Shirley, James 1596-1666
English dramatist

He was born in London and studied at St John's, Oxford, and St Catharine's, Cambridge. He then took orders and was given a living at St Albans. Later, he converted to Catholicism, and taught (1623-24) in the grammar school there, but soon went to London and became a playwright. Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher and Ben Jonson were his models, but he has little of the grand Elizabethan manner. His chief plays include The Lady of Pleasure (1635), the most brilliant of his comedies, the tragedy The Cardinal (1641), which the author himself described as 'the best of his flock' and The Traitor (1631). As a masque writer he is second only to Jonson; his work includes The Triumph of Peace (1633) and The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses (1659). The suppression of stage plays in 1642 forced him to return to teaching. He died as a result of the Great Fire of London.

Bibliography: A H Mason, James Shirley (1915)