The Dramatic Works of George Peele: The Arraignment of Paris/The Old Wives' Tale/David and Bethsabe

The Life and Works of George Peele #3

by George Peele, R. Mark Benbow (Editor), Frank S. Hook (Editor)

The Araygnement of Paris, edited by R. Mark Benbow, plus two other plays.

452 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1970

About the author

George Peele had a Master of Arts degree from Oxford University, which he noted in the signatures of most of his works as a poet, playwright, and translator. His plays include The Arraignment of Paris, Edward I, The Battle of Alcazar, The Old Wives' Tale, and David and Bethsabe, and several pageants. He is also believe to have written The Troublesome Rein of John, King of England, and portions of William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and Henry VI trilogy. His interests lay strongly in the pastoral and romantic, and his allusions to classical mythology are earthy and treat the gods as people rather than personifications. As had his father, bookkeeper James Peele, he spent much of his life in debt, although most likely this was due to bad business investments in spite of many trumped-up charges of wanton behavior derived from a biographical jest book, disregarding the fact that such books interpolated most of the notable people of the era.

Reviews

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a play interesting for its form. Three clownish servants, Antick, Frolick, and Frantick, lost in the woods at evening, are found by Clunch the Smith and taken home with him, where Clunch's wife Madge entertains them by telling a "winter's tale". Her tale begins, for the first time in English as far as we know, with the phrase, "Once upon a time. . ." The story she tells, about a princess kidnapped by a sorcerer and the various characters who try to rescue her, is then acted, while she and the clowns remain on stage and occasionally comment on the action. The play has some passages in common with Greene's Orlando Furioso; we don't know which play came first and which borrowed from the other. This was a re-read. It was in Brooke and Paradise and on the Elizabethan Drama website.

[Stuart Levy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read "The Old Wives' Tale", but t's actually good to read non-Shakespeare plays written during the same time period to realize how different they can be.