The Island Princess

The Island Princess is a late Jacobean tragicomedy by John Fletcher, initially published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647.

The authorship and the stage premier of the play are generally thought to have occurred c. 1619–21; it was acted at Court during the latter year, by the King's Men. The second Beaumont/Fletcher folio of 1679 offers a cast list for the play, a list that includes John Lowin, John Underwood, William Ecclestone, Richard Sharpe, Joseph Taylor, Robert Benfield, George Birch, and Thomas Pollard.

Fletcher's solo authorship is generally recognized; his characteristic pattern of linguistic preferences is continuous throughout. The 1647 folio text is not especially short, though it does show some signs of cutting: several scenes have characters that appear but do not speak.

Fletcher's sources were two books on exploration, L'histoire de Ruis Dias, et de Quixaire, Princess des Moloques, a novella by Le Seigneur de Bellan (1615), which derives from the Conquista de las Islas Molucas by Bartolemé Leonardo de Argensola (1609).

Like many of Fletcher's plays, this play was revived in the Restoration era in adapted forms. The play was adapted four times, by an anonymous author, by Nahum Tate, by Thomas d'Urfey, and again by Peter Anthony Motteux, the latter being the more successful. The anonymous version, The Island Princess, or The Generous Portugal, was staged before royalty on 6 November 1668; Samuel Pepys saw the production three times in the following year, on 7 January, 9 February and 23 April 1669, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Motteux's version, replete with songs, dances, and special effects, was popular, and frequently performed, down to 1708. All four adaptations were printed, the anonymous in 1669, d'Urfey's in 1682, Tate's in 1687, and Motteux's in 1699 and 1701.

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