The First Edition of this acclaimed classroom text presented five distinguished comedies from an especially exciting and innovative period in English theater and society: William Wycherley's
The Country Wife, George Etherege's
The Man of Mode, William Congreve's
The Way of the World, Richard Steele's
The Conscious Lovers, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan's
The School for Scandal. This Second Edition builds on its predecessor's strengths by adding a sixth play, Aphra Behn's
The Rover, a comedy that has clearly come into prominence in recent years. The plays are fully annotated for the modern reader and are accompanied by six illustrations.
The close relationship between theater and society during the period continues to be the focus of "Contexts." The editor offers contemporary discussions of the following topics: "On Wit, Humour, and Laughter: 1660–1775," "The Collier Controversy: 1698," "Steele and Dennis: On The Man of Mode and The Conscious Lovers," and "Stages, Actors, and Audiences."
"Criticism" has been revised to reflect recent approaches in scholarly interpretations. Two seminal essays from the First Edition have been retained—Charles Lamb's appreciation of the period's comedy and L. C . Knights's condemnation of it. New essays by Jocelyn Powell, Harriett Hawkins, Elin Diamond, Martin Price, and Laura Brown have been added.
The Selected Bibliography has been thoroughly updated.
Preface to the First Edition
Preface to the Second Edition
A Note on the Texts
List of Illustrations
The Texts of the Plays
William Wycherley • The Country Wife (1675)
George Etherege • The Man of Mode (1676)
Aphra Behn • The Rover (1677)
William Congreve • The Way of the World (1700)
Richard Steele • The Conscious Lovers (1722)
Richard Brinsley Sheridan • The School for Scandal (1777)
Contexts
On Wit, Humour, and Laughter: 1650–1775
Thomas Hobbes
[On Laughter]
[On Wit]
[On Power]
John Dryden • Preface to An Evening's Love: or, The Mock Astrologer
William Congreve • Concerning Humour in Comedy
Richard Steele
Epilogue to The Lying Lover
The Tatler, No. 219
Joseph Addison
The Spectator, No. 47
The Spectator, No. 62
Oliver Goldsmith • An Essay on the Theater
The Collier Controversy: 1698
Jeremy Collier • A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage
Introduction
Chapter I: The Immodesty of the Stage
From Chapter IV. The Stage-Poets Make Their Principal Persons Vicious and Reward Them at the End of the Play
John Dennis • The Usefulness of the Stage
Part I, Chapter I. That the Stage Is Instrumental to the Happiness of Mankind
Part I, Chapter III. The Objections from Reason Answered
Part I, Chapter IV. The Objections from Authority Answered
William Congreve • Amendments of Mr. Collier's False and Imperfect Citations
Steele and Dennis: on The Man Of Mode and The Conscious Lovers
Richard Steele
The Spectator, No. 65
The Theatre, No. 1
The Theatre, No. 3
John Dennis
A Defense of Sir Fopling Flutter
Remarks on The Conscious Lovers
Stages, Actors, and Audiences
Emmet L. Avery and Arthur H. Scouten • The Theatrical World, 1600–1700
Elizabeth Howe • The Arrival of the Actress
Emmet L. Avery and Arthur H. Scouten • The Audience
Charles Beecher Hogan • [Scenery and Lighting]
Criticism
Charles Lamb • On the Artificial Comedy of the Last Century
L. C. Knights • Restoration Comedy: The Reality and the Myth
Jocelyn Powell • [Visual Rhythm in The Country Wife]
Harriet Hawkins • [The Man of Mode]
Elin Diamond • Gestus and Signature in Aphra Behn's The Rover
Virgin Commodities
Painting(s), Person, Body
"I... Hang out the sign of Angellica"
Martin Price • [Form and Wit in The Way of the World]
Laura Brown • [The Way of the World]
Raymond Williams • [Sentimentalism and Social History]
Selected Bibliography
