Actors - Robert Wilson

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	Actors - Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson (fl. 1598 - 1600), was an Elizabethan dramatist who worked primarily in the 1580s and 1590s. He is also believed to have been an actor who specialized in clown roles.

He produced sixteen plays for Philip Henslowe for production at the Rose Theater in partnership with other playwrights who also produced copy for Henslowe. While mentioned as a dramatist by Francis Meres in 1598, most existing information on his dramatic career is derived from Henslowe's papers.

All of Wilson's works are lost except for the first part of the collaborative Sir John Oldcastle, commissioned as a counterblast to the negative depiction of title character in the original versions of William Shakespeare's plays Henry IV (Part 1) and Henry IV (Part 2). Objections from descendants of the historical John Oldcastle, a Protestant martyr, appears to have been responsible both for the writing of the corrective Oldcastle play and the alteration of Oldcastle to Sir John Falstaff in later versions of the Henry IV plays.

Wilson's plays include The Three Ladies of London, its sequel The Three Lords and Ladies of London, and The Cobbler's Prophecy. He may also be the author of Fair Em, the Miller's Daughter of Manchester.

Other known plays in which Wilson had an authorial hand include:

# Earl Goodwin and his Three Sons, Parts I and II, by Michael Drayton, Henry Chettle, Thomas Dekker, and Robert Wilson, March 1598. Not printed. # Piers of Exton, by Michael Drayton, Henry Chettle, Thomas Dekker, and Robert Wilson, March 1598. Not printed. # Black Batman of the North, Part II, by Henry Chettle and Robert Wilson. April 1598. Not printed. # The Funeral of Richard Cordelion, by Robert Wilson, Henry Chettle, Anthony Munday, and Michael Drayton. May 1598. Not printed. # Catiline's Conspiracy, by Robert Wilson and Henry Chettle. August 1598. Not printed. # Chance Medley, by Robert Wilson, Anthony Munday, Michael Drayton, and Thomas Dekker. August 1598. Not printed. # Owen Tudor, by Michael Drayton, Richard Hathwaye, Anthony Munday, and Robert Wilson. 1599. Not printed. # The First Part of the Life of Sir John Oldcastle, by Anthony Munday, Michael Drayton, Robert Wilson, and Richard Hathwaye. 1600. Editions published in 1600 and 1619.

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