Full Description
This is the first new full-scale anthology of Restoration and eighteenth-century drama in over sixty years. Concentrating on plays from the heyday of 1660-1737, it focuses especially on Restoration drama proper (1660-1688) and Revolution drama (1689-1714), with a smaller selection of plays from the early Georgian period (1715-1737) and a glimpse at the later Georgian period's "laughing comedy" (1770s and 80s). It includes nine sub-genres (heroic romance, political tragedy, personal tragedy, tragicomic romance, social comedy, subversive comedy, corrective satire, menippean satire, and laughing comedy), with the preponderance of exposure given to the jewel of this theatre, its comedy.
The core canonical plays from the era—from Dryden's All for Love and Behn's The Rover to Congreve's The Way of the World and Sheridan's School for Scandal—are all here, but so are a remarkably wide range of non-canonical works. There are many more plays by women than in any previous general anthology of drama of the period. Also included are a number of works from the neglected 1660s, whose comedies feature delightful, subversive, levelling folk elements. In all there are forty-one plays; each is fully annotated and prefaced with an historical introduction. Also included are a general introduction, head-notes for each genre, and a glossary.
Contents
Introduction
Procedures
Map
Heroic Romance
The History of Henry the Fifth
Roger Boyle, First Earl of Orrery
Tamerlane
Nicholas Rowe
Lucius, The First Christian King of Britain
Delarivier Manley
Political Tragedy
The Unhappy Favorite
John Banks
Lucius Junius Brutus
Nathaniel Lee
Cato
Joseph Addison
Personal Tragedy
All for Love
John Dryden
The Fair Penitent
Nicholas Rowe
The London Merchant
George Lillo
Tragicomic Romance
Marriage a la Mode
John Dryden
Oroonoko
Thomas Southerne
The Conscious Lovers
Richard Steele
Social Comedy
The Committee
Sir Robert Howard
The Man of Mode
George Etherege
The Rover
Aphra Behn
City Politics
John Crowne
Love's Last Shift
Colley Cibber
The Way of the World
William Congreve
The Beau Defeated
Mary Fix
Love at a Loss
Catharine Trotter
A Bold Stroke for a Wife
Susanna Centlivre
Subversive Comedy
The Old Troop
John Lacy
The Careless Lovers
Edward Ravenscroft
The Country Wife
William Wycherley
Friendship in Fashion
Thomas Otway
A True Widow
Thomas Shadwell
Sir Anthony Love
Thomas Southerne
The Beaux' Stratagem
George Farquhar
The Beggar's Opera
John Gay
Corrective Satire
The Princess of Cleves
Nathaniel Lee
The Lucky Chance
Aphra Behn
The Relapse
John Vanbrugh
Polly
John Gay
Menippean Satire
The Rump
John Tatham
A Fond Husband
Thomas Durfey
Venice Preserved
Thomas Otway
Amphitryon
John Dryden
The Authors Farce
Henry Fielding
Laughing Comedy
The Belle's Stratagem
Hannah Cowley
She Stoops to Conquer
Oliver Goldsmith
The School for Scandal
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Glossary
Index of Authors and Titles
