James Shirley, The Politician

Duncan Fraser (University of Sussex)

Ed. by William M. Hamlin, Washington State University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.04: English Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century, 1625-1688.
Vol. editors: Jennifer Brady (Rhodes College), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Neil Forsyth (Université de Lausanne), Claire Preston (Queen Mary, University of London), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1655

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play
Tragedy

Resources

James Shirley (1596-1666) wrote The Politician, a Tragedy in 1639 when he was the principal dramatist at the Werburgh Street Theatre in Dublin; it was published in 1655 by the London bookseller Humphrey Moseley. Shirley declared in the Epistle Dedicatory that this would be the last of his plays “which is like to salute the public view”.

The Politician was printed at the same time as The Gentleman of Venice, and two years earlier Moseley had issued a collection of six other hitherto unpublished plays by Shirley. The public theatres were closed in 1655, as they were throughout the Interregnum, so it seems reasonable to assume that at this point in his career Shirley was doing what he could to …

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1985 words

Citation: Fraser, Duncan. "The Politician". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 August 2018 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38864, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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