London, England and Beyond: Social Transformations in Richard Brome's "The Sparagus Garden"

Abstract

Richard Brome’s The Sparagus Garden (1635) unfolds against the backdrop of the rapidly transforming urban and social landscapes of Caroline London. This paper argues that this play is deeply implicated in the discursive processes of appropriating and understanding London’s shifting urban and social topographies. Abounding with topical and topographical allusions, the play has long drawn critical interest mainly for its documentary qualities and its exploitation of the short-lived theatrical vogue for ‘place-realism’. Spatial mobility, changes in the city’s urban landscape and the play’s insistent questioning of fundamental categories of social status, belonging and identity have taken centre stage, as critics have acknowledged that the play addresses and negotiates pressing anxieties of a society in flux.