Peele, George (1556–96), Elizabethan dramatist, who worked mainly for
Henslowe, often in collaboration with other playwrights of the time. It has even been suggested, without proof, that he worked with Shakespeare on
Henry VI, Parts One and Three,
King John, and
Titus Andronicus. His first extant play appears to be
The Arraignment of Paris (
c.1581), one of the earliest examples in English drama of the
pastoral. It was followed, in uncertain order (the dates are conjectural), by
David and Fair Bethsabe (
c.1587);
The Battle of Alcazar (
c.1589), of which both the full text and the
platt used backstage by the actors survive;
The Old Wives' Tale (
c.1590), Peele's best-known work, a mixture of high romance and English folklore once dismissed by the critics as negligible nonsense, but now considered a landmark in the development of English comedy; and finally Edward I (
c.1591), which survives only in a mutilated form. Peele was also the author of several texts for pageants, of which
Descensus Astraea (1591) survives, and of a number of charming lyrical poems, some included in his play-texts.