Warburton's list of burnt plays (3 Library, ii. 230) contains:
'Henry y^e 1^{st}. by Will. Shakespear & Rob. Davenport', 'Duke Humphery Will. Shakespear',
and in a supplementary list:
'A Play by Will. Shakespear.'
Of Henry II, Stephen, Duke Humphrey, and Iphis and Iantha nothing more is known. Cardenio is presumably the play given as 'Cardenno' and 'Cardenna' by the King's men at Court in 1612-13 and again on 8 June 1613 (App. B). Its theme, from Don Quixote, Part I, chh. xxiii-xxxvii, is that of Double Falsehood, or the Distressed Lovers, published in 1728 by Lewis Theobald as 'written originally by W. Shakespeare, and now revised and adapted to the stage by M^r. Theobald'. In 1727 it had been produced at Drury Lane. Theobald claimed to have three manuscripts, no one of which is now known. One had formerly, he said, belonged to Betterton, and was in the handwriting of 'M^r. Downes, the famous Old Prompter' (cf. App. I). Another came from a 'Noble Person', with a tradition 'that it was given by our Author, as a Present of Value, to a Natural Daughter of his, for whose Sake he wrote it, in the Time of his Retirement from the Stage'. Theobald is much under suspicion of having written Double Falsehood himself (cf. T. R. Lounsbury, The First Editors of Shakespeare, 145). 'The Historye of Henry the First, written by Damport' was licensed for the King's men on 10 Apr. 1624 (Var. iii. 229, 319; Herbert, 27). EDWARD SHARPHAM (1576-1608). Edward was the third son of Richard Sharpham of Colehanger in East Allington, Devonshire, where he was baptized on 22 July 1576. He entered the Middle Temple on 9 Oct. 1594. He made his will on 22 Apr. 1608, and was buried on the following day at St. Margaret's, Westminster. It may be inferred that he died of plague. Unless he is the E. S. who wrote The Discoveries of the Knights of the Post (1597), he is only known by his two plays. There is no justification for identifying him with the Ed. Sharphell who prefixed a sonnet to the Humours Heav'n on Earth (1605) of John Davies of Hereford, calling Davies his 'beloued Master', or, consequently, for assuming that he had been a pupil of Davies as writing-master at Magdalen, Oxford. Dissertations: G. C. Moore Smith, E. S. (1908, 10 N. Q. x. 21), John Mason and E. S. (1913, M. L. R. viii. 371); M. W. Sampson, The Plays of E. S. (1910, Studies in Language and Literature in Celebration of the 70th Birthday of J. M. Hart, 440).
The Fleir. 1606
S. R. 1606, May 13. 'A Comedie called The fleare. Provided that they are not to printe yt tell they bringe good aucthoritie and licence for the Doinge thereof.' John Trundell and John Busby (Arber, iii. 321).
