20 Facts About James Shirley

James Shirley belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Charles Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so much for any transcendent genius in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of whom spoke nearly the same language and had a set of moral feelings and notions in common.

James Shirley was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, London, St John's College, Oxford, and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he took his BA degree in or before 1618.

Oxford biographer Anthony Wood reports that, after earning his MA, James Shirley became "a minister of God's word in or near St Albans".

James Shirley then left this post, apparently due to a conversion to the Roman Catholic faith, and was master of St Albans School from 1623 to 1625.

James Shirley's sympathies were with the King in his disputes with Parliament, and he received marks of special favour from the Queen.

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James Shirley made a bitter attack on William Prynne, who had attacked the stage in Histriomastix, and, in 1634 he supplied the text for The Triumph of Peace, a masque presented at Whitehall by the gentlemen of the Inns of Court as a practical reply to Prynne.

Between 1636 and 1640 James Shirley went to Ireland, apparently under the patronage of the Earl of Kildare.

James Shirley owed something to the kindness of Thomas Stanley, but supported himself chiefly by teaching and publishing some educational works under the Commonwealth.

James Shirley "was a drudge" for John Ogilby in his translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

James Shirley survived into the reign of Charles II, but did not again attempt to write for the stage, though some of his comedies were revived.

James Shirley was born to great dramatic wealth, and he handled it freely.

James Shirley constructed his own plots out of the abundance of materials that had been accumulated during thirty years of unexampled dramatic activity.

James Shirley did not strain after novelty of situation or character, but worked with confident ease and buoyant copiousness on the familiar lines, contriving situations and exhibiting characters after types whose effectiveness on the stage had been proved by ample experience.

James Shirley spoke the same language with the great dramatists, it is true, but this grand style is sometimes employed for the artificial elevation of commonplace thought.

James Shirley's scenes are ingeniously conceived, his characters boldly and clearly drawn; and he never falls beneath a high level of stage effect.

In 1633, James Shirley revised a play by John Fletcher, possibly called The Little Thief, into The Night Walker, which was acted in 1634 and printed in 1640.

James Shirley has sometimes been credited as a collaborator with William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle on Cavendish's plays The Country Captain and The Variety.

James Shirley's Poems contained the epyllion Narcissus and the masque The Triumph of Beauty.

Eight of James Shirley's plays were reprinted in a single quarto volume in 1640; these were The Young Admiral, The Duke's Mistress, Hyde Park, Love's Cruelty, The Wedding, The Constant Maid, The Opportunity, and The Grateful Servant.

New ten-volume edition of James Shirley's work is currently being edited for Oxford University Press.