ed.

editor’s emendation

Q1

First Quarto of 1600

Q2

Second Quarto of 1610

Q3

Third Quarto of 1618

s.d.

stage direction

s.p.

speech prefix

Bowers

Fredson Bowers (ed.), The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker, 5 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953)

Deloney

Thomas Deloney, The Pleasant and Princely History of the Gentle Craft (London, 1637)

Hall

The Collected Poems of Joseph Hall, Bishop of Exeter and Norwich, ed. Arnold Davenport (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1949)

Henslowe

Henslowe’s Diary, ed. R. A. Foakes, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001)

Hoy

Cyrus Hoy, Introductions, Notes, and Commentaries to Texts in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979)

O.E.D.

The Oxford English Dictionary, ed. J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner, 20 vols., 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989)

Palmer

D. J. Palmer (ed.), The Shoemakers’ Holiday (London: Ernest Benn, 1975)

Parr

Anthony Parr (ed.), The Shoemaker’s Holiday (London: A & C Black, 1990)

Smallwood and Wells

Robert L. Smallwood and Stanley Wells (eds.), The Shoemaker’s Holiday (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1979)

Spenser

The Works of Edmund Spenser: A Variorum Edition, ed. E. Greenlaw et al., 9 vols. (Baltimore: MD, 1932-49)

Steane

J. B. Steane (ed.), The Shoemaker’s Holiday (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965)

Tilley

M. P. Tilley, Proverbs in England in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1950)

Kind gentlemen and honest boon companions, I present you here

with a merry conceited comedy called The Shoemaker’s Holiday,

acted by my Lord Admiral’s Players this present Christmas before

the Queen’s most excellent Majesty; for the mirth and pleasant

matter by her Highness graciously accepted, being indeed no way

5

offensive. The argument of the play I will set down in this epistle:

Sir Hugh Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, had a young gentleman of his own

name, his near kinsman, that loved the Lord Mayor’s daughter of

London; to prevent and cross which love, the Earl caused his kins –

man to be sent colonel of a company into France, who resigned his

10

place to another gentleman his friend, and came disguised like a

Dutch shoemaker to the house of Simon Eyre in Tower Street, who

served the Mayor and his household with shoes; the merriments

that passed in Eyre’s house, his coming to be Mayor of London,

Lacy’s getting his love, and other accidents; with two merry three-

15

man’s songs. Take all in good worth that is well intended, for

nothing is purposed but mirth. Mirth lengtheneth long life, which

with all other blessings I heartily wish you.

THE KING OF ENGLAND

SIR HUGH LACY, EARL OF LINCOLN

ROLAND LACY, Lincoln’s nephew; afterwards disguised as HANS MEULTER

ASKEW, Lacy’s cousin

5

CORNWALL

LOVELL

DODGER, servant to Lincoln

SIR ROGER OATLEY, Lord Mayor of London

ROSE, Oatley’s daughter

10

SYBIL, Rose’s maid

HAMMON, a city gentleman

WARNER, Hammon’s brother-in-law

SCOTT, a friend of Oatley’s

SIMON EYRE, shoemaker and afterwards Lord Mayor

15

MARGERY, Eyre’s wife

HODGE (nickname of ROGER), Eyre’s foreman

RALPH DAMPORT, a journeyman of Eyre’s

JANE, Ralph’s wife

FIRK, a journeyman of Eyre’s

20

A Dutch Skipper

A Boy, working for Eyre

A Boy, with the hunters

Noblemen, Soldiers, Huntsmen, Shoemakers, Apprentices,

Servants