In less than ten years Henry Glapthorne wrote seven surviving, plays, and another four lost plays (The Duchess of Fernandia,The Noble Husbands,The Noble Trial,The Vestal) are attributed to him. This production record, as well as a number of his poems ("Prologue to a reviv'd Vacation Play" and "Prologue for Ezekiel Fen at his first Acting a Mans Part," for example), probably mark him as a professional playwright attached to a theater and writing speculatively or under contract. A. H. Bullen, who included Glapthorne's The Lady Mother in A Collection of Old English Plays (1882-1887), observed correctly that "Any one who has had the patience to read the Plays of Henry Glapthorne cannot fail to be amused by the bland persistence with which certain passages are reproduced in one play after another. Glapthorne's stock of fancies was not very extensive, but he puts himself to considerable...