Chapter 3 - United Histories

Summary

Chapter 3 concentrates on plays published by Nathaniel Butter during the early Jacobean period, and the conceptual overlap between ‘news’ and ‘history’ that was crucial for Butter and other early modern readers. Because Butter was so invested in ideas of ‘history’, it is possible to use his output to develop a clear profile of an early reader – one whose selection of texts with Protestant and union interests offers a distinctive perspective on history plays and introduces a slight tension with James I’s own political and religious policies. Alongside Butter’s non-dramatic output, this chapter focuses on Rowley’s When You See Me You Know Me, Heywood’s 1 and 2 If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody, Dekker’s The Whore of Babylon, and Shakespeare’s King Lear to offer a fresh perspective on early Jacobean historical drama. It reveals that the genre did not decline at this time; and it considers the important but neglected parallels between plays that dramatize recent history and the legendary British past. Finally, the chapter argues that Butter’s investments were shaped by the geography of the book trade and his location, next to Matthew Law’s, at St Austin’s Gate in Paul’s Churchyard.