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Cambyses > 1570

S. R. 1569-70. 'An enterlude a lamentable Tragedy full of pleasaunt myrth.' John Allde (Arber, i. 400). [1569-84]. A Lamentable Tragedie, mixed full of pleasant mirth, containing the life of Cambises King of Percia By Thomas Preston. John Allde. [Arrangement of parts for eight actors; Prologue; Epilogue, with prayer for Queen and Council. At end, 'Amen, quod Thomas Preston'.]  [1584-1628]. Edward Allde.

Editions by T. Hawkins (1773, O. E. D. i), in Dodsley^4, iv (1874), and by J. M. Manly (1897, Specimens, ii), and J. S. Farmer (1910, T. F. T.). Line 1148 mentions Bishop Bonner whose 'delight was to shed blood', and Fleay, 64, therefore dates the play 1569-70, as Bonner died 5 Sept. 1569. But he may merely be put in the past as an ex-bishop. Three comic villains, Huf, Ruf, and Snuf, are among the characters, and chronology makes it possible that the play was the Huff, Suff, and Ruff (cf. App. A) played at Court during Christmas 1560-1. Preston may, however, have borrowed these characters, as Ulpian Fulwell borrowed Ralph Roister, from an earlier play. Doubtful Play

Preston has been suggested as the author of ''Sir Clyomon and Clamydes'' (cf. ch. xxiv).

DANIEL PRICE (1581-1631).

A student of Exeter College, Oxford, who became chaplain to Prince Henry (D. N. B.), and described his Creation in 1610 (cf. ch. xxiv, C).

RICHARD (?) PUTTENHAM (c. 1520-1601).

The author of The Arte of English Poesie (1589; cf. App. C, No. xli) claims to have written three plays, no one of which is extant. He analyses at length the plot of his 'Comedie entituled Ginecocratia' (Arber, 146), in which were a King, Polemon, Polemon's daughter, and Philino. He twice cites his 'enterlude', Lustie London (Arber, 183, 208), in which were a Serjeant, his Yeoman, a Carrier, and a Buffoon. And he twice cites his 'enterlude', The Woer (Arber, 212, 233), in which were a Country Clown, a Young Maid of the City, and a Nurse.

The author of The Arte is referred to by Camden in 1614 (cf. Gregory Smith, ii. 444) as 'Maister Puttenham', and by E. Bolton, Hypercritica (c. 1618), with the qualification 'as the Fame is', as 'one of her Gentlemen Pensioners, Puttenham'. H. Crofts, in his edition (1880) of Sir Thomas Elyot's The Governour, has shown that this is more likely to have been Richard, the elder, than George, the younger, son of Robert Puttenham and nephew of Sir Thomas Elyot. Neither brother, however, can be shown to have been a Gentleman Pensioner, and Collier gives no authority for his statement that Richard was a Yeoman of the Guard. Richard was writing as far back as the reign of Henry VIII, and the dates of his plays are unknown.