Albion Knight (play)

Albion Knight is a Tudor political interlude published circa 1566. Only a fragment of the text is extant, consisting of 408 lines out of a presumed original total of around 1,500 lines.[1]

Synopsis

The play's allegorical characters are reminiscent of the morality play tradition: Albion, Dame Plenty, Division, Double Device, Injury, Justice, Old Debate, Maintenance, Peace, Principality and Rest. Injury and Division stir up trouble by suggesting that law and justice are not administered impartially in England. They hatch a plot to sow further discord by sending false or inflammatory messages to various characters.

Date of composition

In 1913, Madeleine Hope Dodds argued that Albion Knight was written circa 1537 or 1538 in response to the Pilgrimage of Grace.[2] In 1918, Gwen Ann Jones suggested that the poem was of Elizabethan composition, having been written in 1566.[3] In 2026, Jonathan McGovern argued that the poem was more likely written circa 1533 and is a pre-Reformation text.[4]

Editions

A modern-spelling edition was published by John S. Farmer in 1906.[5] Earlier original-spelling editions had appeared in 1844 and 1909.[6][7]

References

  1. ↑ Grantley, Darryll (2009). English Dramatic Interludes, 1300-1580: A Reference Guide. Cambridge University Press. p. 14. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511483592. ISBN 9780511483592.
  2. ↑ Dodds, Madeleine Hope (April 1913). "The Date of 'Albion, Knight'". The Library. s3-IV (14): 157–170. doi:10.1093/library/s3-IV.14.157. ISSN 0024-2160.
  3. ↑ Jones, Gwen Ann (1918). "The Political Significance of the Play of Albion Knight". The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 17: 267–280. JSTOR 27700872.
  4. ↑ McGovern, Jonathan (2026). "A Reconsideration of the Date of Composition of the Tudor Interlude Albion Knight". Notes & Queries gjag098. doi:10.1093/notesj/gjag098.
  5. ↑ Farmer, John S. (1906). Six Anonymous Plays. Privately Printed. pp. 117–132.
  6. ↑ Collier, John Payne (1848). "Albion, Knight; A Moral Play". The Papers of the Shakespeare Society. 1: 55–68.
  7. ↑ Greg, W. W. (1909). Collections Part III. Malone Society. pp. 229–242.
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