_A Looking-Glass for London and England_ is first mentioned in Henslowe's _Diary_ as performed by Lord Strange's servants, 8th March 1592. At this time it was not a new play, and it is probable that it had first belonged to the Queen's players, to whom Greene was attached, and that it was by them turned over to Strange's company along with several other plays when the Queen's company went to the provinces in 1591. Henslowe records four performances of the play between 8th March and 7th June 1592. It was printed by Thomas Creede and entered on the _Stationers' Registers_, 5th March 1594, as written by Thomas Lodge and Robert Greene, gent. There is every indication that the play was successful. For two decades after its appearance Jonah and the Whale were popular in puppet-shows, and allusions in Beaumont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson and Cowley indicate the vogue of Nineveh on the puppet-stage. Five early quartos are mentioned by Collins: 1594, in the library of the Duke of Devonshire; 1598, in the Bodleian and the British Museum; 1602, in the British Museum; 1617, in the Bodleian and the British Museum; and apparently an actor's edition with many variants, formerly in Heber's Library, now in that of Mr Godfrey Locker Lampson, of the conjectural date 1598. The assignment of authorship of different portions of the play is difficult and not entirely profitable. Fleay assigns "most and best" of the play to Lodge. From their resemblance to the _Alarum Against Usurers_ Collins assigns the following scenes to Lodge: I. 3; II. 3; V. 2. He also assigns the speeches of Oseas and Jonas, and the scenes displaying marine technology, to Lodge, viz.: III. 2; IV. 1. (_See_ also Gayley, _Representative English Comedies_, p 405, n.) This play was one of the earliest in which Greene had a hand and has been rightly called "a modernised morality." DRAMATIS PERSONÆ RASNI, King of Nineveh. KING OF CILICIA. KING OF CRETE. KING OF PAPHLAGONIA. THRASYBULUS, a young gentleman, reduced to poverty. ALCON, a poor man. RADAGON, CLESIPHON, his sons. Usurer. Judge. Lawyer. Smith. ADAM, his man. First Ruffian. Second Ruffian. Governor of Joppa. Master of a Ship. First Searcher. Second Searcher. A Man in devil's attire. Magi, Merchants, Sailors, Lords, Attendants, etc. REMILIA, sister to RASNI. ALVIDA, wife to the KING OF PAPHLAGONIA. SAMIA, wife to ALCON. Smith's Wife. Ladies. An Angel. An Evil Angel. OSEAS. JONAS. _A LOOKING-GLASS FOR LONDON AND ENGLAND_ ACT THE FIRST SCENE I.--_The Palace of_ RASNI _in Nineveh._ _Enter_ RASNI, _with the_ KINGS OF CILICIA, CRETE _and_ PAPHLAGONIA, _from the overthrow of_ JEROBOAM, _King of Jerusalem._