1983 — Gutes Ex. - Englisch; Latein. - Matthew Gwinne or Gwynne (ca. 1558-1627) was born in London. It is known that before teaching Physics at Gresham College in London he began his career as a fellow of St. John's College, Txford, where, besides his profession of medicine, he distinguished himself as a playwright. In the dedicatory letter to the 1607 edition of Vertumnus he states that he had been professing medicine for twenty and teaching it for fourteen years. The comedy Vertumnus is his second play, his tragedy Nero having ceen printed in 1603. Vertumnus was performed in 1605, on the occasion of the first ceremonial visit to Oxford of King James I, accompanied by Henry, Prince of Wales, the Queen, and the court. The performance took place on the Christ Church stage on the 23th August, the third night of the visit. Though well acted cy a company consisting chiefly of St. John's men, the play met with as little success as the two plays which had preceded it on the previous nights (the pastoral Alba and the tragedy Ajax Flagellifer). The King fell asleep in the middle of the performance although the author in courteous anticipation of his presence had given the actors the opportunity of extolling him in a eulogy at three different moments in the play: in the prologue, in the fourth act, and in the epilogue. By contrast, the King had been delighted to see the open-air informal interlude Tres Sibyllae, also written by Gwinne, which was acted in front of St. John's College on the day of the King's entry into Oxford. ... (Vorwort) ISBN 9783487072050
