''The Love of King David and Fair Bethsabe'' is a play by

George Peele George Peele (baptised 25 July 1556 – buried 9 November 1596) was an English translator, poet, and dramatist, who is most noted for his supposed but not universally accepted collaboration with William Shakespeare on the play ''Titus Andronicus' ...

, based on the biblical story of

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

Bathsheba Bathsheba ( or ; he, בַּת־שֶׁבַע, ''Baṯ-šeḇaʿ'', Bat-Sheva or Batsheva, "daughter of Sheba" or "daughter of the oath") was the wife of Uriah the Hittite and later of David, according to the Hebrew Bible. She was the mother of ...

, and

Absalom Absalom ( he, ''ʾAḇšālōm'', "father of peace") was the third son of David, King of Israel with Maacah, daughter of Talmai, King of Geshur. 2 Samuel 14:25 describes him as the handsomest man in the kingdom. Absalom eventually rebelled ag ...

2 Samuel The Book of Samuel (, ''Sefer Shmuel'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the narrative history of Ancient Israel called the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Book ...

. Probably written in the early 1590s, it was entered into the

Stationers' Register The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including print ...

on 14 May 1594 and published in 1599, after Peele's death, by the printer Adam Islip. The 1599

quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

is problematic in many respects: inconsistencies and internal contradictions, as well as one obviously misplaced fragment of a scene, have led some scholars to conclude that it is a shortened and revised version of an originally longer work. The full title of the play, as it appears on the title page of the 1599 quarto, is ''The Love of King David and Fair Bethsabe, with the Tragedie of Absalon'', and in its surviving form David's relationship with his sons, Absalom in particular, is the main focus of attention, rather than relationship between David and Bathsheba. Peele follows the narrative in the book of Samuel closely, but it was not his only source: he also imitated and adapted a number of passages from the ''Semaines'' of the French religious poet Guillaume Du Bartas (1544–1590). Although few examples survive today, plays based on stories from the Bible were not uncommon in the

English Renaissance theatre English Renaissance theatre, also known as Renaissance English theatre and Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1558 and 1642. This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson ...

. Over a dozen are known to have been produced between 1588 and 1602 alone, from titles and production details preserved in sources such as the

and the diary of

Philip Henslowe Philip Henslowe (c. 1550 – 6 January 1616) was an Elizabethan theatrical entrepreneur and impresario. Henslowe's modern reputation rests on the survival of his diary, a primary source for information about the theatrical world of Renaissance ...

. Unlike late mediaeval

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...

and

morality Morality () is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper (right) and those that are improper (wrong). Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of cond ...

plays, which used biblical material in very different ways, most of the lost biblical plays of the late 16th century focused on the soldier kings and prophets of the Old Testament, and reflect the political interests and theatrical conventions of other Elizabethan historical dramas.; .

Notes

References

* * * * * * {{cite journal , last1=Sykes , first1=H. Dugdale , title=Peele's Borrowings from Du Bartas , journal=Notes and Queries , date=1924 , volume=147 , pages=349-351, 368-369 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n6cgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA349-IA2

External links

Quarto of 1599
scan
(Internet Archive) an
transcription
(EEBO-TCP) Plays based on the Bible English Renaissance plays