ABSTRACT
James Shirley, a quintessential dramatist of the Caroline period, has received strangely contradictory assessments. From one critic we hear that he was an elitist obsessed with degree; another notes approvingly that he was no cringing ‘lick-spittle’.1 His sense of place gave country concerns a dignified voice; but apparently he also listened to London’s citizens, and he was the Queen’s darling.2 He received favours from King and courtiers; yet he was disillusioned with the court. His plays were enormously popular; or they bombed. He was a scandalous writer for some, and a dull one for others.
