The Complete Works of James Shirley (1596-1666) (Editorial Project)

Lead Research Organisation: Durham University
Department Name: English Studies

Abstract

The Complete Works of James Shirley (1596-1666): A Modernized, Critical Edition in 10 Volumes with music scores (OUP) and an Electronic Old-Spelling Edition of early print and manuscript witnesses

We will edit The Complete Works of James Shirley (CWJS), a corpus of around 50 works. James Shirley was one of the most significant dramatic writers of the late English Renaissance, productive between the 1620s and the 1660s, yet his complete works (including tragedies, comedies, tragicomedies, masques, pastorals, moralities, poems, aphorisms and grammars) have never been fully edited. Our comprehensive scholarly edition will embrace the full range of Shirley's remarkable output and present a multifaceted seventeenth-century author: not only a poet, but a playwright active in England and Ireland, and grammarian and translator whose linguistic studies were reprinted in the eighteenth century.

Shirley's work echoes and builds upon the art of his Elizabethan and Jacobean predecessors, such as Shakespeare, Beaumont/Fletcher, and Ford. Caroline drama would be unthinkable without him. Shirley, a detached observer of the rituals of the upper classes, specializes in polite conversation and its darker undercurrents. His work probes the tensions of Caroline society. The strong female characters in his plays mark a sea-change in attitudes to female performance at the time. In this context Shirley's pre-occupation with song and dance - areas of performance which were accessible to women - is particularly noteworthy. His drama in general portrays characters through an uncommonly detailed range of non-verbal clues such as sound and movement: the comedies alone contain several hundred references to dancing, many of them now obscure. By elucidating these, the edition will excavate lost details in the cultural history of seventeenth-century England, and make them for the first time accessible to a more general readership. CWJS will respond fully to Shirley's literary and historical scope, fill a serious gap in the study of Caroline theatre and culture, and significantly change the look of the literary landscape in seventeenth-century England (and Ireland).

A volume of Critical Essays (provisional title, OUP) will contain accessibly written essays on Shirley and the cultural context of his work and convey Shirley's impact on Caroline culture to a general readership. Furthermore, we are negotiating a volume of The Selected Works of James Shirley with OUP to introduce some of Shirley's finest pieces to a non-specialist audience.

Our team includes distinguished and experienced editors, leading scholars in the field of Caroline culture, as well as experts on early modern poetry, Humanities computing, manuscript and printing history, theatre, music and dance. This edition, and the studies we will publish in relation to it, will provide resources for researchers and students in English and Irish literature and theatre. They will appeal to musicologists, cultural historians, and readers interested in the social practices of the Renaissance and the Baroque.
 
Title Shadows, Not Substantial Things - Music in the Works of James Shirley (1596-1666) 
Description CD featuring music for James Shirley's poems, plays, and entertainments with 31 examples across his career. Performers: Ensemble Passamezzo. Director: Andrew Ashbee. Available from http://www.livinghistory.co.uk/homepages/passamezzo/shop.html. 
Type Of Art Artefact (including digital) 
Year Produced 2015 
Impact The Shirley Project attracted the interest of early music practitioners and stimulated a performance project which was funded by the Arts Council England: Ensemble Passamezzo performed and recorded music for Shirley's dramatic works. They talked about it in a radio interview, Radio Resonance 104.4 fm, on 3 Feb 2014. Now the early music community has a much better idea of, and access to, music performed in English Renaissance playhouses. 
URL http://community.dur.ac.uk/james.shirley/?page_id=165
 
Description We have now a clearer idea of the canon of Shirley's works, his particular style, and his audiences. We understand better his (lack of) patronage and the cultural networks in which he operated. We know much more about his religious views - an important issue in a time when strong religious dissent contributed substantially to Civil War.
For the first time, we also have a comprehensive idea of how music complemented and enhanced his dramatic and non-dramatic writing.
Exploitation Route In terms of research, our findings will be taken forward on the ongoing Oxford edition of the complete works of Shirley.

in terms of wider use, there are possibilities for the research community, advanced teaching, and the general public.

In the course of our long project we produced very accessible outputs which might engage wider audiences and spread interest for Shirley among, for instance, music lovers.

The online edition will continue to run parallel with a Shirley Companion website which is dedicated to the study of Shirley and his world (http://community.dur.ac.uk/james.shirley/), and which caters for both subject specialists and the general public. We will continue to
- upload content from our research archive on Durham University's server such as MS transcriptions, images etc. (subject to copyright) for open access
- update and expand the sections for wider interest (music, recitals, etc.) as they occur, also for open access. These sections provide also material for teaching (undergraduate level).
Our edited texts have already been used for teaching at Warwick, Durham, and the Stratford Institute; the same applies to some content on the Shirley Companion website, which lends itself to use in seminars, presentations, or lectures.
Sectors Creative Economy

Education

Leisure Activities

including Sports

Recreation and Tourism

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections

URL http://shirley.dighum.kcl.ac.uk/
 
Description Within the subject community, the project has led to a clearer understanding of literature and drama under Charles I, and the significance of James Shirley in the development of early Stuart theatre. Furthermore, the study of Shirley has shed light on practices in Ireland's earliest professional playhouse, the Werburgh Theatre, Dublin. Detailed study has highlighted Shirley's habits of revising his own work and that of other, earlier writers, which is an important contribution to the study of collaborative play-writing and revising (of both poetry and drama) in the early modern period. Our editorial debates have highlighted the importance of certain practices in early witnesses of Shirley's work in Ms and print - such as punctuation as a potential marker of mood; this is of significance for our approaches to editing c17 authors. The findings have been / will be used by scholars in literature, performance studies, music, editing, and book history. More widely, our research has inspired professional musicians to expand their repertoire by studying music for James Shirley's theatre. This led to radio broadcasts and a CD. James Shirley's tragedy 'The Cardinal' has been workshopped at RADA in December 2016, and has subsequently been staged by National Theatre emerging director Justin Audibert with the RSC actors Stephen Boxer and Natalie Simpson in the leading roles, at London's Southwark Playhouse, in April/May 2017. Project members advised on acting/directing decisions and wrote the programme. Our findings are also used in HE teaching. For instance, Shirley plays are set texts on undergraduate and MA period modules at Warwick and Durham.
First Year Of Impact 2015
Sector Creative Economy,Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural

 
Description Bibliographical Investigation and Textual Collation of Two Shirley Plays (Teresa Grant)
Amount £5,239 (GBP)
Organisation The British Academy 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start  
 
Title A First Line Index of songs and poems in James Shirley's work 
Description A First Line Index of songs and poems in James Shirley's work across genres. Compiled by Barbara Ravelhofer. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2014 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Too early to tell. 
URL http://community.dur.ac.uk/james.shirley/?page_id=49
 
Title Criticism on James Shirley: A Selective Bibliography 
Description This bibliography complements and updates previous surveys. Compiled by Barbara Ravelhofer. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2014 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact Too early to tell. 
URL http://community.dur.ac.uk/james.shirley/?page_id=121
 
Title Printed copies of Shirley's works worldwide 
Description A database of over 1500 print witnesses of James Shirley's work held in libraries worldwide. Over 1500 entries. State July 2010. Compiled by Alison Searle, Eva Griffith, Katherine Heavey, and Barbara Ravelhofer, with assistance by Eugene Giddens and Teresa Grant. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2010 
Provided To Others? Yes  
Impact The academic community in English Literature and Book History is now more aware of the sheer size of surviving printed copies of one significant early modern English author. 
URL http://community.dur.ac.uk/james.shirley/?page_id=49
 
Description "The Glories of our blood and state": James Shirley's Funeral Song and Its Notable Public Appeal. Paper given by Eva Griffith, Paris, 11 June 2010 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact Talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards.

Conference participants asked for further information on Shirley.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2010
 
Description AHRC-funded James Shirley Workshop, St Catharine's College, Cambridge, 21-23 September, 2009 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact The workshop brought an international group of experts from different disciplines together to discuss Shirley from different approaches - music, bibliography, literature, linguistics - and to share experience coming from related projects. It included postgraduate students, enabling them to share the experience of a high-level research group in action.

Helpful momentum for future work on Shirley. We shared best practice.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2009
 
Description Boy Actors and Women Princes: Cross-Gender Casting in English Drama in Historical Perspective. Workshop with Barbara Ravelhofer, Durham, and Perry Mills, Director of the theatre company Edward's Boys. Durham, 16 January 2020. 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact English Renaissance drama is rich in female dramatic characters, from Marlowe's Dido to Shakespeare's Cleopatra and Webster's Duchess of Malfi. The sophisticated stage heroines in the theatre of Charles I prepared the way for the Restoration actress. Before 1642, however, female characters were impersonated by boy actors, who commanded bravura scenes. The workshop examined a range of English Renaissance plays with plum roles for boy actors. It included a staged recital of James Shirley's tragedy The Traitor (1631), followed by 'Boy Actors in Female Roles: From Christopher Marlowe's Dido to Ben Jonson's Silent Woman' - this was a tour of boy actors' performances with production examples and practical exercises. A roundtable discussion with audience and performers ended the day.
Workshop organisers: Perry Mills is Deputy Headmaster at King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon (generally known as "Shakespeare's School"). He is founder and director of Edward's Boys, an all-boy company which explores the neglected repertoire of plays written for the boys' companies around the turn of the seventeenth century. The company has performed at the RSC Swan theatre and the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe. Visit http://edwardsboys.org/. Barbara Ravelhofer, Professor in English Literature, is a theatre historian.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
URL https://www.dur.ac.uk/english.studies/events/?eventno=45788
 
Description Contributions to production of James Shirley's The Cardinal, Southwark Playhouse, 26 April - 27 May 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Contacts with Troupe Productions led to a collaboration with National Theatre director Justin Audibert and RADA speech trainer Lloyd Trott in London, first a workshop (staged reading of The Cardinal), then an actual production of the Tragedy at the Southwark Playhouse in London. Lead roles were taken by Natalie Simpson and Stephen Boxer. Prof. Martin Butler (editor of The Cardinal) and Prof. Ravelhofer were present at rehearsals, which influenced decisions by actors and director as to the staging of the play. Barbara Ravelhofer (Durham) and Prof. Martin White (Bristol) later wrote the programme for the production at the Southwark Playhouse.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Editing Now: James Shirley, Early Modern Performance, and Modern Textual Scholarship. AHRC-funded workshop, Durham University, 19-21 Sept 2012 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact Talks spared discussion and informed methodology and work on the project. The workshop also stimulated publication plans by participants.

Publications will be forthcoming in prestigious outlets such as "Studies in Bibliography".
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2012
URL http://community.dur.ac.uk/james.shirley/?page_id=152
 
Description Hesitation and Erasure: A Life in James Shirley's Hand. Paper given by Eva Griffith, Durham University, 10 October 2012 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards.

Greater interest by research student in early modern literature.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2012
 
Description Music in the Works of James Shirley: Richard MacKenzie interviews Tamsin Lewis 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Interview of a member of the ensemble Passamezzo, who had produced a CD of music for James Shirley's theatre pieces, inspired by our research. This sparked off international interest in the music, with orders for the CD coming from overseas. There is widespread interest in music for English Renaissance Drama; this interview appears to have tapped that.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTc2_naXUoM&index=52&list=PL0AF6AF6E504CEB3E
 
Description Official James Shirley Website 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Too early to tell.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
URL http://community.dur.ac.uk/james.shirley/
 
Description Reanimating the Voices of James Shirley's Drama. Paper given by Barbara Ravelhofer, Shakespeare Institute, Stratford, 10 May 2013 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Talk sparked discussion about approaches to texts by Renaissance authors in performance.

After the talk, postgraduates expressed greater interest in less canonical authors and research methodology.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
 
Description Shirley Marathon 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact The event was a marathon reading of a wide range of plays across the canon of Shirley's works. It was run by students and kindly organised by Dr Martin Wiggins, Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon. The Shirley Marathon used beta texts from our electronic edition (in parallel with other editions).
http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/edacs/departments/shakespeare/events/2015/james-shirley-marathon.aspx
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://theshakespeareblog.com/2015/06/the-james-shirley-marathon/
 
Description Shirley's Style. Paper given by Barbara Ravelhofer, School of Advanced Studies, London, 13 December 2012 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact Talk sparked discussion afterwards.

Talk helped to build up a subsequent collaborative funding application (Durham, Institute of English Studies, U of London) to the Leverhulme Trust on methodology in editing in international comparison.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2012
 
Description Speech and Style in Early Modern Drama: Lessons from the James Shirley Project. Paper by Barbara Ravelhofer, British Library, 11 Nov 2014 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact We discussed methodologies connected with 'reading aloud': across editing, psychological therapy, teaching, and research in book history and arrived at new cross-disciplinary insights.

Subsequently published as a podcast.

Agreed to form working groups bringing together musical practitioners, editors, and linguists.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
URL http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2014/11/barbara-ravelhofer-speech-and-style-in-early-modern-drama-le...
 
Description Staged readings of James Shirley's The Politician 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact Staged readings of James Shirley's tragedy The Politician took place at The Attenborough Centre, the University of Sussex, on Wednesday 13th March 2019 at 5pm, and Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, on Thursday 4th April 2019. They were performed by students of the University of Sussex and drama students from University College Dublin.
The text was the edition prepared by Andrew Hadfield and Duncan Fraser for the forthcoming Complete Works of James Shirley (Oxford University Press) under the general editorship of Eugene Giddens, Teresa Grant, and Barbara Ravelhofer. The Dublin event was directed by Kellie Hughes.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
URL https://smockalley.com/the-politician/
 
Description Stylometric Tests: Shirley's Revision of George Chapman's The Tragedie of Chabot Admirall of France. By Barbara Ravelhofer and Marcus Dahl 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact The online entry provided guidance for researchers asking about the canon of Shirley's work.

The PI regularly receives queries on the topic by email.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
URL http://community.dur.ac.uk/james.shirley/?page_id=218
 
Description The Word "Complement" in the Works of James Shirley. Paper given by Eva Griffith at the Seventeenth Century Studies conference, Durham, 21 July 2010 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact Talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards.

Conference participants asked to learn more about Shirley.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2010