Staging the Revolution : Drama, Reinvention and History, 1647–72

Staging the Revolution offers a reassessment of drama that was produced during the commonwealth and the first decade of the Restoration. It complements the focus of recent studies, which have addressed textual exchange and royalist and republican discourse. Not all parliamentarians were opposed to the theatre, and not all theatre was illegal under the commonwealth regimes. Equally, not all theatrical experience was royalist in focus. Staging the Revolution builds upon these findings to examine ways in which drama negotiated the political moment to explore the way in which drama was appropriated as a means of responding to the civil wars and reinventing the recent past and how drama was also reinvented as a consequence of theatre closure. The often cited notion that 1660 marked the return to monarchical government and the rebirth of many cultural practices that were banned under an austere, Puritan, regime was a product of the 1650s and 1660s and it was fostered in some of the dramatic output of the period. The very presence of these dramas and their textual transmission challenges the notion that all holiday pastimes were forbidden. Covering some of the work of John Dryden and William Davenant as well as lesser-known, anonymous and non-canonical writers, the book examines contemporary dramatic responses to the civil war period to show that, far from marking a new beginning, the Restoration is focused upon the previous thirty years. Staging the revolution offers a reappraisal of the weight and volume of theatrical output during the Commonwealth and early Restoration, both in terms of live performances and performances on the paper stage. It argues that the often-cited notion that 1642 marked an end to theatrical production in England until the playhouses were reopened in 1660 is a product of post-Restoration re-writing of the English civil wars and the representations of royalists and parliamentarians that emerged in the 1640s and 1650s. These retellings of recent events in dramatic form mean that drama is central to civil war discourse. Staging the Revolution examines the ways in which drama was used to rewrite the civil war and commonwealth period and demonstrates that, far from marking a clear cultural demarcation from the theatrical output of the early seventeenth century, the Restoration is constantly reflecting back on the previous thirty years Front matter Contents List of figures Acknowledgements List of abbreviations A note on dating and on spelling Introduction: Of 1647, theatre closure and reinvention The paper stage Fairs, ghosts, tyranny and usurpation: debating the body politic on the paper stage Reinventing the masque: Shirley’s and Davenant’s protectorate entertainments Heroic drama on the commonwealth and Restoration stage Ideas of panegyric in early Restoration comedy Epilogue: Of 1688 and reinventing the past Bibliography Index Seeks to reassess the dramatic output of the Commonwealth, Protectorate and early Restoration; a period that has often been marginalised by specialists of both Renaissance and Restoration drama.