View source for William Haughton (playwright)

{{short description|16th-century English playwright}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2012}}
{{more citations needed|date=August 2011}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name = William Haughton
|image = 
|imagesize = 150px |
| caption = 
| birth_date = Unknown
| birth_place = England
| death_date = 1605
| death_place = England
| spouse = Alice
| children = 
| occupation = [[Playwright]]
| signature = 
| movement = [[English Renaissance theatre]]}}
'''William Haughton''' (died 1605) was an [[England|English]] [[playwright]] in the age of [[English Renaissance theatre]].<ref name="Chisholm">Chisholm, Hugh, ed. "Haughton, William". In ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press, 1911; Vol. 13, p. 66.</ref>

==Life==
Most of what little biographical information there is about him is derived from the papers of [[Philip Henslowe]], proprietor of the [[The Rose (theatre)|Rose Theatre]].<ref name="Chisholm"/> Henslowe's earliest reference to him refers to him as "young" Haughton. He wrote all his known dramatic work for Henslowe, for production by the [[Admiral's Men]] and [[Worcester's Men]]. (Henslowe's papers refer to Haughton as Hawton, Hauton, Haughtoun, Haulton, Howghton, Horton, Harton, and Harvghton<ref>[[Edmund Kerchever Chambers|Chambers, E. K.]] ''The Elizabethan Stage''. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923; Vol. 3, p. 334.</ref>—a fine example of the famously flexible Elizabethan orthography. His name is spelled Houghton in his 1605 will.)

On 10 March 1600 Henslowe lent Haughton ten [[shilling]]s "to release him out of [[The Clink]]".<ref name="Chisholm"/>

A William Haughton received an M.A. from Oxford in 1604, but Baugh doubts that this was the playwright. Haughton made his will on 6 June 1605, with his sometime dramatic collaborator [[Wentworth Smith]] and one Elizabeth Lewes as witnesses. It was proved on 20 July 1605. He was of [[All Hallows Staining]] at that time, a London church whose tower survives. He left a widow Alice and children.

==Career as a playwright==
During the years 1597 to 1602 he collaborated in many plays with [[Henry Chettle]], [[Thomas Dekker (poet)|Thomas Dekker]], [[John Day (dramatist)|John Day]], [[Richard Hathwaye]] and Wentworth Smith.<ref name="Chisholm"/> Haughton's hand has also been sought in several anonymous plays of the period, including ''Wiley Beguiled'', ''The Wit of a Woman'', ''[[The Merry Devil of Edmonton]]'', ''Captain Thomas Stukeley'' and ''A Warning For Fair Women''.

A merry comedy entitled ''[[Englishmen for My Money]], or A Woman will have her Will'' (1598) is ascribed to his sole authorship, and Fleay credits him with a considerable share in ''[[Patient Grissel]]'' (1599).<ref name="Chisholm"/> The latter attribution has been confirmed and refined by W. L. Halstead and by Cyrus Hoy (1980), giving the subplot concerning Sir Owen the Welsh Knight and his wife Gwenthyan, as well as that concerning the Duke's sister Julia and her three foolish suitors to Haughton, leaving the main plot to Dekker and Chettle.

''The Devil and his Dame'', mentioned as a forthcoming play by Henslowe in March 1600, is identified by [[Frederick Gard Fleay|Fleay]] as ''[[Grim the Collier of Croydon]]'', which was printed in 1662. In this play an emissary is sent from the infernal regions to report on the conditions of married life on earth.
<ref name="Chisholm"/> This attribution has recently been confirmed by William M Baillie (see below).

''Grim'' is reprinted in vol. viii, and ''Englishmen for My Money'' iii, vol. 5, of [[William Hazlitt|WC Hazlitt]]'s edition of [[Robert Dodsley|Dodsley]]'s ''Old Plays''. ''Englishmen for My Money'' was edited in old-spelling by A. C. Baugh in 1917, and appeared as a Tudor Facsimile Text in 1911. ''Grim'' has been edited by William L. Baillie as part of ''A Choice Ternary of English Plays: Gratiae Theatrales'' (1984), and appeared as a Tudor Facsimile Text in 1912.  ''Patient Grissell'' appears in Fredson Bowers' edition of Dekker's Dramatic Works. In May 1600 he brokered a play, now lost, to Henslowe called ''The English Fugitives'', possibly based on [[Lewes Lewknor]]'s ''The Estate of English Fugitives'' published in 1595.

==Known works==
Known plays by Haughton, either singly or in conjunction with others, include:

# ''[[Englishmen for My Money]], or A Woman Will Have Her Will''. [[Stationers' Register]] entry 3 August 1601. Printed 161, 1626, 1631.
# ''[[The Poor Man's Paradise]]'', August 1599. Not printed; possibly not finished.
# ''[[Cox of Collumpton]]'', with Day, November 1599. Not printed, although an eyewitness report of a performance survives in [[Simon Forman]]'s casebook.
# ''[[Thomas Merry, or Beech's Tragedy]]'', with Day, November–December 1599. Not printed. It has been suggested that this survives as part of Yarington's ''Two Lamentable Tragedies'', though this is more likely to be an analog handling the same murder.
# ''[[The Arcadian Virgin (play)|The Arcadian Virgin]]'', with Chettle, December 1599. Not printed; possibly not finished.
# ''[[Patient Grissel]]'', with Chettle and Dekker, October–December 1599.
# ''[[The Spanish Moor's Tragedy]]'', with Day and Dekker, February 1600. Not Printed; possibly not finished, though it is now usually identified with ''Lust's Dominion'' from the Dekker canon.
# ''[[The Seven Wise Masters]]'', with Chettle, Day, and Dekker, March 1600. Not printed.
# ''[[Ferrex and Porrex (play)|Ferrex and Porrex]]'', March–April 1600. Not printed.
# ''[[The English Fugitives]]'', April 1600. Not printed; possibly not finished.
# ''The Devil and His Dame'', May 1600. Probably the extant anonymous play ''[[Grim the Collier of Croydon]]''.
# ''[[Strange News Out of Poland]]'', with "Mr. Pett," possibly [[Peter Pett (fl. 1600)|Peter Pett]], May 1600. Not printed.
# ''[[Judas (play)|Judas]]'', May 1600; apparently finished by [[William Bird (playwright)|William Bird]] and [[Samuel Rowley]], December 1601. Not printed.
# ''[[Robin Hood's Pennorths]]'', December 1600 – January 1601. Not printed; possibly not finished.
# ''[[The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, Part II]]'', with John Day, January–July 1601. Not printed.
# ''[[The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, Part III]]'', with John Day, January–July 1601. Not printed.
# ''[[The Conquest of the West Indies]]'', with Day and Smith, April–September 1601. Not printed.
# ''[[The Six Yeomen of the West]]'', with Day, May–June 1601. Not printed.
# ''[[Friar Rush and the Proud Woman of Antwerp]]'', with Chettle and Day, July 1601 – January 1602. Not printed.
# ''[[Tom Dough, Part II]]'', with Day, July–September 1601. Not printed; possibly not finished.
# ''[[The Six Clothiers, Part I]]'', with Richard Hathwaye and Wentworth Smith, October–November 1601. Not printed.
# ''[[The Six Clothiers, Part II]]'', with Hathwaye and Smith, October–November 1601. Not printed; possibly not finished.
# ''[[William Cartwright (play)|William Cartwright]]'', September 1602. Not printed; possibly not finished.

==References==
<references/>
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Haughton, William|volume=13|page=66}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Haughton, William}}
[[Category:1605 deaths]]
[[Category:English Renaissance dramatists]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:16th-century English writers]]
[[Category:16th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:17th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:16th-century English dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:17th-century English dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:English male dramatists and playwrights]]