DLB 80: Restoration Eighteenth-Century Dramatists, First Series

by Paula R. Backscheider (Editor)

The 18 playwrights included in this volume, born between 1621 and 1666, coped with situations no dramatists before or since have faced. During this period, theaters were seen as places of corruption and were officially closed in 1642. When they began to reopen in 1660, there were few trained performers and no established audiences. Nevertheless, the dramatists of this tumultuous time produced some of the best-and strangest-plays in English literature. 18 entries John Bank, George Etherege, Nathaniel Lee, Mary Pix, Thomas Southerne, Sir John Vanbrugh, William Wycherley.

397 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 1989