The Broadview Anthology of Restoration and Early Eighteenth-Century Drama
  • Publication Date: May 31, 2001
  • ISBN: 9781551112701 / 1551112701
  • 2000 pages; 7¾" x 9¼"

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The Broadview Anthology of Restoration and Early Eighteenth-Century Drama

  • Publication Date: May 31, 2001
  • ISBN: 9781551112701 / 1551112701
  • 2000 pages; 7¾" x 9¼"

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.

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

The late J. Douglas Canfield was Regents’ Professor of English at the University of Arizona. Among his many works on Restoration and eighteenth-century literature are Heroes and States: On the Ideology of Restoration Tragedy and Tricksters and Estates: On the Ideology of Restoration Comedy.

Maja-Lisa von Sneidern is an adjunct instructor at the University of Arizona.