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 60
... printed 1646) a speech to a king that in retrospect seems especially pointed: Nor are you, Sir, assur'd of all behinde you: For though your Person in your Subjects hearts Stands highly honour'd, and belov'd, yet are There certaine Acts ...
... printed in “the yeare coming on, 1641,” which conceivably indicates its appearance during January–March 1640–41. Laud, a key figure in the anecdote, had been imprisoned since 18 December 1640. Combing through records of cases heard by ...
... (printed in 1658) had a pleasant air of structured informality (its prologue was “to be spoken by whom the Masquers shall appoint” [118]). The text calls for a Larfamiliaris and some nimble satyrs, the “excellent” little sons of ...
... printed before.” Within the volume, each play is provided with its own separate title page, each of which again proclaims first-time printing. In five out of six instances, however (the exception being The Court Secret, dated 1653), the ...
... printed during the theatrical blackout display straightforward signs of frustration such as this. Quarles's Virgin Widow proves to be a thoughtful, careful, alert, and complicated work, possessed of more bite of wit than one might have ...
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 |