Actresses, Gender, and the Eighteenth-Century Stage

Helen E. M. Brooks is Lecturer in Drama at the University of Kent, UK. is Senior Lecturer in Drama at the University of Kent, UK. She is Associate Editor of the Wiley Encyclopedia of British Literature 1660–1789 and has published articles on eighteenth-century women as actresses and theatre managers, on private theatricals, and on performance historiography.

Introduction  1. Playing for Money: 'This is certainly a large sum but I can assure you I have worked very hard for it'  2. Playing the Passions: 'All their Force and Judgment in perfection' 3. Playing Men: 'Half the men in the house take me for one of their own sex' 4. Playing Her Self: 'It was not as an actress but as herself, that she charmed every one'  5. Playing Mothers: 'Stand forth ye elves, and plead your mother's cause' Bibliography Index