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“With Old Plays You Have So Long Been Cloyed” : James Shirley’s influence on Aphra Behn
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Grant, Teresa (2021) “With Old Plays You Have So Long Been Cloyed” : James Shirley’s influence on Aphra Behn. Theatralia, 24 (1). pp. 43-60. doi:10.5817/TY2021-1-4 ISSN 1803-845X.
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WRAP-With-Old-Plays-You-Have-So-Long-Been-Cloyed-2021 - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 4.0. Download (177Kb) |
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.5817/TY2021-1-4
Abstract
This article emphasises the unrecognised popularity of the Caroline playwright James Shirley’s drama on the Restoration stage, demonstrating that – after Fletcher – Shirley, Shakespeare and Jonson pegged pretty level in the 1660s when it came to revivals. Aphra Behn’s use of Shirley’s The Lady of Pleasure (printed 1637) in her later play, The Lucky Chance (performed 1686), raises questions about why neither it, nor Shirley’s popular The Bird in a Cage (printed 1633) were revived in the Restoration. Behn must have been reading Shirley in the 1680s since there are direct verbal echoes in her play, arguing for a direct engagement with earlier drama. Scholars repeatedly connect The Bird in a Cage to Behn because Shirley’s playlet leaves room for a lesbian desire which reverberates also within Behn’s poetry and other drama. Shirley and Behn also share an interest in the politics of transactional sex, themes that run through both Shirley plays and also in so much of Behn’s writing. The Lucky Chance follows both Shirley plays in showing the negotiations necessary for women to remain both independent and virtuous in a system stacked against them.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | P Language and Literature > PR English literature | ||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > English and Comparative Literary Studies Faculty of Arts > Centre for the Study of the Renaissance |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Shirley, James, 1596-1666 -- Influence, Theater -- England -- History -- 17th century, Behn, Aphra, 1640-1689 -- Criticism and interpretation, Women authors, English -- 17th century, English drama -- Restoration, 1660-1700 -- History and criticism, Feminism and literature -- England -- History -- 17th century, Literature and society -- England -- History -- 17th century, Women in the theater -- England -- History -- 17th century, Women and literature -- England -- History -- 17th century, Gender identity in literature, Sex role in literature, Women in literature | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Theatralia | ||||||
Publisher: | Masarykova univerzita, Filozofická fakulta, Brno | ||||||
ISSN: | 1803-845X | ||||||
Official Date: | 2021 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 24 | ||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 43-60 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.5817/TY2021-1-4 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||
Copyright Holders: | Teresa Grant | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 16 June 2021 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 16 June 2021 | ||||||
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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Open Access Version: |
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