The Literature Network - Patriarchalism at Risk in The Spanish Fryar.(Critical Essay)

Patriarchalism at Risk in The Spanish Fryar.(Critical Essay)

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From: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900
Date: 19990622
Author:Coltharp, Duane

Playwright John Dryden's 'The Spanish Fryar' is analyzed. Issues concerning patriarchalism, principles of royal authority and obligation, and Tory versus Whig politics are examined.

No one doubts that The Spanish Fryar; or, The Double Discovery (1680), John Dryden's double-plot tragicomedy staged amid the Popish Plot and the Exclusion Crisis, reflects in some way upon the topical concerns of authority and obligation - the authority enjoyed by kings and fathers, the obligations entailed upon subjects and sons. The precise shape of this reflection, however, remains open to question. Not ...

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