Politics, Transgression, and Representation at the Court of Charles II
Edited by Julia Marciari Alexander and Catharine MacLeod; With essays by Tim Harris, Sheila O'Connell, Joseph Roach, Kevin Sharpe, Susan Shifrin, Andrew R. Walkling, Rachel Weil, and Steven N. Zwicker

February 28, 2008
288 pages, 7 x 10
3 b/w + 57 color illus.
ISBN: 9780300116564
Cloth
Published in association with the Yale Center for British Art and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
The return of Charles II to the English throne after eleven years of Interregnum heralded the beginning of a new era in which the court was characterized by the licentious behavior of the new king. Edited by the authors of the critically acclaimed Painted Ladies: Women at the Court of Charles II (2002), this book brings together ten distinguished scholars of history, literature, music, theatre, and art to explore the political and cultural implications of the court’s transgressive new character. With particular reference to the perception and representation of women, it offers a varied examination of topics including popular prints and broadsheets; court masque; poetry and painted portraits; and the operation of women in the political sphere.
Catharine MacLeod is Seventeenth-Century Curator at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Julia Marciari Alexander is Associate Director for Exhibitions and Publications at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven.