The Country Captain

by William Cavendish Newcastle

This is the first modern edition of Cavendish's comedy from the Harleian MS since A. H. Bullen included it in his A Collection of Old English Plays (1882-5). The introduction to the old-spelling edition presents new material about the manuscript's provenance and composition as well as about
the play's history.

80 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Astonishingly good fun considering Cavendish was a leading aristocrat and Royalist who wrote in his spare time. Weirdly like a Jonsonian City comedy relocated to the country, it is also clearly an ancestor of some of the raunchier Restoration comedies. Tremendous fun to read.

Read as part of the REP online readathon of the King's Men repertoire in the dank November of 2021 and ominous summer of 1641.