Title: Court and country politics in the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher /
Authors: Finkelpearl, Philip Joseph.
Publisher: Princeton University Press,
Year: 1990
Subjects: Beaumont, Francis, Criticism and interpretation.; Fletcher, John, Criticism and interpretation.; Political plays, English History and criticism.; Courts and courtiers in literature.; Country life in literature; Authorship Collaboration History
Abstract: The seventeenth-century English collaborative authors Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher were not only the most popular playwrights of their day but also literary figures highly esteemed by the great critics of the age, Jonson and Dryden. Concentrating on the passions of the royalty and high nobility in a courtly atmosphere, their dramas are now usually seen as epitomizing a decadent turn in theater at the end of the Jacobean period. Philip Finkelpearl sets out to change this view by revealing the subtle political challenges contained in the plays and by showing that they criticize rather than exemplify false values. The result is a wholly new conception of this pair of dramatists and of the entire question of the relationship between the Crown and the theater in their time. Finkelpearl presents new biographical material revealing that Beaumont and Fletcher had good and sufficient reasons to be critical of the court and the king, and he shows that their most important works--especially The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Philaster, A King and No King, and The Maid's Tragedy have such criticism as a central concern. Court and Country Politics in the Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher offers much information on the nature of the "public" and "private" theaters at which these plays were presented and on Jacobean censorship. The book is an impressive explanation of why Beaumont and Fletcher were a central force in the Age of Shakespeare.
Contents: 1. The country, the playhouse, and the mermaid: the three worlds of Beaumont and Fletcher -- 2. Beaumont and Fletcher's earliest work -- 3. Form and politics in The Knight of the burning pestle -- 4. The Faithful Shepherdess: the politics of chastity -- 5. The Scornful Lady and "city comedy" -- 6. Cupid's revenge: purity and princes -- 7. The contemporary "application" of the Noble Gentleman -- 8. Philaster, or Love lies a Bleeding: the anti-prince -- 9. A King and No King: the corruption of power -- 10. The Maid's Tragedy: honorable tyrannicide -- 11. Fletcher's politics after Beaumont -- Afterword: the king's men and the politics of Beaumont and Fletcher.