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''Blurt Master Constable. 1601-2''

S. R. 1602, June 7. 'A Booke called Blurt Master Constable. Edward Aldee (Arber, iii. 207). 1602. Blurt Master-Constable. Or The Spaniards Night-walke. As it hath bin sundry times priuately acted by the Children of Paules. For Henry Rocket.

Edition [by W. R. Chetwood] in A Select Collection of Old Plays (1750). Bullen suggests that iii. 179, 'There be many of your country-*men in Ireland, signior', said to a Spaniard, reflects the raid of Spaniards in Sept. 1601. They were taken at Kinsale in June 1602. A parallel in i. 104 with Macbeth,  ii. 3, cannot be taken with Fleay, ii. 90, as proof of posteriority. ''The Phoenix. 1603-4''

S. R. 1607, May 9 (Buck). 'A Booke called The Phenix.' Arthur Johnson (Arber, iii. 348). 1607. The Phoenix, As It hath beene sundry times Acted by the Children of Paules. And presented before his Maiestie. E. A. for A. I.

1630. T. H. for R. Meighen.

The only available performance before James was on 20 Feb. 1604, and the imitation of Volpone (1605) suggested by Fleay, ii. 92, is not clear enough to cause any difficulty. Knights are satirized in vi. 150, iii. 4, and there is an allusion to the unsettled state of Ireland in v. 6.  ''A Trick to Catch the Old One. 1604 < > 6 (?) S. R.'' 1607, Oct. 7 (Buck). 'Twoo plaies thother A trick to catche the old one.' George Eld (Arber, iii. 360). 1608. A Trick to Catch the Old-one. As it hath beene lately Acted, by the Children of Paules. George Eld.

1608. As it hath beene often in Action, both at Paules, and the Black-Fryers. Presented before his Maiestie on New yeares night last. Composed by T. M. G. E. sold by Henry Rockett. [Another issue.] 1616. By T. Middleton. George Eld for Thomas Langley.

Editions in O. E. D. (1830, iii) and by C. W. Dilke (1814, O. E. P. v) and W. A. Neilson (1911, C. E. D.).

The date of Q_{1} is doubtless 1608/9 and the Court performance that by the Children of Blackfriars on 1 Jan. 1609. They must have taken the play over from Paul's when these went under in 1606 or 1607. The title is probably proverbial, and therefore the phrase 'We are in the way to catch the old one' in Isle of Gulls, v, hardly enables us to date the play with Fleay, ii. 92, before Day's, which was in Feb. 1606.

''A Mad World, my Masters. 1604 < > 6'' (?)

S. R. 1608, Oct. 4. 'A Booke called A Mad World (my Maysters).' Walter Burre and Eleazar Edgar (Arber, iii. 391). [The licenser is Segar, 'Deputy of Sir George Bucke'.]