Keep the Widow Waking
Encyclopedia
Keep the Widow Waking is a lost Jacobean play, significant chiefly for the light it throws on the complexities of collaborative authorship in English Renaissance drama.
A Late Murder of the Son Upon the Mother, or Keep the Widow Waking was a tragedy
licensed by the Master of the Revels
(the Court official in charge of regulating drama) in September 1624
, as the work of John Ford
and John Webster
("Written by Forde, and Webster," the record states). Such an entry in the Revels accounts is generally accepted by scholars as strong evidence of authorship. In the case of this play, however, documents relating to a lawsuit are preserved in the Public Records Office in London—documents that include testimony by Thomas Dekker that Keep the Widow Waking was actually written by Dekker, Ford, Webster, and William Rowley
.
This cluster of dramatists was known to have been working together in the early 1620s. Webster and Rowley would write A Cure for a Cuckold
a year later (1625
); and The Spanish Gypsy
(1623
) was perhaps written by Dekker, Ford, and Rowley. The Witch of Edmonton
dates from 1621
; the first published text of that play (1658
) states that it was written by Dekker, Ford, Rowley, "&c." Scholars have generally ignored the "et cetera" and treated the play as the work of Ford, Dekker, and Rowley; yet the example of Keep the Widow Waking suggests that the "&c." should perhaps not be dismissed lightly.
A Late Murder of the Son Upon the Mother, or Keep the Widow Waking was a tragedy
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
licensed by the Master of the Revels
Master of the Revels
The Master of the Revels was a position within the English, and later the British, royal household heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels" that originally had responsibilities for overseeing royal festivities, known as revels, and later also became responsible for stage censorship,...
(the Court official in charge of regulating drama) in September 1624
1624 in literature
The year 1624 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*The King's Men perform The Winter's Tale at Whitehall Palace on January 18...
, as the work of John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
and John Webster
John Webster
John Webster was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, which are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. He was a contemporary of William Shakespeare.- Biography :Webster's life is obscure, and the dates...
("Written by Forde, and Webster," the record states). Such an entry in the Revels accounts is generally accepted by scholars as strong evidence of authorship. In the case of this play, however, documents relating to a lawsuit are preserved in the Public Records Office in London—documents that include testimony by Thomas Dekker that Keep the Widow Waking was actually written by Dekker, Ford, Webster, and William Rowley
William Rowley
William Rowley was an English Jacobean dramatist, best known for works written in collaboration with more successful writers. His date of birth is estimated to have been c. 1585; he was buried on 11 February 1626...
.
This cluster of dramatists was known to have been working together in the early 1620s. Webster and Rowley would write A Cure for a Cuckold
A Cure for a Cuckold
A Cure for a Cuckold is a late Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Webster and William Rowley. The play was first published in 1661, though composed some four decades earlier.-Date and performance:...
a year later (1625
1625 in literature
The year 1625 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - The King's Men act Henry IV, Part 1 at Whitehall Palace....
); and The Spanish Gypsy
The Spanish Gypsy
The Spanish Gypsy is an English Jacobean tragicomedy, dating from 1623. It is interesting to modern readers, students, and scholars principally because of the question of its authorship....
(1623
1623 in literature
The year 1623 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*February 2 - The King's Men perform Twelfth Night at Court on Candlemas....
) was perhaps written by Dekker, Ford, and Rowley. The Witch of Edmonton
The Witch of Edmonton
The Witch of Edmonton is an English Jacobean play, written by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford in 1621.The play—"probably the most sophisticated treatment of domestic tragedy in the whole of Elizabethan-Jacobean drama"—is based on supposedly real-life events that took place...
dates from 1621
1621 in literature
The year 1621 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*August 26 - Barten Holyday's allegorical play Technogamia, originally produced at Christ Church, Oxford in 1618, is staged before King James at Woodstock Palace...
; the first published text of that play (1658
1658 in literature
The year 1658 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* Molière arrives in Paris to act at the Louvre.* Edward Phillips continues the Chronicle of the Kings of England from the Time of the Romans' Government unto the Death of King James to this date.-New books:* Sir Thomas Browne -...
) states that it was written by Dekker, Ford, Rowley, "&c." Scholars have generally ignored the "et cetera" and treated the play as the work of Ford, Dekker, and Rowley; yet the example of Keep the Widow Waking suggests that the "&c." should perhaps not be dismissed lightly.