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This is the first edition of The Family of Love to be attributed to London playwright and impresario, Lording Barry (1580-1629). Performed by the short lived Children of the King's Revels, this ribald Jacobean comedy indulges coterie playgoers' curiosity about religious separatism in the wake of King James I's damning attack on Familists early in his reign. The Family of Love satirises the religious fellowship of the title but with an undercurrent of sympathy, especially for women.
Sophie Tomlinson detaches The Family of Love from its reputations both as Middleton's worst play and as a product of collaborative authorship. Her lively introduction demonstrates Barry's techniques of parody and pastiche, relentless punning and scatological humour which make the play compellingly stageable. Barry's responsiveness to the confined playing space of the Whitefriars theatre and the possibility that the text was censored during printing are among the many reasons why The Family of Love deserves a fresh hearing.
The volume includes a short biography of Barry, comprehensive commentary and appendices documenting marginal annotations in one copy of the 1608 quarto together with extracts from contemporary representations of the Family of Love. It will find its audience with students, actors, academics, playwrights and other creatives interested in early modern drama.