| While much has been written about the genre of the English history play in the Elizabethan period, surprisingly little attention has been devoted to the English history plays of the later seventeenth-century. This dissertation aims to enlarge our understanding of the political contexts in which later seventeenth-century history plays were written, as well as how the genre served as a vehicle for political critique. By defining the history play broadly as any play treating episodes from English history, this dissertation considers many plays that have been overlooked by previous studies.;After an introduction that outlines historiographic shifts from the Tudor to the Stuart period, Chapter One, "The 'True Histories' of the English Civil War" argues that civil war polemicists appropriated aspects of the history play for the treatment of contemporary events. In numerous short plays and dialogues, polemical dramatists seek to control the interpretation of the present by representing it as a version of the past. Chapter Two, "The Laurel and the Crown: The English History Play in the Restoration," charts the reemergence of more traditional history plays in the 1660s, as playwrights associated with the court used the form both to remythologize the Stuart dynasty and to recommend changes in Charles II's court and foreign policy.;Chapter Three examines the adaptation of Shakespeare's history plays during the Restoration and the Exclusion crisis of 1679--81. Partly in order to evade censorship, and partly inspired by Shakespeare's increasing stature, dramatists revised these plays in ways that enter into contemporary debates surrounding the threat of Catholic conspiracy and the lawfulness of altering the succession.;Chapter Four, "'Modern Stories': The Tudor History Plays of John Banks in the 1680s," contends that John Banks dramatizes events from post-Reformation history in order to bring its lessons to bear on the political problems facing England at the end of Charles II's reign. The epilogue discusses the significance of the broken mirror as a trope in seventeenth-century history plays. |
