_Q. Dor._[298] Thy policy, my Nano, shall prevail.-- Come, royal father, enter we my tent:-- And, soldiers, feast it, frolic it, like friends:-- My princes, bid this kind and courteous train Partake some favours of our late accord. Thus wars have end, and, after dreadful hate, Men learn at last to know their good estate. [_Exeunt omnes._ GEORGE-A-GREENE, THE PINNER OF WAKEFIELD The first Quarto of _George-a-Greene_ was printed in 1599 by Simon Stafford for Cuthbert Burby. It had been entered by Burby on the Stationers' Registers four years earlier, 1st April 1595, as an interlude. Henslowe's first notice of the play occurs for 29th December 1593, at which date it was performed by Sussex' men at the Rose, these players possibly having secured the play from the Queen's players. Henslowe records five performances between 29th December 1593 and 22nd January 1594, sometimes under the major title, and sometimes under the title _The Pinner of Wakefield_. The play was reprinted in Dodsley's _Old Plays_ in 1744. Neither on the title-page, nor on the Stationers' Registers, nor by Henslowe, is the name of the author mentioned. For long it was supposed that the play was by John Heywood. It was finally assigned to Greene through the discovery by Collier of a copy of the Quarto of 1599 with the following notes on the title-page:-- "Written by ... a minister who act[ed] th[e] pinners pt in it himselfe. Teste W. Shakespea[re]. Ed. Juby saith that ye play was made by Ro. Gree[ne]." These notes are in different hands, and as against the adverse testimony of internal structure, their evidence in favour of Greene's authorship is of slight weight. With the exception of the episode of the King of Scotland and Jane a' Barley the play is founded on a romance, _The Famous History of George-a-Greene_, etc., first printed in 1706 by an editor, N. W., from a MS. now in Sion College. Whether there was a printed Elizabethan version, or the author of the play used the MS., it is now impossible to say. The romance is now reprinted in Thoms' _Early English Prose Romances_, Vol. II. In the Bodleian Library there is a black-letter romance of 1632, treating the same subject, but its story is evidently not the basis of the play. The Quarto of the play, which is owned by the Duke of Devonshire, is very poorly printed, and many scenes have been curtailed. DRAMATIS PERSONÆ EDWARD, King of England. JAMES, King of Scotland. EARL OF KENDAL. EARL OF WARWICK. LORD BONFIELD. LORD HUMES. SIR GILBERT ARMSTRONG. SIR NICHOLAS MANNERING. GEORGE-A-GREENE. MUSGROVE. CUDDY, his son. NED-A-BARLEY. GRIME. ROBIN HOOD. MUCH, the Miller's son. SCARLET. JENKIN, George-a-Greene's man. WILY, George-a-Greene's boy. JOHN. Justice. Townsmen, Shoemakers, Soldiers, Messengers, etc. JANE-A-BARLEY BETTRIS, daughter to Grime. MAID MARIAN. _GEORGE-A-GREENE, THE PINNER[299] OF WAKEFIELD_ ACT THE FIRST SCENE I.--_At Bradford._