Restoration Drama: An Anthology

This exciting new anthology captures the variety and richness of Restoration Drama. It provides annotated and judiciously modernized texts of the following plays: Tuke, The Adventures of Five Hours. (1662); Howard, The Duke of Lerma. (1668); Dryden, The Conquest of Granada. (1670); Buckingman, The Rehearsal. (1671); Wycherley, The Country Wife. (1675); Wycherley, The Plain Dealer. (1676); Etherege, The Man of Mode. (1676); Behn, The Rover. (1677); Dryden, All for Love. (1677); Lee, Lucius Junicus Brutus. (1680); Otway, Venice Preserved. (1682); Congreve, Love for Love. (1695); Cibber, Love′s Last Shift. (1696); Vanburgh, The Relapse. (1696); Congreve, The Way of the World. (1700); Farquhar, The Recruiting Officer. (1706); Farquhar, The Beaux Stratagem. (1707); Centlivre, The Busie Body. (1709) The volume offers a representative sampling of many of the different types of play put on in the period (sex comedy, moral comedy, heroric drama, Shakespearean adaptation and political history) At the same time, the even distribution of the plays throughout the period encourages students to refelct on the development of the drama over the full fifty years covered by thte anthology. It includes plays by both men and women, as well as dramatic ripostes such as The Rehearsal and The Relapse, which evoke so vividly the adversarial and dialectical world of the theatre in the second half of the seventeenth century.

Introduction. A Note on The Text. 1. The Adventures of Five Hours. (1662) Sir Samuel Tuke. 2. The Great Favourite, or The Duke of Lerma. (1668) Sir Robert Howard. 3. The Conquest of Granada. (1670) John Dryden. 4. The Rehearsal. (1671) Buckingham. 5. The Country Wife. (1675) William Wycherley. 6. The Plain Dealer. (1676) William Wycherley. 7. The Man of Mode. (1676) Sir George Etherege. 8. The Rover. (1677) Aphra Behn. 9. All for Love. (1677) John Dryden. 10. Lucius Junicus Brutus. (1680) Nathaniel Lee. 11. Venice Preserved. (1682) Thomas Otway. 12. Love for Love. (1695) William Congreve. 13. Love′s Last Shift. (1696) Colley Cibber. 14. The Relapse. (1696) Sir John Vanbrugh. 15. The Way of the World. (1700) William Congreve. 16. The Recruiting Officer. (1706) George Farguhar. 17. The Beaux Stratagem. (1707) George Farquhar. 18. The Busie Body. (1709) Susannah Centlivre. Further Reading. Index.

David Womersley has been a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Jesus College, Oxford since 1984. He has published widely on English Literature from the early sixteenth to the early nineteenth century. Previous publications include, Edward Gibbon , The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1994), Gibbon: Bicentenary Essays (1997), Augustan Critical Writing (1997), The Transformation of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1988).

"The whole task is carried out with exemplary clarity and charm . . .There is no more recommendable anthology of Restoration plays available today". Notes and Queries <!––end––> "The page layout is attractively and thoughtfully designed, avoiding, for instance, frequent run–overs of lines in verse passages. Students exploring this collection will be presented with a wealth of fascinating and innovative writing in reliable editions, and the richest sampling of the post–1660 drama currently available in a single volume." The Review of English Studies "David Womersley′s Restoration Drama is easily the most comprehensive anthology available to date. Each of Womersley′s introductions to the plays are wonderfully compact mini–guides to the plays, providing information on the author, the sources, the context and stage–history, and pointing out some of the complexities raised by the work. The explanatory notes, though kept to a minimum, are relevant and helpful. What distinuguishes the present collection from its predecessors is the editor′s attempt to do justice to the multifarious nature of Restoration drama. All in all . . . this is a most valuable (and moderately priced) collection, which is likely to supersede classroom texts currently used. Future editors and publishers of Restoration plays would do students and scholars a true favour by following Womersley′s and Blackwell′s lead in striking out in new directions and opening up for further study the full panorama of Restoration drama." English Studies