Francis Kirkman - Theatrical Bibliography

Theatrical Bibliography

Kirkman’s greatest contribution to literary history is his catalogues of plays. In 1671 he wrote "I have been these twenty years a Collector of plays, and have conversed with, and enquired of those that have been Collecting these fifty years". Kirkman's catalogues expanded upon two earlier lists, published in the first quartos of The Careless Shepherdess and The Old Law (both 1656).

The first catalogue, attached to an edition of Tom Tyler and his Wife (1661), included 690 plays published England. Kirkman claimed to have read them all, and be ready to sell or lend them, “upon reasonable considerations”. In 1671 he expanded to list 806 plays, attached to a translation of Pierre Corneille’s Nicomede. For the first time he listed them not by title, but by author, for the most popular authors. Kirkman listed 52 plays attributed to Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, with Ben Jonson the next most productive at 50, and William Shakespeare third with 48. This was probably an accurate representation of their comparative popularity at the time. It must also be an indication of his reputation that Kirkman advertised books for sale at the sign of The John Fletcher’s Head, only the second author thought worthy of this, (the first being Jonson). Shakespeare never This list provided the basis for the work of Gerard Langbaine, which became the main source for English drama to the end of the seventeenth century.