Winter Fruit: English Drama, 1642-1660University Press of Kentucky, 1995 M11 9 - 472 pages Probably the most blighted period in the history of English drama was the time of the Civil Wars, Commonwealth, and Protectorate. With the theaters closed, the country at war, the throne in fatal decline, and the powers of Parliament and Cromwell growing greater, the received wisdom has been that drama in England largely withered and died.Not so, demonstrates Dale Randall in this magisterial study, the first book in nearly sixty years to attempt a comprehensive analysis of mid-seventeenth-century English drama. Throughout the official hiatus in playing, he shows, dramas continued to be composed, translated, transmuted, published, bought, read, and even covertly acted. Furthermore, the tendency of drama to become interestingly topical and political grew more pronounced. In illuminating one of the least understood periods in English literary history, Randall's study not only encompasses a large amount of dramatic and historical material but also takes into account much of the scholarship published in recent decades. Winter Fruit is a major interpretive work in literary and social history. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 33
... James Shirley ever wrote , one that he himself regarded as " the best of my flock " ( A3r ) , was The Cardinal , performed at Blackfriars in 1641 but unpub- lished until 1653.23 As Charles Forker demonstrated some years ago , this play ...
... James Shirley , who in retrospect may be viewed as marshalling his forces . The year 1640 first brought readers the texts of Shirley's Humorous Courtier ( 1631 ) , Love's Cruelty ( 1631 ) , The Opportunity ( 1634 ) , The Coronation ...
... James Shirley . Brome's Joviall Crew , though first published in 1652 , dates back to 1641 ; after this date we have no fresh drama from Brome . Brome himself ( mentioned by Jonson as early as 1614 in Bartholomew Fair ) apparently did ...
Contents
A Case of Cultural Poetics | 1 |
The Sun Declining | 16 |
Kinds of Closure | 37 |
Copyright | |
32 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
References to this book
A Princely Brave Woman: Essays on Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle Stephen Clucas No preview available - 2003 |
Subordinate Subjects: Gender, the Political Nation, and Literary Form in ... Mihoko Suzuki No preview available - 2003 |