This book examines the legacy of the bloody events of the Civil War and their representation in Early Modern women’s drama. The plays are considered thematically, rather than chronologically. The study will be organised around focal points, starting with the representations of women’s communities in Early Modern drama in chapters 2 and 3, moving on to representations of female warriors in chapters 4 and 5, while considering representations of peacemakers in chapters 6 and 7.
This critical study builds on the excellent work of Nancy Cotton, Jacqueline Pearson, Margarete Rubik, S. P. Cerasano, Marion Wynne-Davies, Alison Findlay, and Gweno Williams, all of whom have made significant contributions to the research on Early Modern women’s drama.12 Although the idea that war casts a long shadow over succeeding generations is not a new concept, the links between women’s drama produced in the Civil War, the Interregnum, and the later postwar period have not been interrogated to this extent. The feminist historicist approach adopted here provides a useful methodology both to present the plays and to address a wide range of theatrical and cultural concerns.
As Alison Plowden stresses, “Certainly in the war between the king and parliament which rent the fabric of English society in the middle years of the seventeenth century, the women in England played an enthusiastic part”.13 Plowden compliments Henrietta Maria’s bravery: “Undeterred by threats of kidnap and impeachment, she braved storms at sea and enemy bombardment—the only Queen of England to have sheltered in a ditch while cannon balls whistled overhead and a man was killed not twenty paces way—and never gave up trying, never gave up hope”.14 Alongside the brave and noble women on both sides of the war, another war was being waged—a literary war in which women fought for the right to become involved in drama and to begin producing plays. These Early Modern playwrights raised the profile of women’s writing and created more possibilities for women to participate in literary creation. The progression from closet drama, which was not performed in a public theatre, to the plays written by Katherine Philips and Aphra Behn, which were produced on the Restoration stage, is charted here. Across the six chapters it will be shown how the war opened up possibilities for women in theatre and how women took advantage of the opportunities available to them.