The Dramatic Works of John Ford Author:John Ford Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE SUN'S DARLING. A MORAL MASQUE. BY JOHN FORD AND THOMAS DECKER. THE SUN'S DARLING. The title of the old copy runs thus : " The Sun's Darling: A M... more »oral Masque : As it hath been often presented by their Majesties servants, at the Cock-pit in Drury-lane, with great applause. Written by John Foard and Tho. Decker, Gent. London, printed by T. Bell, for Andrew Penneycuicke, Anno Dom. 1657. 4to." It appears from the Henslowe papers, (examined by Mr. Malone,) that a play of this name was on the acting-stock of the Rose Theatre. This might probably be the first sketch of the present Masque as furnished by Decker, who is known to have written for that theatre ; and Ford might have been called in to assist him, when the growing taste of the times rendered it necessary to recast or improve the original plot. This was no uncommon circumstance : many of the popular pieces of the old stage, such as Jeronymo, the Virgin Martyr,« less