ABSTRACT
I Contingencies of time and place James Shirley was a survivor. Born in 1596 and outliving most of his Elizabethan contemporaries, he was able to produce an oeuvre which ongoingly addressed audiences over a considerable temporal span: ranging from the end of James I’s reign through that of Charles I, and eventually – beyond the Civil War, Commonwealth, and Protectorate – as far as the early years of the Restoration.2 As the record of a writer seeking to remain in business over such an extended period, Shirley’s diverse production includes not only drama and poetry but also the pedagogically orientated publications emerging from his parallel career as a school-master.3
