Sir Robert Howard, John Dryden, and the Attribution of The Indian-Queen

Did Sir Robert Howard or John Dryden write The Indian-Queen, first performed in 1664) Despite its having been published in Howard’s Four New Plays (1665) and Five New Plays (1692) without any mention of collaboration, The Indian-Queen appears in the standard ‘California’ edition of Dryden’s works as his. This article presents both the surviving contemporary evidence for attribution to one or other author, and the play’s attributional history from its premiere to the present, demonstrating how credit for the play has shifted incrementally over time from Howard to Dryden. The case for Dryden as sole author is revealed to have no basis in fact. An advertisement written by Dryden and published in 1691 shows that he did not claim this title in a list of his other plays (some of which were collaborations). In the light of this evidence, the article concludes in favour of Howard as principal author