ABSTRACT
Philip Henslowe records only two performances of Richard the Confessor, both as part of this run by Sussex's Men. The second case study begins a little over a year after Summer's Last Will and Testament was acted. The two titles on this list which catch the eye are of course The Jew of Malta, by recently dead Christopher Marlowe, and the play about Titus Andronicus, which is almost certainly the extant Titus Andronicus generally attributed to Shakespeare. William Carew Hazlitt, therefore, concluded that Richard was an error for Edward. After two years, the King gave in and Richard regained control of the assets of the bishopric. Elizabeth's accession to the throne marked an end to such obviously Catholic practices, although Richard's picture continued to be displayed in the cathedral church there. This connects, in the Elizabethan era, with the emerging discourses of Presbyterianism. The temporal power and wealth of bishops was, for Martin Marprelate, itself a sign of their corruption.
