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Transcriber's Note

Endnotes have been moved to the end of the scene to which they apply.
The following note preceded the printed endnotes:

"In the Quartos there are no divisions of acts and scenes.

A, B, C = 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Quartos."

Italic text is marked by _underscores_, and bold text by ~swung dashes~.




[Illustration]

_THE TEMPLE DRAMATISTS_

ARDEN OF FEVERSHAM

[Illustration]




The text of this edition is nearly that of the first Quarto, the copy
of which in the Dyce Library at South Kensington has been carefully
collated. I have not noted minute variations. The German editors,
Warnke and Proescholt, give the various readings of the three Quartos
and of later editions.

[Illustration: _Feversham Abbey._]




ARDEN OF
FEVERSHAM

_Edited with a Preface, Notes
and Glossary by_

REV. RONALD BAYNE
M.A.


J. M. DENT AND CO.
ALDINE HOUSE : LONDON
1897




'Considering the various and marvellous gifts displayed for the first
time on our stage by the great poet, the great dramatist, the strong
and subtle searcher of hearts, the just and merciful judge and painter
of human passions, who gave this tragedy to the new-born literature
of our drama... I cannot but finally take heart to say, even in
the absence of all external or traditional testimony, that it seems
to me not pardonable merely or permissible, but simply logical and
reasonable, to set down this poem, a young man's work on the face of
it, as the possible work of no man's youthful hand but Shakespeare's.'

Mr. A. C. SWINBURNE.




PREFACE


~Early Editions.~ On 3rd April, 1592, '_The Tragedie of Arden of
Feversham and Blackwall_'[A] was entered on the Stationers' Registers
to Edward White. In the same year appeared, '_The lamentable and true
Tragedie of M. Arden of Feversham in Kent. Who was most wickedlye
murdered, by the meanes of his disloyall and wanton wyfe, who for the
love she bare to one Mosbie, hyred two desperat ruffins, Blackwill
and Shakbag, to kill him. Wherin is shewed the great mallice and
discimulation of a wicked woman, the unsatiable desire of filthie lust
and the shamefull end of all murderers. Imprinted at London for Edward
White, dwelling at the lyttle North dore of Paules Church at the signe
of the Gun._ 1592.' A second Quarto, with the same title, was printed
in 1599. A third, '_by Eliz. Allde dwelling neere Christs Church_,'
appeared in 1633. The second and third Quartos are founded textually
upon the first, and their variations are of no value. The text of the
first Quarto is unusually good even when prose and verse are mixed
together, although the printer has apparently no scientific knowledge
of the nature of metre.

[Footnote A: A misprint for _Blackwill_.]


~Place of the Play in the Elizabethan Drama.~ _Arden of Faversham_
is the finest extant specimen of a kind of play which has been
classified as Domestic Tragedy. A picturesque or sensational murder in
the sixteenth century was given to the public first in popular ballads
or pamphlets, and afterwards, if sufficiently notable, in the more
serious Chronicle. From the popular pamphlet, or from the Chronicle,
or from both together, it found its way on to the stage. Four of these
'murder-plays' have come down to us, and the titles of many others.
They form a minor section of the Chronicle plays or Histories. They did
not attain any very striking literary development, owing perhaps to the
necessary bondage of the poet to his facts. _Arden of Faversham_ is a
remarkable instance of the possibilities of this class of play, but it
is to be noted that the poet used the narrative of a Chronicler who
wrote twenty-seven years after the date of the murder. _A Warning for
Fair Women_ and Yarington's _Two Tragedies in One_ are both inferior
to _Arden_, though influenced by it. The fourth'murder-play'--_The
Yorkshire Tragedy_--is distinct from the other three in style and
method. Several famous dramatists produced 'domestic' tragedies, but
none have survived. _A Late Murder of the Son upon the Mother_, in
which Ford and Webster collaborated, must have been a notable piece of
work.


~Source of the Play.~ On Sunday, 15th February 1550-1, Thomas
Ardern of Faversham, gentleman, 'was heynously murdered in his own
parlour