History Plays as History

History plays have a long history—about as long as the history of plays and about as long as the history of history. But philosophers of history have typically preferred to write about written history; and philosophers of literature have typically preferred to write about novels, occasionally historical novels. Yet, when we leave a performance of a history play, it still seems natural to ask: “I wonder if it happened like that?” The answer, I’ll argue, is “no.” But getting to that answer tells us something about history and something about drama.