Summer's Last Will and Testament - Date and Performance

Date and Performance

No external evidence indicates the date of the authorship or first performance of the play; but the text of the work is rich in allusions and references that bear upon the question of its date. The text refers to a progress through the English countryside by Queen Elizabeth I, and also to an outbreak of bubonic plague and a severe drought that lowered the level of the River Thames to an unusual extreme. Scholars agree that 1592 is the one year that best matches these references.

The play was not performed by professional adult actors in one of the London theatres, which in any case were closed due to the plague epidemic in 1592. References and allusions in the play suggest that the drama was staged in Croydon at Croydon Palace, the manor house of the Archbishops of Canterbury; the Archbishop at the time was John Whitgift. The cast was composed at least in part of amateurs, including boys who served as pages in the Archbishop's household; the cast may have been supplemented by experienced boy actors from the established London troupes, the Children of Paul's or the Children of the Chapel. The performance occurred "in this latter end of summer," probably in the second half of September or the first half of October 1592.