| Sumario: | John Fletcher and Philip Massinger's 1619 drama Sir John Van Olden Barnavelt stages events culminating in the execution of Johan van Oldenbarnavelt, political leader and Land's Advocate of Holland, which took place only weeks earlier. The play's title character continually reminds his onstage and offstage audience of his heroic role in gaining the United Provinces' independence from Spain earlier in the Dutch Revolt. Many have noted the censorship of the play, from Master of the Revels George Buc's markings on the manuscript to Bishop of London John King's halting of a performance just as it was to go on stage. The censored material in the manuscript is all political: the play's unflattering portrayal of Oldenbarnavelt's enemy Maurice of Orange, its depiction of the Arminian religious sect's involvement in a political conflict, and its extensive discussions of monarchical vs. republican (as typified by ancient Roman) government. Twenty-eight years after the play's eventual debut in 1619, Humphrey Moseley's consequential omission of Barnavelt from the 1647 Beaumont and Fletcher First Folio was likely also a political choice. The royalist Moseley's front matter presents Fletcher and Francis Beaumont as safe for public consumption, while scrupulously avoiding any mention of the substantial contributions to the volume by the politically provocative Massinger.
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