Winter Fruit: English Drama, 1642-1660Probably 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. 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. |
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... page of Ben Jonson's Worées (1616) The crown and the rising sun as medallic images of Charles II Cromwell's head on a pole 265 279 282 298 301 304 315 325 333 335 340 341 372 373 PREFACE ... this Mad, Sad, Cold Winter of discontent.
In The Gypsies Metamorphos'd (1621) Ben Jonson not only cheerily displayed the taking ways of George Villiers and his gypsy entourage but also had Williers assure King James that he was James the Just. Jonson had earlier put the ...
Had Ben Jonson lived five years longer, he might have raised a brimming cup to the triumph of textuality over theatricality. Of course, a totally opposite and non-Jonsonian view is also possible. Richard Baker wrote that “a Play read, ...
Another big buyer, Richard Smyth, secondary of the Poultry Compter, owned the first folios of Shakespeare, Jonson, ... was reported to be “most delighted with Ben Johnson's playes, of any bookes that are here” (Perfect Occurrences, no.
Perhaps most notably of all, the years 1640–41 brought to light more works by Ben Jonson—who had lived until 1637 and would remain an important point of reference throughout the next two decades. Hence we find Nicholas Downey assuring ...
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Contents
1 | |
16 | |
37 | |
51 | |
66 | |
6 The Famous Tragedy of Charles I | 95 |
7 AngloTyrannus | 117 |
8 Shows Motions and Drolls | 140 |
12 Fruits of Seasons Gone | 229 |
13 Tragedies | 248 |
14 Comedies | 275 |
15 The Cavendish Phenomenon | 313 |
16 Tragicomedies | 337 |
17 The Rising Sun | 368 |
Appendixes | 381 |
Works Cited | 391 |
9 Mungrell Masques and Their Kin | 157 |
10 The Persistence of Pastoral | 184 |
11 The Craft of Translation | 208 |
Index | 421 |