George Lillo

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++British LibraryT041161The imprint date is in Roman numerals. London: printed for J. Gray; and sold by J. Roberts, 1731. x, 2],67, 1]p.; 8

George Lillo's domestic tragedies provided the impetus for the development of new forms of serious drama during and after the eighteenth century, on the Continent as well as in the English-speaking theatre. This edition makes available for the first time all of the plays known or thought to have been written by the playwright, in reliable old-spelling texts following modern bibliographical principles. Some have not been reprinted since 1810. Even the much-studied London Merchant has not previously been published in an edition that recognizes the errors contained in the first edition and the authorial revisions introduced in early reprints. The introduction to each play treats its sources, histories of publication and reception in the theatre, and textual problems. The apparatus criticus and historical collations provide full bibliographical detail. Commentary notes discuss the author's use or adaptation of sources and furnish information about links among his own plays, topical background, and literary allusions. Steffensen edition makes possible an informed awareness of Lillo's lesser-known plays in a variety of genres, as an enlightening context for further study of these influential domestic dramas.

First performed in 1731, The London Merchant became on of the most popular plays of the century. A chronicler of the age, Theophilus Cibber called it "almost a new species of tragedy." Mrs. Millwood is beautiful, intelligent, and ambitious, but London gives her no means of support except to seduce men. Love for her leads eighteen-year-old Barnwell to deceit, theft, and murder. "What are your laws," Mrs. Millwood asks, "but the fool’s wisdom and the coward’s valor, the instrument and screen of all your villainies by which you punish in others what you act out yourselves, had you been in their circumstances? The judge who condemns the poor man for being a thief had been a thief himself, had he been poor. Thus you go on deceiving and being deceived, harassing, plaguing, and destroying one another, but women are your universal prey."

Nineteenth Century Collections Online: European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection includes the full-text of more than 9,500 English, French and German titles. The collection is sourced from the remarkable library of Victor Amadeus, whose Castle Corvey collection was one of the most spectacular discoveries of the late 1970s. The Corvey Collection comprises one of the most important collections of Romantic era writing in existence anywhere -- including fiction, short prose, dramatic works, poetry, and more -- with a focus on especially difficult-to-find works by lesser-known, historically neglected writers. The Corvey library was built during the last half of the 19th century by Victor and his wife Elise, both bibliophiles with varied interests. The collection thus contains everything from novels and short stories to belles lettres and more populist works, and includes many exceedingly rare works not available in any other collection from the period. These invaluable, sometimes previously unknown works are of particular interest to scholars and researchers. European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection includes: * Novels and Gothic Novels* Short Stories* Belles-Lettres* Short Prose Forms* Dramatic Works* Poetry* Anthologies* And moreSelected with the guidance of an international team of expert advisors, these primary sources are invaluable for a wide range of academic disciplines and areas of study, providing never before possible research opportunities for one of the most studied historical periods. Additional MetadataPrimary Id: B0031300PSM Id: NCCOF0063-C00000-B0031300DVI Collection Id: NCCOC0062Bibliographic Id: NCCO000964Reel: 66MCODE: 4UVCOriginal Publisher: Printed for the proprietors, under the direction of John Bell, British LibraryOriginal Publication Year: 1792Original Publication Place: LondonSubjectsMerchants -- Drama.