This survey of British drama during the long eighteenth century ranges from Restoration sexual comedy and civic drama of political virtue and self-sacrifice to popular spectacles of criminal justice and early Gothic theater of passionate hatred. Alongside the plays, we will consider theatrical history (including Shakespearean legacies and significant actors of the period like David Garrick, Mary Robinson, and Sarah Siddons) together with criticism and theory, past and present. (Drama, 1650-1830)