Shirley, James

(1596-1666)

   Born in London, he was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, St. John's College, Oxford, and Catharine Hall, Cambridge. He took holy orders before becoming a schoolmaster in Hertfordshire; at sometime he converted to Roman Catholicism. He became a leading playwright and survived the closing of the theaters by the Puritan Parliament in 1642. Love Tricks, with Complements was acted at the Cockpit Theatre in 1625; he wrote 40 plays in all. In 1634 he provided the literary part of the Inns of Court masque The Triumph of People. Sometime during 1636-37 he went to Ireland, where he wrote more plays, and on his return to London in 1640 he became principal dramatist for the King's Players. Although he and his wife did not die in the Great Fire of 1666, they died together two months later and were buried in St. Giles's churchyard. Some of his poems: "Death the Leveller," "Death's Final Conquest," "Saint Patrick for Ireland," "The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses," "The Last Conqueror," "The Maid's Revenge," "To the People," "Victorious Men of Earth."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Fine Frenzy: Enduring Themes in Poetry. Robert Baylor and Brenda Stokes, eds. McGraw-Hill, 1978. Microsoft Encarta 2006 (DVD). Microsoft Corporation, 2006. The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). Songs from the British Drama. Edward Bliss Reed, ed. Yale University Press, 1925. Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (http://library.stanford.edu). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Dramatic Works and Poems of James Shirley, Vol. I. Alexander Dyce and William Gifford, eds. Russell and Russell, 1966. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000.