The political is personal: the attack on Shadwell in "Sir Barnaby Whigg"

Abstract

The paper discuses the importance of personal satire in the Restoration plays of the Exclusion Crisis (1679-82), focusing on Thomas Durfey's Sir Barnaby Whigg (1681). Although the caricature of the poet Thomas Shadwell in the figure of Sir Barnaby has been generally recognized, recent discussions of the play have tended to downplay its resonance and emphasize instead more general aspects of the political satire on the Whig party. However, the political element in this comedy is not central to the plot; it is introduced mainly through a seconday character, whose main function in the play seems to be only to mock a rival poet who had made no secret of his commitment to the Whig cause. Since Sir Barnaby Whigg was produced soon after the defeat of the Exclusionits, the attack on Shadwell seems almost an afterthought, an addition designed to increase topical interest - on the wake of the controversy provoked by The Lancashire Witches - and to arouse partisan support for the play.