Rollo Duke of Normandy - Performance and Publication

Performance and Publication

Details of the play's earliest productions are not preserved in the historical record. The play was seen at the Globe Theatre on 13 May 1633, and was acted at Hampton Court Palace on 24 January 1637 (new style). It was entered into the Stationers' Register on 4 October 1639 by the booksellers John Crook and Richard Sergier, as the work of "J. B." It was first published later in 1639, in a quarto printed by R. Bishop for John Crook and Thomas Allot, under the title The Bloody Brother. The title page of this quarto attributes the play to "B. J. F." A second quarto appeared in 1640 under the title The Tragoedy of Rollo Duke of Normandy, published at Oxford by stationer Leonard Lichfield, "Printer to the University." Q2 assigns the play to Fletcher, and asserts that it was acted by the King's Men. Q2 appears to derive from a theatre prompt-book, while Q1 shows less sign of direct contact with the stage and is a more "literary" text. The play was included in the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679.