DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks

1642 Denham, John The Sophy

Reference Information

DEEP #: 997
Greg #: 622a
STC/Wing #: D1009
Record Type: Single-Play Playbook
Play Type: Adult Professional
Genre (Annals): Tragedy
 
Book Edition: 1
Play Edition: 1
Format: Folio
Leaves: 31
Date of First Publication: 1642
Date of First Production: 1642 [1641(?); licensed for stage, 1642]
Company of First Production: King's Men
Company Attribution: King's Men
 
Total Editions: 1 folio

Title-Page Features

Title: THE SOPHY.
Author:
Performance: As it was acted at the Private House in Black Friars by his Majesties Servants.
Imprint: LONDON, Printed by Richard Hearne for Thomas Walkley, and are to be sold at his shop at the Signe of the Flying Horse betweene York-house and Britaines Burse. 1642.

Paratextual Material

Character List: "Actors" [A2v]

Stationer Information

Printer: Hearne, Richard
Publisher: Walkley, Thomas
Imprint Location: X.12 (Westminster - York House)
Entries in Stationers' Register: Aug 6, 1642: Entered to Thomas Walkley: "two bookes vizt. A Tragedy called *The Sophy. ... both of them by Mr Iohn Denham" [in margin "vide Liber E: fol. 179"].
Feb 4, 1650: Transferred from Thomas Walkley to Humphrey Moseley: "a play called The Sophy a tragedy written by Mr Iohn Denham Esqr".
 
Additional Notes: Annals dates the first production of this play to 1641(?), but N. W. Bawcutt supplies a transcript of Henry Herbert's license from 1642: "The Sophy, by Sir John Denham alld to kings Comp. 1642" (The Control and Censorship of Caroline Drama [Clarendon, 1996], 210).