Links between Mucedorus and The Tragical History, Admirable Atchievments and Various Events of Guy Earl of Warwick

Abstract

THE play The Tragical History, Admirable Atchievments and various events of Guy Earl of Warwick was printed, for the first and only time, in 1661 by Thomas Vere and William Gilbertson. Though it is described on the title page as having been ‘Acted very Frequently with great Applause By his late Majesties Servants’, there is no known record of a performance of the play. The play is ascribed to ‘B. J.’, no doubt to give the impression that the author was Ben Jonson1. Despite its obscurity, the Tragical History may be a very important play. This is not because it has any special literary merits, but because it may contain a sustained sixteenth-century reference to Shakespeare. If this were true, the Tragical History would allow us to add a significant new chapter to Shakespearian biography. Alfred Harbage was the first to suggest that the Tragical History could contain a reference to Shakespeare. In 1941, he conjectured that, despite being printed in 1661, the Tragical History was probably written in the early 1590s, and that the play's Clown, called Sparrow, may be a ‘hit’ at Shakespeare.2 The passage in the Tragical History that struck Harbage was this: Rainborne. Art thou a Christian? prethee where wer't born? Sparrow. Ifaith Sir I was born in England at Stratford upon Aven in Warwickshire. Rainborne. Wer't born in England? what's thy name? Sparrow. Nay I have a fine finical name, I can tell ye, for my name is Sparrow; yet I am not no house Sparrow, nor no hedge Sparrow, nor no peaking Sparrow, nor no sneaking Sparrow, but I am a high mounting lofty minded Sparrow, and that Parnell knows well enough, and a good many more of the pretty Wenches of our Parish ifaith.