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<!doctype html>
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<title>The Constant Maid - About the Author</title>
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The Constant Maid by James Shirley
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<h1>About the Author</h1>
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<h3 id="biography">Biography</h3>
<p>James Shirley was baptised in September 1596 in London. He attended St Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge in 1615, and achieved his BA on 4 April 1617. He married his first wife, Elizabeth Gilmet, in June 1618. He was ordained as a minister in September 1619 and held a position as the master of St. Albans Grammar School, Hertfordshire between 1619 and 1621. He moved with his wife Elizabeth and their children to London in 1624, where he began his career as a playwright.</p>
<p>In 1625, he began writing for a group that would become known as Queen Henrietta Maria’s Men. His first play, <em>The School of Complement</em>, was performed in the Phoenix in Drury Lane in that same year. He continued to write for Queen Henrietta Maria’s Men until 1636, when he lost his job due to widespread closure of theatres to stop the spread of plague in the city. He then moved to Ireland, at the invitation of Lord Deputy of Ireland Sir Thomas Wentworth, in order to become the playwright for the Werburgh Street Theatre in Dublin.</p>
<p>Shirley wrote a number of new plays while he was in Dublin, as well as publishing some of his older plays, revisions or otherwise. He also wrote prefaces to plays by other playwrights while in Dublin and revised plays that were to be produced at Werburgh Street Theatre. More about Shirley’s work in Dublin can be found in Irish Canon.</p>
<p>By 1640, he had returned to London and had taken up a position as leading playwright to the Kings’ Men at Blackfriars. He continued to work in theatres until 1642, when civil war broke out between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians. He then joined the Royalist army alongside his patron William Cavendish, the earl of Newcastle, leaving his family behind in London. Elizabeth died not long after Shirley returned in 1645.</p>
<p>When the civil war ended in 1651, Shirley returned to teaching. He continued to publish his work, which included two Latin grammars, nondramatic verse and masques. He married his second wife, Frances Blackburne, in the mid-1650s. They were forced to flee their home in the city during the Great Fire of London in 1666 and died in the aftermath.</p>
<br>
<h3 id="blankverse">Blank Verse</h3>
<p>Blank verse was a style of narrative or dramatic verse that was ‘adapted from heroic verse’ in the 16th century (Britannica). It was widely used and highly regarded in this time period. Its form consists of lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter, following a standard pattern of <em>weak | strong, weak | strong</em>. Its effectiveness lies in the poet’s skill to vary stresses and pauses within each line. </p>
<p>Shirley’s blank verse differs from the typical blank verse, to the point where his verses are not true blank verse. The metre of his lines often falls out of iambic pentameter, and his verse is occasionally indistinguishable from prose. This can make identifying blank verse within his work a challenging task.</p>
<br>
<p>Example of Shirley’s blank verse from <em>The Constant Maid</em>:</p>
<p>“Write sonnets on the ivorie tooth afore,</p>
<p>Swear she does cough distinctly, ge a rime</p>
<p>To blesse her when she sneezes, and cry up</p>
<p>The method of her nose, which sweats and fals</p>
<p>So perpendicular upon her face:</p>
<p>Admire the wart upon her chin, and motion</p>
<p>Of her blew eyes, that look three wayes at once:</p>
<p>Praise her above thy reason, or her daughter;</p>
<p>And then she will believe thou mayst be mad for her.”</p>
<br>
<p>It is noticeable that within Shirley’s verse, there is an irregular number of patterns between the syllables of each line. This is a distinction often found within Shirley’s work, in contrast to other early modern works during that time period.</p>
<br>
<h3 id="irishcanon">Irish Canon</h3>
<p><em>The Constant Maid</em>'s place within Shirley's Irish Canon works has been widely debated, with several speculating that it was never intended for the Irish stage or audience. Shirley's Irish canon consists of the plays that have been acknowledged as being written by Shirley for the Werburgh Street Theatre through the years 1636-1640 and have been historically contextualised in their sociopolitical configurations. </p>
<p>This list of plays includes <em>The Royal Master</em>, <em>The Politician</em>, <em>The Gentleman of Venice</em>, <em>The Doubtful Heir</em>, and <em>St. Patrick for Ireland</em>. However, <em>The Constant Maid</em> and <emSt. Patrick for Ireland></em> were published simultaneously, and because of this it has been assumed that <em>The Constant Maid</em> was also written for the Irish audience, deeming it within his Irish canon (Williams 278). The Constant Maid's frequent allusions to London culture, locations and subject matter, however, cast doubt on this theory. Instead, this suggests that Shirley may have composed this play while still residing in London and later revisited the work after moving to Dublin. It has been speculated the playwright published the play alongside <em>St. Patrick For Ireland</em> as they would sell better together (Williams 280).</p>
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