The Theater of Experiment

Al Coppola is Assistant Professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York.

Coppola's deeply researched book brings to the table subtle readings of theatrical texts that historians of science have not previously considered relevant to their domain. For this, all scholars of the period should be grateful. ...Al Coppola has inspired a new round of research in this field and exemplified the best that can be hoped for in terms of its quality.

• Introduction Science as Performance; Science in Performance Against the Virtuosi A Matter of Concern Prologue: "Bare Unfinish'd Histories": The Rehearsal of Natural Philosophy Buckingham amid the Virtuosi Bacon, Dryden, Sprat and the Labyrinth of Induction 1. The Spectacle of Experiment and the Politics of Virtuoso Satire in the 1670s The Modest Witness as Eager Spectator: Boyle in the Theater of Experiment The Virtuoso Discovered: Shadwell, Hooke and the Royal Society The Virtuoso Beyond Science: Bad Men and Bad Manners The Virtuoso as Reactionary: D'Urfey's Madam Fickle Virtuoso Satire and the Purification of Natural Philosophy 2. Retraining the Virtuoso's Gaze: The Emperor of the Moon and the Spectacles of Science and Politics The Virtuoso's Gaze Reformed: Tory Politics and Natural Philosophy "Hold Doting Fool, put on your Spectacles": The Show of Politics in the 1680s Spectacle against Enthusiasm: Behn's Emperor and the Exclusion Crisis Dryden's Albion to the Moon: Political and Theatrical Pressures in 1687 3. Physiology, Commerce and Comedy: Three Hours after Marriage and A Bold Stroke for a Wife The Virtuoso Vindicated From the Old Physiology to the New Psychology Soft Comedy and Whig Science Scriblerian Lampoon as Humoral Purge Centlivre's Humorous Circulation 4. Harlequin Newton: Faustus Pantomimes and Public Science in the 1720s "To Gaze Surpriz'd": The Panorama of Science, Magic and Pantomime "Surprizing Phaenomena" and the Attraction of Popular Newtonianism "One Wide Conflagration": The Pleasures of Harlequin Faustus Defoe, Conjuring and the Science of the Pantomimes The Force Field of Public Science 5. Modest Witnesses and Eager Spectators: Engendering Enlightenment Science "This Woman-hood of Yours Seems to be Mightily in the Way Appropriating Moliere's Learned Ladies Cibber, Centlivre and The Vanishing Virtuosa Enlightenment Periodicals and Science "for the Ladies" Embodying the Eager Spectator Epilogue: Rehearsing Spectacle From Spectacles to SpectatorsReflexive Empiricism and Fielding's Spectators Bibliography