1600. The Pleasant Comedie of Old Fortunatus. As it was plaied before the Queenes Maiestie this Christmas, by the Right Honourable the Earle of Nottingham, Lord high Admirall of England his Seruants.
S. S. for William Aspley. [Prologue at Court, another Prologue, and Epilogue at Court; signed at end Tho. Dekker.] Editions by Dilke (1814, O. E. P. iii), H. Scherer (1901, Münchener Beiträge, xxi), O. Smeaton (1904, T. D.). The Admiral's revived, from 3 Feb. to 26 May 1596, 'the 1 parte of Forteunatus'. Nothing is heard of a second part, but during 9-30 Nov. 1599 Dekker received £6 on account of the Admiral's for 'the hole history of Fortunatus', followed on 1 Dec. by £1 for altering the book and on 12 Dec. £2 'for the eande of Fortewnatus for the corte'. The company were at Court on 27 Dec. 1599 and 1 Jan. 1600. The Shoemaker's Holiday was played on 1 Jan.; Fortunatus therefore on 27 Dec. The Prologue (l. 21) makes it 'a iust yeere' since the speaker saw the Queen, presumably on 27 Dec. 1598. The S. R. entry suggests that the 1599 play was a revision of the 1596 one. Probably Dekker boiled the old two parts down into one play; the juncture may, as suggested by Fleay, i. 126, and Greg (Henslowe, ii. 179), come about l. 1315. The Court additions clearly include, besides the Prologue and the Epilogue with its reference to Elizabeth's forty-second regnal year (1599-1600), the compliment of ll. 2799-834 at the 'eande' of the play. The 'small circumference' of the theatrical prologue was doubtless the Rose. Dekker may or may not have been the original author of the two-part play; probably he was not, if Fleay is right in assigning it to c. 1590 on the strength of the allusions to the Marprelate controversy left in the 1600 text, e.g. l. 59. I should not wonder if Greene, who called his son Fortunatus, were the original author. A Fortunatus play is traceable in German repertories of 1608 and 1626 and an extant version in the collection of 1620 owes something to Dekker's (Herz, 97; cf. P. Harms, Die deutschen Fortunatus-Dramen in Theatergeschichtliche Forschungen, v). But Dekker's own source, directly or indirectly, was a German folk-tale, which had been dramatized by Hans Sachs as early as 1553.
The Shoemaker's Holiday. 1599
S. R. 1610, April 19. Transfer from Simmes to J. Wright of 'A booke called the shoomakers holyday or the gentle crafte' subject to an agreement for Simmes to 'haue the workmanshipp of the printinge thereof for the vse of the sayd John Wrighte duringe his lyfe, yf he haue a printinge house of his owne' (Arber, iii. 431).
1600. The Shomakers Holiday. Or The Gentle Craft. With the humorous life of Simon Eyre, shoomaker, and Lord Maior of London. As it was acted before the Queenes most excellent Maiestie on New yeares day at night last, by the right honourable the Earle of Notingham, Lord high Admirall of England, his seruants. Valentine Simmes. [Epistle to Professors of the Gentle Craft and Prologue before the Queen.]
1610, 1618, 1624, 1631, 1657.
