Drama of the English Republic, 1649-1660

This is a collection of plays and entertainments which were originally published and performed when England was nominally a republic or commonwealth. The five texts, three of which have been edited here for the first time, illustrate how the dramatists devised new aesthetics in response to the ideological concerns of the Republic. In The History of that Famous Roman Orator Marcus Tullius Cicero , a classical tragedy exemplifies republican values neglected in Renaissance drama. James Shirley’s Cupid and Death blends comedy, mythology and moral fable into a metaphor for the ambiguous state of those living under the commonwealth, whilst the hybrid works of William Davenant produced in the period, The Siege of Rhodes , The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru , and the History of Sir Francis Drake , embody the enhanced sense of nation promoted by the Cromwellian Protectorate