ABSTRACT
Of Peele’s plays, the biblical drama David and Bethsabe and the short fantasy-comedy The Old Wife’s Tale are the best-known; others are The Battle of Alcazar and Edward I. A number of other works, including his earliest, show clearly the influence of Spenser. Though not published until 1589, his narrative poem The Tale of Troy was probably written between 1579 and 1581. Spenserian archaisms abound: whilom, mickle, wot, withouten, couth, mought. When he describes Paris’ sojourn as a shepherd in Ida, he lapses into an imitation of the Shepheardes Calender idiom: ‘So couth he sing his layes among them all,/And tune his pype unto the waters fall’ (67-8; cf Aprill 36).
