John Denham | Biography

John Denham's reputation as a playwright rests solely upon "A Tragedy, called The Sophy," entered in the Stationers' Register on 6 August 1642 by Thomas Walkley and published in the same year in folio form. Reprinted three times in Poems and Translations, WithThe Sophy (1668, reprinted 1671 and 1684), the play perhaps was never acted either prior to the closing of the theaters in 1642 or during the Restoration. There is no firm evidence to support the statement on the title page of the 1642 edition that it "was acted at the Private House in Black Friars by his Majesties Servants." The possibility of a court performance--inferred from the existence of "The Prologue at Court" included by Theodore H. Banks in The Poetical Works of Sir John Denham (1928)--has totally vanished since the prologue is now known to belong to William Habington's The Queen of Aragon. Nor did...
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