1615. Worke for Cutlers. Or, a merry Dialogue betweene Sword, Rapier, and Dagger. Acted in a Show in the famous universitie of Cambridge. Thomas Creede for Richard Meighen and Thomas Jones. [Epilogue.]
Editions by T. Park (1813, Harleian Miscellany2, x), C. Hindley (1872, Old Book Collector’s Miscellany, ii), A. F. Sieveking (1904).
This short dialogue is described in the epilogue as ‘a Schollers Prize’. Sieveking suggests the possibility of Heywood’s authorship, but an academic author is more likely.
A Yorkshire Tragedy c. 1606
S. R. 1608, May 2 (Wilson). ‘A booke Called A Yorkshire Tragedy written by Wylliam Shakespere.’ Thomas Pavier (Arber, iii. 377).
1608. A Yorkshire Tragedy. Not so New as Lamentable and true. Acted by his Maiesties Players at the Globe. Written by W. Shakspeare. R. B. for Thomas Pauier. [Head-title: ‘All’s One, or, One of the foure plaies in one, called A Yorkshire Tragedy.’]
1619. Omits ‘Acted ... Globe’. For T. P. [See ch. xxiii.]
Editions of 1735 (J. Tonson), by W. Knight (1843, Pictorial Sh. vii), J. P. Collier (1878, Works of Sh.), J. S. Farmer (1910, T. F. T.), and in Sh. Apocrypha.—Dissertations: J. P. Collier (Ath. 1863, i. 332); P. A. Daniel, Notes on Sh.’s Y. T. 1608 (Ath. 4 Oct. 1879); S. Lee, Walter Calverley (D. N. B.); B. Dobell, The Author of A Y. T. (1906, 10 N. Q. vi. 41); H. D. Sykes, The Authorship of A Y. T. (1917, J. G. P. xvi. 437, reprinted in Sidelights on Shakespeare, 77).
This ten-scene play from a four-play bill has merit, but most modern critics are unable to regard that merit as of Shakespearian type, although Ward, ii. 231, finds Shakespeare’s hand in some passages, and Fleay, after wantonly guessing at Edmund Shakespeare (Shakespeare, 303), remained impressed (ii. 206) by the external evidence, and thought that the play must be Shakespeare’s original ending to an earlier version of The Miseries of Enforced Marriage, subsequently altered by his collaborator, George Wilkins (q.v.), to end happily. This is ingenious, but too conjectural. The play, like that of Wilkins, takes its material from the history of Walter Calverley, executed for murder on 5 Aug. 1605, which is told in Stowe’s Annales and was the subject of contemporary pamphlets. Dobell and Sykes argue a case on internal evidence for the authorship of Wilkins himself.