The Old Wives' Tale (play)

The old Wives Tale, a dramatization by George Peele and printed in 1595, is an amiably ironic and exaggerated version of the popular romantic plays favored at the time. The play can be viewed as the first English work satirizing the romantic dramas popular at the time. Although only the titles of most of these popular works have survived, they seem to be unrelated composites of popular romantic and fairytale motifs of the era. They were full of romantic inventions but devoid of moral content. The play has been criticized as a "confusing jumble of theatrical nonsense" and for being a burlesque. However, some praised it as a charming fantasy, an innocent sentimental comedy.

The Old Wives Tale uses the theatrical device of a play within a play which adds to the confusion engendered by its multiple plots. But Peels's version also was more carefully composed than the others. He was consummate in distilling the essence of all that was romantic and fairytale, but he also was able to create a detachment from the purely romantic; the effect on the audience was that it became aware of its taste for the romance of the fairytale. Some critics regard the play as a dramatic satire with a structure that is intentionally constructed to highlight the absurdities of the then currently popular dramatic techniques that Peele disdained.

Peels other plays produced a similar effect.

Plot

In general, the plot involves three men who are lost in the woods and are given shelter for the night. They are entertained by being told fairy stories by their hostess, and they reciprocate in kind. One tale involves two brothers who are on an adventure searching for their sister, who is held captive by a magician. The magician also captures the brothers. Eventually they are all rescued by a knight aided by a ghost who is motivated by gratitude for past acts of kindness by he knight. Songs and magical invocations are interwoven into the play, imbuing it with a magical atmosphere.