About This Book
An edited anthology gathers seventeenth-century and earlier English plays, presented chronologically with introductions, dramatis personae, stage directions, and explanatory notes by various commentators with added annotations. The selection includes comedies of intrigue and Restoration-era dramas that explore mistaken identities, romantic entanglements, honour, and social satire; several pieces derive from or adapt Spanish originals and feature complex plots, servants' subplots, and courtroom or domestic scenes. Scholarly apparatus includes a prefatory history of the theatre, glossarial and errata indices, and editorial commentary that contextualizes authorship, editions, and performance history for readers seeking both dramatic texts and critical notes.