Essays

Edward Niles Hooker, The Critical Works of John Dennis. Vol. II: 1711–1729. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1943, 241–250.

A DEFENSE of Sir Fopling Flutter.

A Certain Knight, who has employ’d so much of his empty Labour in extolling the weak Performances of some living Authors, has scurrilously and inhumanly in the 65th Spectator, attack’d one of the most entertaining Comedies of the last Age...

From The Man of Mode

Robert Beverly Jr. (ca. 1667–1722), “An Account of Bacon’s Rebellion.” The History of Virginia, in Four Parts. Richmond: J.W. Randolph, 1855.

Beverly was a Virginia planter and clerk of the Governor’s Council, a political body comprised of the Virginia colony’s wealthiest and most powerful men. His father, Robert Beverly senior (bap. 1635–1687), was a stout defender of Governor William Berkeley during Bacon’s Rebellion (1676). Beverly Jr. began writing The History and Present State of Virginia (London, 1705) while in England appealing a lawsuit he lost before the General Court...

From The Widow Ranter

Colley Cibber, from the “Dedication” to An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber: with an Historical View of the Stage During his own Time. Written by Himself.

Ed. B.R.S. Fone. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 1968, 3–4

Henry Pelham (1695?–1754) is the gentleman to whom Cibber dedicates his autobiography. Pelham was brother to Cibber’s friend, the Duke and Newcastle and, in 1743, prime minister.

From The Relapse

Samuel Richardson, The Apprentice’s Vade-Mecum or, The Young Man’s Pocket Companion. Dublin: 1734, 11–23.

Richardson’s advice to apprentices in this “pocket book” (just over 2 x 5 inches) is divided into three parts. The first includes duties and responsibilities involved in the master/apprentice relationship. It also includes “occasional remarks upon the Play-houses,” primarily in the form of warning about attending with the notable exception of The London Merchant. The other two sections address the rules for apprenticeship and cautions against skepticism. The majority of the first section is included in this excerpt.

From The London Merchant

A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage

Full text of A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage together with a sense of antiquity upon this argument. Jeremy Collier. London: S. Keble, R. Sare, H. Hindmarsh, 1698.

Behn (1640?–1689) was a prolific and highly successful playwright, author of The Widdow Ranter, included in this volume, and a contributor to the novel in its earliest English forms, most famously Oroonoko, or, the Royal Slave, which was adapted by Thomas Southerne into a play that was performed long into the eighteenth century. She was also well known for her poetry.

This online edition of the work, hosted by the University of Michigan, has been transcribed by the Early English Books Text Creation Partnership.

From The Way of the World

Print Controversy Chiefly Regarding the Ode

David Garrick had no shortage of enemies. The sheer excess of the following anonymous repudiation of Garrick’s Ode gives some sense of the vitriol. The attack concludes be reprinting a host of negative accounts of the Jubilee in Stratford-upon-Avon.

From The Jubilee

Remarks on Every One Has His Fault (1793)

1. Elizabeth Inchbald, "Remarks on Every One Has His Fault." The British Theatre. Ed. Elizabeth Inchbald. 25 vols. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, 1808, 23. 3–4.

There is at present an opinion prevailing, in regard to dramatic works, which, if just, is wholly contradictory to every proof of cause and effect, which has been applied to the rise and fall of other arts and sciences.

From Everyone Has His Fault