Introduction

The four plays in this volume represent just a small fraction of the total output by early modern women dramatists. Other plays will appear in later volumes in the facsimile series devoted to individual authors.

Marcelia (1660), The Perjur'd Husband (1700), She Ventures and He Wins (1695), and The Unnatural Mother (1698) were written at a point in time when women playwrights were becoming a significant force in the theatre.

Many of these plays were first performed in key theatrical venues by well-established drama companies. The scant critical attention paid to these works since they were first written begins to be rectified in this volume.

Stephanie Hodgson-Wright discusses the playwrights and their texts, and explains the choice of editions printed here.