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LOST PLAYS

''The Nobleman. c. 1612''

S. R. 1612, Feb. 15 (Buck). 'A play booke beinge a Trage-*comedye called, The Noble man written by Cyril Tourneur.' Edward Blount (Arber, iii. 478). 1653, Sept. 9. 'The Nobleman, or Great Man, by Cyrill Tourneur.' Humphrey Moseley (Eyre, i. 428). The play was acted by the King's at Court on 23 Feb. 1612 and again during the winter of 1612-13. Warburton's list of plays burnt by his cook (3 Library, ii. 232) contains distinct entries of 'The Great Man T.' and 'The Nobleman T. C. Cyrill Turñuer'. Hazlitt, Manual, 167, says (1892): 'Dr Furnivall told me many years ago that the MS. was in the hands of a gentleman at Oxford, who was editing Tourneur's Works; but I have heard nothing further of it. Music to a piece called The Nobleman is in ''Addl. MS. B.M. 10444.' For The Arraignment of London'' (1613) v.s. Daborne. Doubtful Plays

Tourneur's hand has been sought in the Honest Man's Fortune of the Beaumont (q.v.) and Fletcher series, and in Charlemagne, Revenger's Tragedy, and Second Maiden's Tragedy (cf. ch. xxiv). NICHOLAS TROTTE (c. 1588). A Gray's Inn lawyer, who wrote an 'Introduction' for the Misfortunes of Arthur of Thomas Hughes (q.v.) in 1588. RICHARD VENNAR (c. 1555-1615?). Vennar (Vennard), who has often been confused with William Fennor, a popular rhymer, was of Balliol and Lincoln's Inn, and lived a shifty life, which ended about 1615 in a debtor's prison. Its outstanding feature was the affair of England's Joy, but in 1606 he is said (D. N. B.) to have been in trouble for an attempt to defraud Sir John Spencer of £500 towards the preparation of an imaginary mask under the patronage of Sir John Watts, the Lord Mayor. ''England's Joy. 1602''

[Broadsheet] The Plot of the Play, called England's Joy. To be Played at the Swan this 6 of Nouember, 1602. [No. 98 in collection of Society of Antiquaries.]

Reprints by W. Park in Harleian Miscellany (1813), x. 198; S. Lee (1887, vide infra); W. Martin (1913, vide infra); W. J. Lawrence (1913, vide infra).—Dissertations: S. Lee, The Topical Side of the Elizabethan Drama (N. S. S. Trans. 1887-92, 1); T. S. Graves, A Note on the Swan Theatre (1912, M. P. ix. 431), Tricks of Elizabethan Showmen (South Atlantic Quarterly, April 1915); W. Martin, An Elizabethan Theatre Programme (1913, Selborne Magazine, xxiv. 16); W. J. Lawrence (ii. 57), The Origin of the Theatre Programme.