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. Contents: The Rehearsal (George Villiers and Others), 1742; The Alchymist. A Comedy (Ben Jonson), 1743; The Provok'd Wife. A Comedy (John Vanbrugh), 1744; and The Roman Father. A Tragedy (William Whitehead), 1750.

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.

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. Contents: Alfred. A Masque (James Thomson and David Mallet), 1751; Every Man in His Humour. A Comedy (Ben Jonson), 1751; Zara. A Tragedy (Aaron Hill), 1754; The Chances. A Comedy (John Fletcher and George Villiers), 1754; and Rule a Wife and Have a Wife. A Comedy (Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher), 1756.

Part 2 offers readings of homoeroticism in Akenside's The Pleasures of Imagination and his Odes, where homosexuality manifests itself indirectly, through elision and through Akenside's own revision of his most homoerotic passages. Finally, Part 3 returns to read homosexuality in political life, but later in the century, when the idea is exploited by Wilkes and Churchill, with some very surprising results, in their campaign against George III and his prime minister, the earl of Bute.

French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote, 'the general effect of the theatre is to strengthen the national character to augment the national inclinations, and to give a new energy to all the passions'. During the Enlightenment, the advancement of radical ideas along with the emergence of the bourgeois class contributed to a renewed interest in theatre's efficacy, informed by philosophy yet on behalf of politics. While the 18th century saw a growing desire to define the unique and specific features of a nation's drama, and audiences demanded more realistic portrayals of humanity, theatre is also implicated in this age of revolutions. A Cultural History of Theatre in the Age of Enlightenment examines these intersections, informed by the writings of key 18th-century philosophers. Richly illustrated with 45 images, the ten chapters each take a different theme as their focus: institutional frameworks; social functions; sexuality and gender; the environment of theatre; circulation; interpretations; communities of production; repertoire and genres; technologies of performance; and knowledge transmission.

This compilation of Isaac Bickerstaff's plays was originally compiled and published in 1981, and the plays written in the 1760s-70s. Edited and with an introduction by Peter A. Tasch, the volume contains seven plays: The Captive; He Wou'd if He Cou'd; or, An Old Fool worse than Any; The Recruiting Serjeant; 'Tis Well it's no Worse; The Brickdust-Man and Milk-Maid; The Sultan, or A Peep into the Seraglio; and The Spoil'd Child.