Attributing Authorship to Bodleian MS Douce 171: A Seventeenth-Century Comedy by Arthur Wilson

Abstract

anonymous dramatic composition. It lacks a title, but based on the names of its two protagonists Martin Wiggins refers to the play as ‘Comedy of Stella and Alexis’ (hereafter ‘Stella and Alexis’).1 The text is fragmentary, ending abruptly after the first scene of the Third Act, and the surviving portion has undergone significant authorial revision.2 While ‘Stella and Alexis’ was acknowledged by twentieth-century bibliographers, none investigated its origins in any depth. E. K. Chambers includes the play in his list of ‘Anonymous Work’, where he declares only that there is no con nection with Philip Massinger’s Alexius, or the Chaste Lover, a lost play that was licensed in 1639.3 W. W. Greg does not discuss ‘Stella and Alexis’ at any length, but he likewise dismisses the possibility of a connection with Massinger’s work.4 G. E. Bentley provides a transcription of the Argument and Character List, but offers little by way of analysis: he comments briefly on the contents of the surrounding manuscript volume and the different hands contained therein.5 Wiggins’ catalogue entry is the most detailed treat ment of the manuscript to date, although he offers no serious guess about the play’s authorship. In this essay, I propose that ‘Stella and Alexis’ is far more significant than these scholars have realized. I argue that the