The Fairy Knight

The Fairy Knight

"The Fairy Knight, or Oberon the Second" is an early Stuart era stage play, a comedy of uncertain and problematic authorship. Never published in its historical period, the play existed only in a manuscript, which is now MS. 46.1 in the collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.

A play titled "The Fairy Knight" was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on June 11, 1624. In his records, Herbert attributed the play to John Ford and Thomas Dekker. Scholars and critics have widely rejected any application of this assignment of authorship to the extent text; in the words of Gerald Eades Bentley, "nothing in the manuscript sounds like Ford or Dekker...." [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; p. 224.] Many doubt that the play licensed by Herbert in 1624 is the same as the manuscript play; the critical literature often describes the Ford/Dekker "Fairy Knight" as a lost work.

Fredson Bowers advanced a hypothesis that Thomas Randolph wrote the existing "Fairy Knight." [Fredson Bowers, "Ben Jonson, Thomas Randolph, and "The Drinking Academy." "Notes and Queries" Vol. 173 (1937), pp. 166-8.] Bowers developed his hypothesis in his modern edition of the play, published in 1942; [Fredson Thayer Bowers, ed., "The fary knight; or, Oberon the Second," a manuscript play attributed to Thomas Randolph," Chapel Hill, NC, University of North Carolina Press, 1942. (Bowers employed the archaic spelling of "fary" for "fairy.")] he argued that Randolph wrote the play for a performance at Westminster School around 1623 or 1624. Other commentators, however, have generally been unconvinced by Bowers' assignment of the play to Randolph. Some have seen signs of the influence of James Shirley in the play, noting resemblances to Shirley's "The Traitor" (1631) and "The Young Admiral" (1633), and have concluded that "The Fairy Knight" must post-date those plays. Since the MS. includes a 1658 epitaph (on the "virtuous lady Frances Monson"), critics tend to place the authorship of the play sometime between the mid-1630s and 1658 [Logan and Smith, p. 223.] — generally too late for Randolph, who died in 1635. Critics have also noted borrowings from Jonson's "The Alchemist" in "The Fairy Knight."

The play draws upon the fairy lore of the folktales and legends of the British Isles, and so can be classed with similar works like Drayton's "Nymphidia". In the play, Loswello is the name of the fairy knight, while a silly politician called Politico is the pretender king of the fairies.

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • The Elfin Knight — (Child #2; Roud #12) is a traditional Scottish folk ballad of which there are many versions, all dealing with supernatural occurrences, and the commission to perform impossible tasks.[1] Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Commentary …   Wikipedia

  • The Green Knight (fairy tale) — The Green Knight is a Danish fairy tale, collected by Evald Tang Kristensen in Eventyr fra Jylland and by Svendt Grundtvig in Danish Fairy Tales .This tale combines Aarne Thompson type 510A with type 425N, the bird husband, and type 432, the… …   Wikipedia

  • The Bold Knight, the Apples of Youth, and the Water of Life — is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki .ynopsisAn old king whose sight was failing heard of a garden with apples that would make a man grow young, and water that would restore his sight. His oldest son …   Wikipedia

  • The Fairy Godmother — Infobox Book | name = The Fairy Godmother image caption = author = Mercedes Lackey country = United States language = English series = Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms genre = Fantasy novel publisher = Luna Books release date = 2004 media type …   Wikipedia

  • Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight — Written by Traditional Recorded by . Broadside Electric as False Sir John on Black edged Visiting Card Steeleye Span as The Elf Knight on Time Bellowhead as The Outlandish Knight on Burlesque Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight (Child #4; Roud #21) is …   Wikipedia

  • The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog — The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg Format Action Adventure Fantasy Created by Saban Entertainment Starring Lochlainn O Mearain Lisa Dwan Vincent Walsh Justin Pierre Kelly Campbell Charlotte Bradley Ned Dennehy Peadar Lamb Stephen Brennan B …   Wikipedia

  • The Mermaid and the Boy — is a Lapp fairy tale collected by J. C. Poestion in Lapplandische Märchen . Andrew Lang included it in The Brown Fairy Book . [Andrew Lang, The Brown Fairy Book , [http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/274.htm The Mermaid and the Boy ] ] It is… …   Wikipedia

  • The Wicked World — is a blank verse play by W. S. Gilbert in three acts. It opened at the Haymarket Theatre on January 4 1873. The play is an allegory loosely based on a short illustrated story of the same title by Gilbert, written in 1871 and published in Tom Hood …   Wikipedia

  • The Little Match Girl — Author Hans Christian Andersen Original title Den Lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne Country Denmark Language Danish …   Wikipedia

  • The opera corpus — is a list of nearly 2,500 works by more than 775 individual opera composers. Some of the works listed below are still being performed today   but many are not. The principal works of the major composers are given as well as those of historical… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”