Respublica : England’s Trouble about Mary

This essay examines Respublica by Nicholas Udall and argues for a positive reevaluation of this neglected and maligned play performed before Queen Mary in 1553. Respublica addresses the tribulations facing an unmarried, Catholic female sovereign, difficulties compounded by Northumberland’s failed coup and England’s poverty. Underneath its explicit themes—the denunciation of greed and the apotheosis of the Queen— Respublica offers sage counsel from its privileged position as an imaginative historical allegory. Its courtly venue, that is, allowed dicey questions of policy to be handled with some impunity. This essay will show how Udall invokes familial and religious analogies of government, such as the figuration of Respublica as Widow England and the equation of Mary with Truth the daughter of Time, in order to justify Mary’s rule; conversely, the drama advises the monarch to exercise mercy towards her loyal though reform-minded subjects. Though ultimately unpersuasive, Respublica deserves attention as a rare example of humanist political drama, well crafted to convince a Christian prince.