ABSTRACT
The Foxean dramatists participated in the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century updating and reinterpretation of Actes and Monuments. These appropriations reflected the instability inherent in apocalyptic histories as well as dissonances within Foxe's account, which supported both conservative and radical readings. In the 1563 edition of Actes and Monuments, Foxe optimistically presented the Elizabethan settlement as a sign of the victory of the true Church and the 'world's imminent end'. Since the early days of the Elizabethan settlement, Protestants had disagreed over the place of the Elizabethan Church in apocalyptic history and the earthly agency by which Antichrist would be defeated. While Foxean plays could co-opt the voice of the monarch to renew apocalyptic agendas, several of the plays stage the supplanting of the godly monarch by popular reformers. Several generalizations can be made about the reception and the political influence of the Foxean history plays.
