User:Sbh/Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes (critical edition)/Introduction

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W. W. Greg (1913): No entry referring to Clyomon and Clamydes has been found in the Stationers' Register, and the only early edition known is that from the press of Thomas Creede bearing the date 1599. This is a quarto printed in roman type of a size approximating to modern pica (20 ll. = 82 mm.). Of this a copy, wanting the leave A1 before the title-page and also slightly mutilated, is in the British Museum, while a perfect copy is in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire. The first of these has formed the basis of the present [Malone Society] reprint, but the second has been consulted in all cases of doubt. No variants have been observed.

Editions

Q

The | Historie of | the two valiant Knights, | Syr Clyomon Knight of the Golden | Sheeld, sonne to the King of | Denmarke | And Clamydes the white Knight, sonne to the | King of Suauia. | As it hath bene sundry times Acted by her | Maiesties Players | [device] | LONDON | Printed by Thomas Creede | 1599.

Authorship

Dyce (1839): On the title page of a copy of this drama, a MS. note in a very old hand attributes it to Peele; and, I have no doubt, rightly. It was produced probably soon after his Arraignment of Paris, which, according to Nash (see Acc. of Peele and his Writings, p. xiii.), was our author's earliest dramatic effort. The story of Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes is not, I presume, the invention of Peele, but borrowed from some romance.

Bullen (1888): As for Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes, first printed in 1599, I strongly doubt whether it has been properly assigned to Peele. ... I should be slow to differ from Dyce; yet I cannot but think that this drama is the work of some playwright of the older school. The heavy lumbering verse, the antique style of diction, and the introduction of the Vice, indicate that it is a very early play. I suspect that it was written by some such person as Richard Edwards (author of Damon and Pythias), when Peele was in his teens. Still I have noth thought fit to exclude it and those readers who care to plough through it will find it a shade less tedious than Edward I., inasmuch as the test is fairly free from corruption (though the metre is very faulty).^[1]

Bullen (1888): A German scholar, Herr Richard Laemmerhirt, has sought to substantiate Peele's claim by collecting from the play expressions that occur in the poet's undoubted works. Here are some of his parallel passages: -- "What tidings he doth bring" (Sir Clyomon); "What tidings bringeth Guenther?" (Edward I.)--"Make his heart leap for joy" (Sir Clyomon); "The Trojans leap for joy" (Tale of Troy)--"Traitor, stay, and take with thee that mortal blow" (Sir Clyomon); "Stand, traitor, stand, ... and stir not ere thou die"--and so on. I fear that such parallel passages as these will not impress English readers.^[2]

Fleay (1891): I see no possibility of attributing to him [Peele] Clyomon and Clamydes. As to the inscription on the title in an old handwriting, it is sufficient to remark that its discovery was made in the time of Collier and his compeers.^[3]

Fleay (1891): ...the value of such inscriptions is very small when uncorroborated. Compare the well-known triply contradictory instance of The Usurping Tyrant (Second Maiden's Tragedy). I promised in my previous work to show reason for my then opinion that Wilson wrote these two plays; but later investigations lead me to reject that plausible hypothesis, and to claim them for R. B. (Query Richard Bower), the author of Appius and Virginia. The style and metre are very like in all three plays; the alliteration in all three is excessive far beyond any other plays of this period that I know. Shift is a character in Conditions and in Clyomon: Rumour enters in exactly the same way in Appius and in Clyomon (in one scene only); "Our author" is mentioned in the Prologues of Appius and of Clyomon, and, above all, they all contain many singular grammatical inversions which I have seldom found elsewhere, and never in such overwhelming abundance. Any one who can bear the tediousness of reading these long-winded folk-lore romances (for such they are, all three) consecutively will, I think, confirm my present opinion.^[4]

Greg (1913): Dyce included Clyomon and Clamydes in his edition of the works of George Peele, with the remark: "On the title-page of a copy of this play, a MS. note in a very old hand attributes it to Peele; and, I have not doubt, rightly." This copy does not appear to be now known. Bullen, on the other hand, though reprinting the play along with Peele's, doubted his authorship, and critical opinion has certainly upheld this view. More than one writer has indeed attempted to vindicate Peele's right, but no attempt has ever been made to show that the arguments advanced in support of this ascription would not equally prove Peele's authorship of Common Conditions, a very similar piece which was entered in the Stationer's Register on 27 July 1576 (Arber's Transcript, ii. 301), and may be some years older. Those who deny Peele's authorship have suggested the names of Robert Wilson, Richard Bower, and Thomas Preston as possible claimants, but without advancing any convincing grounds for their conjectures. All that can here be said is that Clyomon and Calmudes is very likely by the same hand as, and almost certainly contemporary with, Common Conditions, to which it is, if anything, probably anterior. This would place its composition at least ten years earlier than the printing of the Arraignment of Paris, Peele's earliest play. That these rambling romances retained some popularity seems to be proved by the burlesque of them of Peele's Old Wives Tale.

Company

Fleay (1891): [Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes] was acted by the Queen's players, but is evidently an olderplay than any originally produced by that company. From them it passed probably through L. Strange's company...

Greg (1913): The title-page states that the play had been performed by the Queen's players. This company acted regularly at court down to 1591. After that it apparently fell into low water, for its only subsequent appearance there was on 6 January 1594, and its performances in London seem to have been few. In the provinces Queen's men continue to be mentioned till 1602, but it is doubtful whether the same company is intended, for this left London in the spring of 1594, and there is some reason to suppose that it did not outlive the year. WAhether it was the original owner of the play there is no means of telling.

Performances

Fleay (1891): As this is the only play published at that date with four kings in it, i identify it with The Four Kings of Henslow's Diary. In this very alliterative play Subtle Shift is the Vice: in Sc. 6 he says he must play the Ambidexter. The Vice in Cambyses is Ambidexter, and that was revived 27th Dec. 1578. I think the present play was produced contemporaneously with that revival at latest; it may have been earlier, for Cambyses originally appeared 6th Jan. 1570.

1. Works of George Peele, vol. 1, xlii-xliii.
2. Works of George Peele, vol. 1, page xlii n.1.
3. Frederick Gard Fleay, A Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama, 1559-1642, vol. 2, p. 158.
4. Biographical Chronicle, pp. 296-7.