ABSTRACT
When The Young Admiral was licensed, in 1633, James Shirley was at a high point in his dramatic career. This was signified by a string of successful plays already performed on the commercial stage, and by an imminent commission from the Inns of Court for the fabulous court masque, The Triumph of Peace (1634). By the time Shirley wrote The Court Secret, in the early 1640s, he held the most prestigious theatrical position in London, dramatist to the King’s Men at the Blackfriars and Globe Theatres. This essay seeks to understand Shirley’s continued appeal, to an audience which spanned elite and commercial theatre, through an exploration of how these two maritime texts boldly engaged with the most pressing concern of the cultural moment, allegiance to the monarch. In The Young Admiral, Shirley offers a powerful insight into the turmoil rendered when faithful subjects are forced by the actions of the establishment to question their loyalty to their country. Equally as presciently, The Court Secret’s multilayered plot of stolen identities presents an uncomfortable glimpse into the treacheries of a court beset by faction and betrayal. In both The Young Admiral (1633) and The Court Secret (1642), Shirley artfully employed and developed two popular tropes in Caroline drama: the neoplatonic ideal which so charmed Queen Henrietta Maria, and a nautical setting, which chimed with King Charles I’s ambition to strengthen England’s naval presence. The seafaring backdrop of Shirley’s texts was particularly intuitive. Charles I’s controversial Ship Money Levy aroused vociferous arguments in the 1630s, which swirled around the necessity of a mutual respect between subject and ruler. These debates ignited the popular imagination. Kevin Sharpe has argued how, in the ‘increasingly contestatory political culture’ of Stuart England, the image of the ruler was ‘fashioned amid debate, animadversion, and opposition’.1 The significance of the Caroline stage in such disputes is revealed by the King’s elite performance of nautical triumph when he assumed the lead role in the stunning court masque Britannia Triumphans.2 In The Court Secret, Shirley deftly confronted the King’s own vision, redeploying the maritime setting to signal the unchartered territory of a country erupting into civil war.3 Such theatrical counterpoints display the compelling power of Shirley’s texts to navigate and dissect the most pressing anxieties within society, whilst deepening our understanding of the vitality of pre-Civil War theatre.4
