"The King's Entenainment" by the Duke of Newcastle

" 'The King's Entertainment' by the Duke of Newcastle." "The King's Entertainment" by William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle (1593-1676) survives in a single manuscript copy made by the Duke's secretary John Rolleston. Written for Charles II some time between May and the autumn of 1660, this royal show is of particular importance because of its textual relationship with Newcastle's Restoration comedy The Triumphant Widow (London 1677), generally assumed to have been written in collaboration with the playwright Thomas Shadwell. The first part of this article contains a physical description of the manuscript and examines the evidence regarding the date of composition. The second part reassesses the respective contribution of Newcastle and Shadwell to The Triumphant Widow in the light of "The King's Entertainment," and concludes that the Duke had a greater part in its authorship than literary historians have previously allowed. A diplomatic edition of the text follows in Appendix 1.