English Drama, 1660-1700

This magisterial work forms a close critical study of all the surviving plays first written and professinally premiered in England between 1600 and 1700. Hughes's readable volume analyses many texts, often in detail and for the first time, and also places them within the range of contemporarytheatrical output, with its diversity of outlook and constant shifts in fashion and subject. The Country-Wife and The Man of Mode are treated not as typical 'Restoration Comedies' but as almost unique plays. Hughes also presents innovative work on the political, intellectual, and social backgroundof the corpus, with extensive discussion of its treatment of women and the contribution of women dramatists.

Derek Hughes is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick.