Elizabethan England hated Spain, and the hatred was con- tinued
all through the reign of Elizabeth's successor. Thus if came about that in 1624 there was produced (to quote a con- temporary account) " a very scandalous Comedic acted pub- lick-1y by the King's Players, wherein they take the boldnes and presumption in a rude and dishonorable fashion to repre, sent on the Stage the persons of his Majestic, the King of Spaine, the Conde de Gondornar, the Bishop of Spalato, &c." The author (prudently " shifting out of the way ") was threatened with imprisonment, and his play " antiquated and syleneed." This was Thomas Middleton's A Game at Ches4e, which Mr. R. C. Bald now edits for the Cambridge University Press (12s. 6d.), and which Swinburne said was " the only work of English poetry which may properly be called Aristo- phanic." The four extant MS. texts—a fifth having emerged only last year—together with the three quartos, have been carefully collated by Mr. Bald, who has prefaced the book with a short sketch of the historical background and the stage- history of the play and ended it with a series of notes both textual and explanatory of the historical allusions.
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