Imagining Time in the English Chronicle Play: Historical Futures, 1590-1660

Imagining Time in the English Chronicle Play: Historical Futures,1590-1660 explores how playwrights envisioned futures in dramatic works that were purportedly about the past, using close readings of William Shakespeare's 1&2 Henry IV, Richard III, All is True, Samuel Rowley's When You See Me, You Know Me, John Ford's Perkin Warbeck, and the anonymous play pamphlets The Leveller's Levelled, 1 & 2 Craftie Cromwell, Charles I, and Cromwell's Conspiracy.

Format: Hardback
Length: 224 pages
Publication date: 26 September 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Imagining Time in the English Chronicle Play: Historical Futures, 1590-1660, posits that dramatic narratives about monarchy and succession encoded speculative futures in the early modern English cultural imaginary. This book explores chronicle plays, written for the public stage and play pamphlets composed during the civil wars when playhouses were closed, to examine the formal and material ways in which playwrights envisioned futures in dramatic works that were purportedly about the past.

Through close readings of William Shakespeare's 1&2 Henry IV, Richard III, Shakespeare's and John Fletcher's All is True, Samuel Rowley's When You See Me, You Know Me, John Ford's Perkin Warbeck, and the anonymous play pamphlets The Leveller's Levelled, 1 & 2 Craftie Cromwell, Charles I, and Cromwell's Conspiracy, the volume demonstrates that imaginative treatments of history in plays typically associated with the past also held sway over the future. While plays about the nation's past retell history, these plays are not confined to merely documenting what occurred: Playwrights projected possible futures in their accounts of verifiable historical events.

Moreover, the volume underscores the significance of considering chronicle plays and play pamphlets in understanding the early modern English cultural imaginary. These works, written during a period of political and social upheaval, reflect the concerns and anxieties of their time and offer insights into the ways in which individuals and societies imagined the future. By examining the formal and material elements of these plays, the volume sheds light on the ways in which playwrights used drama to shape and influence public opinion and to explore the possibilities and limitations of historical imagination.

In conclusion, Imagining Time in the English Chronicle Play: Historical Futures, 1590-1660, is a groundbreaking work that offers a fresh perspective on the role of drama in shaping the early modern English cultural imaginary. Through its close readings of a selection of chronicle plays and play pamphlets, the volume demonstrates the ways in which playwrights projected possible futures in their accounts of historical events and the significance of considering these works in understanding the early modern English cultural landscape.

Weight: 494g
Dimension: 241 x 165 x 16 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780198872658