The Development of English Drama in the Late Seventeenth Century

`The scope and sympathy of Professor Hume's study make it the most important book on Restoration drama to have appeared in our century ... Professor Hume's central concern... was to give a concrete and detailed picture of the Restoration dramatic tradition as it existed historically and to examine the ways in which it was experienced by the theatre-goers of four reigns. In this he is triumphantly successful.'Harold Love, Modern Language Review`a comprehensive survey of critical history as well as of the plays of fifty years. It is well-expressed, well-constructed, authoritative, and indispensable.'T. W. Craik, British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

• Part 1 The dramatic types in theory and practice: What is "restoration" drama; theories of comedy; the nature of the comic drama; theories of serious drama. Part 2 The development of the play types 1660-1710: The establishment of Carolean drama 1660-1669; sex, horror, farce, and the heroic inclination in the 70s; the political 80s; the double tradition of the 90s; the emergence of Augustan drama 1697-1710.