Richard Brome et le théâtre dans le théâtre dans A Jovial Crew : or, The Merry Beggars : une dramaturgie baroque ?

Abstract

A Jovial Crew: or, The Merry Beggars was first performed at Beeston’s Cockpit Theatre in Drury Lane in 1642. Scholars have, for the most part, analysed the play through the prism of politics; England is on the brink of a civil war. The play-within-the play and recourse to the mise en abyme along with the metatheatrical discourse that both these devices generate have been neglected. By resorting to exogenous categories of the baroque which have been principally developed by French critics, this article examines the minutiae of the inset piece, the purpose being to comprehend the aesthetic and mimetic specificities of Richard Brome’s dramatic composition.