Dr Tiffany Stern: 3 books

'He's a fool that marries, but he's a greater fool that does not marry a fool.' This bawdy, hilarious, subversive and wickedly satirical drama pokes fun at the humourless, the jealous, and the adulterous alike. It features a country wife, Margery, whose husband believes she is too naïve to...

How did Elizabethan and Jacobean acting companies create their visual and aural effects? What materials were available to them and how did they influencestaging and writing? What impact did the sensations of theatre have on early modern audiences? How did the construction of the playhouses contribute...

Both Sheridan and Goldsmith lamented the popularity of sentimental comedy in the later eighteenth century and wrote their witty and satirical plays (though never lascivious in the manner of Restoration comedies) to counteract the sentimental mode. The Rivals (1775) was a qualified success: the suave...