MARGARETE RUBIK is Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Vienna, having studied English and History in Vienna and American Studies at the University of Southern California. She has published extensively on women's drama and the Victorian novel.

• Author's NoteIntroduction I: Women Inside and Outside the Theatre in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth CenturiesWomen Dramatists of the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth CenturiesIntroduction II: Women Inside and Outside the Theatre in the Restoration Period; Aphra BehnWomen Writers at the Turn of the Century; Susanna CentlivreIntroduction III: Women Inside and Outside the Theatre in the Eighteenth CenturyWomen Dramatists of the Late Eighteenth Century; Hannah Cowley & Elizabeth InchbaldContemporary and Modern Perfomances of the PlaysTowards a Female Tradition in TheatreSelected BibliographyNotesIndex.