British Library, MS Egerton 1994
Egerton MS 1994 is a manuscript collection of English Renaissance plays, now in the Egerton Collection of the British Library. Probably prepared by the actor William Cartwright around 1642, and later presented by him to Dulwich College, the collection contains unique copies of several Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline dramas, including significant works like Edmund Ironside and Thomas of Woodstock.
The collection contains fourteen plays and an anonymous masque:The Elder Brother, by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger — folios 2-29Dick of Devonshire, attributed to Robert Davenport or Thomas Heywood — ff. 30-51The Captives, by Thomas Heywood — ff. 52-73The Escapes of Jupiter, by Thomas Heywood — ff. 74-95Edmund Ironside — ff. 96-118Charlemagne — ff. 119-35The Fatal Marriage or A Second Lucretia — ff. 136-60Thomas of Woodstock — ff. 161-85The Lady Mother, by Henry Glapthorne — ff. 186-211
- A masque — ff. 212-23The Two Noble Ladies and the Converted Conjurer — ff. 224-44Nero — ff. 245-67The Poor Man's Comfort, by Robert Daborne — ff. 268-92Love's Changelings' Change — ff. 293-316The Launching of the Mary, attributed to Walter Mountfort — ff. 317-49.
Some of the plays, like The Two Noble Ladies and the two Heywood works, are judged to be autograph scripts, in the handwriting of the authors. The untitled masque in the collection has strong commonalities with the work of George Chapman; it borrows a long passage from The Tragedy of Byron, suggesting Chapman influence rather than authorship.
The Launching of the Mary is a "first draft, written at different times, with different inks, and on different paper." The play was written at sea but subsequently supplied to a professional playing company when its author, Walter Mountfort, had returned to London.
The anonymous works in the collection have been the subject of attribution studies, and disagreements. Dick of Devonshire has been assigned to Davenport, but also to Heywood.