This anthology collects twenty-four English comedies written for the London stage from the 1660s into the early eighteenth century, after the theatres reopened. The plays, by Etherege, Wycherley, Dryden, Behn, Congreve, Vanbrugh, Farquhar, Cibber, and their contemporaries, turn on marriage markets, cuckoldry, country heirs in town, rakes, and the gap between wit and virtue. Settings are drawing rooms, parks, and lodgings rather than courts of tragedy. Complete texts are given rather than extracts, so that the intrigue plots can be followed entire. The volume is a survey of a theatrical fashion, not a single author's canon.
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Subject/Genre
7 Subjects| No. | Volume Title | Page Count |
|---|---|---|
| Vol. 1 | — | 624 pp |
| Vol. 2 | — | 654 pp |
| Vol. 3 | — | 658 pp |
| Vol. 4 | — | 594 pp |
Bound in green buckram. Pale green endleaves. Dark brown four-volume slipcase. Folio Press & Rowman and Littlefield, New Jersey.
| Printing | Print Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Printing | 1974 | — |