"[A] play, which I presume to call original": Appropriation, creative genius, and eighteenth-century playwriting

2 For a typical assessment, see J. Paul Hunter's "The World as Stage and Closet."

3 Robert D. Hume distinguishes five phases in the development of eighteenth-century drama, calling the phase immediately following the imposition of the Licensing Act the "Lull" or the "Low Georgian" period. See his "The Multifarious Forms of Eighteenth-Century Comedy," in Hume, The Rakish Stage 214-44, at 214-19. He further discusses the deleterious effects of the Licensing Act in "The London Theatre From The Beggar's Opera to the Licensing Act," in Hume, The Rakish Stage 270-311.

4 See Lynch, Box, Pit, and Gallery 181ff. Cf. Nicoll's account of foreign influences on the drama in volumes two and three of his A History of English Drama 66-74, 139-46 and 56-73, 110-24, respectively.

5 For a discussion of the star system and its impact upon the repertory and theater production, see Judith Milhous, "Company Management," in The London Theatre World 1-34; and chapters five and six of Tiffany Stern's Rehearsal from Shakespeare to Sheridan.

6 See my Authorship and Appropriation and "Plays as Property, 1660-17 10," in A Nation Transformed; see also Hammond, Professional Imaginative Writing.

7 Dryden, of course, is the prime example of a Restoration playwright-critic, but the prefatory statements by Thomas Shadwell, Aphra Behn, John Dennis, William Congreve, and many others too shed important light upon contemporary dramatic theory and practice. The vogue for author-centered catalogues of plays was initiated by Langbaine's Momus Triumphans and continued in an expanded form by Langbaine's An Account of the English Dramatick Poets, Gildon's The Lives and Characters, Jacob's The Poetical Register, and others. See chapters three and five of my Authorship and Appropriation; Stauffer, English Biography; and Stratman, Dramatic Play Lists.

8 Dramatick Works 1: 2. See also advertisements prefaced to The Clandestine Marriage. A Comedy (1766), The English Merchant. A Comedy (1767), The Man ofBusiness. A Comedy (1774), Man and Wife; or, The Shakespeare Jubilee. A Comedy (1769), The Deuce is in him. A Farce (1763), The Portrait. A Burletta (1770), The Fairy Prince. A Masque (1771), The Spleen; or, Islington Spa. A Comick Piece, of Two Acts (1776), and New Brooms! An Occasional Prelude (1776).

9 Miss in her Teens 1: 54. See also the preliminaries to The Lying Valet. A comedy, The Guardian: A Comedy, and Lilliput. A Dramatic Entertainment in the same collection.

10 See the preface to Lovers' Vows i-iv.

11 See Mason's Letters concerning The following Drama prefaced to Elfrida, A Dramatic Poem. See also his Caractacus.

12 Modem scholarly consensus accepts that the original behind The Double Falsehood was at least in part authored by Shakespeare. See Freehafer, "Cardenio, by Shakespeare and Fletcher" 501-13.

13 For an account of Theobald's editorial strategies, see Seary, Lewis Theobald. Scary does not discuss Theobald's claim to have edited rather than adapted the Shakespearean source of The Double Falsehood.