The Four Prentices of London

The Four Prentices of London is an Elizabethan play by English Renaissance playwright Thomas Heywood, thought to have originated c. 1592. The play is known to have been acted by the Admiral's Men on 19 July 1594. It might also have been performed, under the title Jerusalem, by the Lord Strange's Men on 22 March and 25 April 1592. The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on 19 June 1594, under the title Godfrey of Bouillon and the Conquest of Jerusalem, but was not published until 1615. The title page of the first quarto states that the play was acted by Queen Anne's Men at the Red Bull Theatre, though the play had a long prior history of performances by earlier companies in earlier venues, as noted above. It was printed again in 1632. The text of the play in the 1615 volume is preceded by an Epistle to the Prentices, signed by Heywood, and a Prologue that provides yet a fourth title, True and Strange, or The Four Prentices of London.