Item 48 - Letter from Thorleif Larsen to W. W. Greg

Three Ways, Edenbridge, Kent.—Continues his discussion of accounts of the battle of Alcazar, and suggests that some of his research might be embodied in a bibliography.

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Transcript

“Three Ways”, | Edenbridge, | Kent.
February 11, 1930.

Dear Dr. Greg:

Thank you very much for your letter. The Stucley ballad, of course, I know. There are seven copies of this in the British Museum, two in the Bodleian, and four elsewhere. The impression I got from your statement, however, was that there was also a ballad dealing with the battle itself.

I have not yet had time to go through the Castries material; and so cannot say whether this will throw any light on Peele’s obscure names. One of them “Celybin,” I think he must have adapted from Marlowe’s “Celebinus” (2 Tamb.)[.] The others I cannot trace.

Castries, however, has discovered the original of the Histoire veritable. This is a manuscript account of the battle, written in by one Luis Nieto, a preaching friar, who accompanied Sebastian’s army. The manuscript, which is now in the National Library at Madrid, was not printed until 1891; and accordingly it is not possible that Peele could have known it.

In the course of my researches I have had occasion to go through the play-lists, biographical dictionaries, and so on of the 17th, and 18th, Centuries; and it has occurred to me that a bibliography of this material might be useful to other investigators. Do you think this would be worth doing? I know your own work, of course; perhaps you have in mind the completion of such a bibliography yourself.

I am told that you are preparing a full census of the Elizabethan plays. In this connexion, would my census of the Peele plays be of any use to you? If so, I should very glad to send you a copy when I complete the final bibliography for my edition.

Yours sincerely,
T. Larsen