In 1551 Thomas Arden of Faversham was murdered at his own table by his wife Alice, her lover Mosby and a pair of hired killers. This play, printed in 1592, stages the plot from its first fumbling attempts to the fatal evening, with Black Will and Shakebag bungling their work along the way. Ronald Bayne’s 1897 Temple Dramatists edition follows the first quarto.
One of the earliest English domestic tragedies, still debated as possible early Shakespeare. Download the free EPUB.