Ashley MS 4352

'The Laws of Corinth': an unfinished play by Algernon Charles Swin-burne; [1857?]. Autograph fair copy, with revisions, written on both sides of twenty-two leaves of white ruled quarto paper, and on one side only of another (f. 1). Watermarks 'Fellows / 1849' (ff. 3, 10), 'Edward Smith / 1846' (ff. 15, 18, 19, 22) and the figure of Britannia (the remainder). Ashley Library Catalogue, vi, p. 41. As follows:―

1. Dramatis Personae and 'editor's note' (in the play Swinburne maintains the fiction that it was first printed in 1609 and reprinted in 1623 and that he is really the editor). f. 1a.

2. Act I. ff. 2-19b.

3. Act II (the act is unfinished). ff. 20-23b.

The hand and ink found in the MS. suggest a date of circa 1857, while the paper is identical with that found in the "Hyperion" notebook in the Mitchell Library, Sydney, New South Wales, in which several poems can be dated to 1857. The present MS. probably once formed part of the "Hyperion" notebook. The play appears to be an abandoned attempt to treat of a theme which is more successfully undertaken in "The Loyal Servant" (Ashley 4357). The date of the two plays, which are both written in a pastiche of Jacobean English, and which both pretend to be editions of Jacobean printed plays, is therefore presumably close in time, with 'The Loyal Servant' following 'The Laws of Corinth' virtually as a second draft. Ashley Library No. 4353 in the Department of Printed Books is a typewritten transcript of 5352.

Quarto; ff. ii+23.

Drama ENGLISH: Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet: Play, 'The Laws of Corinth', by Algernon Charles Swinburne: [1857?]: Autogr. fair copy with revisions.