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A Case Study in Caroline Political Theatre: Brathwaite's ‘Mercurius Britannicus’ (1641)1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Martin Butler
Affiliation:
Trinity Hall, Cambridge

Abstract

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Type
Communications
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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References

2 George Thomason's copies of the play are bound together with other tracts of July-September 1641.

3 My citations are to a copy of the third, ‘authorized’ translation, BL pressmark 644. d. 29.

4 Jones, W.J., Politics and the bench (London, 1975), pp. 139–43Google Scholar. Perhaps Brathwaite wrote shortly after 6 July 1641, when charges against the judges were taken up into the House of Lords (Lords Journals, IV (1628–42), 303).

5 Fletcher, A., The outbreak of the English civil war (London, 1981), pp. 108–12Google Scholar.

6 The Jacobean and Caroline stage (7 vols., Oxford, 1941–68), III, 41.

7 Fletcher, , Outbreak of the English civil war, p. 283Google Scholar.

8 Cobbett's collection of state trials, III (London, 1809), 1260, 1282.

9 Jones prints the articles of Berkeley's, impeachment (Politics and the bench, pp. 199208)Google Scholar.

10 State trials, III, 1262–1306.

11 Brathwaite perhaps knew of the similar language that had actually been used in parliament of Sir Randolph Crewe, who lost his judicial seat by his refusal to countenance Charles's measures (Lords Journals, IV, 303).

12 The identifications were established by Adams, J. W. Jr, ‘Richard Brathwaite's Mercurius Britannicus’, Modern Language Notes, XXVI (1911), 233–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Holmes, C., ‘The county community in Stuart historiography’, Journal of British Studies, XIX, 2 (1980), 54–73 (p. 65)Google Scholar; Denham, J., Poetical works (ed. Banks, T. H., New Haven, 1928), p. 157Google Scholar.

14 Jones, , Politics and the bench, p. 126Google Scholar.

15 Bramston, J., The autobiography (ed. Bramston, T. W., London, 1845), p. 79Google Scholar.

16 Greg, W. W., A bibliography of the English printed drama to the restoration, II (London, 1951), 738–9, 951–2Google Scholar.

17 Murray, J. T., English dramatic companies, II (London, 1910), 319, 254Google Scholar.

18 Grosart, A. B. (ed.), The Lismore papers (2nd series, 5 vols., London, 18871888), iv, 67Google Scholar.

19 Historical Manuscripts Commission [hereafter HMC], report 77 (De Lisle and Dudley MSS), vi, 78.

20 Collins, A., Letters and memorials of state, II (London, 1746), 612–13Google Scholar. Cf. p. 617: ‘Canterbury, Hamilton, and Deputy [Strafford], who are the Persons that do absolutely governe, are as much Spanish as Olivares’. 21 HMC 77, vI, 554–5, xxvii–xxviii.

22 History of the Rebellion (ed. Macray, W. D., 6 vols., Oxford, 1888), 1, 41 nGoogle Scholar.

23 Collins, , Letters and memorials, pp. 632, 636, 658Google Scholar; H M C 77, vi, 356.

24 Laud, W., The works, vii (Oxford, 1860), 568Google Scholar; Collins, , Letters and memorials, p. 631Google Scholar; H M C 77, vi, 362; HMC 3 (Northumberland MSS), 78.

25 Collins, , Letters and memorials, pp. 641–2, 623Google Scholar; Blencowe, R. W., Sydney papers (London, 1825), p. 262Google Scholar.

26 Collins, , Letters and memorials, pp. 663–6Google Scholar; B. Manning, ‘The aristocracy and the downfall of Charles I’, in idem (ed.), Politics, religion and the English civil war (London, 1973), p. 46; Clarendon, , History of the Rebellion, 1, 434–5 nGoogle Scholar.

27 History of the Rebellion, 11, 531.

28 Leicester left Paris for good in October 1641, but in the furtherance of his intrigues he had visited England in May and returned to Paris again in August (HMC 77, vI, 556); he could quite conceivably have taken Brathwaite's play with him on the latter journey.

29 Bentley, , Jacobean and Caroline stage, II, 693Google Scholar.

30 Ibid. 1, 277–8, 294, 314, 332–3.

31 Puritanism and theatre (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 239, 243–52Google Scholar.