This book sets out the political and cultural conditions regulating dramatic writing during an era of censorship and monopolistic royal theatres. Using a range of plays and manuscripts, it argues for the centrality of burletta, the theatrical locus of the attacks on the Cockney school of poetry and the vitality of the metropolitan dramatic scene.
Preface Introduction Busby, Burletta and Barnwell: Music, Stage and Audience Dramatic Topicality: Robert Merry's The Magician No Conjurer and the 1791 Birmingham Riots Black Face and Black Mask: The Benevolent Planters Versus Harlequin Mungo Belles Lettres to Burletta: William Henry Ireland as Fortune's Fool The Libertine Reclaimed : Burletta and the Cockney Presence The Royal Amphitheatre and Olympic Tom and Jerry Burlettas Moncrieff's Tom and Jerry and its Spin-Offs Conclusion: The Canadian Tom and Jerry Murder Notes Bibliography of Primary Sources Index
