Winter Fruit: English Drama, 1642-1660University Press of Kentucky, 2014 M10 17 - 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. 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 1-5 of 55
... Shirley's Six New Playes (1653) 45. 46. Passage from an untitled tragedy by James Compton Title page of a pamphlet on roundheads and royalists Thomas Killigrew (1612-83) Title page of a pamphlet on Ranters Major General John Lambert on ...
... Shirley himself, in an address to readers of the Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher folio (1647), offers a wry ... Shirley's, plays continued to be printed and read. - Although some of the play-texts that concern us here were never meant ...
... Shirley's The Brothers appeared first in 1653.4 At this late date, instead of writing witty prologues that in earlier days used to be “keen / Upon the tyme,” “wee. . . / In corse dullfleam, must preface to ourplayes” (A4r). Performed at ...
... Shirley, The Imposture (acted at Blackfriars in 1640, but not published until 1653),” opens in a Mantua that is under siege. A stand-in princess (the impostor) provides the focus of interest, and for variety the play is equipped with a ...
... Shirley ever wrote, one that he himself regarded as “the best of my flock” (A3r), was The Cardinal, performed at ... Shirley's decision to swathe boldness with indirection here, one need only recall the anecdote of those unfortunate ...
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 |