Plays 1676–1678: Volume 2, Plays 1676–1678

Aphra Behn's career in the Restoration theatre extended over nearly two full decades, and encompassed a remarkable generic range and diversity. The plays in this volume, published and performed between 1676 and 1678, include comedies set in London and Naples (The Town-Fopp and Sir Patient Fancy; The Rover), and two anonymously published plays long associated with Behn's name (The Counterfeit Bridegroom and The Debauchee). Collectively, Behn's plays of this period exemplify her skills in writing for individual performers, and exhibit both the topical political engagement with and sophisticated response to Restoration libertinism for which she is renowned. They also bear witness to Behn's popularity with theatre audiences during the politically difficult years of the 1670s. The present edition draws on recent scholarship on Restoration literary, theatrical and political history, and is also informed by the most up-to-date research in the field of computational attribution.

Claire Bowditch completed her PhD on Behn in 2015. She co-edited The Luckey Chance for volume IV of the Cambridge Edition of Behn's works, which won the MLA prize for a scholarly edition and the Josephine Roberts Award from the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender. Jennie Challinor is a Teaching Fellow in Early Modern Literature at the University of Birmingham and has published work on Restoration drama and seventeenth-century manuscript cultures. Her first monograph, Playing Politics: Restoration Drama and Innovation, 1670–71 is currently forthcoming. Elaine Hobby is Professor Emerita at Loughborough University, where she worked very happily from 1988. She researches writing by (and, sometimes, about) early-modern women, including midwifery and religio-political pamphleteers. Aphra Behn has been her main focus since 2015, and she has edited several of Behn's plays for the Cambridge Edition of her work.

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