ABSTRACT
The Cavalier theatre had run its course, though politically the Stuart dynasty would not be eliminated from British politics for another sixty years. In 1678, one Titus Oates, an uncouth imposter and pathological liar, made a theatrical appearance before the Privy Council and convinced them that a Catholic plot was afoot to murder the king and his supporters, and re-impose Catholicism on the country. This ‘Popish Plot’ sent the country into a febrile commotion of paranoia. As the political situation in the country was extremely turbulent, with the Popish Plot and the Exclusion Crisis at their height, Charles Killigrew promised the actors extra money if they returned. The vicious politicking had its effects on the theater. Venice Preserv’d was a fitting climax to Restoration theatre, perhaps its only tragic masterwork, for the brittle Stuart world of glittering carnality and charming indifference was clearly more suited to comedy.
