Drama and the Politics of Professionalism in England C. 1600

Drama and the Politics of Professionalism in England c.1600-1640 Martin Steward Ph.D. University College London University of London “And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art: Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne shall I be greater than thou.” Genesis 41:39-40 ProQuest Number: U642701 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest U642701 Published by ProQuest LLC(2015). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Abstract The project was conceived as a cultural-studies contribution to the debate around the “causes of the English Civil War”. The “silences of conciliation” emphasized by “revisionist” historians concealed an unwillingness to entertain a theory of sovereignty, despite Tudor administrative centralization. Understanding this unwilhngness helps explain how conciliation could be a preface to civil war. The answer lies partly in the way professional constituencies divided up the action of government. This did not prevent dissension, because these competing claims upon power perpetuated precisely those divisions which concepts of sovereignty were designed to overcome. Reading controversy from within the idioms of these professions reveals divergent constitutional theories, articulated at a remove from mainstream political discussion or institutions, which sound orthodox, but constantly threaten to open divisions in the public sphere. The introductory section sets the historiographical and literary-historical contexts for the period, with particular emphasis on the professional status of the theatre, and its impact in the political sphere. Section One describes how professional disputes between common lawyers, civilians, and the episcopacy impacted on constitutional questions, before exploring how far theological disputes concerning “Arminianism” can be reinterpreted as debates over the socio-political role of the clerical profession. It concludes by showing how Cymheline and King John and Matilda deal with similar issues while removing them from their original professional contexts into a theatrical one. Section Two focuses on the monarchy. Examining Baconian science as well as “Arminian” and “Puritan” theology, it argues that vague divine right theories opened up spaces for claims of professional interpretative supremacy within apparently “absolutist” rhetorics. These themes are drawn together in a reading of The Royal Slave. In Section Three the contrasting aesthetics of the Shakespeare-Jonson rivalry are translated into a contrasting politics through readings of Jonson’s critical works and Poetaster, and Shakespeare’s Tempest. The Section concludes with a reading of The Roman Actor, an exemplary apologia for the political role of an independent, professionalized theatre. Table of Contents Title Page 1 Abstract 2 Table of Contents 3 Acknowledgements 4 Introduction 5 I; Setting the historiographical context: the problem of sovereignty and the “Causes of the English Civil War” 5 II: Setting the literary-historical context: “Placere cupio": playwrights, professionalism and politics 12 i: “The staging of power and the powers of the stage” 12 ii: The limits of censorship 15 iii: Patronage 19 iv: The “commercially autonomous author” 21 ONE: Legal and Religious Ideologies 29 I: Professional imperatives behind competing theories of the origins of law 30 U: Sir Francis Bacon and Sir Edward Coke 35 ni: “The High and Most Honourable Court of Parliament”: The Petition of Right, and the revival of impeachment 40 IV: The Chuch and the law 48 V: “And who is sufficient for these things?”: Arminianism - theology, politics, or professional ideology? 58 i: Predestination 59 ii: Natural reason and scripture 61 iii: Preaching and the sacraments 65 iv: Social and political ramifications of “the beauty of holiness” 71 VI: “Shall’s have a play of this?”: performing the ancient constitution and the justified conscience in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and Robert Davenport’sKing John andMatilda 73 i: “Publish we tWs peace / To all our subjects”: Cymbeline 73 ii: “Emperor of the Barrons”: King John andMatilda 84 TWO: “Gods Lieutenant”: Kingship, Divinity, and Professional Counsel 96 I 97 H: The divine right of Kings and Baconian science 97 IE: Divinity, orthodoxy, and power: “No Bishop, No King”? 105 TV: “There’s difference ’twixt a Colledge and a Court”: Laudianism and Oxonianism radicalized in William Cartwright’s The Royall Slave 118 THREE: The Political Case for Professional Playwrights: Jonson, Shakespeare, Massinger 135 I 136 H: “Soveraignty needs counsell”: Ben Jonson’sPoetaster and the politicized aesthetics of authority 136 ni: Prospero-us playwrights: William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and the Jonsonian masque 153 rV: “Spoken like yourself’: absolute theatre and absolutist politics in Philip Massinger’sThe Roman Actor 170 Conclusion 185 Complete List of Works Consulted 188 Acknowledgements For three years I held an award from the Arts and Humanities Research Board, during which time most of the work on this thesis was completed. The Research Board, the Department of English and the Graduate School at University College London also helped to finance my attendance at a conference. It goes without saying that none of this work could have been done without such financial support. Nevertheless, man shall not live by bread alone - even when it is transubstantiated into hard cash. Danny Karlin allowed me to present a Graduate Seminar at University College London in January 2001, based on material which has found its way into the conclusion of this thesis. Lisa Jardine and Graham Rees enabled me to present an updated version of the same work at the Second International Seminar on Francis Bacon at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London, in September 2001. Janet Claire invited me to present a paper on Lancelot Andrewes at the conference “‘Of Seditions and troubles’: Representing Treason and Sedition 1400-1700”, at University College Dublin in March 2002. My examiners, Nigel Smith and Martin Dzelzainis, offered excellent advice on how to improve the presentation of my ideas for the final version of this thesis. 1 have benefitted from excellent teaching during my long career in the English Department of University College London, but I owe by far my greatest intellectual debt to my supervisor, Tim Langley. Since 1 was first taught by him as a second-year undergraduate, his astonishing breadth of knowledge in seventeenth-century literature and culture has been both an inspiration and a challenge. Every conversation with him is stimulating, exciting, unpredictable, sometimes confounding; one never fails to leave brimming with new ideas, new names, new connections, new possibilities. This work cannot even begin to repay that debt. My family have given support, constant and varied. It has been fun to pursue a doctorate in literary studies at the same time my brother, Richard, has pursued his in high- energy particle physics. My friend Linda Kemp has provided me with ten years’ wonderful correspondence. 1 am deeply gratefül to those colleagues, particularly Alex Naylor and Neil Wallington, who made long days at the British Library pass more pleasantly than they might otherwise have done. Neil’s expertise in the later 1630s and 40s always served as a reminder of how much more there was to learn, and his scholarly good sense provided an example 1 might have profited from following more closely. 1 would like especially to thank Kiera Chapman, whose fiiendship, support and faith have been so valuable to me over the course of the past three years. But 1 must end by acknowledging my greatest debt of all, which is to my wife, Samantha. She has loved, encouraged and comforted me with more devotion than 1 could ever possibly have deserved. This thesis is dedicated to her, without whom it could never have been completed. Introduction • •• I Setting the historiographical context: the problem of sovereignty and the “Causes of the English Civil War” “I am confident that the king... is able by his wisdom and ministers to carry any just and honourable action through all imaginary opposition for real there can be none.” Sir Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, to Archbishop William Laud (1633) "... men differed much in opinion touching the warre, most wished it had not bin begun.” Bulstrode Whitelocke, The Diary ofBulstrode Whitelocke 1605-1675, 36th Year (1640) The story of the downfall of "Whig” history is a well-rehearsed one, especially in the field of seventeenth-century studies: “The English Civil War is perh^s the oustanding example of the need of each generation to re-write its own history”, as Conrad Russell has observed (Russell 1973, p.3). I must briefly cover some of the ground again, as that process of re-writing forms the background and the impetus for this study. The Whig tradition interpreted the constitutional crises of the mid-seventeenth century as the inevitable result of political

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