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.