THE MOTIF OF ADULTERY IN ELIZABETHAN, JACOBEAN AND CAROLINE TRAGEDY

This study is the most detailed examination of audience reaction to adultery depicted on the stage, up to the closing of the theatres in 1642 on the outbreak of the Civil War. All tragedies containing the adultery motif are examined, not only such spectacular manifestations as Thomas Middleton and William Rowley's The Changeling and John Webster's The White Devil. Though the Elizabethan and Jacobean plays have received much critical examination, this study also scrutinizes the lesser-known Caroline plays in detail. All the relevant literature has been assembled in an exhaustive bibliography on the theme and is fully utilized in the numerous footnotes.