[i]

THE TEMPLE DRAMATISTS

ARDEN OF FEVERSHAM

[ii]

The text of this edition is nearly that of the firstQuarto, the copy of which in the Dyce Libraryat South Kensington has been carefully collated.I have not noted minute variations. The Germaneditors, Warnke and Proescholt, give thevarious readings of the three Quartosand of later editions.

Feversham Abbey.

[iii]

ARDEN OFFEVERSHAM

Edited with a Preface, Notes
and Glossary by

REV. RONALD BAYNE
M.A.

J. M. DENT AND CO.
ALDINE HOUSE : LONDON
1897

[iv]

‘Considering the various and marvellous gifts displayedfor the first time on our stage by the greatpoet, the great dramatist, the strong and subtlesearcher of hearts, the just and merciful judge andpainter of human passions, who gave this tragedy tothe new-born literature of our drama ... I cannotbut finally take heart to say, even in the absence of allexternal or traditional testimony, that it seems to menot pardonable merely or permissible, but simplylogical and reasonable, to set down this poem, ayoung man’s work on the face of it, as the possiblework of no man’s youthful hand but Shakespeare’s.’

Mr. A. C. Swinburne.

[v]

PREFACE

Early Editions. On 3rd April, 1592, ‘The Tragedie ofArden of Feversham and Blackwall’[A] was entered on theStationers’ Registers to Edward White. In the same yearappeared, ‘The lamentable and true Tragedie of M. Arden ofFeversham in Kent. Who was most wickedlye murdered, bythe meanes of his disloyall and wanton wyfe, who for the loveshe bare to one Mosbie, hyred two desperat ruffins, Blackwilland Shakbag, to kill him. Wherin is shewed the great malliceand discimulation of a wicked woman, the unsatiable desireof filthie lust and the shamefull end of all murd