Disguised Ruler in Shakespeare and his Contemporaries

In the early seventeenth century, the London stage often portrayed a ruler covertly spying on his subjects. Traditionally deemed ''Jacobean disguised ruler plays'', these works include Shakespeare''s Measure for Measure, Marston''s The Malcontent and The Fawn, Middleton''s The Phoenix, and Sharpham''s The Fleer. Commonly dated to the arrival of James I, these plays are typically viewed as synchron...