endinge of his life at the battell of Alcazar.’ Thomas Pavier (Arber, iii. 169).