DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks

1638 Shirley, Henry The Martyred Soldier

Reference Information

DEEP #: 884
Greg #: 533a(*)
STC/Wing #: 22435
Record Type: Single-Play Playbook
Play Type: Adult Professional
Genre (Annals): Tragedy
 
Book Edition: 1
Play Edition: 1
Format: Quarto
Leaves: 40
Date of First Publication: 1638
Date of First Production: 1618(?) [re-licensed for stage, Aug 28, 1623]
Company of First Production: Queen Anne's Men
Company Attribution: Queen Henrietta Maria's Men
 
Total Editions: 1 quarto
 
Variants: The dedication exists in two states: in Greg 533a(*), it is signed "I. K."; in Greg 533a(†), it is signed "Io. Kirke." See also Greg 533a(†)

Title-Page Features

Title: THE MARTYR'D Souldier:
Author: The Author H. SHIRLEY Gent.
Performance: As it was sundry times Acted with a generall applause at the Private house in Drury lane, and at other publicke Theaters. By the Queenes Majesties servants.
Imprint: LONDON: Printed by I. Okes, and are to be sold by Francis Eglesfield at his house in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Mary-gold. 1638.

Paratextual Material

Dedication: "The Epistle Dedicatory" to: Kenelm Digby (natural philosopher and courtier); from: "Io. Kirke" [A2r]
To the Reader: "To the Courteous Reader" [A3v]; "To the Reader of this Play now come in Print" (in verse) [K2v]
Character List: "The Actors Names" [A4v]

Stationer Information

Printer: Okes, John
Bookseller: Eglesfield, Francis
Imprint Location: A.3 (Paul's Churchyard - Northeast)
Entries in Stationers' Register: Feb 15, 1638: Entered to John Okes: "a Play called the Martyred Soldiour. [by deleted] wth the life & Death of Purser Clinton by H: Shirley". (Since the character Purser Clinton is not in this play, the second part of the entry may refer to another text; Purser and Clinton are characters in Thomas Heywood and William Rowley's Fortune by Land and Sea.)
 
Additional Notes: On the dating, license, and company attribution of this play, see N. W. Bawcutt, The Control and Censorship of Caroline Drama (Clarendon, 1996), 143-44. STC lists the Marigold bookshop in an unknown location (B) in Paul’s Churchyard. But in The Bookshops in Paul’s Cross Churchyard (London: Bibliographical Society, 1990), Peter W. M. Blayney argues that the Marigold bookshop was probably formerly part of the Brazen Serpent and therefore located in A.3 of Paul’s Churchyard (21-22).