Jacobean Drama: II. The Satiric Group

As the sixteenth century was closing, England found herself afflicted with a sharp seizure of class consciousness and social discontent. The great ardors and endurances of the Spanish war were now past and the piper was to pay. The distribution of wealth had got seriously out of balance; and Gloriana had been reigning forty years, which was too long for a sovereign who refused to make any concessions to the passage of time. The world looked very black to politicians, to gentlefolk of moderate means, and particularly to young people with careers to find. 1