Lives, Times and Theatres

Abstract

At the turn of the seventeenth century, Britain — as it was just about to become after a century of negotiations¹ — was on the verge of becoming established as the first great capitalist state. It had had its revolution, when the last attempt by the monarchy to keep a stranglehold of power over the increasingly independent Parliament had resulted in Charles I’s public execution outside the Banqueting House, where he had formerly performed in masques. And, following the Commonwealth period of Oliver and Richard Cromwell, Charles II had been welcomed back in 1660 to take his place on the throne. Popular history places a great deal of emphasis on him as the ‘merry monarch’, the instigator of long years of hedonistic revelry. It is a view that was perpetuated by the theatres, which were officially opened after a series of puritan-inspired laws prohibiting performances had been passed in the Commonwealth period; and, in particular, by the comedies, whose celebration of sexual gratification and aristocratic privilege merely confirmed the worst fears of the puritan reformers about the dangers of theatrical licence. There were, and remain, unconfirmed rumours that a naked production of Lord Rochester’s Sodom had even been performed at Court.²