British Library, MS Egerton 1994
Egerton MS 1994 is a manuscript collection of English Renaissance plays, now in the Egerton Collection of the British Library. Probably prepared by the actor William Cartwright around 1642, and later presented by him to Dulwich College, the collection contains unique copies of several Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline dramas, including significant works like "Edmund Ironside" and "Thomas of Woodstock". The collection contains fourteen plays and an anonymous masque: "Thomas of Woodstock" was one of Shakespeare's sources for his "Richard II", and "Edmund Ironside" has been attributed to Shakespeare by some commentators. Some of the  plays, like "The Two Noble Ladies" and the two Heywood works, are judged to be autograph scripts, in the handwriting of the authors. ("The Escapes of Jupiter" consists of excerpts from Heywood's "The Golden Age" and "The Silver Age".) The untitled masque in the collection has strong commonalities with the work of George Chapman; it borrows a long passage from "The Tragedy of Byron", suggesting Chapman influence rather than authorship. "The Launching of the Mary" is a "first draft, written at different times, with different inks, and on different paper." The play was written at sea but subsequently supplied  to a professional playing company when its author, Walter Mountfort, had returned to London. The anonymous works in the collection have been the subject of attribution studies, and disagreements. "Dick of Devonshire" has been assigned to Davenport, but also to Heywood.