"Exemplary elite: the Revolution of 1688 and the rhetoric of dramatic dedications"

Abstract

This chapter provides a discussion of the dedications of plays that female members of the aristocracy were addressed in the period 1660-1714. It is my contention that the practice of dedicatory writing functioned as other forms of propaganda, such as court masques and portraits, and that this strategy not only benefitted playwrights but also their patronesses, who welcomed the social recognition acknowledged by their clients. Moreover, I explain how the growing importance attached to morality in the mid-1690s became apparent in dedications: the idealisation of the patronesses’ physical beauty in the reign of Charles II was replaced by a greater emphasis on female virtue in the texts published after the Revolution of 1689. In this paper, a number of dedications addressed to women of the Churchill family are considered to demonstrate that these ladies were praised for their modesty, presenting them as devoted wives, while celebrating the military victories of the duke.