In contrast to each other, Volume 5 is a sociological portrait of mostly little people in their tragic and comic efforts to achieve fame on the London stage during the Restoration and eighteenth century, whereas Volume 6 is dom­inated by the glamour of David Gar­rick, Nell Gwyn, and Joseph Grimaldi, the celebrated clown. Some 250 por­traits individualize the great and small of the theatres of London.

The penultimate volume of the vast project begun some two decades ago, Volume 15, illustrated like its predecessors with bandw portraits and other artwork, provides information on theatre people including singer Catherine Tofts, comedian James Tokely, bearded lady and harpsichordist Barbara Van Beck, proprietor, playwright, and architect John Vanbrugh, theatrical families like the Vaughans and the husband- and-wife thespians John Baptista and Susanna Verbruggen and the dancing Vestres--Gaetan Appoline Balthazar and his illegitimate son Marie Jean Augustin, as well as a host of Wards (some related, some not). Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Volume 7 includes such notables as the composers Handel and Haydn and the alluring actress Elizabeth Hartley.

In contrast to each other, Volume 5 is a sociological portrait of mostly little people in their tragic and comic efforts to achieve fame on the London stage during the Restoration and eighteenth century, whereas Volume 6 is dom­inated by the glamour of David Gar­rick, Nell Gwyn, and Joseph Grimaldi, the celebrated clown. Some 250 por­traits individualize the great and small of the theatres of London.

Volume 8 dis­cusses, among others, the careers of Charles Incledon, the "English Ballad-Singer," boxing champion of England, "Gentleman" John Jackson, and members of the famous Kemble family-- Charles, Maria Theresa, Frances, Henry, John Philip, Priscilla, Elizabeth, Roger, and Stephen.

A wide-ranging set of essays that explain what theatre history is and why we need to engage with it.

In July 1789 George Cadogan Morgan, born in Bridgend, Wales, and the nephew of the celebrated radical dissenter Richard Price (1723-91), found himself caught up in the opening events of the French Revolution and its consequences. In 1808, his family left Britain for America where his son, Richard Price Morgan, travelled extensively, made a descent of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers by raft and helped build some of the early American railroads. The adventures of both men are related here via letters George sent home to his family from France and through the autobiography written by his son in America.

David Garrick's accomplishments as an actor, manager, and theatrical innovator brought him great fame and fortune, and his ideas influenced not only his own age but succeeding ages as well. Yet as a playwright, a part of the elegant combination of talents that was David Garrick, he has never achieved the critical reputation he richly deserves, in main because of the unavailability of texts and the lack of proper assessment of the historic importance of his plays in the English theatre. This first complete edition makes available to scholars and students all the plays of Gar­rick in well edited texts, with commentary and notes. The two volumes of Garrick's own plays published together here include the twenty-two plays of the Garrick canon attributable to him. Garrick's claim to serious consideration as a playwright rests upon these plays, written between 1740 and 1775.They are not all mas­terpieces, but their inclusion here, arranged in chronological order, will enable the stage his­torian to assess Garrick's progress as a dramatist. Contents: Cymon. A Dramatic Romance, 1767; Linco's Travels. An Interlude, 1767; A Peep Behind the Curtain; or, The New Rehearsal, 1767; The Jubilee, 1769; The Institution of the Garter; or, Arthur's Roundtable Restored, 1771; The Irish Widow, 1772; A Christmas Tale. A New Dramatic Entertainment, 1773; The Meeting of the Com­pany; or, Bayes's Art of Acting, 1774; Bon Ton; or, High Life above Stairs, 1775; May-Day; or, The Little Gipsy, 1775; and The Theatrical Candidates, 1775.

David Garrick's accomplishments as an actor, manager, and theatrical innovator brought him great fame and fortune, and his ideas influenced not only his own age but succeeding ages as well. Yet as a playwright, a part of the elegant combination of talents that was David Garrick, he has never achieved the critical reputation he richly deserves, in main because of the unavailability of texts and the lack of proper assessment of the historic importance of his plays in the English theatre. This first complete edition makes available to scholars and students all the plays of Gar­rick in well edited texts, with commentary and notes. The two volumes of Garrick's own plays published together here include the twenty-two plays of the Garrick canon attributable to him. Garrick's claim to serious consideration as a playwright rests upon these plays, written between 1740 and 1775.They are not all mas­terpieces, but their inclusion here, arranged in chronological order, will enable the stage his­torian to assess Garrick's progress as a dramatist. Contents: Lethe; or, Esop in the Shades. A Dra­matic Satire, 1740; The Lying Valet, 1741; Miss in Her Teens; or, The Medley of Lovers. A Farce, 1747; Lilliputt. A Dramatic Entertainment, 1756; The Male-Coquette; or, Seventeen Hundred Fifty Seven, 1757; The Guardian. A Comedy, 1759; Harlequin's Invasion; or, A Christmas Gambol, 1759; The Enchanter; or, Love and Magic. A Musi­cal Drama, 1760; The Farmer's Return from Lon­don. An Interlude, 1762; The Clandestine Mar­riage. A Comedy, 1766; and Neck or Nothing. A Farce, 1766.