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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2019
William Gager, the leading writer of Academic Latin drama at Oxford in the late sixteenth century, celebrated on 6, 7, and 8 February 1591/2 the most sustained triumph of his dramatic career. On Sunday 6 February, his new play Ulysses Redux received its first performance at Christ Church. On the following day, Monday 7 February, his famous comedy Rivales, first performed in June 1583 before the Polish Prince Alasco, was revived for a second performance. On Tuesday 8 February (Shrove Tuesday) Seneca's tragedy Hippolytus was presented. Gager expanded the play for this occasion by writing some additional scenes, including a Prologue and Epilogue of his own. At the end of the performance of Hippolytus, Gager brought on to the stage first the figure of Momus, the carping critic, and then an ‘Epilogus Responsivus’ who refuted Momus’ objections one by one.
I am grateful to the British Museum for permission to reproduce the text of Gager's additional scenes from its copy of Meleager; to the Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California, for permission to reproduce the text of the Prologue and Epilogue from its copy of Ulysses Redux; to Mr. Paul Morgan of the Bodleian Library for informing me of the existence of the Corpus Christi College, Oxford, copy of Meleager; and to my colleague Mr. C. D. N. Costa for some valuable help, especially with the translation: any errors which remain are of course my own.
1 For information on Gager, see especially Brooke, C. F. Tucker, ‘The Life and Times of William Gager (1555-1622)’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, xcv (1951), 401–431 Google Scholar, and Boas, Frederick Samuel, University Drama in the Tudor Age (Oxford, 1914), especially pp. 165–219 Google Scholar. Bradner, Leicester, Musae Anglicanae (New York, 1940), pp. 61–65 Google Scholar, discusses Gager's non-dramatic poems. Gager's work has remained largely unpublished in modern times. The two acts of his tragedy Dido which are contained in his manuscript book (British Museum Add. MS. 22583) were edited by Rev. Dyce, Alexander as an Appendix to his edition of The Works of Christopher Marlowe (London, 1865), pp. 391–397 Google Scholar. Gager's scenes on the Oedipus story, also contained in his manuscript book, were edited by Bowers, R. H., ‘William Gager's Oedipus’, Studies in Philology, XLVI (1949), 141–153 Google Scholar. Gager's long poem Pyramis has been edited by Tucker Brooke, C. F., Trans. Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, XXXII (1936), 247–349 Google Scholar. C. F. Tucker Brooke also edited a few of Gager's shorter poems: ‘ Gager, William to Elizabeth', Queen, Studies in Philology, XXIX (1932), 160–175 Google Scholar, and ‘Some Pre-Armada Propagandist Poetry in England (1585-1586)’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, LXXXV (1941), 71-83. In addition, Gager's letter to John Rainolds in defense of Academic drama has been edited by Young, Karl, ‘William Gager's Defence of the Academic Stage’, Trans. Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, XVIII (1916), 593–638 Google Scholar.
2 There has been some confusion over the date of performance of Ulysses Redux and whether it was the first or the last play to be performed, and so I will try to clarify the matter here. a) The Christ Church accounts refer to the performance of two tragedies and one comedy at ‘shrovetyde last 1592’. (Boas, University Drama, pp. 196-197.) As Boas inferred, and Hiscock, Walter George confirms with further evidence, ‘Plays 1548-1945’, A Christ Church Miscellany (Oxford, 1946), p. 175 Google Scholar, this refers to Shrovetide 1591/2, not I592/3- b) The title page of Ulysses Redux says that it was ‘In Aede Christi Oxoniae PubHce Academicis Recitata octavo Idus Februarii. 1591.'—i.e., 6 February 1591 \i (Shrove Sunday). Boas accepted that the play had been performed on a Sunday, since this was established by the correspondence between Gager and Dr. John Rainolds (see n. 5 below) on the propriety of Academic acting, but he mistakenly thought that Shrove Sunday fell on 5 February (Boas, University Drama, p. 197, n.). Boas’ error was pointed out by Chambers, E. K. in his review of University Drama, Modern Language Review, xi (1916), 358–360 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. c) The figure of Momus, whom Gager brought on to the stage to criticize the performance of all three plays, says: Hesterna qualis exiit Comaedia? Amata sine rivale, Rivales, suis. (Ulysses Redux, Sig. F4r) [What kind of Comedy was performed yesterday? The Rivals, loved by its friends without rival.] Since Ulysses Redux was acted on Sunday 6 February, this can only mean that Rivales was acted on Monday 7 February, and that Momus was speaking on Tuesday 8 February, after the performance of Seneca's Hippolytus with Gager's additions. Boas finally arrived at the view that this was indeed the order of performance (University Drama, p. 197, n.)— although on p. 201 he states that Ulysses Redux was performed on the night following Hippolytus, a slight slip which he no doubt made when still holding to his earlier view that Ulysses Redux was the last of the three plays to be performed. Boas had been led to this view by the fact that the speeches of Momus and the ‘Epilogus Responsivus’ are printed at the end of Ulysses Redux (Sigs. F3v-F4r).
3 See DNB. s.v. Rainolds, and Boas, University Drama, pp. 230-232.
4 See DNB. s.v. Gentili.
5 The documents in the controversy are fully listed by Chambers, Edmund Kerchever, The Elizabethan Stage (Oxford, 1945), IV, 245 Google Scholar. The most important documents are two letters from Rainolds to Gager, of 10 July 1592 and 30 May 1593, and Gager's letter of 31 July 1592 replying to Rainolds’ first letter. Rainolds’ letters were printed and comprise the bulk of a volume entitled Th’ Overthrow of Stage-Playes ([Middleburgh], 1599). Gager's letter to Rainolds was edited by Karl Young—op. cit., n. 1.
6 These alterations and additions by the Senecan translators which I cite are pointed out by Spearing, Evelyn Mary, The Elizabethan Translations of Seneca's Tragedies (Cambridge, 1912), pp. 16 Google Scholar, 27-28, 39.
7 Heywood, Jasper, Preface to ‘Troas’ in Seneca, His Tenne Tragedies, translated into Englysh (London, 1581)Google Scholar, Sig. OIv (p. 96a).
8 Léon Émile Kastner and Charlton, Henrey Buckley, The Poetical Works of Sir William Alexander Earl of Stirling, Scottish Text Society, 2nd ser., 11 (London and Edinburgh, 1921), 1 Google Scholar, clxxii.
9 Ulysses Redux, Sig. P4r.
10 Overthrow, p. 122 (op. cit., n. 5). I modernize long s in my quotations from Rainolds' letters. I emend the reading of the 1599 edition, pecce, to peece, following the reading of the Middleburgh, 1600, and the Oxford, 1629, editions.
11 Overthrow, p. 20.1 amend to heate the reading of the text heale.
12 Overthrow, p. 24.
13 Rainolds’ letter in which he refuses the invitation to the Christ Church plays has been edited by Young, Karl, ‘An Elizabethan Defence of the Stage’, Shakespeare Studies By Members of the Department of English of the University of Wisconsin (Madison, 1916), pp. 103–124 Google Scholar.
14 Overthrow, p. 105.
15 Gager, Letter to Rainolds, 31 July 1592, ed. Young, 626-627.
16 In a marginal note, Rainolds refers to the lines in Nais’ final speech (11. 261, 262, 264, 271, 273-275, below).
17 Rainolds, Overthrow, pp. 106-107.
18 Rainolds refers in a side note to 2 Samuel xiii. II .
19 Rainolds, Overthrow, pp. 107-108.
20 Rainolds, Overthrow, p. 111.
21 ‘hath none bene dressed at noone, to play at night? and hath it not bene towards midnight, ere some playes ended?’ (Overthrow, p. 101.)
22 Boas gives an account of Queen Elizabeth's visit, University Drama, pp. 252-267. Gager's prologues and epilogue are printed in his Meleager, Sigs. F6r-F7r.