ABSTRACT
The Roundheads or, The Good Old Cause was staged in December of 1681 or early in 1682, towards the end of the furore over the Popish Plot and during the Exclusion Crisis. The first part of it is the familiar term for the parliamentary forces in the first Civil War of the early 1640s, while the second, The Good Old Cause’, was used for their political aims: a limited monarchy, a moderate church and a social order including the gentry in rule. Unlike Whig plays, Tory efforts tended to imitate earlier works and, instead of arguing the political case, to reduce politics to farce. The Roundheads was based on a play by John Tathum, called The Rump. Tathum’s play was written in 1660, at an even more volatile moment than 1681. Tathum’s play is a hasty and awkward affair, not unlike the pageants for which the author was famous.
