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116 Reviews Butler, M., Theatre and Crisis 1632-1642, Cambridge, C.U.P., 1984; paperback ed.1987. Butler explores afieldwhich usudly appears only as an epilogue to studies of Jacobean drama or a prologue to Restoration drama. Throughout the book he challenges 'the widely-held preconceptions which pervasively distort and predetermine discussion of the pre-revolutionary period' (p.7), especially the idea that the drama of the period immediately preceding the closing of the theatres in 1642 must have been decadent because it came just before 'the end*. Like those who married and gave in marriage in Noah's days, the playwrights and theatre companies of 1632-42 have seemed to later critics perversely trivid and blind to the approaching catastrophe. With the benefit of hindsight it has been possible to regard the Caroline drama as an exhausted species which deserved to die. This Darwidan model of drama, from primitive form to dominance to decadence, was corrected long ago for medievd drama, but has persisted for the later period Butler examines individud plays and links them to their socid and politicd context The documentary evidence he provides gives a complex and satisfying picture of society and its attitudes to the theatre (it dso reminds us how theatricd the politics of the period were). The accepted view that 'the theatres were swept aside in 1642 by a tidd wave of puritan protest' (p.95) is scrutinized and dismissed convincingly. Butler establishes that there was no simple division into Cavalier audiences and puritan opposition; this view 'superimposes the polarizations of subsequent conflicts . . . back onto earlier years' (p.9). But the red politicd crises of the time did find expression in the drama; there it was possible to propose fictiond solutions to the problems of misled and tyrannizing kings, courtiers at odds with countrymen, and 'subjects trapped between their loydty to the crown and their need to speak out' (p.23). There were no such satisfactory solutions in fact. Butler looks at the court masque, an extravagant fusion of politics and theatre for purposes of royd propaganda; courtier plays; the city comedies, usefully distinguishing between the characteristics of these and the later Restoration comedy; and various other pieces performed at the public and private playhouses. The audiences for the private playhouses are shown to be fashionable and cultivated, but not simply 'Cavalier'; it is in this milieu that the fashion for serious criticd appraisd of drama develops. The popdar theatre was vigorous, 'not in decline but simply conservative' (p.183), and continued to present spectacdar adventures, histories and boisterous comedies to appreciative audiences. None of this sounds like a theatre feebly moving towards a welldeserved end Butler demonstrates that in this period of crisis many of the plays were providing bold and intelligible criticism of unpopular policies and were offering Reviews 117 projectedresolutionsfor cunent politicd dilemmas. Even the 1642 closure of the theatres would not have seemed at the time such a find curtdn as it appears to us, since the playhouses were regularly closed in times of plague and public mourning or cdamity. No-one could have foreseen that this time they would stay closed for eighteen years. Betsy Taylor Department of English University of Sydney Clark, J.P.H. and C. Taylor, eds, Walter Hilton's Latin Writings, 2 vols (Analecta Cartusiana, 124) Sdzburg, Institut fiir Anglistik und Amerikanistik Universitat Sdzburg, 1987; pp.479. It is a treat to have an edition of these Latin writings of Wdter Hilton so many years dter his English writings have been available in good editions and even translations. The eight texts, dl previously unpublished, include five Latin letters, one short tract written 'contra hereticos' on the subject of images, as well as an English translation (not by Hilton) of one letter and an anonymous English commentary on a Latin letter, now lost which Hilton wrote to a Gilbertine nun possibly from an East Anglian convent Although most of thetextsare well known to Hilton scholars, particdarly the letter to A d a m Horsley, they add considerably to our view of Hilton as a spiritud adviser, conespondent, fighter agdnst heresy and confidante. On the other hand, it is qdte clear now that the texts are...

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