Cavaliers in Play and Verse

Before the puritans closed the playhouses - and to their credit the bear pits as well - the London of Charles I held more theatres than in Restoration times when only two were permitted.

Karin Fernald and Colin Pinney give an unusual insight into the dramatic efforts of the time, including satires on business schemes and the habits of the dotterel.

Richard Brome, Ben Jonson's servant, wrote plays and invented the phrase "you got out of bed the wrong side today" and William Davenant, allegedly Shakespeare's illegitimate son, improved Macbeth with "songs, dances and machines for the witches".

"A HIGHLY ENTERTAINING MIX OF POETRY , HISTORY AND COMEDY"