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Eighteenth-Century Women Dramatists
These four plays, written by women dramatists during the Restoration, are now available in a single edition. This volume includes Mary Pix's The Innocent Mistress, Susanna Centlivre's The Busy-Body, Elizabeth Griffith's The Times, and Hannah Cowley's The Belle's Stratagem; thereby introducing readers to some of the earliest published women dramatists. The text is freshly edited using modern spelling. The critical introduction, wide-ranging annotation, and informative bibliography illuminate the plays' cultural context and theatrical potential for reader and performer alike.
448 pages, Paperback
First published November 19, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 11, 2020
This year my Old & New Challenge at GR group Catching Up on the Classics includes the four plays here in Eighteenth-Century Women Dramatists edited by Melinda Finberg.
In A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf describes the wrongs that Shakespeake's imagined actor sister would have endured. I wondered when things changed. I knew women acted on stage in Restoration Period. I knew their experience well enough not not to be curious.
But what about women writing for the theater? What were their writing and production experiences like? What were the stages they wrote for like? (I knew our stage to be a recent development.) What did they did women write? Has any of it store the test of time? Yes. Some were acted in major forums into the 19th century. All of these questions are answered in the book in a way anyone who has taken a required theater class or participated in local theater can understand. A general understanding of women's status in society and nature of marriage and how these things were changing in the 18th century will help.
In this book are included
• The Innocent Mistress by Mary Pix
• The Busie Body by Susanna Centlivre
• The Times by Elizabeth Griffith
• The Belle's Strategem Hannah Cowley
With in the growing interests in women's studies, these plays are becoming available to non-academics again, most often through online forums.
While reading these plays, I enjoyed the humor. And I hope in time to enjoy some more plays by these and other women dramatists.
In A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf describes the wrongs that Shakespeake's imagined actor sister would have endured. I wondered when things changed. I knew women acted on stage in Restoration Period. I knew their experience well enough not not to be curious.
But what about women writing for the theater? What were their writing and production experiences like? What were the stages they wrote for like? (I knew our stage to be a recent development.) What did they did women write? Has any of it store the test of time? Yes. Some were acted in major forums into the 19th century. All of these questions are answered in the book in a way anyone who has taken a required theater class or participated in local theater can understand. A general understanding of women's status in society and nature of marriage and how these things were changing in the 18th century will help.
In this book are included
• The Innocent Mistress by Mary Pix
• The Busie Body by Susanna Centlivre
• The Times by Elizabeth Griffith
• The Belle's Strategem Hannah Cowley
With in the growing interests in women's studies, these plays are becoming available to non-academics again, most often through online forums.
While reading these plays, I enjoyed the humor. And I hope in time to enjoy some more plays by these and other women dramatists.
December 18, 2021
Only hacked at The Busybody and it was , fine. 2.5. It's an overfamiliar framework by this point, surely. Dramatically it is what we call the 'nothing special'.
The play shines occasionally- there was a whole sequence involving a monkey I enjoyed, and Miranda's lines are fairly reliably good. The girlboss moments are what rescue this from being a pure factory-farm drama.
The epilogue seems to imply Marplot was the protagonist and honestly what on earth. He was unique, perhaps, but seemed to exist only to get in the way and extend the play.
The play shines occasionally- there was a whole sequence involving a monkey I enjoyed, and Miranda's lines are fairly reliably good. The girlboss moments are what rescue this from being a pure factory-farm drama.
The epilogue seems to imply Marplot was the protagonist and honestly what on earth. He was unique, perhaps, but seemed to exist only to get in the way and extend the play.
January 9, 2022
Only read busybody. I’m still not sure what it’s about.
March 12, 2023
Only read the busybody. Made me feel smooth brained. Actually just not great sorry I wanted to like you
May 16, 2023
The plays themselves aren't remarkable but I enjoyed reading this and am glad this collection exists.
April 15, 2010
The Innocent Mistress by Mary Pix is one of the plays we have to read for my English Lit module this term. Pix is an eighteenth century dramatist, and was selected because she is a woman. Seriously. The department though they should show us what women from that century were capable of (as far as playwrights go), and they chose her.
I wish they hadn’t. My God, she’s a bore. Here are my shortcomings: I don’t like plays that name characters with similar-sounding names, I don’t like plays that are unclear about their purpose. She does both. I found myself flicking back to the characters page constantly, trying to figure out who she was talking about. I know that’s my own short attention span, but come on. There are plenty of plays and novels that I follow without issue.
The play is about a several love affairs in characters who are almost all aristocrats. The characters you are meant to sympathize with (Sir Charles and Bellinda) just come off as silly and somewhat mindless, and the “light relief comedy” characters irritate more than necessary. As much as I love theatre — and I love it, a lot — I have found that, for the most part, despite hopelessly wishing I were different: I can’t visualize plays very well. Sometimes I can, when they’re written brilliantly and once in a blue moon I’ll read a play that’ll make want to put on a production. But for the most part, I’m happy enough being tucked into a cushioned velvet seat waiting for the curtains to be drawn.
This module has consisted entirely of plays (and we still have a few to go). I wish we could’ve had a student production of each of them — it would’ve made learning this module much more enjoyable. As it stands, though, while I appreciate what we’re being fed, I grumble at having to eat it. Bad metaphor, true sentiment.
I wish they hadn’t. My God, she’s a bore. Here are my shortcomings: I don’t like plays that name characters with similar-sounding names, I don’t like plays that are unclear about their purpose. She does both. I found myself flicking back to the characters page constantly, trying to figure out who she was talking about. I know that’s my own short attention span, but come on. There are plenty of plays and novels that I follow without issue.
The play is about a several love affairs in characters who are almost all aristocrats. The characters you are meant to sympathize with (Sir Charles and Bellinda) just come off as silly and somewhat mindless, and the “light relief comedy” characters irritate more than necessary. As much as I love theatre — and I love it, a lot — I have found that, for the most part, despite hopelessly wishing I were different: I can’t visualize plays very well. Sometimes I can, when they’re written brilliantly and once in a blue moon I’ll read a play that’ll make want to put on a production. But for the most part, I’m happy enough being tucked into a cushioned velvet seat waiting for the curtains to be drawn.
This module has consisted entirely of plays (and we still have a few to go). I wish we could’ve had a student production of each of them — it would’ve made learning this module much more enjoyable. As it stands, though, while I appreciate what we’re being fed, I grumble at having to eat it. Bad metaphor, true sentiment.
March 21, 2011
"The Innocent Mistress" - I think this is my favourite of the EN2004 plays so far. Our tutor told us to start reading it way in advance of the tutorial as it had a confusing plot, but I didn't find it too challenging once I remembered all of the characters' names. There were three storylines that interwove, but thankfully years of reading romance novels has taught me to deal with multiple plots! :) This was a very entertaining read, but it had a rather pessimistic view of marriage and commitment that made for an unsettling resolution to one of the sub-plots. 8/10
August 2, 2015
Not terribly outstanding or ingenious, but light and fun. I think my favorite was "The Busybody".
July 2, 2016
A wonderful edition of plays by women of the 18th century
February 18, 2016
Only read Busybody and that is for uni!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews