Henry Porter (playwright) - Works

Works

The Two Angry Women of Abington has been compared favourably in style and quality to The Merry Wives of Windsor. It is a rollicking country piece including two comic characters, Dick Coomes and Nicholas Proverbes, who are advertised in the title page of one original edition. Henslowe records several payments in 1598 for the book and costumes for the play, but it must have been performed before 1589, as there is a reference to these characters in Plaine Percevall, a pamphlet published that year in response to Martin Marprelate.

Henslowe's Diary mentions other plays, Love Prevented (1598), Hot Anger soon Cold, with Henry Chettle and Ben Jonson (1598), the second part of The Two Angry Women of Abingdon (1598), The Four Merry Women of Abingdon (1599), and The Spencers (1599), with Chettle. It is possible that “the second part of the Two Angry Women” was not a separate work, and it is not known whether the later plays were delivered before Porter’s death. In 1598 Porter and Chettle were paid 20 shillings by Henslowe to write a play called The Second Part of Black Batman of the North. It has been suggested that some of the money received from Henslowe by Porter was used to pay Chettle’s debts. The considerable sums paid to Porter prove that his plays were popular, although the entries suggest he was unreliable. Henslowe notes that the advance to Porter and Chettle was made after Porter “hath geven me his worde for the performance of the same and all so for my money”. In February 1599 Henslowe acquired the sole rights of any play in which Porter had a hand, in return for a considerable advance of forty shillings. Porter’s borrowings became more frequent, and the sums allowed less.