Publisher's Synopsis
Walter Montagu's pastoral The Shepherds' Paradise was performed by an all-woman cast, including the Queen, in January 1633 as part of the Twelfth Night celebrations at the court of Henrietta Maria. There are five surviving manuscript copies of the play and one printed edition of 1659, none of which is directly related to any of the others. The Folger Shakespeare Library has two of the manuscripts, and the text used in this reprint is based on one of these, originally held in Walter Lord Aston's library at Tixall in Staffordshire. This version of the play differs very substantially from any of the others: it is approximately one-third shorter and in places substantially rewritten, but it also contains additional text not found in the printed edition. It is probably the version used in the production at Denmark House. The editor, Sarah Poynting, gives an account of the performance and the manuscript, as well as discussing the relationship of the manuscript with the other extant texts.
