Transcriber's Note Endnotes have been moved to the end of the scene to which they apply. The following note preceded the printed endnotes: "In the Quartos there are no divisions of acts and scenes. A, B, C = 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Quartos." Italic text is marked by _underscores_, and bold text by ~swung dashes~. [Illustration] _THE TEMPLE DRAMATISTS_ ARDEN OF FEVERSHAM [Illustration] The text of this edition is nearly that of the first Quarto, the copy of which in the Dyce Library at South Kensington has been carefully collated. I have not noted minute variations. The German editors, Warnke and Proescholt, give the various readings of the three Quartos and of later editions. [Illustration: _Feversham Abbey._] ARDEN OF FEVERSHAM _Edited with a Preface, Notes and Glossary by_ REV. RONALD BAYNE M.A. J. M. DENT AND CO. ALDINE HOUSE : LONDON 1897 ‘Considering the various and marvellous gifts displayed for the first time on our stage by the great poet, the great dramatist, the strong and subtle searcher of hearts, the just and merciful judge and painter of human passions, who gave this tragedy to the new-born literature of our drama ... I cannot but finally take heart to say, even in the absence of all external or traditional testimony, that it seems to me not pardonable merely or permissible, but simply logical and reasonable, to set down this poem, a young man’s work on the face of it, as the possible work of no man’s youthful hand but Shakespeare’s.’ Mr. A. C. SWINBURNE. PREFACE ~Early Editions.~ On 3rd April, 1592, ‘_The Tragedie of Arden of Feversham and Blackwall_’[A] was entered on the Stationers’ Registers to Edward White. In the same year appeared, ‘_The lamentable and true Tragedie of M. Arden of Feversham in Kent. Who was most wickedlye murdered, by the meanes of his disloyall and wanton wyfe, who for the love she bare to one Mosbie, hyred two desperat ruffins, Blackwill and Shakbag, to kill him. Wherin is shewed the great mallice and discimulation of a wicked woman, the unsatiable desire of filthie lust and the shamefull end of all murderers. Imprinted at London for Edward White, dwelling at the lyttle North dore of Paules Church at the signe of the Gun._ 1592.’ A second Quarto, with the same title, was printed in 1599. A third, ‘_by Eliz. Allde dwelling neere Christs Church_,’ appeared in 1633. The second and third Quartos are founded textually upon the first, and their variations are of no value. The text of the first Quarto is unusually good even when prose and verse are mixed together, although the printer has apparently no scientific knowledge of the nature of metre. [Footnote A: A misprint for _Blackwill_.]