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magic with a German named
Vandermast, witnessed by the Kings of England and Castile and by the Emperor of Germany. In collaboration with another magician, Friar Bungay, Bacon labours toward his greatest achievement: the creation of a talking artificial head made of brass, animated by demonic influence, that can surround England with a protective wall of the same metal. Yet Bacon's inability to remain awake and the incompetence of his servant Miles spoil the opportunity. (The brazen head speaks three times, saying "Time is", "Time was", and "Time is past", then falls to the floor and shatters. Miles does not have the wit to wake his master in time.) Finally, Bacon inadvertently allows two young
22:
158:; the Q2 title page states that the play was "lately played by the Prince Palatine his Servants" – the Admiral's Men in a later incarnation. A third quarto followed in 1655 from Jean Bell. Contemporary allusions indicate that the play was even more popular than its limited publication history indicates; references to the play are common in the literature of the era.
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Another level of plot involves Friar Bacon and his magic. Bacon displays a range of magical skills: he shows Edward the romance of Lacy and
Margaret in his magic glass, and interrupts their wedding at a distance; he magically transports a tavern hostess from one place to another; he wins a contest of
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Friar Bacon. Edward also employs a more conventional approach, relying on the eloquence of his friend Earl Lacy to help with the seduction. Lacy goes to persuade
Margaret, but quickly falls in love with her himself. When Edward learns of the love of Lacy and Margaret, he threatens to kill his friend
281:
squires
Serlesby and Lambert: they both fancy themselves in love with her, and kill each other in a duel. Margaret receives a letter from the absent Lacy, renouncing his love for her. She decides to enter a nunnery, but Lacy intercepts her before she takes her vows, and tells her that he was only
317:
MS., annotated by prompters, mentions the name of John
Holland, an actor who was with Lord Strange's Men in the early 1590s. This has suggested to some researchers that the Friar Bacon play acted by Strange's Men on 19 February 1592 was this second part of the story rather than the original
290:
to witness their fathers' duel in the magic glass; in response the students themselves duel, and kill each other. Appalled by this outcome, Bacon renounces magic and turns to a life of repentance. His bad servant Miles, haunted by Bacon's conjured devils, gets a promise of a
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cannot be fixed with certainty on the basis of the available evidence; the play is normally dated to the 1588–92 period. 1589 may be the single most likely year: a line in the play's opening scene, "Next Friday is S. James", fixes St. James's Day (25 July, the feast day of
109:(c. 1590). Yet since none of the plays in question can be dated with absolute certainty, the nature of the relationships among them are open to question and cannot resolve the pertinent dating issues.
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testing her constancy. After an understandable hesitation, Margaret accepts Lacy's conduct and his explanation; they are married – together with Edward and Elinor – at the end of the play.
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193:(1219/20 – c. 1292), the thirteenth-century polymath who later enjoyed a popular reputation as a magician. The second friar was Bacon's late contemporary
611:
498:
Parker, Bernard Street. "Thomas de
Bungeye's Commentary on the First Book of Aristotle's 'De Caelo'." Dissertation Abstracts, Vol. XXIX, No. 5, 1968.
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and Greene's 1592 death; manuscript versions, and perhaps one or more earlier printed editions, underlie the 1627 text. The relationship between
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is recognised as a groundbreaking play in terms of multiple-plot structure; different scholars have identified three plots, or two, or four.
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128:; it was acted again by a combination of the Queen's Men and Sussex's Men on 1 April 1594. The play then passed into the repertory of the
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60:. Widely regarded as Greene's best and most significant play, it has received more critical attention than any other of Greene's dramas.
270:– before he masters his passion and reconciles himself to the fact. Edward returns to court, where he falls in love with and marries
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The
Predecessors of Shakespeare: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama.
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The supposed 1599 edition, sometimes encountered, is simply a mistaken copy of Mrs. Allde's 1630 edition.
399:
49:
470:
431:
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Lincoln, NE, University of
Nebraska Press, 1973; pp. 69–72; see also pp. 56–68, 72–9>
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560:"Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (Read Not Dead) @ Shakespeare's Globe, Park Street Rehearsal Room"
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The beautiful
Margaret is the unwilling cause of a quarrel between two of her neighbours, the
170:(c. 1555?). The earliest extant printed edition of this work dates from 1627, long after both
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Greene's primary source for his play was an anonymous sixteenth-century prose romance titled
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and other plays of its era, some of which may have served as sources, has been noted above.
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was connected with several other prominent figures of the later Middle Ages, including
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Greene's play also has relationships with several other plays of its era, most notably
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412:, New York: reprinted 1916 by Norwood Press for the Macmillan Co., pp. 433–502
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The story was redone for children in 1905 as "Roger Bacon and the Brazen Head" for
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154:. The title page assigns the play to Greene. A second quarto was issued in 1630 by
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and the rhetoric of temporality." In: Gordon McMullan and David
Matthews, eds.
436:, The Fortune Play Books, London: Westminster Press for Robert Holden & Co.
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also has a complex set of commonalities with the earlier Medieval drama of the
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295:'s job in Hell from one of them, and rides to perdition on the devil's back.
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Albany, NY, State University of New York Press, 1975; pp. 136–53.
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476:. 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923; Vol. 3, pp. 328–9.
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Representative English Comedies: From the Beginnings to Shakespeare
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77:) as a Friday, which was true in 1589. Some critics argue that the
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to write a Prologue and Epilogue for a Court performance in 1602.
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written to build upon the success of the original play. The
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Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007; pp. 53–4.
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Meaning in Comedy: Studies in Elizabethan Romantic Comedy.
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reproduced in facsimile 1914 by The Tudor Facsimile Texts
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The Honorable Historie of Frier Bacon, and Frier Bongay
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The Honorable Historie of frier Bacon, and frier Bongay
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The title page of the play's first edition states that
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The Honourable History of Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay
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The Honorable Historie of Frier Bacon and Frier Bongay
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The Honorable History of Frier Bacon and Frier Bungay
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on 14 May 1594, and was published later that year in
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John of Bordeaux, or The Second Part of Friar Bacon
234:formed the brazen head, only to have it broken by
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457:Logan, Terence P., and Denzell S. Smith, eds.
124:performed the play on 19 February 1592 at the
81:in Greene's play was inspired by the magic in
513:Reading the Medieval in Early Modern England.
261:, plans to seduce Margaret, the Fair Maid of
218:In addition to Roger Bacon, the tale of the
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274:, the bride his father has chosen for him.
120:, as were several of Greene's other plays.
426:, an abridgment of Prof. Gayley's edition.
29:. The engraving shows the magical talking
532:, New Series XVI (1985), pp. 17–34.
524:Hieatt, Charles W. "Multiple Plotting in
197:(c. 1214 – c. 1294). Bungay was a fellow
612:Biographical plays about English royalty
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398:Gayley, Charles Mills, ed. (1903),
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402:Honourable Historie of Frier Bacon
189:The "Friar Bacon" of the title is
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335:Thirty More Famous Stories Retold
168:The Famous History of Friar Bacon
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558:Kirwan, Peter (9 June 2013).
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509:Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay
430:Harrison, G.B., ed. (1927),
421:Frier Bacon and Frier Bungay
362:, London: Edward White, 1594
337:. In 2013, television actor
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144:Stationers' Register
132:; that company paid
507:Williams, Deanne. "
343:Shakespeare's Globe
325:Modern performances
228:Gerbert of Aurillac
213:Minister Provincial
75:St. James the Great
230:. In one account,
224:Robert Grosseteste
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339:David Oakes
267:necromancer
220:brazen head
191:Roger Bacon
56:written by
50:Elizabethan
31:brazen head
596:Categories
446:References
377:, London:
199:Franciscan
203:Aristotle
83:Marlowe's
546:41920155
353:Editions
349:season.
288:Oxonians
208:De Caelo
101:Faustus;
48:, is an
584:430–431
565:11 June
293:tapster
279:Suffolk
162:Sources
106:Fair Em
64:History
33:at top.
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381:, 1630
299:Sequel
148:quarto
54:comedy
542:JSTOR
320:FBFB.
311:FBFB,
79:magic
567:2013
244:Plot
226:and
180:FBFB
176:FBFB
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