Early Theatre 20.1 Leicester's Men and the Lost Telomo of 1583

This article proposes a new identification for the lost play Telomo, performed at court by Leicester's Men in 1583. Challenging previous hypotheses that the play might have been either about a character named Ptolemy or about one of the main character's friends from the Spanish romance Palmerin d'Oliva, this article suggests that the play may have dramatized either episodes involving Ajax Telamonius or his father or, as appears more likely, the episode of 'The Vnkindly Loue of Telamon to Castibula His Frends Wife' from Brian Melbancke's euphuistic romance Philotimus. The Warre betwixt Nature and Fortune (1583).