Henry Porter (died June 1599) was an English dramatist who is known for one surviving play, ''The Two Angry Women of Abington'', and for the manner of his death. He was stabbed by another playwright.

Life

Very little is known about Henry Porter's life beyond the entries in 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 ...

the theatre manager. He is described as a "gentleman" and a "poor scholar", and as the play is set in Abingdon, near

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, and shows knowledge of the area around Oxford it is assumed he studied there. Attempts to plausibly connect him with the records of the several Henry Porters at Oxford have been fruitless. He is known for one surviving play, ''The Two Angry Women of Abington,'' first published in two editions in London in 1599. ''The Two Angry Women'' was written before his first recorded work for Henslowe in 1598. Porter was praised by

Francis Meres Francis Meres (1565/1566 – 29 January 1647) was an English churchman and author. His 1598 commonplace book includes the first critical account of poems and plays by Shakespeare. Career Francis Meres was born in 1565 at Kirton Meres in the par ...

in his ''

Palladis Tamia ''Palladis Tamia: Wits Treasury; Being the Second Part of Wits Commonwealth'' is a 1598 book written by the minister Francis Meres. It is important in English literary history as the first critical account of the poems and early plays of William ...

'' in 1598 as one of "the best for Comedy amongst us". There is linguistic evidence that he may have contributed comic scenes to '' Dr. Faustus'' by

Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe (; baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Based upon the ...

Works

''The Two Angry Women of Abington'' has been compared favourably in style and quality to ''

The Merry Wives of Windsor ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' or ''Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare first published in 1602, though believed to have been written in or before 1597. The Windsor of the play's title is a ref ...

''. It is a rollicking country piece including two comic characters, Dick Coomes and Nicholas Proverbes, who are advertised in the title page of one original edition. Henslowe records several payments in 1598 for the book and costumes for the play, but it must have been performed before 1599, as there is a reference to these characters in ''Plaine Percevall'', a pamphlet published that year in response to

Martin Marprelate Martin Marprelate (sometimes printed as Martin Mar-prelate and Marre–Martin) was the name used by the anonymous author or authors of the seven Marprelate tracts that circulated illegally in England in the years 1588 and 1589. Their principal f ...

. Henslowe's Diary mentions other plays, ''Love Prevented'' (1598), ''Hot Anger soon Cold'', with

Henry Chettle Henry Chettle (c. 1564 – c. 1606) was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer of the Elizabethan era, best known for his pamphleteering. Early life The son of Robert Chettle, a London dyer, he was apprenticed in 1577 and became a me ...

and

Ben Jonson Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...

(1598), ''the second part of The Two Angry Women of Abingdon'' (1598), ''The Four Merry Women of Abingdon'' (1599), and ''The Spencers'' (1599), with Chettle. It is possible that "the second part of the Two Angry Women" was not a separate work, and it is not known whether the later plays were delivered before Porter's death. In 1598 Porter and Chettle were paid 20

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence o ...

s by Henslowe to write a play called ''The Second Part of Black Batman of the North''. It has been suggested that some of the money received from Henslowe by Porter was used to pay Chettle's debts. The considerable sums paid to Porter prove that his plays were popular, although the entries suggest he was unreliable. Henslowe notes that the advance to Porter and Chettle was made after Porter "hath geven me his worde for the performance of the same and all so for my money". In February 1599 Henslowe acquired the sole rights of any play in which Porter had a hand, in return for a considerable advance of forty shillings. Porter's borrowings became more frequent, and the sums allowed less.

Death

It is likely that the publication of ''The Two Angry Women of Abington'' was prompted by Porter's death. The last definite record of him is an

IOU An IOU (Abbreviation, abbreviated from the phrase "I owe you") is usually an informal document acknowledging debt. An IOU differs from a promissory note in that an IOU is not a negotiable instrument and does not specify repayment terms such as th ...

in his hand in Henslowe's diary on 26 May 1599. Leslie Hotson discovered the record of a case in the

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

Assizes, which records the death of a Henry Porter on 7 June 1599 in Southwark. He is recorded as having been struck a mortal wound in the left breast with a rapier "of the value of two shillings" the previous day. The killer is named as John Day, almost certainly the playwright of that name, who worked for

. Although collaboration was common there is no record of Porter and Day working together.

, with whom Porter did collaborate, described Day as a "rogue" and a "base fellow". Day was charged with murder, but admitted

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

, on the grounds of

self-defence Self-defense (self-defence primarily in Commonwealth English) is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force in ...

, his plea in formal terms being that "he fled to a certain wall beyond which, etc". Although it is not recorded he seems to have obtained a Royal Pardon. The

rapier A rapier () or is a type of sword with a slender and sharply-pointed two-edged blade that was popular in Western Europe, both for civilian use (dueling and self-defense) and as a military side arm, throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Impor ...

was a fashionable but particularly dangerous weapon, more likely to cause death than traditional swords. It is ironic that one of the characters in ''The Two Angry Women'' laments "this poking fight of a rapier and dagger" saying that "a good sword-and-buckler man will be spitted like a cat or a coney". The irony would be greater still if the author of this was the same Henry Porter granted a "Pardon de se defendendo."Shear, Rosetta E. " New Facts about Henry Porter," ''PMLA'' 42, No. 3 (1927): 641-55, at 642. There are parallels between the deaths of Henry Porter and his fellow playwright

: both were stabbed to death south of the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

in London, Marlowe in

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home to Deptford Dock ...

in 1593, and Porter in

in 1599; both deaths were explicated in modern times by

Leslie Hotson John Leslie Hotson, (16 August 1897 – 16 November 1992) was a scholar of Elizabethan literary puzzles. Biography He was born at Delhi, Ontario, on 16 August 1897. He studied at Harvard University, where he obtained a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. He we ...

References

*Hotson, Leslie M., The Adventure of a Single Rapier, Atlantic Monthly, July 1931 *Shear, Rosetta E. " New Facts about Henry Porter," ''PMLA'' 42, No. 3 (1927): 641-55. *Porter, Henry. ''The two angry women of Abington'', ed.

W. W. Greg Sir Walter Wilson Greg (9 July 1875 – 4 March 1959), known professionally as W. W. Greg, was one of the leading bibliographers and Shakespeare scholars of the 20th century. Family and education Greg was born at Wimbledon Common in 1875. H ...

(1913) *Henry Porter's ''The two angry women of Abington'', ed. M. B. Evett (New York, 1980) {{DEFAULTSORT:Porter, Henry 16th-century births 1599 deaths English Renaissance dramatists English murder victims People murdered in London Deaths by stabbing in London 16th-century English dramatists and playwrights English male dramatists and playwrights Murder in 1599

Life

Works

Death

See also

References