The Tragedy of Valentinian (1610-1614), a solo work by John Fletcher, is a sophisticated study in the implications of divine right monarchy and its dangerous potentialities. The relationship between divine right and political justice lies at the heart of the play. The king embodies the law, but justice is not identified with it: justice is rather the equitable application of the law. Lucina's rape by the Roman emperor Valentinian takes place because of political arrangements that allow impunity and unaccountability to the monarch on the grounds of divine sanction. Absolutism is represented as part of a patriarchal mindset, so the rape is a sexual as well as a political crime. Linguistic and perceptual chaos ensues as a result of absolutist subjectivity: Valentinian's rhetoric of divine right is exposed as a fiction at the service of expediency. Throughout, the play interweaves the language of theology, which treats monarchical power as divine and therefore unlimited, with the language of politics, evoking justice and the law to suggest the necessity of limitations at a political level. The numerous references to historical precedents and personages indicate that forms of belief, including divine right, tend to set historical patterns from which it is impossible to escape. The conclusion to the play denies closure, suggesting that as long as the political order relies on divine right absolutism, history is bound to repeat itself.
The Picture (1629), one of Philip Massinger’s solo tragicomedies, reflects changes in the perceptions of absolutism in the Caroline period. Charles’s absolutism involved a unique gender politics that undermined the patriarchal basis of royal authority. In response to such political anxieties, Massinger dramatizes the threat that female influence poses to patriarchal ideology and absolutism, at a time of concern about Henrietta Maria’s influence over Charles and his perceived emasculation. Massinger connects domesticity with authority, suggesting that King Ladislaus’ lack of control over his passions and his household has an effect on the body politic. Politics is redefined as a familial paradigm.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.