ABSTRACT
The last sad act of Elizabethan long reign was the rebellion of the Earl of Essex. The comparison with Essex’s appearance in Elizabeth’s private apartment was unmistakeable, but Ben Jonson’s plea for clemency was premature. On 28 September, Essex did return from Ireland and presented himself dramatically, even theatrically, in the Queen’s private chamber when she was half dressed. If the Essex rebellion poisoned the years of Elizabeth’s reign, other things were going wrong, too. A breach between the drama-loving Scottish king and the theatre community was in danger of opening up. At the head of the new fashionable society was the royal family, and one of their pet hobbies was theatre. Perhaps Thomas Middleton’s 1624A Game at Chess was the last time theatre could truly be said to inhabit that threshold position where imagination liberates perception and soars.
