The city madam
Book • 1964
Philip Massinger's The City Madam is a city comedy that satirizes the mercantile ambitions and social pretensions of early modern London through plot and theatrical spectacle.
The play features a mock Roman-style triumph transposed into a contemporary urban setting, allowing Massinger to critique the cruelty and barbarity he saw in emergent commercial practices.
Its use of a classical set piece in a modern context illustrates how early modern dramatists repurposed familiar theatrical conventions for social commentary.
The work explores themes of power, class, and hypocrisy, combining comedic situations with pointed political and moral reflection.
The City Madam exemplifies the flexibility of stage paganism in early modern drama and its capacity to indict contemporary Christian society.
The play features a mock Roman-style triumph transposed into a contemporary urban setting, allowing Massinger to critique the cruelty and barbarity he saw in emergent commercial practices.
Its use of a classical set piece in a modern context illustrates how early modern dramatists repurposed familiar theatrical conventions for social commentary.
The work explores themes of power, class, and hypocrisy, combining comedic situations with pointed political and moral reflection.
The City Madam exemplifies the flexibility of stage paganism in early modern drama and its capacity to indict contemporary Christian society.
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John Kuhn
John Kuhn, "Making Pagans: Theatrical Practice and Comparative Religion in Early Modern England" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024)
