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Richard Brome's last play, 'A Jovial Crew,' is usually dated to 1641, yet compelling evidence dates it to 1642. Factors from theatrical politics of the time, the progress of Brome's career, and topical references in the play favor the later date.

Gervase Markham's 1608 tragicomedy 'The Dumbe Knight' can be seen as a commentary on the Elizabethan succession crisis of 1598-1603, especially about the 1601 attempt by the earl of Essex to seize the throne. Markham's play portrays the rebellion as a lawful struggle between rival nations.

The article examines the contributions of Ben Jonson toward developing dramatic criticism in England during the early part of the 17th century. The prefatory writings of Jonson and his contemporaries reveal a broad scope of authorial presentation strategies limited by contemporary views of drama's literary status and the publication of plays.

John Crowne followed his first comedy, The Countrey Wit (1676), with the two parts of The Destruction of Jerusalem, arguably two of his finest works. The first part premiered on [...]

This article examines the complex relationships between the characters in 'Timon of Athens' by William Shakespeare. The conversations and behaviors of the characters represent allegorical themes such as opulence, prosperity, and youth and portray feelings of indifference and frustration toward society.

This article examines the narrative techniques used in 'Pericles, Prince of Tyre', a romantic drama written by William Shakespeare in 1608. Shakespeare provides multiple dramatic perspectives and creates a sense of intimacy with the audience by having a central character narrate his own life story.

An analysis of William Shakespeare's 'The Merchant of Venice' and the two texts of 'King Lear' is presented focusing on the presence of equity in these texts. Topics include an historical overview of English equity highlighting conceptual and terminological differences, as well as evidence that Shakespeare did refer to equity and law jurisdictions in the quarto version of 'King Lear'.

Sabrina, the heroine of John Milton's play 'A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle,' is considered to have been played by a hired actor, but the role was intended for Lady Mary Edgerton Herbert. Before her marriage, Lady Mary was an accomplished singer, and scholars have commented on the similarities between her and Sabrina.

English dramatist Ben Jonson attacked his fellow playwright John Marston in the plays 'Poetaster' and 'Volpone' for plagiarizing Italian writers, a charge upheld by 20th-century scholarship. Jonson used the character Lady Politic to make allusions to Marston's lack of talent. Jonson resented the fact that a derivative and shallow playwright such as Marston achieved uncritical popular acclaim.

Since its first performance at the Blackfriars some time between 1607 and 1609,(1) Francis Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle has undergone the most radical rehabilitation of any play [...]

Sisters are under the jurisdiction of their brothers in Middleton and Rowley's 17th-century drama 'A Fair Quarrel.' The brothers' control of their sisters in 'A Fair Quarrel' can be better understood if the play is placed in its social context, and the laws surrounding sibling relations during the 17th century are examined. The examination of sibling relations in the play also benefits from comparisons to the works of Heywood, Shakespeare, Middleton, and Webster.

Textual analysis of the extant manuscripts of two plays by English dramatist Cosmo Manuche, 'The Banished Shepherdess' and 'The Feast,' indicate that each was performed at least once between 1642 and 1660 when theaters were closed. Differences between the British Library and Huntington Library manuscripts of 'The Banished Shepherdess,' such as the smaller number of characters in the British Library manuscript, are best explained as evidence of performance. Similarly, the British Library manuscript of 'The Feast' contains 177 lines missing from the Worcester College manuscript.

'The Devil Is an Ass' is a satirical play written by Ben Jonson in reference to current events in England during 1616. It refers to drainage proposals, Alderman Cockayne's speeches and commercial project, Spanish influences on the court of King James and the debate on judicial conduct. Jonson was also influenced by a contemporary play by George Ruggle, 'Ignoramus,' a university comedy.

English dramatic theory in the 17th century had the metaphoric nature of a labyrinth, which fit classical tradition and the current political climate of the Puritan rebellion and Restoration. Sir William Davenant followed the Puritan notions of winding through a torturous world to a better one, as did Richard Flecknoe with his specific mentions of mazes. John Dryden wrote in the early Restoration years and also mentioned the labyrinth metaphor.

The contention that boys' theater companies in the early 17th century performed only once weekly is inconsistent with suggestions in Jonson and Shakespeare that they were a financial threat to adult companies. The documentary evidence supporting weekly performances is ambiguous although Alfred Harbage and others have interpreted it in that way. It is difficult to understand how the companies could be profitable with such infrequent performances.

This article discusses the role of Richard Holford as Richard Brome's first known patron, according to the dedication of Brome's successfully 1632 play 'The Northern Lass'. The author examines what little information is known about Holford in order to illuminate his role as patron and contribution to Brome's career.

This article examines the subtitle for the 1656 publication of the tragicomedy 'The Excellent Comedy, called The Old Law: Or A new way to pleases you', suggesting that manuscripts of the older, original play, use 'An oulde Lawe' rather than 'the'. The author analyzes several examples of plays beginning with the indefinite article; the significance of the article lies in the fact that 'an' suggests there is more than one old law, whereas 'the' suggests only one.

Similarities in theme and text are examined to show the influence of Lope de Vega's 'El Villano en su Rincon' on James Shirley's 'The Royal Master.'

Aphra Behn's tragicomedy The Widdow Ranter, or, The History of Bacon in Virginia was staged posthumously in November 1689, but it was most probably written in 1688.[1] Although by the [...]

Annotated English playtexts at the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbuttel, Germany, provide significant performance documentation for the early Restoration stage that not only corroborates the sketchy records already known but [...]

Stage directions for actors in Shakespearian drama may have been inscribed in the play's dramatic dialogue. Dialogue from such plays as 'Othello' and 'Macbeth,' as well as an understanding of the configuration of the Globe Theater, provides clues to a dramaturgical stage management system. Such a system sheds light on the original conditions for Shakespearian theater, rehearsal procedures, and techniques used in other plays at the time.

This article suggests that Webster and Heywood's 1626 tragic tale of Appius and Virginia borrowed from Book III of Livy's 'Ab Urbe condita' which was translated into English in 1600. The author gives examples, include similar characters and plots.

In NTQ 14, Graham Holderness welcomed the Swan at Stratford as the home, at once new and old, of a 'radical energy' opposed to the 'ossified establishment' in the main house. Here Peter Womack, concentrating on John Caird's 1987 production of The New Inn, suggests a different and more suspicious interpretation of the building and its uses. By a sort of historical coincidence, the conservative nostalgia of Jonson's play reveals the close links between the Swan project and that distinctively 1980s construction of the national past -- the heritage industry. Peter Womack, who lectures in English at the University of East Anglia, is the author of a book on Ben Jonson in the 'Rereading Literature' series. This article is based on a paper given to a conference on the politics of early seventeenth-century drama, Oxford, June 1988.

The author discusses the life of unsuccessful 17th century theatrical producer and playwright John Dennis. He also researches the veracity of the quote attributed to him after a failed play that featured the theatrical thunder technique he may have created, in which he blamed the audience for 'stealing his thunder.'

This article provides answers to readers questions regarding English literature and drama. Issues include queries over manuscripts of 18th century Reverend George Low, and speech patterns of 17th century English drama.

IN his study of the Middleton canon, David J. Lake(1) notes an odd form of oath which occurs in two plays sometimes ascribed to Middleton, A Yorkshire Tragedy and The [...]