The Lady of Pleasure by James Shirley

"The Lady of Pleasure" by James Shirley is a Caroline era comedy of manners written in 1635. The play centers on Lady Bornwell, a wife devoted to courtly pleasures and extravagant spending, and her husband's attempts to reform her conduct. Through a three-level plot structure, Shirley explores themes of excess, moderation, and moral boundaries within aristocratic society. The play departs from typical Renaissance comedy formulas by featuring a philandering female protagonist and contrasting her behavior with the more virtuous young widow Celestina, creating a sophisticated examination of pleasure and propriety. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

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Author Shirley, James, 1596-1666
Title The Lady of Pleasure
A Comedie, as It Was Acted by Her Majesties Servants, at the Private House in Drury Lane
Note Wikipedia page about this book: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_of_Pleasure
Credits E-text prepared by David Starner, Moti Ben-Ari, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by HathiTrust Digital Library (www.hathitrust.org/digital_library)
Reading Level Reading ease score: 78.8 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read.
Language English
LoC Class PR: Language and Literatures: English literature
Subject Comedy plays
Subject English drama -- 17th century
Category Text
EBook-No. 45050
Release Date
Most Recently Updated Oct 24, 2024
Copyright Status Public domain in the USA.
Downloads 410 downloads in the last 30 days.
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