Existing comment:
England's Champion against Rome
English actor and playwright Colley Cibber recasts Shakespeare's King John favorably as the protagonist in a struggle for English liberty against a tyrannical pope. A failed play by the author's own estimation, it enjoyed mixed reviews during the anti-Catholic backlash that followed the Jacobite uprising of 1745 when Catholic Charles Edward Stuart, sometimes known as "Bonnie Prince Charlie" (1720–1788), attempted to regain the throne for the House of Stuart. |