Item 25 - Letter from F. G. Fleay to W. W. Greg

27 Dafforne Road, Upper Tooting, S.W.—Agrees to lend him his copy of Collier's Henslowe. Discusses the interlude Hester.

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Transcript

27 Dafforne Road, Upper Tooting, S.W.
27.ii.05

Dear Mr Greg.

i. Henslow. You may have my Collier Henslow† {1} for a week or so with pleasure but unfortunately our friend Mr Bullen has induced me to resume work on the Drama & I shall be using it daily. I cannot spare it before Easter {2}. Would it meet your wish as I shall be in Wimbledon the first fine afternoon if I called on you with it between 2.30 P.M. & 5 & read the dates over with you? or could you call on me? if the latter fix your own time.

ii. Hester. My knowledge of pre-theatrical enterludes is not deep & as the titles of my books {3} shew they formed no part of my original plan. I lumped Hester & A. {4} with the Shrew &c in blind acquiescence to R Simpson but whether to MS or printed statement I cannot now tell. I should not now venture to say whether the Adm[ira]ls or Chamb[erlai]ns acted in in 1594. I did not know of Collier or Grosarts Godly Queen. I have this afternoon read yours & am greatly pleased with it. I spotted l.l. 542 & 1012 & then found Mr Smith had anticipated me. In l. 985 &c I prefer to read “could not be told.” In l. 22 I take “doughty” & “weighty” to be variants for “worthy” not for “sure” & would read “Most dread sovereign King to you assure” & refer “Assurance” to a marginal query as a possible reading for ‘assure’. In note on l. 22 dele m in ommitted†. You have let me down very easy for following Collier as to the Chapel children but I am by no means sure of the Wolsey hypothesis. What possible reason could there be for an intitled company to publish an anti-Wolsey play temp. 3 Eliz. & if it was played by an allowed company where is the prayer for the Queen?

I will read the Hester again & report duly

Yours in haste
F. G. Fleay

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{1} John Payne Collier’s edition of the Diary of Philip Henslowe (Shakespeare Society, 1845). Greg’s own edition of the Diary had been published the previous year.

{2} 23 April.

{3} The reference is probably to Fleay’s Chronicle History of the London Stage, 1559-1642 (1890) and his three-volume Biographical Chronicle of the English Drama, 1559-1642 (1891).

{4} Hester and Ahasuerus, a play mentioned in Henslow’s Diary (Collier’s ed., pp. 35-6) as having been performed at Newington by the Admiral’s Men and the Lord Chamberlain’s Men on 3 and 10 May 1594.

† Sic.