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Women finally began acting in 1660, well over a century after public playhouses first drew crowds in England. The appearance of the actress has riveted the scholarly gaze, but until now there has been little attention given to a crucial subject: her dramatic prologues and epilogues. Accompanying over ninety per cent of all performed and printed plays between 1660 and 1714, these customized comic verses that promoted the play evolved into essential theatrical elements, and they both contributed to and reflected a performer's success. Once dismissed by scholars as formulaic, prologues and epilogues should be included in scholars' analyses of Restoration and eighteenth-century plays in order for us to understand how Restoration audiences consumed plays. My project unites the Restoration actress and the dramatic prologue and epilogue in the first book-length study on the subject. Methodologically, it contributes to Restoration scholarship by bringing the critical lenses of performance and print culture theory to Restoration theatre. Because my study considers Restoration plays as both performances and publications, it treats plays as their original audiences perceived them, and thus expands our understanding of texts as performative and of performance as textual.
Contents
Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction What can prologues and epilogues tell us about Restoration theater? Prologues and epilogues as paratexts Gender as a defining element Comic Performance Audience Taste and Influence Betweenness, the actress, and the epilogue Agency: Actor, Author, Audience In print: Broadsides, Quartos, Compilations, Pictures Chapter overview PART I: Prologues and Epilogues: A Gendered Taxonomy Chapter 1: Male and Female Cloaked, and Male Exposed, Paratexts Cloaked and Exposed Paratexts: Some Definitions The Male Cloaked Paratext: Thomas Betterton and Congreve's The Way of the World; Charles Hart and Dryden's The Conquest of Granada, Part I The Female Cloaked Paratext : Elizabeth Barry's Popish Prologues; Mary Porter and Pix's The Different Widows The Male Exposed Paratext: Joseph Williams and the "drunken prologue" to The Mistakes; Joseph Haines and the "Ass Epilogue" to Scott's The Unhappy Kindness Chapter 2: The Female Exposed Paratext, Part one: Actress as Joker and Target Revived Epilogues: Nell Gwyn and Dryden's Tyrannick Love; Mary Lee, Lady Slingsby and Otway's Alcibiades Gender Confirmation and Transformation through Breeches: Hester Santlow and D'Urfey's Don Quixote Part II The Virgin's Self-Marketing: Letitia Cross and Pix's Ibrahim, Cibber's Love's Last Shift, and Vanbrugh's The Relapse Tendentious Paratexts: Mrs Bowman and Hopkins's Boadicea Chapter 3: Female Exposed Paratexts, Part two: Solidarity and Social Critique Female Solidarity: Sarah Cooke and Rochester's Valentinian; Dryden's The Princess of Cleve Social Critique: Critiques of Love and Marriage: Charlotte Butler and Behn's The City-Heiress; Mocking Male Sexuality: Mrs Knepp and Wycherley's The Country Wife; Male Mistreatment of Women: The Constant Nymph PART II: The Impact of Paratexts Chapter 4: Vestal Interests: Anne Bracegirdle's Paratexts Credibility of the virgin actress: Satires on Bracegirdle Bracegirdle's self-constructed virginity Raped heroines: The virtuous non-virgins Rape roles with prologues or epilogues Nonvirgin roles The height of fame: Bracegirdle's prologue to Congreve's Love for Love Chapter 5: Bawdy Language: The Reception History of Addison's Epilogue to The Distrest Mother The bawdy epilogue: why all the fuss? The Epilogue in question: Addison's contribution to Philips's The Distrest Mother How to watch epilogues: The Spectator weighs in Pamela as Theater Critic Conclusion Appendix: Female Prologues and Epilogues by type Bibliography Index
