The Old Wife's Tale

Author(s): Peele, George
Note: Date of first performance from Wiggins, vol. 2, p. 146.
Date of composition:
  • 1592 (best guess, Wiggins, vol. 3, p. 146)
  • 1588 -1595 (Wiggins, vol. 3, p. 146)
Date of first performance: 1592 approx.
Date of first publication: 1595
Genre (Annals): Romance
Genre: comedy [source of genre: 1595 quarto title page]

Catalogue references: Wiggins: 913 (Vol. 3)
  • 1595 quarto Danter, John Hancock, Ralph; Hardy, John Printed title: HE Old Wiues Tale. A pleasant conceited Comedie, single-play print
      ESTC: S110404 19545 211 137a
      EEBO-TCP: A09232 - Huntington Library - EEBO record - TCP HTML XML HTML
      Observations: Greg, W.W., ed. The Old Wives Tale, by G.P[eele]. From the edition of 1595. Oxford: Malone Society, 1908. Malone Society Reprints 11.
      Facsimile: Peele, George. The Old Wives Tale, 1595. Menston: Scolar Press, 1970.

  • STC/WING:
  • ESTC:
  • DEEP:
  • Greg:
  • Wiggins: 913

Early Performances

  • Company: Queen Elizabeth's Men Venue: Date: 1595 ?
    Cast:
      Location: Venue type:
      Note: “Before August 1592: the cast may have included Simon Jewell (Churchwarden)” (Wiggins, vol. 3, p. 149)
      Information source: Wiggins, Martin. British Drama 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Volume 3: 1590-1597. 2013.
    • Company: Queen Elizabeth's Men Venue: Date: 1590 approx,
      Cast:
        Location: Venue type:
        Note: Harbage et al. set date limits between 1588 and 1594
        Information source: Harbage, Alfred; Schoenbaum, Samuel; Wagonheim, Sylvia Stoler. Annals of English Drama, 975-1700, 3rd edition. 1989.

      Modern editions

      • Shaughnessy, Robert, ed. Four Renaissance Comedies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, pp. 1-32.
      • Whitworth, Charles, ed. Three Sixteenth-Century Comedies. London and New York: E. Benn and W.W. Norton, 1984, pp. 215-272.
      • Wain, John, ed. The Old Wives' Tale. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1983, pp. 617.
      • Binnie, Patricia, ed. The Old Wives Tale. Peele, George. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1980. The Revels Plays.
      • Hook, Frank S., ed. The Old Wives Tale. In: Prouty, Charles T.; Benbow, R. Mark; Blistein, Elmer; Hook, Frank S., ed. The Life and Works of George Peele, III : The Dramatic Works of George Peele. The Araygnement of Paris; The Old Wives Tale. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1970, pp. 297-443
      • Blair, Robert Lee An Edition of George Peele's ‘Old Wives' Tale’ . In: . Univ. of Illinois, 1936. Doct. dissertation.
      • Brooke, Charles F. Tucker; Burton Paradise, Nathaniel, ed. English Drama 1580-1642. Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1933.

      Select Bibliography: Translations

      • FR:
        • Peele, George. "Le conte de la bonne femme". Tra. de Kisch, Marie-Anne. Ed. Cottegnies, Line; Laroque, François; Maguin, Jean-Marie. Théâtre élisabéthain. Paris: Gallimard, 2009. Vol. 1.
      • DE:
        • Peele, George. Altweibermär: Eine Wiederentdeckung aus Shakespeares Tagen. Tra. Harbecke, Ulrich J.. Weinheim: Deutscher Laienspiel-Verlag, 1967. Das Bühnenspiel. (Orig: Old Wife's Tale)

      Select Bibliography: Criticism

      • Abrams, Lynn. "Story-Telling, Women's Authority and the 'Old Wife's Tale': 'The Story of the Bottle of Medicine'". History Workshop Journal. 2012, vol. 1, 73, p. 95-117.
      • Hanabusa, Chiaki. "'Simon' and the Date of George Peele's 'The Old Wives' Tale'". Notes and Queries. 2012, vol. 4, 59 (257), p. 508-511.
      • Cox, John D. "Homely Matter and Multiple Plots in Peele's Old Wives Tale". Ed. Bevington, David. George Peele. Surrey: Ashgate, 2011, p. 157-173.
      • Viguers, Susan T. "The Hearth and the Cell: Art in 'The Old Wives Tale'". Ed. Bevington, David. George Peele. Surrey: Ashgate, 2011, p. 235-247.
      • Edwards, Philip. "'Seeing Is Believing': Action and Narration in 'The Old Wives Tale' and 'The Winter's Tale'". Ed. Bevington, David. George Peele. Oxford: Ashgate, 2011, p. 175-189.
      • Hiscock, Andrew. "'Hear My Tale or Kiss My Tail!': 'The Old Wife's Tale', 'Gammer Gurton's Needle', and the Popular Cultures of Tudor Comedy". Ed. Pincombe, Mike; Shrank, Cathy. The Oxford Handbook of Tudor Literature, 1485-1603. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 733-748.
      • Lamb, Mary Ellen. "Virtual Audiences and Virtual Authors: 'The Winter's Tale', 'The Tempest', and 'Old Wives' Tales'". Ed. Lamb, Mary Ellen; Wayne, Valerie. Staging Early Modern Romance: Prose Fiction, Dramatic Romance, and Shakespeare. New York: Routledge, 2009, p. 122-142.
      • Merten, Kai. "Broadside Ballads und 'Old Wives' Tales': Zur Intermedialität des Erzählens in Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale'". Shakespeare Jahrbuch. 2006, 142, p. 47-59.
      • Ardolino, Frank. "Erastianism in Peele's 'The Old Wives Tale'". Discoveries: Online Publications of the South-Central Renaissance Conference. 2005, vol. 2, 22, .
      • Ardolino, Frank. "The Protestant Context of George Peele's 'Pleasant Conceited' ¡Old Wives Tale¡". Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England: An Annual Gathering of Research, Criticism and Reviews. 2005, 18, p. 146-65.
      • Wells, Marion. "Mistress Taleporter and the Triumph of Time: Slander and Old Wives' Tales in The Winter's Tale". Shakespeare Survey: An Annual Survey of Shakespeare Studies and Production. 2005, 58, p. 247-59.
      • Ardolino, Frank. "Peele's Attack on Simony in 'The Old Wives Tale'". ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews. 2004, vol. 1, 17, p. 9-11.
      • Lamb, Mary Ellen. "Engendering the Narrative Act: 'Old Wives' Tales' in The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, and The Tempest". Criticism: A Quarterly for Literature and the Arts. 1998, vol. 4, 40, p. 529-53.
      • Moffett, A. S. "Process and Structure Shared: Similarities between the Commedia dell'Arte and 'The Old Wives Tale' of George Peele". New England Theatre Journal. 1993, 4, p. 97-105.
      • Jenkins, Ron. "'The Old Wives Tale': A Study in Folkloric Narrative". Journal of the Society of English and American Literature. 1991, vol. 1, 36, p. 1-24.
      • Disbrow, Sarah. "The Wife of Bath's Old Wives' Tale". Studies in the Age of Chaucer: The Yearbook of the New Chaucer Society. 1986, 8, p. 59-71.
      • Edwards, Philip. "'Seeing Is Believing': Action and Narration in 'The Old Wives Tale' and 'The Winter's Tale'". Ed. Honigmann, E. A. J. Shakespeare and His Contemporaries: Essays in Comparison. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1986, p. 79-93.
      • Free, Mary G. "Audience within Audience in The Old Wives Tale". Renaissance Papers. 1983, , p. 53-61.
      • Lieblein, Leanore. "Doubling as a Language of Transformation: The Case of 'The Old Wives Tale'". Ed. Jones-Davies, Marie-Thérèse. Du Texte à la scène: Langages du théâtre. Paris: Touzot, 1983, p. 225-243.
      • Cope, Jackson I. "Peele's 'Old Wives Tale': folk stuff into ritual form". ELH: journal of English literary history. 1982, 42, p. 326-38.
      • Denjean, Alber. "Euphorie et dysphorie dans 'The Old Wives' Tale d'A. Bennett". Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens: Revue du Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Victoriennes et Edouardiennes de l'Université Paul Valéry. 1982, 15, p. 79-86.
      • Cope, Jackson I. "Peele's 'Old Wives Tale': Folk Stuff into Ritual Form". ELH. 1982, vol. 2, 49, p. 326-38.
      • Renwick, Roger de V. "The Mummers' Play and The Old Wives Tale". Journal of American Folklore. 1981, vol. 374, 94, p. 433-455..
      • Viguers, Susan T. "The hearth and the cell: art in 'The Old Wives Tale'". Studies in English Literature 1500-1900. 1981, 21, p. 209-21.
      • Marx, Joan C. "'Soft, Who Have We Here?' The Dramatic Technique of 'The Old Wives Tale'". Renaissance Drama. 1981, 12, p. 117-143.
      • Viguers, Susan T. "The Hearth and the Cell: Art in The Old Wives Tale". SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. 1981, vol. 2, 21, p. 209-21.
      • Grove, Thomas N. "Some Observations on the 'Marvellous' 'Old Wives' Tale'". Studia Anglica Posnaniensia: An International Review of English Studies. 1979, 11, p. 201-02.
      • Cox, John D. "Homely Matter and Multiple Plots in Peele's 'Old Wives Tale'". Texas Studies in Literature and Language: A Journal of the Humanities. 1978, 20, p. 330-46.
      • Dearlove, J. E. "Artistic Control and an All-Embracing Compassion in The Old Wives' Tale". Arnold Bennett Newsletter Glencoe. 1977, vol. 2, 2, p. 76-89.
      • Siegel, Paul N. "Revolution and Evolution in Bennett's The Old Wives' Tale". Clio: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History. 1975, 4, p. 159-72.
      • Doebler, John. "The Tone of George Peele's 'The Old Wives' Tale'". English Studies: A Journal of English Language and Literature. 1972, 53, p. 412-21.
      • Bratcher, James T. "Peele's Old Wives' Tale and Tale-Type 425A". Ed. Colquitt, Betsy F. Studies in Medieval, Renaissance, (and) American Literature:A Festschrift. {Falta nombre ciudad}: Texas Christian U.P, 1971, p. 95-102.
      • Rockey, Laurilyn J. "The Old Wives Tale as Dramatic Satire". Educational Theatre Journal. 1970, 22, p. 268-75.
      • Musgrove, S. "Peele's Old Wives Tale: An Afterpiece?". Journal of the Australasian Universities Language and Literature Association: A Journal of Literary Criticism, Philology & Linguistics. 1965, 23, p. 86-95.
      • Bradbrook, M. C. "Peele's Old Wives' Tale: A Play of Enchantment". English Studies: A Journal of English Language and Literature. 1962, 43, p. 323-330.
      • Lyons-Render, Sylvia. "Folk Motifs in George Peele's 'The Old Wives Tale'". Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin. 1960, 26, p. 62-71.
      • Wilson, Robert H. "Reed and Warton on the 'Old Wives Tale". PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America. 1940, vol. 2, 55, p. 605-08.
      • Larsen, Thorleif. "The Date of Peele's ¡Old Wives' Tale¡". Modern Philology: A Journal Devoted to Research in Medieval and Modern Literature. 1932, vol. 1, 30, p. 23-28.
      • Clapp, Sarah L. C. "Peele's Use of Folk-Lore in 'The Old Wives' Tale'". Studies in English. 1926, 6, p. 146-156.

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