Staging the old faith Queen Henrietta Maria and the theatre of Caroline England, 16251642

by Bailey, Rebecca

• ISBN13: 9780719076732
• ISBN10: 0719076730
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-05-01
• Publisher: Manchester University Press

Summary

This is the first book length study to examine Caroline theater as a space where the concerns of the English Roman Catholic community are staged. Rebecca Bailey juxtaposes a detailed analysis of Queen Henrietta Maria's ground-breaking performances, which showcased to an elite audience her role as defender of English Catholics, against an exploration of how this community responded to such a startling vision, in particular through the politically charged texts of James Shirley and William Davenant. This engagement on the stage with the anxieties and hopes of the English Catholic community (properly contextualized within the wider and increasingly fragmented religious landscape in the years leading to civil war) opens up Caroline commercial theater as a site which energetically discussed the explosive religio-political topics of the cultural moment.

Author Biography

Rebecca Bailey is a Broadcast Media Researcher for the BBC. She has lectured and taught at Goldsmiths College, University of London and Bath Spa University. She is a contributing editor for The Complete Works of James Shirley, 1596-1666.

Table of Contents

Introduction - Counter-Reformation politics and the Caroline stage

The public discourse of religion in Stuart England

James Shirely: the early texts, 1625-29

'A case for conscience': Issues of allegiance and identity, 1630-33

William Davenant: the chimera of religious reunion, 1634-37

'A broken time': The tempering of an international Catholicism, 1637-40

Conclusion

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