"The study addresses the following kinds of questions: Why does genre need ethics? Why does ethics need genre? How is ethics related to and distinguished from ideology as currently used in cultural studies? How does a generic ethical method come to terms with history and historical change? How is a generic ethical method related to religion? Does genre reinforce the concept of the ethical agent? This book will therefore have a broad audience, including scholars whose fields range from the Renaissance to the present, theorists and philosophers whose interests include ethics, cultural studies, and ideologies, and educationists pursuing methods for graduates and undergraduates. The autobiographical introduction serves as the "hook," as our creative writers say, for this audience. Generically, it is experimental, being at once scholarly, pedagogical, and autobiographical."--BOOK JACKET.

The Belle's Stratagem is a romantic comedy that was the most successful work of the playwright, Hannah Cowley. The play has a double plotline that concerns the romance between Letitia Hardy and Doricourt, as well as the relationship between Sir George Touchwood and his wife, Lady Frances Touchwood. The comedy received wide fame after its premiere on February 22, 1780, presented by David Garrick, filling the 2,000-seat Drury Lane theatre. At its time, the play became a major hit of the season, with Queen Charlotte enjoying it so much that she decreed it is performed for the royal family once a season for several years.