Character lists in manuscript

A character list (also known as a dramatis personae) is a paratext that names most or all of the characters in a play. Many early modern playbooks included printed character lists, but some surviving texts include manuscript lists or printed lists that have been annotated.

The Folger Shakespeare Library

Jonson, Ben. Every Man in his Humour. London: [By S. Stafford] for Walter Burre. 1601. Shelfmark STC 14766 Copy 1. A printed character list with annotations.

Massinger, Philip. The Fatal Dowry. London: John Norton for Francis Constable. 1632. Shelfmark STC 17646 Copy 3. A printed character list with annotations.

Shakespeare, William. The Merry Wives of Windsor. First Folio. 1623. Shelfmark STC 22273 Fo.1 no.57. A partial character list with descriptions written on the final page of the play. See this blog post by Marissa Nicosia and Emma Depledge for more information, digital images, and a transcription.

The Bodleian Library, Oxford

Braithwaite, Richard. Mercurius Brittanicus, or the English Intelligencer. 1641. Shelfmark Malone 197(8). Manuscript additions to the printed character list.

Markham, Gervase. The Dumb Knight. 1633. Shelfmark Malone 199(4). A handwritten character list on the verso of "To the Reader" (sig. A2v), facing 1.1.

Shakespeare, William. Cymbeline. Fourth Folio. 1685. Shelfmark Arch. G. c. 12. A handwritten character list with descriptions for Cymbeline added to the final page of Antony and Cleopatra (facing the first page of Cymbeline).

The Boston Public Library

Daniel, Samuel. The Queenes Arcadia. At London: Printed by G[eorge]. Eld, for Simon Waterson, 1606. Call #: G.3970.18. From the Bridgewater House Library. A printed character list with a single, early manuscript correction on the title page verso.

Field, Nathan. Amends for ladies. London: Printed by Io[hn]. Okes for Math[thew]. Wallbancke, 1639. Call #: G.3971.21. Roxburghe/Genest copy. A later manuscript character list on the front pastedown.

Hemings, William. The fatal contract, a French tragedy. Printed at London: For J.M., in the year, 1653. Call #: G.3972.10. A printed character list with the names of actors in the King’s Company written in the margins in a contemporary hand on pi2 verso.

Heywood, Thomas. A pleasant conceited comedy, wherein is shewed, how a man may choose a good wife from a bad. London: Printed [by Thomas Purfoot] for Matthew Lawe, 1621. Call #: G.3970.2. Frances Wolfreston copy w/ her inscriptions. Manuscript character list on the title page verso in a different hand that appears to be later.

[Middleton, Thomas.] The Revenger's Tragedy. London: By G[eorge]. Eld. 1607. Call #: G.3977.37 A character list with several descriptions written on the title page verso.

Shakespeare, William. The tragedie of King Richard the Second. At London: Printed for Mathew Law, 1615. Call #: Call #: G. 176.33. An early manuscript list of characters on the title page verso, trimmed heavily and washed away.

The Morgan Library & Museum

Shakespeare, William. King Lear. London: Printed for Nathaniel Butter. 1608 [1619]. Call Number: W 08 C MS character list on the title page verso.

University of Pennsylvania Libraries

Shakespeare, William. King John, Coriolanus, and Macbeth. First Folio. 1623. Shelfmark Folio PR2751 .A1 Character lists for these three plays were written in and later washed off. See the Provenance Online Project for more information and digital images.