The Cardinal (play)

rdf:langString The Cardinal (play)

rdf:langString The Cardinal is a tragedy by James Shirley, written in the Caroline era. It was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on 25 November 1641, and first published in 1653. The play belongs to the final phase of Shirley's career as a London playwright, when he was no longer serving as the house dramatist of Queen Henrietta's Men. The Cardinal was acted instead by the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre. The play was published in Six New Plays, an octavo collection of Shirley's works issued by the stationers Humphrey Moseley and Humphrey Robinson in 1653 – one of a series of Shirley collections from this era. Nineteenth-century and twentieth-century critics, including Edmund Gosse and Fredson Bowers, considered it among his finest works. Bowers called Shirley's play a "coherent Kydian revenge tragedy, polished and simplified in his best manner." It was considered to be "the first among Shirley's tragedies." The play was revived early in the Restoration period, with an opening night at the Theatre Royal in Vere Street on 23 July 1662. The play was revived again at the Southwark Playhouse in May 2017.