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 Fleay, with 1606 in his mind, finds here an apology for The Fox, thinking Jonson the raven and Eastward Hoe the 'trap for Boyes'. In 1610 there had been no trouble about any London play, although one in Lincolnshire had given offence. But a careful reading of the passage will show that it is no apology at all, but a boast, and an attack upon informers against the stage. As the play had been in print since 1598, it must not be assumed that, because the King's revived it in 1610-11, it was originally a Chamberlain's play. It may have belonged to the Queen's or some other extinct company. Evidently it was a popular play, as the number of editions shows. K. B. P. ind. 91 tells us that Ralph has 'play'd Musidorus before the Wardens of our Company'. The ascription to Shakespeare is due to Archer's list of 1656 (Greg, Masques, xci) and to the inclusion of the play with Fair Em and The Merry Devil of Edmonton in a volume in Charles II's library, lettered 'Shakespeare, vol. i' (Variorum, ii. 682). It now receives little support, even as regards the added passages. Greene is preferred as the original author by Malone and Hopkinson, Peele by von Friesen, and Lodge by Fleay. After the suppression of the theatres in 1642, Mucedorus was acted by strolling players in various parts of Oxfordshire. An accident during a performance at Witney on 3 Feb. 1654 is recorded in John Rowe, ''Tragi-Comoedia. Being a brieff relation of the strange and wonderful hand of God, discovered at Witney in the Comedy acted February the third, where there were some slaine, many hurt and several other remarkable passages'' (1653/4). Either Mucedorus or Greene's Alphonsus (q.v.) may have been the play on a king of Arragon given at Dresden in 1626. It has also been suggested (Herz, 95) that Mucedorus influenced Pieter Hooft's Dutch pastoral Granida (1605). ''Narcissus. 6 Jan. 1603''

[MS.] ''Bodl. MS. 147303 (Rawl. Poet. MS.'' 212), f. 82^v. 'A Twelfe Night Merriment. Anno 1602.' [Porter's speech 'at the end of supper', Wassail Song, Prologue, and Epilogue.] Edition by M. L. Lee (1893). The porter's name is Francis, and from some speeches and a letter composed for him, which appear in the same manuscript, it is clear that he was Francis Clark, who became porter of St. John's, Oxford, on 8 May 1601, at which house therefore the play was doubtless given. It has borrowings from M. N. D. and ''1 Hen. IV.''

''New Custom. 1558 < > 73''

1573. A new Enterlude No less wittie: then pleasant, entituled new Custome, deuised of late, and for diuerse causes nowe set forthe, neuer before this tyme Imprinted. William How for Abraham Veale.