After Elizabeth: representations of female rule in Massinger's tragicomedies

The perception, memories and representations of Elizabeth in the early seventeenth century can hardly be separated by political concerns. The purpose of this article is to investigate the implications of the so-called myth of Elizabeth, and the way dramatic representations of the female governor complicate and integrate the example of Elizabeth as idealized monarch and become part of a wider investigation on hierarchy and the private/public conduct of rulers in Jacobean and Caroline times.