Though once a favourite of no fewer than four English monarchs, Restoration playwright Thomas Durfey has long been neglected by scholars. In his own day he had a lowly reputation in the world of polite letters - before his death his plays had more or less ceased to be produced; his 'serious' poems had died long before that, and even his songs were soon thought of as common property or 'folk' songs. In this new study, author John McVeagh re-examines Durfey's literary output, finding merit and interest where it has long been presumed that none existed, and restoring Durfey to his proper place in late 17th- and early 18th-century literature. Durfey's creative lifetime spanned the entire Restoration period and continued into and beyond the reign of Queen Anne. McVeagh's book studies his continuing ability to adapt to shifts in taste, fashion and personnel in the world of the theatre. It examines in detail his numerous experiments in new kinds of dramatic writing, both responding to and influencing the conditions of theatrical and artistic production. Among the topics covered are Durfey's attempts to feminize Restoration comedy, his political satires in drama in the late Stuart years, his anticipations of sentimental comedy, his search for a new language for lower class tragedy, and his musical-dramatic experimentations in the 1680s and 1690s, focusing particularly on his collaborative work with Matthew Locke, Samuel Ackroyde, John Eccles, Daniel and Henry Purcell and other composers. In addition, the author discusses Durfey's numerous satiric, narrative and other poems, and relates his writings to their social, political and cultural contexts. The book includes a performance record, listing the plays by performance date. The record includes such information, if known, as: where it was performed; by what company; cast list; to whom it was dedicated; a brief description of the prologue and epilogue; when it was published; what music it contained; and details of any revivals.

Thomas Shadwell, The Libertine * George Etherege, The Man of Mode * Thomas Durfey, A Fond Husband * Thomas Otway, Friendship in Fashion These four plays in the Oxford English Drama series capture the range of responses to the fashionable and daring libertine movement in the second half of the seventeenth century. A Fond Husband and Friendship in Fashion are lesser-known comic gems of the Restoration stage; The Man of Mode is Etherege's masterpiece, and The Libertine is Shadwell's experimental and dark version of the Don Juan story. The texts are freshly edited using modern spelling. There is a critical introduction, wide-ranging annotation, and an informative bibliography which together illuminate the plays' cultural context and theatrical potential for reader and performer alike. 'The series should shape the canon in a number of significant areas. A splendid and imaginative project.' Professor Anne Barton, Cambridge University

When young Phoebe asks Sir Philip Freewit, the man who has got her with child, to fulfil his promise and marry her, he replies with shock: “My wife! Then I should never love thee more”. Thomas Durfey’s The Marriage-Hater Matched (1692) pokes fun at the figure of the libertine rake, which had become a favourite dramatic type with Restoration theatregoers, and forces him in the end to make up for his past recklessness. Besides the marriage-hater and the two women that vie for his affections, a remarkable gallery of secondary characters people this amusing comedy: a Frenchified lady fawning on her lap-dog, a fat clownish Dutchman laughing at his own jokes, a impertinent match-making widow obsessed with food, a peevish old-fashioned courtier, a pert lisping ingénue and two rude boobies bearing the names of Greek philosophers. This first modern critical edition offers a fully annotated text in addition to an introduction that situates the comedy in its literary and theatrical contexts. ;The editors discuss at length how Durfey drew upon successful comic modes while at the same complying with the moral values advocated by the new monarchs, William and Mary (1688-1702).

Fourteen specially commissioned essays provide essential information about staging, playwrights, themes and genres in the drama of the Restoration.

Between 1660 and 1682 seventeen of Shakespeare's plays were altered for the new Restoration stages and times. Shakespeare Adaptations from the Restoration: Five Plays now publishes five of these plays for the first time in a critical edition.