Project Editor

Scope of the Series

LC provides an introduction to the great poets, dramatists, novelists, essayists, and philosophers of the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries, and to the most significant interpretations of these authors’ works. Because criticism of this literature spans nearly six hundred years, an overwhelming amount of scholarship confronts the student. LC organizes this material concisely and logically. Every attempt is made to reprint the most noteworthy, relevant, and educationally valuable essays available.

A separate Thomson Gale reference series, Shakespearean Criticism, is devoted exclusively to Shakespearean studies. Although properly belonging to the period covered in LC, William Shakespeare has inspired such a tremendous and evergrowing body of secondary material that a separate series was deemed essential.

Each entry in LC presents a representative selection of critical response to an author, a literary topic, or to a single important work of literature. Early commentary is offered to indicate initial responses, later selections document changes in literary reputations, and retrospective analyses provide the reader with modern views. The size of each author entry is a relative reflection of the scope of the criticism available in English. Every attempt has been made to identify and include the seminal essays on each author’s work and to include recent commentary providing modern perspectives.

Volumes 1 through 12 of the series feature author entries arranged alphabetically by author. Volumes 13-47 of the series feature a thematic arrangement. Each volume includes an entry devoted to the general study of a specific literary or philosophical movement, writings surrounding important political and historical events, the philosophy and art associated with eras of cultural transformation, or the literature of specific social or ethnic groups. Each of these volumes also includes several author entries devoted to major representatives of the featured period, genre, or national literature. With volume 48, the series returns to a standard author approach, with some entries devoted to a single important work of world literature and others devoted to literary topics.

Organization of the Book

An LC entry consists of the following elements:

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All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission.—Lund-Baer, Kerstin. From The Orphan: Tragic Form in Thomas Otway. Uppsala University, 1980. Copyright © 1980 by Kerstin Lund-Baer. Reproduced by permission.—Morris, Brian and Eleanor Withington. From The Poems of John Cleveland. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1967. Copyright © Oxford University Press, 1967. Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press.—Munns, Jessica. From “‘The Monster Libell’: Power, Politics, and the Press in Thomas Otway’s The Poet’s Complaint of His Muse,” in Cutting Edges: Postmodern Critical Essays on Eighteenth-Century Satire. Edited by James E. Gill. University of Tennessee Press, 1995. Copyright © 1995 by University of Tennessee Press / Knoxville. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission.—Pope, Alan H. From “Petrus Ramus and Michael Wigglesworth: The Logic of Poetic Structure,” in Puritan Poets and Poetics: Seventeenth-Century American Poetry in Theory and Practice. Edited by Peter White. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1985. Copyright © 1985 The Pennsylvania State University. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of the author.—Taylor, George. From an introduction to Plays By Samuel Foote and Arthur Murphy. Edited by George Taylor. Cambridge University Press, 1984. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984. Reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press.—Treffman, Simon. From Sam. Foote, Comedian, 1720-1777. New York University Press, 1971. Copyright © 1971 by New York University. Reproduced by permission.

PHOTOGRAPHS AND ILLUSTRATIONS APPEARING IN LC, VOLUME 106, WERE RECEIVED FROM THE FOLLOWING SOURCES:

Cleveland, John (1613-1658), engraved portrait. Hulton Archive/Getty Images. Reproduced by permission.—Foote, Samuel (1720-1777), color portrait. The Art Archive/Garrick Club/Garrick Club. Reproduced by permission.—Otway, Thomas, photograph. Archive Photos. Reproduced by permission.