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The Court Secret
''The Court Secret'' is a Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by James Shirley, and first published in 1653. It is generally regarded as the final play Shirley wrote as a professional dramatist. Though ''The Court Secret'' can seem, to a modern taste, a confection of romantic fluff, exaggerated and wildly unrealistic (see the Synopsis below), it has been read as an index of the social anxieties and stresses of England at the crisis point of 1642, suggesting the conflict "between royalty and the rest," between the demands of royalist absolutism and the urges of ordinary humanity at the start of the English Civil War. Date and performance The play's title page in its first edition states that ''The Court Secret'' was never acted, but was intended to be produced at the Blackfriars Theatre. This identifies the play as belonging to the final phase of Shirley's professional career: he wrote regularly for the King's Men at the Blackfriars in the 1640–42 era, after he had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Literature In English
English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Ango-Saxon settlers in the fifth century, are called Old English. ''Beowulf'' is the most famous work in Old English. Despite being set in Scandinavia, it has achieved national epic status in England. However, following the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, the written form of the Old English, Anglo-Saxon language became less common. Under the influence of the new aristocracy, French became the standard language of courts, parliament, and polite society.Baugh, Albert and Cable, Thomas. 2002. ''The History of the English Language''. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. pp. 79–81. The English spoken after the Normans came is known as Middle English. This form ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys ( ; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English writer and Tories (British political party), Tory politician. He served as an official in the Navy Board and Member of Parliament (England), Member of Parliament, but is most remembered today for the diary he kept for almost a decade. Though he had no Maritime pilot, maritime experience, Pepys rose to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both Charles II of England, Charles II and James II of England, James II through patronage, diligence, and his talent for administration. His influence and reforms at the Admiralty (United Kingdom), English Admiralty were important in the early professionalisation of the Royal Navy. The detailed private diary that Pepys kept from 1660 until 1669 was first published in the 19th century and is one of the most important primary sources of the Stuart Restoration. It provides a combination of personal revelation and eyewitness accounts of great events, such as the Grea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Renaissance Plays
English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish term for non-Amish, regardless of ethnicity * English studies, the study of English language and literature Media * ''English'' (2013 film), a Malayalam-language film * ''English'' (novel), a Chinese book by Wang Gang ** ''English'' (2018 film), a Chinese adaptation * ''The English'' (TV series), a 2022 Western-genre miniseries * ''English'' (play), a 2022 play by Sanaz Toossi People and fictional characters * English (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * English Fisher (1928–2011), American boxing coach * English Gardner (born 1992), American track and field sprinter * English McConnell (1882–1928), Irish footballer * Aiden English, a ring name of Matthew Rehwoldt (born 1987), American former professional wrestle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Royal Master
''The Royal Master'' is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by James Shirley, and first published in 1638. The play is "ranked by many critics as Shirley's ablest work in romantic comedy...It is a play notable for well-knit plot, effective scenes, pleasing characterization, clever dialogue, and poetic atmosphere." ''The Royal Master'' was part of the Irish phase of Shirley's career (1637–40); it premiered on 1 January 1638 at the Werburgh Street Theatre in Dublin, and was likely the first of Shirley's plays produced there (according to the dedication of the first edition). It also was given in a special performance at Dublin Castle. The play was published in quarto later that year, also in Dublin, by the booksellers Edmund Crooke and Thomas Allot. (Crooke was a relation of Andrew Crooke, the London stationer who issued a series of Shirley's plays in the later 1630s.)Crooke and his partner William Cooke published eleven Shirley plays in the 1637–40 period, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl Of Strafford
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (13 April 1593 (New Style, N.S.)12 May 1641), was an English people, English statesman and a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. He served in Parliament of England, Parliament and was a supporter of Charles I of England, King Charles I. From 1632 to 1640 he was Lord Deputy of Ireland, where he established a strong authoritarian rule. Recalled to England, he became a leading advisor to the King, attempting to strengthen the royal position against Parliament. When Parliament condemned Lord Strafford to death, Charles reluctantly signed the execution warrant, death warrant and Strafford was executed. He had been advanced several times in the Peerage of England during his career, being created 1st Baron Wentworth in 1628,''Dictionary of Irish Biography'': Wentworth, Sir Thomas (see 'Early career'). https://www.dib.ie/biography/wentworth-sir-thomas-a8968. 1st Viscount Wentworth in late 1628 or early 1629, and, finall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Wentworth, 2nd Earl Of Strafford
William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford (8 June 1626 – 16 October 1695), KG, of Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire, was a prominent landowner. Origins He was born at Wentworth Woodhouse, the only surviving son of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (d.1641) by his second wife Arabella Holles, a daughter of John Holles, 1st Earl of Clare. His mother died in childbirth when he was five years old, after which his father remarried to Elizabeth Rhodes, who was a kindly stepmother to William and his sisters. Career He studied at Trinity College Dublin. When his father was executed for treason in 1641, William left England for several years, mainly for fear of reprisals (although most of his father's enemies bore no ill-will to his widow or children), and lived for a while in France. He is said to have acted as a Royalist agent in Germany and Denmark, in partnership with Henry Coventry, which ended in a bitter quarrel, and a duel. In 1652 he was allowed to return to Engl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Imposture
''The Imposture'' is a Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by James Shirley and first published in 1652. Shirley himself considered ''The Imposture'' the best of his romantic comedies. ''The Imposture'' was licensed for performance (as ''The Imposter'') by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 10 November 1640. It was acted at the Blackfriars Theatre by the King's Men, the company for which Shirley wrote in the 1640–2 era. The play was published by booksellers Humphrey Moseley and Humphrey Robinson in the octavo collection of Shirley's works titled ''Six New Plays'' (1653).In ''Six New Plays,'' five of the dramas are dated 1652 while the sixth and the general title page are dated 1653 — an ambiguity that has caused confusion in scholarly sources. In that edition, the Prologue of the play states that Shirley "has been stranger long to the English scene" — referring to Shirley's stay in Dublin at the Werburgh Street Theatre from 1636 to 164 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Doubtful Heir
''The Doubtful Heir'', also known as ''Rosania, or Love's Victory'', is a Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by James Shirley and first published in 1652. The play has been described as "swift of action, exciting of episode, fertile of surprise, and genuinely poetic." The play dates from the Irish phase of Shirley's dramatic career (1636–40), and was acted at the Werburgh Street Theatre, most likely in 1638, under its alternative ''Rosania'' title. After Shirley's return to London (April 1640), the play was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, still as ''Rosania'' (June 1, 1640), and was performed at the Globe Theatre by the King's Men. (In the play's Prologue, Shirley comments on how "vast" the stage of the Globe is, compared to the small private theatre in Dublin where the work premiered.) The title was changed by the time the play was included in a general list of works belonging to the King's Men (1641). The play was pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Cardinal (1641 Play)
''The Cardinal'' is a tragedy by James Shirley, written in the Caroline era. It was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 25 November 1641, and first published in 1652. The play belongs to the final phase of Shirley's career as a London playwright, when he was no longer serving as the house dramatist of Queen Henrietta's Men. ''The Cardinal'' was acted instead by the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre. The play was also published in ''Six New Playes'', an octavo collection of Shirley's works issued by the stationers Humphrey Moseley and Humphrey Robinson in 1653 – one of a series of Shirley collections from this era. Nineteenth-century and twentieth-century critics, including Edmund Gosse and Fredson Bowers, considered it among his finest works. Bowers called Shirley's play a "coherent Kydian revenge tragedy, polished and simplified in his best manner." It was considered to be "the first among Shirley's tragedies." The play was r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Brothers (James Shirley)
''The Brothers'' is a Caroline era stage play, a comedy written by James Shirley. First published in 1652, ''The Brothers'' has sometimes been hailed as one of Shirley's best plays, though it has also been a focus of significant confusion and scholarly debate. "There is much uncertainty about this play" — though much of this uncertainty seems unnecessary, given the historical facts. ''The Brothers'' was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 4 November 1626. The title page of the first edition indicates that the play was acted by the King's Men. Some scholars have assumed that Shirley wrote for the King's Men only in the final phase of his career, in 1640–42; but this is by no means a certainty. Shirley's long and productive connection with Queen Henrietta's Men dominated most of his career, though he wrote '' Love in a Maze'' for the King's Revels Men in 1632. The eccentric nineteenth-century critic F. G. Fleay originated the ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Humphrey Moseley
Humphrey Moseley (died 31 January 1661) was a prominent London publisher and bookseller in the middle seventeenth century. Life Possibly a son of publisher Samuel Moseley, Humphrey Moseley became a "freeman" (a full member) of the Stationers Company, the guild of London booksellers, on 7 May 1627; he was selected a Warden of the company on 7 July 1659. His shop was located at the sign of the Prince's Arms in St Paul's Churchyard. One of the most productive publishers of his era, Moseley's imprint exists on 314 surviving books. Drama and poetry Moseley is best known for the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647, which he published in partnership with stationer Humphrey Robinson. Moseley partnered with Robinson on other projects too, and also with Nicholas Fussell (to 1635) and Francis Constable. Moseley issued a range of important Jacobean and Caroline playwrights, including Thomas Middleton, Philip Massinger, James Shirley, Richard Brome, and Sir William D'Avenan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Humphrey Robinson
Humphrey Robinson (died 13 November 1670) was a prominent London publisher and bookseller of the middle seventeenth century. Robinson was the son of a Bernard Robinson, a clerk from Carlisle; other members of his family were important clergymen and church office-holders. Humphrey Robinson became a "freeman" (a full member) of the Stationers Company on 30 June 1623. He was active as an independent bookseller in the years 1624–70. Based in his shop at the sign of the Three Pigeons in St. Paul's Churchyard, he was "one of the largest and most important booksellers of this period." With Moseley Robinson is most noted for publishing two collections of plays in English Renaissance drama; he partnered in these works with colleague Humphrey Moseley. The most important of these collections was the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647; they also issued a significant collection of James Shirley's dramas titled ''Six New Plays'' in 1653. The two Humphreys also published a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
