Execution and the questioning of authority in three early modern English history plays

Abstract

Analysing the three plays chosen for this paper (Sir Thomas More by Munday et al., The Tragedy of Byron by Chapman et The Tragedy of Barnavelt by Fletcher and Massinger) from the viewpoint of the execution scenes leads to a consideration of the political issues at stake. The omission of historical details in More’s fate and the staging of his death enable the authors to make their play a plea for liberty of conscience. Under the reign of King James I, the two topical plays selected here provide two good examples of the way dramatists could intervene in the public debate – at the risk of censorship – about the rise of the modern State. Their depiction of the modern prince, who uses Providence as a political tool, casts a Machiavellian shadow on his discourse and, without exculpating the guilty hero, underlines the constitutive ambiguity of the modern state.