The Mermaid Series was a major collection of reprints of texts from English Elizabethan, Jacobean and Restoration drama. It was published in the years around 1900 by the London firm of T. Fisher Unwin

T. Fisher Unwin

T. Fisher Unwin was the London publishing house owned by Thomas Fisher Unwin and founded by him in 1882.The latterly more famous Stanley Unwin started his career by coming to work in his uncle's firm...

, with many well-known literary figures editing or introducing the texts. Some of the plays published had not been reprinted in recent editions, and most had dropped out of the stage repertoire.

The name alludes to the Mermaid Tavern

Mermaid Tavern

The Mermaid Tavern was a tavern on Cheapside in London during the Elizabethan era, located east of St. Paul's Cathedral on the corner of Friday Street and Bread Street. It was the site of the so-called Friday Street Club...

 in London. There has been a later New Mermaid Series.

The Best Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher

Beaumont and Fletcher

Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatists Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, who collaborated in their writing during the reign of James I ....

Notes by John St. Loe Strachey

John St. Loe Strachey

John St Loe Strachey , was a British journalist and newspaper proprietor.Strachey was the second son of Sir Edward Strachey, 3rd Baronet, and his wife Mary Isabella , and the brother of Edward Strachey, 1st Baron Strachie, and Henry Strachey...

, two volumes

The Maid's Tragedy

The Maid's Tragedy

The Maid's Tragedy is a play by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. It was first published in 1619.The play was one of the earliest works in the canon of Fletcher and his collaborators that was acted by the King's Men; Fletcher would spend most of his career as that company's regular playwright...

 - Philaster

Philaster (play)

Philaster, or Love Lies a-Bleeding is an early Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. One of the duo's earliest successes, the play helped to establish the trend for tragicomedy that was a powerful influence in early Stuart era drama.-Date and...

 - The Wild-Goose Chase - Thierry and Theodoret

Thierry and Theodoret

Thierry and Theodoret is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragedy in the canon of John Fletcher and his collaborators that was first published in 1621...

 - The Knight of the Burning Pestle

The Knight of the Burning Pestle

The Knight of the Burning Pestle is a play by Francis Beaumont, first performed in 1607 and first published in a quarto in 1613. It is notable as the first whole parody play in English...

 - King and No King - Bonduca

Bonduca

Bonduca is a Jacobean tragi-comedy in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon, generally judged by scholars to be the work of John Fletcher alone. It was acted by the King's Men c. 1613, and published in 1647 in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio....

 - The Spanish Curate

The Spanish Curate

The Spanish Curate is a late Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. It premiered on the stage in 1622, and was first published in 1647.-Date and source:...

 - The Faithful Shepherdess

The Faithful Shepherdess

The Faithful Shepherdess is a Jacobean era stage play, the work that inaugurated the playwriting career of John Fletcher. Though the initial production was a failure with its audience, the printed text that followed proved significant, in that it contained Fletcher's influential definition of...

 - Valentinian

Valentinian (play)

Valentinian is a Jacobean era stage play, a revenge tragedy written by John Fletcher was that originally published in the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647. The play dramatizes the story of Valentinian III, one of the last of the Roman Emperors, as recorded by the classical historian...

The Best Plays of George Chapman

George Chapman

George Chapman was an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a classical scholar, and his work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been identified as the Rival Poet of Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Minto, and as an anticipator of the Metaphysical Poets...

Edited by William Lyon Phelps

William Lyon Phelps

William Lyon Phelps was an American author, critic and scholar. He taught the first American university course on the modern novel. He was a well-known speaker who drew large crowds...

All Fools

All Fools

All Fools is an early Jacobean era stage play, a comedy by George Chapman that was first published in 1605. The play has often been considered Chapman's highest achievement in comedy: "not only Chapman's most flawless, perfectly balanced play," but "also his most human and large-minded." "Chapman...

 - Bussy D'Ambois

Bussy D'Ambois

The Tragedy of Bussy D'Ambois is a Jacobean stage play written by George Chapman. Classified as either a tragedy or "contemporary history," Bussy D'Ambois is widely considered Chapman's greatest play, and is the earliest in a series of plays that Chapman wrote about the French political scene in...

 - The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois

The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois

The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois is a Jacobean revenge tragedy written by George Chapman. The Revenge is a sequel to his earlier Bussy D'Ambois, and was first published in 1613.-Genre and source:...

 - The Conspiracy of Charles, Duke of Byron - The Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron

The Complete Plays of William Congreve

Edited by Alexander C. Ewald

The Old Bachelor - The Double-Dealer - Love for Love - The Way of the World

The Way of the World

The Way of the World is a play written by British playwright William Congreve. It premiered in 1700 in the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London...

 - The Mourning Bride

The Best Plays of Thomas Dekker

Notes by Ernest Rhys

Ernest Rhys

Ernest Percival Rhys was an English writer, best known for his role as founding editor of the Everyman's Library series of affordable classics. He wrote essays, stories, poetry, novels and plays...

The Shoemaker's Holiday

The Shoemaker's Holiday

The Shoemakers' Holiday, or the Gentle Craft is an Elizabethan play written by Thomas Dekker. It was first performed in 1599 by the Admiral's Men. It falls into the sub-genre of city comedy.The play was first published in 1600 by the printer Valentine Simmes...

 - The Honest Whore

The Honest Whore

The Honest Whore is an early Jacobean city comedy, written in two parts; Part 1 is a collaboration between Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton, while Part 2 is the work of Dekker alone...

 - Old Fortunatus

Old Fortunatus

The Pleasant Comedie of Old Fortunatus is a play in a mixture of prose and verse by Thomas Dekker, based on the German legend of Fortunatus and his magic inexhaustible purse. Though the play is not easy to categorise, it has been called "the only example of an interlude inspired by the fully...

 - The Witch of Edmonton

The Witch of Edmonton

The Witch of Edmonton is an English Jacobean play, written by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford in 1621.The play—"probably the most sophisticated treatment of domestic tragedy in the whole of Elizabethan-Jacobean drama"—is based on supposedly real-life events that took place...

The Best Plays of John Dryden

John Dryden

John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...

Edited by George Saintsbury

George Saintsbury

George Edward Bateman Saintsbury , was an English writer, literary historian, scholar and critic.-Biography:...

, two volumes

Almanzor and Almahide - Marriage A La Mode - Aureng-Zebe

Aureng-zebe

Aureng-zebe is a Restoration drama by John Dryden, 1675 based loosely on the figures of Aurangzeb , the then-reigning Mughal Emperor of India; his brother, Murad Baksh ; and their father Shah Jahan . The piece was Dryden's last drama to be written in rhymed verse...

 - All for Love - The Spanish Friar - Albion and Albanius

Albion and Albanius

Albion and Albanius is an opera, closely resembling a French tragédie en musique, by Louis Grabu with an English text by John Dryden.The words were written by Dryden in 1680...

 - Don Sebastian

The Best Plays of George Farquhar

George Farquhar

George Farquhar was an Irish dramatist. He is noted for his contributions to late Restoration comedy, particularly for his plays The Recruiting Officer and The Beaux' Stratagem .-Early life:...

Edited by William Archer

William Archer

William Archer may refer to:* William S. Archer , U.S. Senator and Representative from Virginia* William Archer Irish naturalist and microscopist especially interested in Protozoa and Desmids...

The Constant Couple - The Twin-Rivals - The Recruiting Officer

The Recruiting Officer

The Recruiting Officer is a 1706 play by the Irish writer George Farquhar, which follows the social and sexual exploits of two officers, the womanising Plume and the cowardly Brazen, in the town of Shrewsbury to recruit soldiers...

 - The Beaux' Stratagem

The Beaux' Stratagem

The Beaux' Stratagem is a comedy by George Farquhar, first produced at the Haymarket Theatre, London, in March 1707. In the play, Archer and Aimwell, two young gentlemen who have fallen on hard times, plan to travel through small towns, entrap young heiresses, steal their money and move on. In the...

The Best Plays of John Ford

John Ford (dramatist)

John Ford was an English Jacobean and Caroline playwright and poet born in Ilsington in Devon in 1586.-Life and work:...

Edited by Havelock Ellis

Havelock Ellis

Henry Havelock Ellis, known as Havelock Ellis , was a British physician and psychologist, writer, and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He was co-author of the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in 1897, and also published works on a variety of sexual practices and...

The Lover's Melancholy

The Lover's Melancholy

The Lover's Melancholy is an early Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by John Ford. While the dating of the works in Ford's canon is very uncertain, this play has sometimes been regarded as "Ford's first unaided drama," an anticipation of what would follow through the remainder of his...

 - 'Tis Pity She's a Whore

'Tis Pity She's a Whore

'Tis Pity She's a Whore is a tragedy written by John Ford. It was likely first performed between 1629 and 1633, by Queen Henrietta's Men at the Cockpit Theatre. The play was first published in 1633, in a quarto printed by Nicholas Okes for the bookseller Richard Collins...

 - The Broken Heart

The Broken Heart

The Broken Heart is a Caroline era tragedy written by John Ford, and first published in 1633."The play has long vied with Tis Pity She's a Whore as Ford's greatest work...the supreme reach of his genius...."...

 - Love's Sacrifice

Love's Sacrifice

Love's Sacrifice is a Caroline era stage play, a tragedy written by John Ford, and first published in 1633. It is one of Ford's three surviving solo tragedies, the others being The Broken Heart and Tis Pity She's a Whore.-Date:...

 - Perkin Warbeck

Perkin Warbeck

Perkin Warbeck was a pretender to the English throne during the reign of King Henry VII of England. By claiming to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, the younger son of King Edward IV, one of the Princes in the Tower, Warbeck was a significant threat to the newly established Tudor Dynasty,...

The Complete Plays of Robert Greene

Robert Greene (16th century)

Robert Greene was an English author best known for a posthumous pamphlet attributed to him, Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit, widely believed to contain a polemic attack on William Shakespeare. He was born in Norwich and attended Cambridge University, receiving a B.A. in 1580, and an M.A...

Edited by Thomas H. Dickinson

The Best Plays of Thomas Heywood

Thomas Heywood

Thomas Heywood was a prominent English playwright, actor, and author whose peak period of activity falls between late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre.-Early years:...

Edited by A. Wilson Verity, introduction by John Addington Symonds

John Addington Symonds

John Addington Symonds was an English poet and literary critic. Although he married and had a family, he was an early advocate of male love , which he believed could include pederastic as well as egalitarian relationships. He referred to it as l'amour de l'impossible...

A Woman Killed with Kindness

A Woman Killed with Kindness

A Woman Killed with Kindness is an early seventeenth-century stage play, a tragedy written by Thomas Heywood. Acted in 1603 and first published in 1607, the play has generally been considered Heywood's masterpiece, and has received the most critical attention among Heywood's works...

 - The Fair Maid of the West

The Fair Maid of the West

The Fair Maid of the West, or a Girl Worth Gold, Parts 1 and 2 is a work of English Renaissance drama, a two-part play written by Thomas Heywood that was first published in 1631.-Date:...

 - The English Traveller - The Wise Woman of Hogsdon - The Rape of Lucrece

The Rape of Lucrece

The Rape of Lucrece is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare about the legendary Lucretia. In his previous narrative poem, Venus and Adonis , Shakespeare had included a dedicatory letter to his patron, the Earl of Southampton, in which he promised to write a "graver work"...

The Best Plays of Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson

Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...

Notes by Brinsley Nicholson and C. H. Herford

C. H. Herford

Charles Harold Herford was an English literary scholar and critic. He is remembered principally for his biography and edition of the works of Ben Jonson in 11 volumes. This major scholarly project was published from 1925 onwards by Oxford University Press, and completed with Percy and Evelyn Simpson...

, three volumes

(Volume I) Every Man in His Humour

Every Man in His Humour

Every Man in His Humour is a 1598 play by the English playwright Ben Jonson. The play belongs to the subgenre of the "humours comedy," in which each major character is dominated by an overriding humour or obsession.-Performance and Publication:...

 - Every Man out of His Humour

Every Man Out of His Humour

Every Man out of His Humour is a satirical comedy written by English playwright Ben Jonson, acted in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlain's Men. It is a conceptual sequel to his 1598 comedy Every Man in His Humour...

 - The Poetaster

The Poetaster

The Poetaster is a late Elizabethan stage play, a satire written by Ben Jonson, and first performed in 1601. The play formed one element in the back-and-forth exchange between Jonson and his rivals John Marston and Thomas Dekker in the so-called Poetomachia or War of the Theatres of...

The Best Plays of Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...

Notes by Havelock Ellis

Havelock Ellis

Henry Havelock Ellis, known as Havelock Ellis , was a British physician and psychologist, writer, and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He was co-author of the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in 1897, and also published works on a variety of sexual practices and...

, series introduction by John Addington Symonds

John Addington Symonds

John Addington Symonds was an English poet and literary critic. Although he married and had a family, he was an early advocate of male love , which he believed could include pederastic as well as egalitarian relationships. He referred to it as l'amour de l'impossible...

Tamburlaine the Great Part the First

Tamburlaine (play)

Tamburlaine the Great is the name of a play in two parts by Christopher Marlowe. It is loosely based on the life of the Central Asian emperor, Timur 'the lame'...

- Tamburlaine the Great Part the Second

Tamburlaine (play)

Tamburlaine the Great is the name of a play in two parts by Christopher Marlowe. It is loosely based on the life of the Central Asian emperor, Timur 'the lame'...

- Doctor Faustus - The Jew of Malta

The Jew of Malta

The Jew of Malta is a play by Christopher Marlowe, probably written in 1589 or 1590. Its plot is an original story of religious conflict, intrigue, and revenge, set against a backdrop of the struggle for supremacy between Spain and the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean that takes place on the...

- Edward the Second

Edward II (play)

Edward II is a Renaissance or Early Modern period play written by Christopher Marlowe. It is one of the earliest English history plays. The full title of the first publication is The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England, with the Tragical Fall of Proud...

Also includes a biography of Christopher Marlowe and appendices.

The Best Plays of Philip Massinger

Philip Massinger

Philip Massinger was an English dramatist. His finely plotted plays, including A New Way to Pay Old Debts, The City Madam and The Roman Actor, are noted for their satire and realism, and their political and social themes.-Early life:The son of Arthur Massinger or Messenger, he was baptized at St....

Notes by Arthur Symons

Arthur Symons

Arthur William Symons , was a British poet, critic and magazine editor.-Life:Born in Milford Haven, Wales, of Cornish parents, Symons was educated privately, spending much of his time in France and Italy...

, two volumes

The Duke of Milan

The Duke of Milan

The Duke of Milan is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragedy written by Philip Massinger. First published in 1623, the play is generally considered among the author's finest achievements in drama.-Performance:...

 - A New Way to Pay Old Debts

A New Way to Pay Old Debts

A New Way to Pay Old Debts is a play of English Renaissance drama, the most popular drama of Philip Massinger. Its central chararacter, Sir Giles Overreach, became one of the more popular villains on English and American stages through the 19th century.-Performance:Massinger most likely wrote the...

 - The Great Duke of Florence

The Great Duke of Florence

The Great Duke of Florence is an early Caroline era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Philip Massinger, and first published in 1636. It has been called "one of Massinger's best dramas," and "a masterpiece of dramatic construction."...

 - The Maid of Honour

The Maid of Honour

For attendants upon a queen in the royal households, see Maids of HonourThe Maid of Honour is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Philip Massinger, first published in 1632...

 - The City Madam

The City Madam

The City Madam is a Caroline era comedy written by Philip Massinger. It was licensed by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on May 25, 1632, and was acted by the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatre. It was printed in quarto in 1658 by the stationer Andrew Pennycuicke, who identified...

 - The Roman Actor

The Roman Actor

The Roman Actor is a Caroline era stage play, a tragedy written by Philip Massinger; it was first performed in 1626, and first published in 1629...

 - The Fatal Dowry

The Fatal Dowry

The Fatal Dowry is a late Jacobean era stage play, a tragedy written by Philip Massinger and Nathan Field, and first published in 1632. It represents a significant aspect of Field's very limited dramatic output....

 - The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

 - The Virgin-Martyr - Believe as You List

Believe as You List

Believe as You List is a Caroline era tragedy by Philip Massinger, famous as a case of theatrical censorship.-Censorship:The play originally dealt with the legend that Sebastian of Portugal had survived the battle of Alcácer Quibir, and the efforts of Philip II of Spain to suppress the "false...

The Best Plays of Thomas Middleton

Thomas Middleton

Thomas Middleton was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. Middleton stands with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson as among the most successful and prolific of playwrights who wrote their best plays during the Jacobean period. He was one of the few Renaissance dramatists to achieve equal success in...

Introduction by Algernon Charles Swinburne

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica...

, with Havelock Ellis

Havelock Ellis

Henry Havelock Ellis, known as Havelock Ellis , was a British physician and psychologist, writer, and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He was co-author of the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in 1897, and also published works on a variety of sexual practices and...

, two volumes

(Volume I) A Trick to Catch the Old One

A Trick to Catch the Old One

A Trick to Catch the Old One is a Jacobean comedy written by Thomas Middleton, first published in 1608. The play is a satire in the sub-genre of city comedy....

 - The Changeling

The Changeling (play)

The Changeling is a Jacobean tragedy written by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley. Widely regarded as "among the best" tragedies of the English Renaissance, the play has accumulated a significant body of critical commentary....

 - A Chaste Maid in Cheapside

A Chaste Maid in Cheapside

A Chaste Maid in Cheapside is a city comedy written c. 1613 by English Renaissance playwright Thomas Middleton. Unpublished until 1630 and long-neglected afterwards, it is now considered among the best and most characteristic Jacobean comedies....

 - Women Beware Women

Women Beware Women

Women Beware Women is a Jacobean tragedy written by Thomas Middleton, and first published in 1657.-Date:The date of authorship of the play is deeply uncertain. Scholars have estimated its origin anywhere from 1612 to 1627; 1623–24 has been plausibly suggested...

 - The Spanish Gypsy

The Spanish Gypsy

The Spanish Gypsy is an English Jacobean tragicomedy, dating from 1623. It is interesting to modern readers, students, and scholars principally because of the question of its authorship....

Nero and Other Plays (1888)

Edited by H. P. Horne, A. W. Verity, Arthur Symons

Arthur Symons

Arthur William Symons , was a British poet, critic and magazine editor.-Life:Born in Milford Haven, Wales, of Cornish parents, Symons was educated privately, spending much of his time in France and Italy...

 and Havelock Ellis

Havelock Ellis

Henry Havelock Ellis, known as Havelock Ellis , was a British physician and psychologist, writer, and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He was co-author of the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in 1897, and also published works on a variety of sexual practices and...

Nero - The Two Angry Women of Abington - The Parliament of Bees

The Parliament of Bees

The Parliament of Bees is the best-known of the works of the Elizabethan dramatist, John Day. It was probably written sometime between 1608 and 1616, but not published till 1641....

 (John Day

John Day (dramatist)

John Day was an English dramatist of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.-Life:He was born at Cawston, Norfolk, and educated at Ely. He became a sizar of Caius College, Cambridge, in 1592, but was expelled in the next year for stealing a book...

) - Humour Out of Breath - Woman is a Weathercock (Nathan Field)- Amends for Ladies

The Best Plays of Thomas Otway

Thomas Otway

Thomas Otway was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for Venice Preserv'd, or A Plot Discover'd .-Life:...

Notes by Roden Noel

Roden Noel

Roden Berkeley Wriothesley Noel, also known as Noël , was an English poet.The son of Charles Noel, Lord Barham, afterwards 1st Earl of Gainsborough, he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained his M.A. in 1858. He then spent two years travelling in the East...

Don Carlos, Prince of Spain - The Orphan

The Orphan

This article is about the play. For the 2009 horror film, see Orphan .The Orphan, or The Unhappy Marriage is a domestic tragedy, written by Thomas Otway in 1680. It was first produced at the Dorset Garden Theatre, and starred Mrs. Barry as Monimia, Thomas Betterton as Castalio and Mr. Jo. Williams...

 - The Soldier's Fortune - Venice Preserved

The Best Plays of Thomas Shadwell

Thomas Shadwell

Thomas Shadwell was an English poet and playwright who was appointed poet laureate in 1689.-Life:Shadwell was born at Stanton Hall, Norfolk, and educated at Bury St Edmunds School, and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, which he entered in 1656. He left the university without a degree, and...

Edited by George Saintsbury

George Saintsbury

George Edward Bateman Saintsbury , was an English writer, literary historian, scholar and critic.-Biography:...

The Sullen Lovers - A True Widow - The Squire of Alsatia - Bury Fair

The Best Plays of James Shirley

James Shirley

James Shirley was an English dramatist.He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so much for any transcendent genius in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of whom spoke nearly...

Introduction by Edmund Gosse

Edmund Gosse

Sir Edmund William Gosse CB was an English poet, author and critic; the son of Philip Henry Gosse and Emily Bowes.-Early life:...

The Witty Fair One

The Witty Fair One

The Witty Fair One is a Caroline era stage play, an early comedy by James Shirley. Critics have cited the play as indicative of the evolution of English comic drama from the humors comedy of Ben Jonson to the Restoration comedy of Wycherley and Congreve, and the comedy of manners that...

 - The Traitor - Hyde Park

Hyde Park (play)

Hyde Park is a Caroline era comedy of manners written by James Shirley, and first published in 1637.Hyde Park was licensed for performance by Sir Henry Herbert, the Master of the Revels, on April 20, 1632, and acted at the Cockpit Theatre by Queen Henrietta's Men...

 - The Lady of Pleasure

The Lady of Pleasure

The Lady of Pleasure is a Caroline era comedy of manners written by James Shirley, first published in 1637. It has often been cited as among the best, and sometimes as the single best, the "most brilliant," of the dramatist's comic works....

 - The Cardinal

The Cardinal

The Cardinal is a 1963 film which was produced independently and directed by Otto Preminger, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The screenplay was written by Robert Dozier, based on the novel by Henry Morton Robinson....

 - The Triumph of Peace

The Triumph of Peace

The Triumph of Peace was a Caroline era masque, "invented and written" by James Shirley, performed on February 3, 1634 and published the same year. The production was designed by Inigo Jones.-Inspiration:...

The Complete Plays of Richard Steele

Richard Steele

Sir Richard Steele was an Irish writer and politician, remembered as co-founder, with his friend Joseph Addison, of the magazine The Spectator....

Edited by G. A. Aitken

The Funeral - The Lying Lover - The Tender Husband - The Conscious Lovers

The Conscious Lovers

The Conscious Lovers is a five act play written by the English author Richard Steele. The Conscious Lovers appeared on stage on November 7, 1722, at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and was an immediate success, with an initial run of eighteen consecutive nights....

 - The School of Action - The Gentleman

The Gentleman

The Gentleman is a 1994 Hindi film directed by Mahesh Bhatt. The film stars Chiranjeevi, Paresh Rawal, Juhi Chawla in roles and South Indian actress Roja Selvamani does a cameo appearance in a song. It is a remake of S. Shankar's debut film, Gentleman....

The Select Plays of Sir John Vanbrugh

John Vanbrugh

Sir John Vanbrugh  – 26 March 1726) was an English architect and dramatist, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restoration comedies, The Relapse and The Provoked Wife , which have become enduring stage favourites...

Edited by A. E. H. Swain

The Relapse

The Relapse

The Relapse, or, Virtue in Danger is a Restoration comedy from 1696 written by John Vanbrugh. The play is a sequel to Colley Cibber's Love's Last Shift, or, Virtue Rewarded....

 - The Provok'd Wife - The Confederacy - A Journey to London

A Journey to London

A Journey to London is a 1975 British comedy television film directed by Gareth Davies and starring Bill Maynard, Joan Sims and John Curless. It is based on the restoration comedy play by John Vanbrugh. Sir Francis Headpiece takes his family to London....

The Best Plays of Webster

John Webster

John Webster was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, which are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. He was a contemporary of William Shakespeare.- Biography :Webster's life is obscure, and the dates...

 and Tourneur

Cyril Tourneur

Cyril Tourneur was an English dramatist who enjoyed his greatest success during the reign of King James I of England. His best-known work is The Revenger's Tragedy , a play which has alternatively been attributed to Thomas Middleton.-Life:Cyril Tourneur was possibly the son of Captain Richard...

Notes by John Addington Symonds

John Addington Symonds

John Addington Symonds was an English poet and literary critic. Although he married and had a family, he was an early advocate of male love , which he believed could include pederastic as well as egalitarian relationships. He referred to it as l'amour de l'impossible...

The White Devil

The White Devil

The White Devil is a revenge tragedy from 1612 by English playwright John Webster . A notorious failure when it premiered, Webster complained the play was acted in the dead of winter before an unreceptive audience. The play's complexity, sophistication and satire made it a poor fit with the...

 - The Duchess of Malfi

The Duchess of Malfi

The Duchess of Malfi is a macabre, tragic play written by the English dramatist John Webster in 1612–13. It was first performed privately at the Blackfriars Theatre, then before a more general audience at The Globe, in 1613-14...

 - The Atheist's Tragedy

The Atheist's Tragedy

The Atheist's Tragedy, or the Honest Man's Revenge is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragedy written by Cyril Tourneur and first published in 1611. It is the only dramatic work recognized by the consensus of modern scholarship as the undisputed work of Tourneur, "one of the more shadowy figures of...

 - The Revenger's Tragedy

The Revenger's Tragedy

The Revenger's Tragedy is an English language Jacobean revenge tragedy, in the past attributed to Cyril Tourneur but is sometimes considered to be the work of Thomas Middleton by "Middletonians"...

The Complete Plays of William Wycherley

William Wycherley

William Wycherley was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for the plays The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer.-Biography:...

Edited by W. C. Ward

Love in a Wood - The Gentleman Dancing Master - The Country Wife

The Country Wife

The Country Wife is a Restoration comedy written in 1675 by William Wycherley. A product of the tolerant early Restoration period, the play reflects an aristocratic and anti-Puritan ideology, and was controversial for its sexual explicitness even in its own time. The title itself contains a lewd pun...

 - The Plain Dealer

The Plain Dealer (play)

The Plain Dealer is a Restoration comedy by William Wycherley, first performed on 11 December 1676. The play is based on Molière's Le Misanthrope, and is generally considered Wycherley's finest work along with The Country Wife....