Regicide and Restoration
English Tragicomedy, 1660–1671

Focusing on the directions taken by tragicomedy and the court masque, this book accounts for the shift in genre during the decade following the return of Charles II.

Nancy Klein Maguire (Author)

9780521023733, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 November 2005

296 pages, 25 b/w illus. 1 table
23.4 x 15.6 x 1.6 cm, 0.419 kg

When the theatres reopened in 1660, tragedy, the greatest of the Renaissance genres, had vanished. Focusing on the directions taken by tragicomedy and the court masque, this book accounts for the shift in the generic system. After the Restoration a network of Royalist playwrights attempted to redefine their society. Defending the traditional power structure in the new circumstances, they fabricated pious, backward-looking and repetitious myths of monarchy. Carolean tragicomedy reflects the persistent attempt to hold together an uneasily integrated culture, and shows us something of the early Restoration's division and intolerance of ambiguity. In Regicide and Restoration Nancy Klein Maguire accords the long-neglected plays of the 1660s the status of major historical documents.

List of illustrations and tables
A note on texts and dates
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The policies of restoration tragicomedy
2. Theatrical restoration, 1660–1665
3. The rhymed heroic masque
4. The commercial market: genre as commodity
5. The divided kings in divided tragicomedy
6. The rhymed heroic apology of Roger Boyle
7. John Dryden: Stuart mythographer and masque-maker
8. Some conclusions and directions
Notes
The playwrights' works.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: plays & playwrights [DSG]