Our volume for 2010 is an anonymous play, The Emperor’s Favourite, edited by Siobhan Keenan of De Montfort University. This text, which is printed for the first time, is one of four manuscripts bound together in a single volume in the library of the Newdigate family of Arbury Hall, Nuneaton. This edition establishes a case for attributing the play to John Newdigate III (1600—1642), and proposes that its narrative of the rise and fall of Crispinus, favourite of the Emperor Nero, acts as a veiled critique of the influence of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, at the courts of James I and Charles I. The volume is handsomely illustrated with several colour plates showing the hand of the manuscript.
To purchase a copy of the Featured Volume, please contact Elizabeth Sharrett