19th-Century Drama:
British Playwrights of the Romantic Period

Baillie, Joanna (1752-1840)

Carlson, Julie A. A review of Catherine B. Burrough Closet Stages: Joanna Baillie and the Theater Theory of British Romantic Women Writers (U of Penn. P 1997). Says Carlson, Prof. Burroughs's book advances the study of Romantic drama and theater with this monograph Baillie, "the lead playwright of her age and considered by some of her peers to be the best playwright since Shakespeare." Romantic Circles Reviews 5 Dec. 1997. Another review, by Thomas C. Crochunis, Romanticism on the Net 12 (1998).

Purinton, Marjean D. "Science Fiction and Techno-Gothic Drama: Romantic Playwrights Joanna Baillie and Jane Scott." Romanticism on the Net 21 (2001).

Murray, Julie. "At the Surface of Romantic Interiority: Joanna Baillie's Orra." Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net 56 (2009).

Brigham, Linda. A "Joanna Baillie's reflections on the passions: the 'Introductory Discourse' and the properties of authorship." Studies in Romanticism Fall 2004.

Duquette, Natasha. A "'Dauntless faith': contemplative sublimity and social action in Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck's aesthetics." Duquette connects Joanna Baillie's sublime poetics with the aesthetic theory of Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck. Christianity and Literature Summer 2006.

Overview: British Romantic Drama

Burroughs, Catherine B. Women in British Romantic Theatre: Drama, Performance, and Society, 1790-1840 (Cambridge UP 2000). Sample chapter "Introduction: Uncloseting Women in British Romantic Theatre." Romantic Circles, Univ. of Maryland.

Cox, Jeffrey N. A review of Daniel P. Watkins A Materialist Critique of English Romantic Drama (Florida UP 1993). Criticism Summer 1994.

Crochunis, Thomas. "How and Why to Teach the History of Women's Dramatic Writing." In Teaching Romantic Drama, ed. Thomas Crochunis, a special issue of the Romantic Pegagogy Commons at Romantic Circles, Univ. of Maryland. Additional articles from this edition are generously made available open-access:  "Teaching the Teachings of the Stage: A Graduate Seminar on Restoration to Romantic Drama," by Emily Hodgson Anderson. "Teaching Romantic Drama: Production and Performance of The Haunted Tower," by Frederick Burwick. "'La Belle Dame sans Merci': A Multimedia Experiment in Reading and Seeing," by Noah Comet. "Teaching the Ridiculous: Harlequin and Humpo; or, Columbine by Candlelight!" by Elizabeth Fay. "Staging the 18th-Century Prostitute for the 21st-Century: A Dramaturgical Approach to Teaching Cowley's The Belle's Stratagem," by Melinda C. Finberg. "Lifting the Painted Veil: Romantic Drama as Holy Theatre," by Amy Muse. "Romantic Revolutions in Europe: Suggestions for Teaching Drama," by Wendy C. Nielsen. "Teaching British Romantic Drama: A Senior Seminar in Studies in Drama," by Marjean D. Purinton.

Favret, Mary A. Review of Judith Pascoe Romantic Theatricality: Gender, Poetry, and Spectatorship (Cornell UP 1997). Studies in Romanticism Spring 2000.

Purinton, Marjean D. "Revising Romanticism by Inscripting Women Playwrights." Purinton contends that new research on women playwrights in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century theatre prompts revision of theatre history, but will, even more importantly, bring about revisions of Romantic literary history. Romanticism on the Net 12 (1998).

Burroughs, Catherine. "Teaching the Theory and Practice of Women's Dramaturgy." Romanticism on the Net 12 (1998).

Crochunis, Thomas C. "The Function of the Dramatic Closet at the Present Time ." Romanticism on the Net 12 (1998).

Burroughs, Catherine. A review of The Broadview Anthology of Romantic Drama (Broadview Press 2003) ed. Jeffrey N. Cox and Michael Gamer. Romanticism on the Net 29-30 (2003).

Ezell, Margaret J.M. "Revisioning Responding: A second look at Women Playwrights Around 1800." Romanticism on the Net 12 (1998).

Gamer, Michael. A review of Ellen Donkin, Getting into the Act: Women Playwrights in London, 1776-1829 (Routledge 1995). Romanticism on the Net 3 (1996).

Fulford, Tim. A review of Daniel O'Quinn, Staging Governance: Theatrical Imperialism in London, 1770-1800 (Johns Hopkins UP 2005). Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net 49 (2008).

Hoeveler, Diane Long and Sarah Davies Cordova. " Gothic Opera in Britain and France: Genre, Nationalism, and Trans-Cultural Angst." Romanticism on the Net 34-35 (2004).

Byron, George Gordon, Lord (1788-1824)

Byron was the only major Romantic poet who had practical experience in the theater. Byron's dramas: Manfred, A Dramatic Poem (1817). Sardanapalus, A Tragedy (1821). Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice. An Historical Tragedy, in Five Acts. With Notes (1821). The Two Foscari, A Tragedy (1822). Cain, A Mystery (1822). Werner, A Tragedy (1823). The Deformed Transformed; A Drama (1824). For literary criticism and discussion of Byron's dramas, see our Lord Byron page.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1772-1834)

Coleridge's dramas: The Fall of Robespierre. An Historic Drama (1794); Remorse, A Tragedy, in Five Acts (1813). For literary criticism and analysis, see Coleridge and Drama on our Coleridge page.

Keats, John (1795-1821)

Keats's dramas: King Stephen: A Dramatic Fragment (1819). Otho The Great: A Dramatic Fragment (1819). For literary criticism and discussion of Keats, see our John Keats page.

Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)

Shelley's dramas: The Cenci. A Tragedy, in Five Acts (1819). Oedipus Tyrannus; or, Swellfoot the Tyrant. A Tragedy. In Two Acts (1820). Prometheus Unbound. A Lyrical Drama (1820). Hellas: A Lyrical Drama (1822). For literary criticism and discussion of Shelley's dramas, see our Percy Bysshe Shelley page.