SOURCE: Maidment, James and Logan, W. H. “Prefatory Notice.” In The Dramatic Works of Shackerley Marmion. pp. ix-xxii. London: H. Sotheran & Co., 1875.

In the following essay, Maidment and Logan provide some background on Marmion and his family, discuss the editions of his major works, and delineate the “Argument” and “Mythology” of Cupid and Psyche.

The name of the author of the following plays, three in number, has been variously spelt and its correct pronunciation consequently rendered doubtful. On the title-page of the first play, printed in 1632, he is called “Schackerley Marmyon, Master of Arts;” next year, on the second, he is entered as “Shakerley Marmyon;” and, thirdly, in 1641, he appears as “Shackerly Mermion, Gent.” Although Mr Singer, in his elegant reprint of this author's Poem of Cupid and Psyche, which emanated from the Chiswick Press in 1820, inclines to call him Shakerley Marmion, our bias, guided by the preponderance...