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

1 folded sheet

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

Formerly inserted in Greg's copy of Two Elizabethan Stage Abridgements:’The Battle of Alcazar’ and ‘Orlando Furioso’ (1923) (LL 023 G 100).

This description was created by A. C. Green in 2020.