Theatre and Government Under the Early Stuarts

This is a collection of newly-commissioned essays by established scholars, responding to recent critical debate on political theater during the turbulent early years of the seventeenth century. Addressing a wide range of theater texts from the period between the accession of James I and the Civil War, the authors draw on criticism by both new historians and cultural materialists.

1. Theatre and government under the early Stuarts J. R. Mulryne; 2. Early Stuart politics Simon Adams; 3. Ben Jonson and the Master of the Revels Richard Dutton; 4. The politics of the Jacobean masque Graham Parry; 5. Reform or reverence? The politics of the Caroline masque Martin Butler; 6. The spectacle of the realm: civic consciousness, rhetoric and ritual in early modern London James Knowles; 7. The Reformation plays on the public stage Julia Gasper; 8. Politics and dramatic form in early modern tragedy Kathleen McLuskie; 9. Drama and opinion in the 1620s: Middleton and Massinger Margot Heinemann; Index.