The Plays of David Garrick, Volume 6

Book excerpt: David Garrick's accomplishments as an actor, manager, and theatrical innovator brought him great fame and fortune, and his ideas influenced not only his own age but succeeding ages as well. Yet as a playwright, a part of the elegant combination of talents that was David Garrick, he has never achieved the critical reputation he richly deserves, in main because of the unavailability of texts and the lack of proper assessment of the historic importance of his plays in the English theatre. This first complete edition makes available to scholars and students all the plays of Gar­rick in well edited texts, with commentary and notes. Contents: Alfred. A Masque (James Thomson and David Mallet), 1751; Every Man in His Humour. A Comedy (Ben Jonson), 1751; Zara. A Tragedy (Aaron Hill), 1754; The Chances. A Comedy (John Fletcher and George Villiers), 1754; and Rule a Wife and Have a Wife. A Comedy (Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher), 1756.