Details
ROWLEY, Samuel (d. ca 1633). The Noble Souldier. Or, a Contract Broken, Justly Reveng'd. A Tragedy. London: Printed [by John Beale] for Nicholas Vavasour, 1634.
4o (172 x 120 mm). (Lacking A1 blank, title cropped affecting first line of text, few small stains on last leaf, few headlines shaved.) 19th-century red half morocco (lightly rubbed). Provenance: John Mitford (signature and note dated 1811 on flyleaf); Beverly Chew (bookplate); Henry E. Huntington; John L. Clawson (bookplate); Samuel Wyllis Bandler (John Fleming in Four Oaks Library, 1967, p. 102).
FIRST EDITION. The running title of the play is "The Noble Spanish Soldier" and Vavasour, the publisher, entered it under that title on 9 December 1663 as written by Thomas Dekker. Dekker may have assisted Rowley in the composition, or completed the drama after his death. It appears also to have been entered in 1631 as the work of Dekker. Since the anonymous editor's preface notes that the author was dead at the time of publication, it seems likely that Dekker in fact was mainly responsible for the piece. Two characters in the play are taken wholly from John Day's Parliament of Bees, supposed to have been written about 1607. Rowley was Philip Henslowe's "covenanted servant," employed first as a reader and reviser of manuscripts submitted to Henslowe. Greg 490; STC 21416.
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FIRST EDITION. The running title of the play is "The Noble Spanish Soldier" and Vavasour, the publisher, entered it under that title on 9 December 1663 as written by Thomas Dekker. Dekker may have assisted Rowley in the composition, or completed the drama after his death. It appears also to have been entered in 1631 as the work of Dekker. Since the anonymous editor's preface notes that the author was dead at the time of publication, it seems likely that Dekker in fact was mainly responsible for the piece. Two characters in the play are taken wholly from John Day's Parliament of Bees, supposed to have been written about 1607. Rowley was Philip Henslowe's "covenanted servant," employed first as a reader and reviser of manuscripts submitted to Henslowe. Greg 490; STC 21416.