The Celebrated Hannah Cowley

Hannah Cowley (1743-1809) was a very successful dramatist, and something of an eighteenth-century celebrity. New critical interest in the drama of this period has meant a resurgence of interest in Cowley's writing and in the performance of her plays. This is the first substantial monograph study to examine Cowley's life and work.

Acknowledgements, Note on Sources, List of Abbreviations, List of Figures, Introduction, 1 'Few Better Comedies than Hers', 2 'The Thwarted Passions and Loft y Grandeur of Tragedy': Cowley's Gothic Drama, Albina, 3 Civic Virtue, Despotism and the Fall of Empires in Cowley's Tragedy, The Fate of Sparta, 4 Afterpiece Experiments: Oratory, Pedantry and Politeness, 5 The Imperial Project: Resistance and Revolution in Cowley's Oriental Musical Comedy, 6 A Female Sculptor and Connoisseur: Artistic Self-Fashioning and the Exposure of Connoisseurship, Collecting and Concupiscence, Appendix: Chronology of Plays by Hannah Cowley, Notes, Works Cited, Index