Title: The "Scaene of Elysium": painters, plaintiffs and paradise in John Dryden's Tyrannick Love (1669)
Source document: Theatralia. 2021, vol. 24, iss. 1, pp. 11-33
Extent
11-33
-
ISSN1803-845X (print)2336-4548 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/TY2021-1-2
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/143811
Type: Article
Language
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
This article examines surviving evidence related to the work of three leading artists who painted scenery for the Restoration stage: Isaac Fuller, Robert Streater [Streeter] and Robert Robinson. Taking as its starting point Allardyce Nicoll's account of the Restoration stage in his influential 1923 History of English Drama, the article argues that our knowledge of Restoration theatre scenery remains in need of new methodologies that are not based solely on evidence derived from printed play texts. Using Dryden's Tyrannick Love (1669) as a case study, I will show how legal accounts, surviving artworks produced for other sites and wider contemporaneous sources point to the complexity and quality of some scenes. Such scenery could play an active role in producing the meaning of a dramatic work, making it wholly understandable why the theatre companies made substantial financial investment in certain cases.
Note
This article was supported by the Czech Science Foundation project GA19–07494S. English Theatre Culture 1660–1737.
References
[1] ARMISTEAD, Jack. 1988. Dryden and the Occult as Dramatic Code: Tyrannick Love. Papers on Language and Literature: A Journal for Scholars and Critics of Language and Literature 24 (1988): 4: 367–383.
[2] BAKEWELL, Lyndsey. 2016. Changing Scenes and Flying Machines: Re-examination of Spectacle and the Spectacular in Restoration Theatre, 1660–1714. PhD dissertation. Loughborough University, 2016.
[3] BEHN, Aphra. 1994. Oroonoko and Other Writings. Edited by Paul Salzman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
[4] BUCKERIDGE, Bainbrigge. 1706. An Essay Towards an English School of Painters. In R. de Piles. The Art of Painting, and the Lives of the Painters. London: J. Nutt, 1706: 398–480.
[5] CROFT-MURRAY, Edward. 1962. Decorative Painting in England 1537–1837: Vol. One: Early Tudor to Sir James Thornhill, 2 vols. London: Country Life, 1962.
[6] DOWNES, Kerry. 1960. Fuller's 'Last Judgement.' The Burlington Magazine 102 (1960): 691: 450–452.
[7] DRYDEN, John and HOWARD, John. 1665. 'The Indian-Queen: A Tragedy'. Four New Plays. London: Henry Herringman, 1665: [137]–175.
[8] EVELYN, John. 1901. The Diary of John Evelyn. 2 Vols. William Bray (ed.). London: M. Walter Dunn, 1901.
[9] FLECKNOE, Richard. A Short Discourse of the English Stage. London: 1664.
[10] GANZ, James Atkins. 2000. Robert Robinson (1651–1706): Painter-Stainer and Peintre Graveur. PhD dissertation, Yale University, 2000.
[11] GALINOU, Mireille. 2002. The Painted Room: Sir John Cass's Foundation Primary School. London: Corporation of London, 2002.
[12] GERAGHTY, Anthony. 2013. The Sheldonian Theatre: Architecture and Learning in SeventeenthCentury Oxford. New Haven/London: Yale UP, 2013.
[13] HAMLETT, Lydia. 2020. Mural Painting in Britain 1630–1730: Experiencing Histories. London/New York: Routledge, 2020.
[14] KEENAN, Tim. 2017. Restoration Staging, 1660–74. London/New York: Routledge, 2017.
[15] LIVERSIDGE, M. J. H. 1992. Prelude to the Baroque: Isaac Fuller at Oxford. Oxoniensia 57 (1992): 311–329.
[16] MILHOUS, Judith. 1984. The Multimedia Spectacular on the Restoration Stage. In Shirley Strum Kenny (ed.). British Theatre and the Other Arts, 1660–1800. London: Associated University Presses, 1984: 41–62.
[17] MILHOUS, Judith and Robert D. HUME. (eds.). 1991. A Register of English Theatrical Documents 1660–1737, Vol. 1 1660–1714. (Southern Illinois UP, 1991).
[18] NICOLL, Allardyce. 1923. History of English Drama. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1923.
[19] NOVAK, Maximillian E. Novak and George Robert GUFFEY (eds.). 1970. Works of John Dryden: Vol. X. Berkeley: Uni of California Press, 1970.
[20] ROGERS, Malcolm. 1979. Isaac Fuller and Charles II's escape from the Battle of Worcester. Connoisseur (1979): 164–169.
[21] ROSENFELD, Sybil. 1973. A Short History of Scene Design in Great Britain. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1973.
[22] SETTLE, Elkanah. 1702. Cassandra: Or, The Virgin Prophetess, An Opera. London, 1702.
[23] SOLKIN, David. 1999. Isaac Fuller's Escape of Charles II: a Restoration tragicomedy. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 62 (1999): 199–240.
[24] TRISTRAM, E. W. 1913–1914. A Painted Room of the Seventeenth Century. The Volume of the Walpole Society 3 (1913–1914): 75–81.
[25] WRIGHT, James. 1699. Historia Histrionica. London, 1699.
[2] BAKEWELL, Lyndsey. 2016. Changing Scenes and Flying Machines: Re-examination of Spectacle and the Spectacular in Restoration Theatre, 1660–1714. PhD dissertation. Loughborough University, 2016.
[3] BEHN, Aphra. 1994. Oroonoko and Other Writings. Edited by Paul Salzman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
[4] BUCKERIDGE, Bainbrigge. 1706. An Essay Towards an English School of Painters. In R. de Piles. The Art of Painting, and the Lives of the Painters. London: J. Nutt, 1706: 398–480.
[5] CROFT-MURRAY, Edward. 1962. Decorative Painting in England 1537–1837: Vol. One: Early Tudor to Sir James Thornhill, 2 vols. London: Country Life, 1962.
[6] DOWNES, Kerry. 1960. Fuller's 'Last Judgement.' The Burlington Magazine 102 (1960): 691: 450–452.
[7] DRYDEN, John and HOWARD, John. 1665. 'The Indian-Queen: A Tragedy'. Four New Plays. London: Henry Herringman, 1665: [137]–175.
[8] EVELYN, John. 1901. The Diary of John Evelyn. 2 Vols. William Bray (ed.). London: M. Walter Dunn, 1901.
[9] FLECKNOE, Richard. A Short Discourse of the English Stage. London: 1664.
[10] GANZ, James Atkins. 2000. Robert Robinson (1651–1706): Painter-Stainer and Peintre Graveur. PhD dissertation, Yale University, 2000.
[11] GALINOU, Mireille. 2002. The Painted Room: Sir John Cass's Foundation Primary School. London: Corporation of London, 2002.
[12] GERAGHTY, Anthony. 2013. The Sheldonian Theatre: Architecture and Learning in SeventeenthCentury Oxford. New Haven/London: Yale UP, 2013.
[13] HAMLETT, Lydia. 2020. Mural Painting in Britain 1630–1730: Experiencing Histories. London/New York: Routledge, 2020.
[14] KEENAN, Tim. 2017. Restoration Staging, 1660–74. London/New York: Routledge, 2017.
[15] LIVERSIDGE, M. J. H. 1992. Prelude to the Baroque: Isaac Fuller at Oxford. Oxoniensia 57 (1992): 311–329.
[16] MILHOUS, Judith. 1984. The Multimedia Spectacular on the Restoration Stage. In Shirley Strum Kenny (ed.). British Theatre and the Other Arts, 1660–1800. London: Associated University Presses, 1984: 41–62.
[17] MILHOUS, Judith and Robert D. HUME. (eds.). 1991. A Register of English Theatrical Documents 1660–1737, Vol. 1 1660–1714. (Southern Illinois UP, 1991).
[18] NICOLL, Allardyce. 1923. History of English Drama. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1923.
[19] NOVAK, Maximillian E. Novak and George Robert GUFFEY (eds.). 1970. Works of John Dryden: Vol. X. Berkeley: Uni of California Press, 1970.
[20] ROGERS, Malcolm. 1979. Isaac Fuller and Charles II's escape from the Battle of Worcester. Connoisseur (1979): 164–169.
[21] ROSENFELD, Sybil. 1973. A Short History of Scene Design in Great Britain. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1973.
[22] SETTLE, Elkanah. 1702. Cassandra: Or, The Virgin Prophetess, An Opera. London, 1702.
[23] SOLKIN, David. 1999. Isaac Fuller's Escape of Charles II: a Restoration tragicomedy. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 62 (1999): 199–240.
[24] TRISTRAM, E. W. 1913–1914. A Painted Room of the Seventeenth Century. The Volume of the Walpole Society 3 (1913–1914): 75–81.
[25] WRIGHT, James. 1699. Historia Histrionica. London, 1699.