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{{short description|English poet and playwright (1596–1666)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2021}}
[[File:James Shirley.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait of Shirley]]

'''James Shirley''' (September 1596 – October 1666) was an English poet and playwright. In [[Charles Lamb (writer)|Charles Lamb]]'s view, Shirley "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so much for any transcendent genius in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of whom spoke nearly the same language and had a set of moral feelings and notions in common." His career of play writing extended from 1625 to the suppression of stage plays by the [[Parliament of England]] in 1642.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911 |wstitle=Shirley, James |volume=24 |pages=990–991 |inline=1}}</ref>

== Biography ==
[[File:Arms of James Shirley.svg|thumb|Arms of James Shirley: ''Paly of six, or and azure, a quarter ermine, a crescent for difference'']]

=== Early life ===
Shirley was born in London and was descended from the Shirleys of Warwick, the oldest knighted family in Warwickshire.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kittermaster|first1=Frederick Wilson|title=Warwickshire arms and lineages|date=1866|page=[https://archive.org/details/warwickshirearms00kittrich/page/80 80]|url=https://archive.org/details/warwickshirearms00kittrich|access-date=10 September 2017|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Nason|first1=Arthur Huntington|title=James Shirley, Dramatist: A Biographical and Critical Study|date=1915|publisher=A.H. Nason|page=[https://archive.org/details/jamesshirleydram02naso/page/147 147]|url=https://archive.org/details/jamesshirleydram02naso|access-date=10 September 2017|language=en}}</ref> He was educated at [[Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood|Merchant Taylors' School, London]], [[St John's College, Oxford]], and [[St Catharine's College, Cambridge]],<ref>{{acad|id=SHRY615J|name=Shirley, James}}</ref> where he took his BA degree in or before 1618.<ref name=EB1911/>

His first poem, ''Echo, or the Unfortunate Lovers'' was published in 1618; no copy of it is known, but it is probably the same as 1646's ''Narcissus''. Oxford biographer [[Anthony Wood (antiquary)|Anthony Wood]] reports that, after earning his MA, Shirley became "a minister of God's word in or near [[St Albans]]". He then left this post, apparently due to a conversion to the [[Roman Catholic]] faith, and was master of [[St Albans School (Hertfordshire)|St Albans School]] from 1623 to 1625. His first play, ''[[Love Tricks]],'' seems to have been written while he was teaching at St Albans.

=== Playwright in London ===
In 1625 he returned to London, living in [[Gray's Inn]]. In the following 18 years, he wrote more than 30 regular plays, tragedies, comedies, and [[tragicomedy|tragicomedies]]. Most of his plays were performed by [[Queen Henrietta's Men]], the [[playing company]] for which Shirley served as house dramatist (much as [[William Shakespeare]] had for the [[King's Men (playing company)|King's Men]]).

Shirley's sympathies were with the King in his disputes with Parliament, and he received marks of special favour from the Queen. He made a bitter attack on [[William Prynne]], who had attacked the stage in ''[[Histriomastix]]'', and, in 1634 he supplied the text for ''[[The Triumph of Peace]]'', a masque presented at [[Whitehall]] by the gentlemen of the [[Inns of Court]] as a practical reply to Prynne.

=== Dublin and return to London ===

Between 1636 and 1640 Shirley went to Ireland, apparently under the patronage of the [[Earl of Kildare]]. Three or four of his plays were produced by his friend [[John Ogilby]] in Dublin's [[Werburgh Street Theatre]], the first ever built in Ireland and at the time of Shirley's visit only one year old.<ref name=EB1911/> During his Dublin stay, Shirley wrote ''[[The Doubtful Heir]]'', ''[[The Royal Master]]'', ''[[The Constant Maid]]'', and ''[[St. Patrick for Ireland]]''.<ref>Adams, p. 419.</ref>

In 1640 he returned to London, and found that in his absence Queen Henrietta's Men had sold off a dozen of his plays to the stationers, who published them in the late 1630s. As a result, he would no longer work for Queen Henrietta's company, and the final plays of his London career were acted by the King's Men.

=== Theatre closure and civil war ===

In 1642, his career as a playwright was stopped by the [[London theatre closure 1642|London theatre closure]].<ref name=EB1911/>

On the outbreak of the [[English Civil War]], Shirley seems to have served with the [[William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne|Earl of Newcastle]], but when the King's fortunes began to decline he returned to London. He owed something to the kindness of [[Thomas Stanley (author)|Thomas Stanley]], but supported himself chiefly by teaching and publishing some educational works under the [[Commonwealth of England|Commonwealth]]. Besides these, he published during the Commonwealth period four small volumes of poems and plays, in 1646, 1653, 1655 and 1659. He "was a drudge" for [[John Ogilby]] in his translations of the ''[[Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Odyssey]]''.

=== Late life and death ===

He survived into the reign of [[Charles II of England|Charles II]], but did not again attempt to write for the stage, though some of his comedies were revived.<ref name=EB1911/>

Wood says that Shirley, aged 70, and his second wife died of fright and [[hypothermia|exposure]] after the [[Great Fire of London]], and were buried at [[St Giles in the Fields]] on 29 October 1666.<ref name=EB1911/>

==Assessment of writing==

The [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'']] says of Shirley's works:

{{quote|Shirley was born to great dramatic wealth, and he handled it freely. He constructed his own plots out of the abundance of materials that had been accumulated during thirty years of unexampled dramatic activity. He did not strain after novelty of situation or character, but worked with confident ease and buoyant copiousness on the familiar lines, contriving situations and exhibiting characters after types whose effectiveness on the stage had been proved by ample experience. He spoke the same language with the great dramatists, it is true, but this grand style is sometimes employed for the artificial elevation of commonplace thought. "Clear as day" becomes in this manner "day is not more conspicuous than this cunning"; while the proverb "Still waters run deep" is ennobled into—

⁠"The shallow rivers glide away with noise—<br/>
⁠The deep are silent".

The violence and exaggeration of many of his contemporaries left him untouched. His scenes are ingeniously conceived, his characters boldly and clearly drawn; and he never falls beneath a high level of stage effect.<ref name=EB1911/>}}

==Works==
The following list includes years of first publication, and of performance if known, and dates of licensing by the [[Master of the Revels]] where available.

===Tragedies===

*''[[The Maid's Revenge]]'' (licensed 9 Feb 1626; first printed 1639)
*''[[The Traitor (play)|The Traitor]]'' (licensed 4 May 1631; first printed 1635)
*''[[Love's Cruelty]]'' (licensed 14 Nov 1631; printed 1640)
*''[[The Politician]]'' (acted 1639; printed 1655)
*''[[The Cardinal (1641 play)|The Cardinal]]'' (licensed 25 Nov 1641; printed 1652). Performed 2017 [[Southwark Playhouse]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/show/the-cardinal/#tab-1-4|title=Southwark Playhouse – Theatre + Bar {{!}} The Cardinal|website=southwarkplayhouse.co.uk|language=en-GB|access-date=10 May 2017}}</ref>

=== City Comedies set in 1630s London ===

*''[[Love Tricks]], or the School of Complement'' (licensed 10 Feb 1625; first printed under its subtitle, 1631)
*''[[The Wedding (1629 play)|The Wedding]]'' (licensed 1626; first printed 1629)
*''[[The Witty Fair One]]'' (licensed 3 Oct 1628; printed 1633)
*''[[Love in a Maze|Changes, or Love in a Maze]]'' (licensed 10 Jan 1632; printed 1632)
*[[Hyde Park (play)|''Hyde Park'']] (licensed 20 April 1632; printed 1637)
*''[[The Ball (play)|The Ball]]'' (licensed 16 Nov 1632; printed 1639)
*''[[The Gamester (Shirley)|The Gamester]]'' (licensed 11 Nov 1633; printed 1637)
*''[[The Lady of Pleasure]]'' (licensed 15 Oct 1635; printed 1637)

=== Tragicomedies, pastorals and others ===

*''[[The Grateful Servant]]'' (licensed 3 Nov 1629 as ''The Faithful Servant''; first printed 1630)
*''[[The Humorous Courtier]]'' (licensed 17 May 1631; printed 1640).
*''[[The Bird in a Cage]],'' or ''The Beauties'' (licensed 21 Jan 1633; printed 1633)
*''[[The Young Admiral]]'' (licensed 3 July 1633; printed 1637)
*''[[The Example]]'' (licensed 24 June 1634; printed 1637)
*''[[The Opportunity]]'' (licensed 29 Nov 1634; printed 1640)
*''[[The Coronation (play)|The Coronation]]'' (licensed 6 Feb 1635 as Shirley's, but printed in 1640 erroneously as a work of [[John Fletcher (playwright)|John Fletcher]])
*''[[The Duke's Mistress]]'' (licensed 18 Jan 1636; printed 1638)
*''[[The Royal Master]]'' (licensed 23 April 1638; first printed 1638)
*''[[St. Patrick for Ireland]]'' (performed ca. 1637–40; first printed 1640)
*''[[The Gentleman of Venice]]'' (licensed 30 Oct 1639; printed 1655)
*''[[The Doubtful Heir]]'' (licensed 1 June 1640 as ''Rosania,'' or ''Love's Victory''; printed 1652)
*''[[The Arcadia (play)|The Arcadia]]'' (printed 1640)
*''[[The Imposture]]'' (licensed 10 Nov 1640; printed 1652)
*''[[The Brothers (James Shirley)|The Brothers]]'' (licensed 26 May 1641; printed 1652)
*''[[The Constant Maid]], or Love Will Find Out the Way'' (performed ca. 1630–40; first printed 1640)
*[[The Sisters (play)|''The Sisters'']] (licensed 26 April 1642; printed 1653)
*''[[The Court Secret]]'' (composed before 1642; printed 1653)

===Masques and entertainments===

*''[[A Contention for Honor and Riches]]'' (performed ca. 1625–32; printed 1633) 
*''[[The Triumph of Peace]]'' (licensed 3 Feb 1634; printed 1634)
*''[[The Triumph of Beauty]]'' (ca. 1640; printed 1646)
*''[[The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses]]'' ''for the Armour of Achilles'' (performed ca. 1654–58; printed 1659) 
*''[[Cupid and Death]]'' (performed 26 March 1653; first printed 1653)
*''[[Honoria and Mammon]]'' (printed 1659; performed 21 November 2013)

In 1633, Shirley revised a play by [[John Fletcher (playwright)|John Fletcher]], possibly called ''The Little Thief'', into ''[[The Night Walker]]'', which was acted in 1634 and printed in 1640. In 1634–35, Shirley revised ''[[The Tragedy of Chabot, Admiral of France]]'', a play that [[George Chapman]] had written sometime between 1611 and 1622. The revised version was printed in 1639. Shirley has sometimes been credited as a collaborator with [[William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle]] on Cavendish's plays ''[[The Country Captain]]'' and ''The Variety'' (both printed 1649). ''The Ball'', in the publication attributed to George Chapman and James Shirley, was written by Shirley alone.

Shirley's ''Poems'' (1646) contained the epyllion ''Narcissus'' and the masque ''The Triumph of Beauty.'' ''A Contention for Honour and Riches'' (1633) appeared in an altered and enlarged form in 1659 as ''Honoria and Mammon.'' His ''Contention of Ajax and Ulysses'' closes with the well-known lyric "The Glories of our Blood and State."<ref name=EB1911/> In the final pedagogic stage of his career, Shirley published an English grammar written in poetry, titled ''Rudiments of Grammar: The Rules Composed in English Verse for the Greater Benefit and Delight of Young Beginners'' (1656).

Eight of Shirley's plays were reprinted in a single quarto volume in 1640; these were ''The Young Admiral, The Duke's Mistress, Hyde Park, Love's Cruelty, The Wedding, The Constant Maid, The Opportunity,'' and ''The Grateful Servant''. In 1653 another collection was published by [[Humphrey Moseley]] and [[Humphrey Robinson]]; titled ''Six New Plays,'' the volume included ''The Brothers, The Sisters, The Doubtful Heir, The Imposture, The Cardinal,'' and ''The Court Secret.''<ref>Five of the dramas in ''Six New Plays'' are dated 1652, while the sixth and the volume's general title page are dated 1653—an ambiguity that has led to confusion.</ref>

Shirley's canon presents fewer problems and lost works than the canons of earlier dramatists; yet [[Andrew Crooke and William Cooke|William Cooke]] registered a Shirley tragedy titled ''Saint Albans'' on 14 February 1639 – a play that has not survived. The anonymous tragedy ''[[Andromana]]'' was assigned to Shirley when it was first published in 1660, though scholars have treated the attribution with scepticism.<ref>Logan and Smith, pp. 226–7.</ref>

The standard edition of Shirley's works is ''The Dramatic Works and Poems of James Shirley, with Notes by [[William Gifford]], and Additional Notes, and some Account of Shirley and his Writings,'' by [[Alexander Dyce]] (6 vols., 1833). A selection of his plays was edited (1888) for the [[Mermaid Series]], with an introduction by [[Edmund Gosse]].<ref name=EB1911/>

A new ten-volume edition of James Shirley's work is currently being edited for [[Oxford University Press]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/ren/oupjamesshirley/ |title=OUP Complete Works of James Shirley |publisher=.warwick.ac.uk |access-date=10 September 2012}}</ref> Volume 7 in this series is forthcoming in 2022.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Complete Works of James Shirley. Volume 7: The Constant Maid, The Doubtful Heir, The Gentlemen of Venice, and The Politician|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-complete-works-of-james-shirley-9780198868927|access-date=31 January 2021}}</ref>

=== Revivals ===
Shirley's work has occasionally seen revivals. ''Honoria and Mammon'' was staged in London at Shirley's church, on 21 November 2013. ''The Cardinal'' has seen an adaptation, ''Red Snake'', and a production in London in April 2017. 'The Glories of Our Blood and State' (also known under the later title 'Death The Leveller') from ''The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses'' was often set to music, and played at the coronation of [[George IV]] in 1821.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* [[Joseph Quincy Adams, Jr.|Adams, Joseph Quincy]]. ''Shakespeare's Playhouses''. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1917.
* Logan, Terence P., and Denzell S. Smith, eds. ''The Later Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists: A Survey and Bibliography of Recent Studies in English Renaissance Drama.'' Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press, 1978.

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=Shirley,+James | name=James Shirley}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=James Shirley}}
* {{Librivox author |id=2341}}
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=VH8Ug-AExIUC&dq=james+shirley&pg=PA276 Dyce edition at Google Books]
*[http://community.dur.ac.uk/james.shirley/ James Shirley website at the University of Durham, UK]
*[http://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt7jq23qx54c_1 Digitized images of "Hide Parke: a comedie, as it was presented by her Majesties Servants, at the private house in Drury Lane"] housed at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center
*{{Wikisource-inline|list=
**{{cite EB9 |wstitle = Shirley, James |volume= XXI | page=829 |noicon=x|short=1}}
**{{cite DNB |wstitle= Shirley, James |volume= 52 |last= |first= |author-link= | pages=126-133 |noicon=x|short=1}}
**{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Shirley, James|year=1905 |short=x |noicon=x}}
**{{Cite CE1913|wstitle=James Shirley |short=x |noicon=x}}
**{{Cite Collier's|wstitle=Shirley, James |short=x |noicon=x}}
}}

{{Beaumont and Fletcher canon}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shirley, James}}
[[Category:1596 births]]
[[Category:1666 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood]]
[[Category:Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:English Renaissance dramatists]]
[[Category:17th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:17th-century English dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:English male dramatists and playwrights]]