Nicoll's History tells the story of English drama from the reopening of the theatres at the time of the Restoration right through to the end of the Victorian period.

Allardyce Nicoll's History of English Drama, 1660-1900 was an immense scholarly achievement and the work of one man. Nicoll's History, which tells the story of English drama from the reopening of the theatres at the time of the Restoration right through to the end of the Victorian period, was viewed by Notes and Queries (1952) as 'a great work of exploration, a detailed guide to the untrodden acres of our dramatic history, hitherto largely ignored as barren and devoid of interest'. The History is reissued in seven paperback volumes, available separately and as a set. In volumes 1-5 Nicoll describes the conditions of the stage, actors and managers as well as dramatic genres. The sixth and seventh volumes offer a comprehensive list of all the plays known to have been produced or printed in England between 1660 and 1930, with their authors and alternative titles; it has thus independent value as well as providing an index to the earlier volumes.

James Robinson Planché was one of the most prolific and successful of nineteenth-century playwrights. In a career spanning fifty years he wrote over one hundred and eighty pieces of all types, from pantomime and farce to melodrama and opera, for production at a wide range of London theatres. This book offers a representative selection of his most popular plays. It includes one melodrama - The Vampire; or The Bride of the Isles (1820), which represents the first treatment of the vampire theme on the English stage; one farce - The Garrick Fever (1839); three 'fairy' extravaganzas - Beauty and the Beast (1841), Fortunio and his Seven Gifted Servants (1843), and The Discreet Princess; or, The Three Glass Distaffs (1855); one 'classical' extravaganza - The Golden Fleece; or, Jason in Colchis and Medea in Corinth (1845); and one revue of events in contemporary London - The Camp at the Olympic (1853). The volume includes a lengthy introduction which sets the plays in the theatrical context of their time, a chronological record of Planché's life, a complete list of his plays, and a bibliography.

These two criticisms are based on the presumption that only a socially and intellectually elite reader is able to view the author's language in terms of its organic relationship with the text as a whole. The Romantics focused on the interpretive reproduction of Shakespeare through sympathetic identification with his characters."--BOOK JACKET.

This innovative work begins to fill a large gap in theatre studies: the lack of any comprehensive study of nineteenth-century British theatre audiences. In an attempt to bring some order to the enormous amount of available primary material, Jim Davis and Victor Emeljanow focus on London from 1840, immediately prior to the deregulation of that city's theatres, to 1880, when the Metropolitan Board of Works assumed responsibility for their licensing. In a further attempt to manage their material, they concentrate chapter by chapter on seven representative theatres from four areas: the Surrey Theatre and the Royal Victoria to the south, the Whitechapel Pavilion and the Britannia Theatre to the east, Sadler's Wells and the Queen's (later the Prince of Wales's) to the north, and Drury Lane to the west. Davis and Emeljanow thoroughly examine the composition of these theatres' audiences, their behavior, and their attendance patterns by looking at topography, social demography, police reports, playbills, autobiographies and diaries, newspaper accounts, economic and social factors as seen in census returns, maps and transportation data, and the managerial policies of each theatre.

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.