SOURCE: Clark, Ira. “Shirley's Social Comedy of Adaptation to Degree.” In Professional Playwrights: Massinger, Ford, Shirley, and Brome, pp. 112-54. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992.

In the following excerpt, Clark portrays Shirley as socially ambitious and loyal to Charles I, absolute monarchy, and class hierarchy.

Shirley's Reverence for Degree

“I never affected the ways of flattery: some say I have lost my preferment, by not practising that Court sin.”¹ So claimed Shirley in 1639, finally dedicating his second play and first tragedy, The Maid's Revenge (1626), “come late to the impression.” This oft-noted asseveration was made by a poet-playwright who could make some claim to privilege (far more than Brome, perhaps more than Massinger, distinctly less than Ford), enough to display a coat of arms. One wondrous season, 1633-34, he was identified as a gentleman, a member of Gray's Inn, and “one of the Valets of the Chamber of Queen...