Anonymous, A Warning for Fair Women

Emily O'Brien (Trinity College Dublin)

Ed. by William M. Hamlin, Washington State University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1599 - 1599

Places

England (Country of Origin; Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

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A Warning for Faire Women

is an anonymous domestic tragedy, first printed in 1599. It is noteworthy for its representation of a real sixteenth-century murder which took place in 1573. It interweaves realistic and allegorical action, including an induction scene featuring a conversation between the personified genres of Comedie, Historie, and Tragedie, and lengthy courtroom and execution scenes at the conclusion. The date of the play’s first composition and staging are unknown, but the title page of the 1599 quarto edition states that it “hath been lately diuerse times” performed by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, the company that also produced Shakespeare’s plays. It was published in an original spelling modern edition in 1975 (Cannon, 1975).

On 25 March 1573, a London merchant named

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1914 words

Citation: O'Brien, Emily. "A Warning for Fair Women". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 March 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35679, accessed 19 April 2024.]

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