Given that the the assignment to go to the library and prowl the stacks did not work out well for most people, as we can see from the reports: Adam and Kayla found material that it will be useful to read; others had problems with the assignment or with the books they could find in the specified range of call numbers. There are many ways in which we could deepen our understanding of Howard and The Great Favourite -- I've discovered there's a biography of Howard, and a modern edition of the play, and I'll find a way to get back to them -- but I think the best strategy right now is to move on to deciding on a next play to read.
Let's do that this way. Between now and Friday morning, your assignment is to consult at least four different sources from the list below, and find in them passages to quote which would offer reasons to read three plays next. In other words, quotes about at least three plays, from at least four different sources. I'll do this assignment as well and will post my report later this morning, so you'll be able to see what one might look like.
What four sources? at least one needs to be a general literary history from the section of the stacks numbered PR83 (general literary histories of England); at least one needs to be one of the anthologies listed on the course Web site (most of these are at PR1265-6 in the stacks; some are on reserve), and at least one from the section of the stacks numbered PR691 (Restoration drama).
The plays you recommend should all be from the period between 1660 and 1675.
There will be a wiki set up where you can post your report. Your report should consist entirely of quotes and sources -- for example:
Sir Robert Howard, The Great Favourite, or the Duke of Lerma (1667):Make sure the quote is complete enough that your reader can understand it; if necessary, you can supply some context. The example above is from a book I happened to have at hand; I'll post some more from the library later this morning."Pepys was right, however, about the merits of the play, which is easily the best of Howard's serious dramas. . . . However one divides the credit between Howard and the original author, The Duke of Lerma must be seen, as Harbage, Nicoll and Summers have seen it, as one of the best serious plays of the Restoration. Perhaps we should remember what happened only too often when Elizabethan or Jacobean plays were adapted later in the seventeenth century. . . . [The play] is a tribute not only to its adapter's craftsmanship but also to his good taste."-- H. J. Oliver, Sir Robert Howard (1626-1698): A Critical Biography (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1963), pp. 139, 148.
Post your report before Friday morning; we'll read them during class time and make a decision about what we'll read next.