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A REASON sometimes given for attributing 1 Henry VI to Lord Strange's Men is the "epitaph" in which Sir William Lucy delivers what turns out to be a posthumous tribute to the English hero Sir John Talbot, who, unknown to Lucy, has died in battle some twenty-eight Unes earlier:
But where's the great Alcides of the field,
Valiant Lord Talbot, Earle of Shrewsbury?
Created, for his rare successe in Armes,
Great Earl of Washford, Waterford, and Valence,
Lord Talbot of Goodrig and Vrchinfield,
Lord Strange of Blackmere, Lord Verdón of Alton,
Lord Cromwell of Wingefield, Lord Fumiuall of Sheffeild,
The thrice-victorious Lord of Falconbridge,
Knight of the Noble Order of S. George,
Worthy S. Michael and the Golden Fleece,
Great Marshall to Henry the sixt
Of all his Warres within the Realme of France.
(4.7.60-71; Folio TLN 2295-305)
Noting that Thomas Nashe's tribute to a play depicting Talbot's death appeared in Pierce Penilesse (1592), a work which praises Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange of Knokyn, scholars have often picked "Lord Strange of Blackmere" from this list of titles as evidence that 1 Henry VI is the "harey the vj" that, according to Philip Henslowe's theatrical diary, was performed at Henslowe's Rose Theatre in 1592-93 by "my lord Stranges mene."1 Michael Hattaway, for example, states that Ferdinando Stanley was "a descendant of the Lord Talbot who appears in the play." Michael Taylor observes, in connection with Talbot's title "Lord Strange of Blackmere" that "the current Lord Strange was patron" of the company that performed "harey the vj." Roger Warren argues that "Lord Strange may have commissioned a play about Talbot, an earlier Lord Strange." Paul J. Vincent states that "Lord Strange, the patron of an acting company which first performed harey the vi, was a descendant of the play's protagonist, Lord Talbot," and he suggests that "the playwright(s) were concerned to flatter the patron of the commissioning acting company." I have helped to perpetuate this error by referring in an earlier essay to Talbot as Ferdinando Stanley's "titular ancestor."2 It is the purpose of what follows to correct this error, but in a way that nevertheless makes it clear that act 4 scene 7, which most scholars attribute to the hand of Shakespeare, must have been written...