XI.—Tom Tyler and his Wife

The comedy which appears in the following pages is reprinted from “the second impression,” as it is called on the title page, made by Francis Kirkman in the year 1661: the first edition is apparently no longer extant. Francis Kirkman occupies an interesting position in the history of the English drama as the first man to interest himself in the collection and preservation of old English plays. To him we owe the reprint of Lust's Dominion, which has been attributed to Marlowe, of The Thracian Wonder, of Gammer Gurton's Nedle, and of other plays; and from Kirkman we have the first attempt at a catalogue of English dramas, the foundation on which Langbaine, Baker, Reed, and others were later to build. The earlier form of Kirkman's “an exact Catalogue of all the playes that were ever yet printed” appeared as a supplement to the present play, and included six hundred and ninety items. A few years later Kirkman had increased his list to eight hundred and six. He tells us that he had seen and read all these plays and that he possesses most of them, which he is willing to sell or lend upon reasonable consideration.