Locrine, Selimus, Robert Greene, and Thomas Lodge
2009; Oxford University Press; Volume: 56; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/notesj/gjp195
ISSN1471-6941
Autores Tópico(s)Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism
ResumoTHE Lamentable Tragedie of Locrine, ‘Newly set foorth, overseene and corrected, By W.S.’, was registered 20 July 1594 and published in 1595. Alexander Grosart attributed authorship of the quarto (which may have been preceded by a pre-1586 version by Charles Tilney) to Robert Greene on the basis of similarities in vocabulary, while Locrine’s wholesale borrowing from Edmund Spenser’s Complaints corresponds to Greene’s cut-and-paste methods, but authorship of this play is still viewed as doubtful.1 Running key words and phrases through the Early English Books Online (EEBO) searchable database, comprised of 19,991 records at the time of my study, serves to confirm Grosart’s suspicions, and to identify the anonymous Selimus, Locrine’s sister play, as a work by Greene and Thomas Lodge. Beginning with Locrine, its ‘straggling mate(s)’ (lines 1007 and 2029) occurs in Greene’s Orlando Furioso and Alphonsus King of Aragon, plus only three other non-dramatic works in EEBO dated 1611 (Chapman’s translation of The Iliad), 1613 and 1615.2 ‘Arm-strong’, adjective, makes its first EEBO appearance in Greene’s Menaphon, then Locrine (83, 1000, 1253) and Selimus (1671), plus but two other non-dramatic works published in 1611 and 1632. The second EEBO appearance of ‘Armstrong’ as a name occurs in George a Greene, an anonymous play attributed to Robert Greene. Regarding Locrine’s ‘sparkles of affection’ (346), ‘sparkle(s)’ followed within five words by ‘of affection’ occurs in EEBO only in Greene’s Mourning Garment, Planetomachia, and Perimedes the Blacke-smith, plus works by non-dramatists dated 1605, 1653, and 1693. Locrine’s ‘sorrowful sob(s)’ (386) appears in Greene’s The Card of Fancy and five other EEBO pieces by non-dramatists.
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