Winter fruit
Subtitle: English drama, 1642-1660
By: Dale B. J. Randall.
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Lexington, Ky
Language: eng
Number of pages: 454
Subjects: Cromwell, Oliver, 1599-1658; English drama -- 17th century -- History and criticism; Literature and history -- Great Britain -- History -- 17th century; Theater and state -- Great Britain -- History -- 17th century; Puritans -- England -- History -- 17th century; Great Britain -- History -- Puritan Revolution, 1642-1660 -- Literature and the revolution; Great Britain -- History -- Civil War, 1642-1649 -- Literature and the war
Description: Probably the most blighted period in the history of English drama was the time of the Civil Wars, Commonwealth, and Protectorate. With the theaters closed, the country at war, the throne in fatal decline, and the powers of Parliament and Cromwell growing greater, the received wisdom has been that drama in England largely withered and died.

Not so, demonstrates Dale Randall in this magisterial study, the first book in nearly sixty years to attempt a comprehensive analysis of mid-seventeenth-century English drama. Throughout the official hiatus in playing, he shows, dramas continued to be composed, translated, transmuted, published, bought, read, and even covertly acted. Furthermore, the tendency of drama to become interestingly topical and political grew more pronounced.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [391]-420) and index.