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 47
... midcentury commentaries on literary indirection. Though the playwright-poet John Denham held him to be the worst poet in England, Wither provides in The Dark Lanterm (1653) some direct and useful information of the sort we must usually ...
... midcentury matters of a literary, social, political, religious, moral, and economic nature—the better we will understand its drama. Although no truly great writers may be found among the many who contributed to the body of plays we will ...
... midcentury playwrights did begin to include more stage directions than had been customary in earlier years. It is a fact also that when we are confronted with a text on a table rather than players on a stage, we are likely to catch more ...
... midcentury, or by the erosion of old ideals and the gradual growth of new. Clearly there was a continuing human need for making pretty façades and speaking from behind masks, for teaching, persuading, railing, and amusing by means of a ...
... midcentury drama. Denham's boldest thrusts in The Sophy call up the now-tarnished image of Archbishop Laud and at the same time manage to excuse Charles himself. The courtier Abdal observes, Poore Princes, how are they mis-led, While ...
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 |