THIS is another of the six plays which were not printed until after the author's death, and then embodied in the folio edition of his works in 1673. The piece, which has been styled a Tragi-comedy, appears to have been one of Sir William Davenant's earlier productions, inasmuch as it was licensed on 17th November 1638, and although there is no record of its having been acted, it is highly probable that it had been produced on the stage about that date, if not previously. The political events which immediately followed may account for its having been laid aside, and the change which had taken place in public taste, calling for Entertainments of a different kind when the Royal Dynasty was restored, probably precluded its revival. Among the fifty-two Manuscript Plays of Mr. Warburton, Somerset Herald, which, all save three, were treated by his female servant as waste paper, and used accordingly, in the usual contemptuously careless manner in which women, generally speaking, have ever treated books and papers, there was one called the Fair Favourite, which it has been conjectured was a copy of the original version of the play as presently printed. Geneste remarks of this piece:-"This is, on the whole, a good Tragi-comedy. It was not printed till 1673, but it was doubtless written, and probably acted before the civil wars." |