''Grim the Collier of Croyden; or, The Devil and his Dame: with the Devil and Saint Dunston'' is a seventeenth-century play of uncertain authorship, first published in 1662. The play's title character is an established figure of the popular culture and folklore of the time who appeared in songs and stories – a body of lore the play draws upon. The London coal and charcoal industry was centred on

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

, to the south of London in

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

; the original Grimme or Grimes was a real individual of the middle sixteenth century.

History

On 6 May 1600 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 ...

records a payment to playwright William Haughton for a play called ''The Devil and His Dame''. H. Dugdale Sykes made a case for Haughton's authorship of ''Grim'' based on common features with Haughton's play '' Englishmen for My Money,'' a case that is accepted by some commentators. ''Grim'' first appeared in print in 1662 in a

duodecimo Paper size standards govern the size of sheets of paper used as writing paper, stationery, cards, and for some printed documents. The ISO 216 standard, which includes the commonly used A4 size, is the international standard for paper size. I ...

drama collection titled ''Gratiae Theatrales; or, A Choice Ternary of English Plays,'' a volume that also contains the plays ''The Marriage Broker'' and ''Thorny Abby; or, The London Maid.'' The collection assigns ''Grim'' to "I. T." (which in modern usage could be "J. T.");

John Tatham John Tatham (fl. 1632–1664) was an English dramatist of the mid-17th century. He was a strong Cavalier. Hatreds Little is known of Tatham personally. He was a Cavalier, with a hatred of the Puritans and of the Scots – he went so far as to ...

has been proposed as one possible candidate for "I. T." Reports of earlier editions of ''Grim,'' in 1599, 1600, and 1606, have proved unverifiable. The inclusion of a collier and a devil in ''Grim'' seems to link it to an earlier play with the same elements. ''Like Will to Like,'' an old play (c. 1568) by

Ulpian Fulwell Ulpian Fulwell (1545/6 – before 1586) was an English Renaissance theatre playwright, satirist and poet. Later as a Gloucestershire parish priest, he appears to have neglected his duties. Church, stage and satire Born one of the two sons of a l ...

, appears to have been acted by

Pembroke's Men The Earl of Pembroke's Men was an Elizabethan era playing company, or troupe of actors, in English Renaissance theatre. They functioned under the patronage of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. Early and equivocal mentions of a Pembroke's compan ...

at Henslowe's Rose Theatre on 28 October 1600; the old play may have influenced ''Grim,'' or its revival may have been a response to it. (Fulwell's play employs the traditional tune "Tom Collier of Croydon hath sold his coals.") Grim the Collier also appears in the old (c. 1565) play ''Damon and Pythias,'' by

Richard Edwardes Richard Edwardes (also Edwards, 25 March 1525 – 31 October 1566) was an English poet, playwright, and composer; he was made a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, and was master of the singing boys. He was known for his comedies and interludes. H ...

; both plays employ the same joke, absurdly identifying the character as "collier to the King's own majesty's mouth." One of the sources for ''Grim'' is Machiavelli's novel ''

Belfagor arcidiavolo ''Belfagor arcidiavolo'' (" Belfagor the archdaemon") is a novella by Niccolò Machiavelli, written between 1518 and 1527, and first published with his collected works in 1549. The novella is also known as ''La favola di Belfagor Arcidiavolo'' ...

;'' the play's treatment of Saint

Dunstan Saint Dunstan (c. 909 – 19 May 988) was an English bishop. He was successively Abbot of Glastonbury, Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Bishop of Worcester, Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury, later canonised as a saint. His work restor ...

draws upon the ''

Golden Legend The ''Golden Legend'' (Latin: ''Legenda aurea'' or ''Legenda sanctorum'') is a collection of hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine that was widely read in late medieval Europe. More than a thousand manuscripts of the text have survived.Hilary ...

'' of

Jacobus de Voragine Jacobus de Voragine (c. 123013/16 July 1298) was an Italian chronicler and archbishop of Genoa. He was the author, or more accurately the compiler, of the ''Golden Legend'', a collection of the legendary lives of the greater saints of the medie ...

. ''Grim'' is one in a long series of devil plays that unite Elizabethan drama with the Medieval drama from which it grew.Leggatt, Alexander. ''Jacobean Public Theatre''. London, Routledge, 1992; pp. 67-70. Later examples include Dekker's ''If This Be Not a Good Play the Devil is in It'' (1611–12) and Jonson's '' The Devil is an Ass'' (1616).

Synopsis

The

devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...

Belphagor comes to live on Earth for a time, to investigate reports that women have grown extreme in their misbehaviors and have made marriage a curse. He disguises himself as a Spanish doctor named Castiliano. He offers to cure a mute woman named Honoria if she will marry him in return – a proposal that is accepted by the young woman and her family. Once he cures her, however, she repudiates her marital promise, calling him a "base Spaniard" who she wouldn't allow her slave to marry. All the English seem to turn on him: he is bed-tricked into marrying Honoria's shrewish maid, who cheats on him; one of the maid's former suitors tries to kill him; and his wife eventually poisons him. Castiliano dies just as Belphagor's predetermined time on Earth expires, and the devil returns to

Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

with great relief at escaping the toils of earthly existence and its ferocious females. (The play's depiction of its devil is surprisingly restrained; he is described as "patient, mild, and pitiful," and is rather a

sympathetic character A sympathetic character is a fictional character in a story whom the writer expects the reader to identify with and care about, if not admire. Protagonists, almost by definition, fit into the category of a sympathetic character; so, however, do ma ...

than otherwise. Its infernal domain, ruled by

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...

, is a mixture of Christian and classical elements.) In the play's subplot, Grim the collier is a simple and good-hearted soul who is devoted to his love, Joan of Badenstock. After complications with Clack the Miller and Parson Shorthose, Grim wins her in the end, with the help of Puck or Robin Goodfellow (alias Akercock; in this play, a devil like Belphagor). Grim-the-collier is also the common name for ''

Pilosella aurantiaca ''Pilosella aurantiaca'' (fox-and-cubs, orange hawk bit, devil's paintbrush, grim-the-collier) is a perennial flowering plant in the family Asteraceae that is native to alpine regions of central and southern Europe, where it is protected in seve ...

'' (sometimes under the genus ''Hieracium''). Other common names are Orange Hawkweed, Fox and Cubs, Devil's paintbrush and Red devil.

References

External links

Text of the play
at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

.
Text of the play
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Grim the Collier of Croydon 17th-century plays English Renaissance plays