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 6-10 of 80
... would continue to exemplify a general truth, but in 1642 the topical inferences would have made the whole play appear allegorical” (“Examples” 288). the titular war. A sense of humor will help a T H E S U N D E C L I N I N G 35.
... appear, were ostensibly spontaneous thrusts—verbal and gestural—that are now beyond hope of recovery. For a ready-made, self-accusatory catalogue of actors' wrongdoing, we need look no further than The Actors Remonstrance (1643). Here ...
... play-haters—it appears to be informed by a deep concern that nothing further be allowed to rock the ship of state. Surely nothing, one might suggest, like the preceding years' Landgartha, The K I N D S O F C L O S U R E 4 I.
... appears that besides Davenant's own quarters at Rutland House, he had other “houses” for performance in Lincoln's Inn Fields, Drury Lane, and elsewhere (Hotson 144). Perhaps each of these glints of dramatic performance shines a lumen ...
... appear to have gone a little better in the earlier 1650s. In 1653 Alexander Brome, bringing out a collection of plays by Richard Brome (apparently not a relative), was glad to think that now mew Stars shine forth, and do pretend, Wit ...
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 |