Volumes three and four of this monumen­tal work include full entries for all such illustrious names as those of the Cibbers--Colley, Theophilus, and Susanna Maria--Kitty Clive, and Charlotte Charke, George Colman, the Elder, and the Younger, William Davenant, and De Loutherboug. But here also are full entries for dozens of important secondary figures and of minor ones whose stories have never been told, as well as a census (and at least a few recoverable facts) for even the most inconsiderable performers and servants of the theatres. As in the previous volumes in this dis­tinguished series, the accompanying illus­trations include at least one picture of each subject for whom a portrait exists.

Volumes three and four of this monumen­tal work include full entries for all such illustrious names as those of the Cibbers--Colley, Theophilus, and Susanna Maria--Kitty Clive, and Charlotte Charke, George Colman, the Elder, and the Younger, William Davenant, and De Loutherboug. But here also are full entries for dozens of important secondary figures and of minor ones whose stories have never been told, as well as a census (and at least a few recoverable facts) for even the most inconsiderable performers and servants of the theatres. As in the previous volumes in this dis­tinguished series, the accompanying illus­trations include at least one picture of each subject for whom a portrait exists.

Volume 7 includes such notables as the composers Handel and Haydn and the alluring actress Elizabeth Hartley.

The penultimate volume of the vast project begun some two decades ago, Volume 15, illustrated like its predecessors with bandw portraits and other artwork, provides information on theatre people including singer Catherine Tofts, comedian James Tokely, bearded lady and harpsichordist Barbara Van Beck, proprietor, playwright, and architect John Vanbrugh, theatrical families like the Vaughans and the husband- and-wife thespians John Baptista and Susanna Verbruggen and the dancing Vestres--Gaetan Appoline Balthazar and his illegitimate son Marie Jean Augustin, as well as a host of Wards (some related, some not). Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

In contrast to each other, Volume 5 is a sociological portrait of mostly little people in their tragic and comic efforts to achieve fame on the London stage during the Restoration and eighteenth century, whereas Volume 6 is dom­inated by the glamour of David Gar­rick, Nell Gwyn, and Joseph Grimaldi, the celebrated clown. Some 250 por­traits individualize the great and small of the theatres of London.