MS. Egerton 1994

MS. Egerton 1994 is a manuscript collection of English Renaissance plays, now in the collection of the British Library. Probably prepared by the actor William Cartwright around 1642, and later presented by him to Dulwich College, the collection contains unique copies of several Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline dramas, including significant works like "Edmund Ironside" and "Thomas of Woodstock". [F. S. Boas, "Shakespeare and the Universities", Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1923; pp. 96-110.] [Alfred Harbage, "Elizabethan and Seventeenth-Century Play Manuscripts," "Papers of the Modern Language Association", Vol. 50 No. 3 (September 1935), pp. 687-99.]

The collection contains fourteen plays and an anonymous masque:
* "The Elder Brother", by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger — folios 2–30
* "DIck of Devonshire", attributed to Robert Davenport [Terence P. Logan and Denzell S. Smith, eds., "The Later Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama", Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1978; pp. 217-19, 233.] — ff. 30–52
* "The Captives", by Thomas Heywood — ff. 52–74
* "The Escapes of Jupiter", by Thomas Heywood — ff. 74–96
* "Edmund Ironside" — ff. 96–119
* "Charlemagne" — ff. 119–36
* "The Fatal Marriage or A Second Lucretia" — ff. 136–61
* "Thomas of Woodstock" — ff. 161–86
* "The Lady Mother", by Henry Glapthorne — ff. 186–211
* A masque — ff. 212–23
* "The Two Noble Ladies and the Converted Conjurer" [Logan and Smith, pp. 213-15.] — 224–44
* "Nero" [Logan and Smith, pp. 215-16] — ff. 245–68
* "The Poor Man's Comfort", by Robert Daborne — ff. 268–93
* "Love's Changelings' Change" [Logan and Smith, p. 221.] — ff. 293–318
* "The Launching of the Mary", attributed to William Mountfort — ff. 319–49.

"Thomas of Woodstock" was one of Shakespeare's sources for his "Richard II", and "Edmund Ironside" has been attributed to Shakespeare by some commentators.

Some of the plays, like "The Two Noble Ladies" and the two Heywood works, are judged to be autograph scripts, in the handwriting of the authors. ("The Escapes of Jupiter" consists of excerpts from Heywood's "The Golden Age" and "The Silver Age".) The untitled masque in the collection has strong commonalities with the work of George Chapman; it borrows a long passage from "The Tragedy of Byron", suggesting Chapman influence rather than authorship. [J. D. Jump, "The Anonymous Masque in MS. Egerton 1994," "Review of English Studies", vol. 11 No. 42 (April 1935), pp. 186-91.]

"The Launching of the Mary" is a "first draft, written at different times, with different inks, and on different paper." The play was written at sea, and is "little more or less than a eulogy of the East India Company." [Joseph Quincy Adams, Jr., "The Authorship of Two Seventeenth Century Plays," "Modern Language Notes", Vol. 22 No. 5 (May 1907), pp. 135-7.]

The anonymous works in the collection have been the subject of attribution studies, and disagreements. "Dick of Devonshire" has been assigned to Davenport, but also to Heywood.

References