The Old Wives' Tale (play)

The Old Wives' Tale is a play by George Peele first printed in England in 1595. The play has been identified as the first English work to satirize 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 fairy-tale motifs of the era. They were full of romantic inventions but devoid of moral content. Peele here presents an amiably ironic and exaggerated version of such a play.

The Old Wives' Tale uses the device of a play within a play to add to the confusion. Peele's version, however, was more carefully composed than similar works of the period. He distilled the romantic and fairy-tale, but he was also able to create detachment; the audience became aware of its taste for the pure romance of the fairy-tale. Some critics regard the play as intentional satire constructed to highlight generic absurdities. Peele's other plays employed a similar structure.

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. Others have called it a "fantastical comic romance". |access-date=2009-12-15}}