Edward Sharpham

Cupid’s Whirligig, by Edward Sharpham (1576-1608), is a city comedy set in London about a husband that suspects his wife of having affairs with other men and is consumed with irrational jealousy. It was first published in quarto in 1607, entered in the Stationer’s Register with the name "A Comedie called Cupids Whirlegigge." It was performed that year by the Children of the King’s Revels in the Whitefriars Theatre (a private theatre) where Ben Jonson’s Epicene was also said to have been performed.

It was again published in 1611, 1616 and 1630, each with an epistle to Robert Hayman before the play, however, the only other record of it being performed is an amateur performance by apprentices at Oxford on 26 December 1631. Its authorship was not known until 1812, when scholars connected it to Edward Sharpham’s other play, The Fleire, written on 13 May 1606.

Edward Sharpham was baptised on 22 July 1576, the third son of Richard Sharpham of Colehanger, a manor in the parish of East Allington. His father having died when Sharpham was five his mother married Alexander Hext, with whom she had three children. Having been widowed a second time in 1588, she subsequently married Charles Barnaby of Clement's Inn.

Sharpham probably attended grammar school in Devon, possibly William Kemp's school in Plymouth. He was admitted to the Middle Temple on 9 October 1594.

In 1592 Sharpham's mother began a lawsuit against a Thomas Fortescue, alleging he had murdered her first husband by poison and also used witchcraft to make her fall in love with him. Four years later Sharpham himself also sued Fortescue and another man, William Bastard, on a charge of having tampered with evidence relating to his mother's suit.

Although Sharpham appears never to have had chambers there and was not called to the bar, he remained associated with the Middle Temple and its literary circle for the rest of his short life. He is believed to have been the 'E.S.' who in 1597 wrote The Discoverie of the Knights of the Poste, a pamphlet of the popular 'conycatching' genre detailing the tricks of conmen active on the road between London and Exeter. He may also be the 'E.S.' who contributed a commendatory poem to the publication of Ben Jonson's Volpone (1607), although Jonson later described Sharpham as a 'rogue'.

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