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Johnson attributed to his "immoderate fondness" for reading romances of chivalry ?that unsettled turn of mind which prevented his ever fixing in any profession'. I have given evidence for his acquaintance with ?all our English romances?, with Iberian romances like Amadis de Gaule and Palmerin of England, and with a wide range of romance-linked literature, including the heroic romances of Tasso, Ariosto, and Spenser. This reading influenced Johnson both biographically and in his writing and criticism. He saw himself as a "general challenger", one of the "heroes of literature". Much of his metaphor is drawn from romance: the Dictionary illustrations show; an interesting proportion of romance associations, and the definitions give networks of meaning connecting significant words, I have illustrated, the most influential elements of construction and vocabulary from the romances Johnson read. The mock-romantic Quixote pattern of enthusiasm followed by reversal dominates The Vanity of Human Wishes, Rasselas, and many Essays, but Johnson's sympathy is nearly always for youth and temerity, as against "frigorifick wisdom". Quixote, the Astronomer and Johnson are closely and sympathetically linked. All men are victims of "the dance of airy images" conjured up by errant imagination. Johnson was drawn to romantic excess in literature, the "illustrious depravity" of Dryden's heroic drama. Pope's gothic Eloisa to Abelard, and especially to ?the power of the marvellous' and the 'licentious variety' of Shakespeare, to the 'enchantresses of of the soul' which 'enchain the heart' 'in defiance of criticism.' The Scottish and Welsh journeys gave evidence that 'the fictions of the gothick romances had for their basis the real manners of of feudal times', and allowed Johnson to enact the role of adventurer, among ruined abbeys, castles, wild landscapes, with supporters of the 'romantic' Stuarts.

Sir (Thomas Henry) Hall Caine (1853–1931), one of the most popular authors of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, is all but forgotten now, his once widely read novels dismissed by modern critics and readers for their turgid prose, implausible plots, and didactic tone. Yet he was a literary celebrity during his lifetime: over a career spanning four decades, Caine wrote fifteen novels that grappled with the explosive subjects of adultery, divorce, domestic violence, illegitimacy, infanticide, religious bigotry, and women’s rights. Each sold hundreds of thousands of copies, ran to multiple editions, and was translated into dozens of languages. Caine was also one of the most commercially successful dramatists of his generation. He wrote theatrical adaptations of seven of his novels as well as plays on original subjects that were perfectly pitched to the popular taste of his day. Part I is the first comprehensive survey of Caine’s writing for the stage and his collaborations with leading actors and managers, including Wilson Barrett, Viola Allen, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Louis Napoleon Parker, Mrs Patrick Campbell, George Alexander, and Arthur Collins. It challenges the undeserved obscurity into which Caine’s plays have fallen, correcting and extending the cursory treatment they have received to date. Caine emerges as a major dramatist whose work complicates long-accepted distinctions between ‘romance’ and ‘realism’ as generic categories. Part II is the first detailed study of Caine’s Mahomet, a four-act historical drama based on the life of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, written in 1890 for the actor-manager Henry Irving. The rumour this play would be produced in London prompted protests from Muslim leaders in Britain, caused unrest that threatened British rule in parts of India, and strained the nation’s relationship with the Ottoman Empire. Although the play treats Muhammad sympathetically and Islam with respect, it was immediately banned by the Lord Chamberlain in his capacity as licenser of stage plays. This part of the thesis situates Mahomet within its political and religious contexts at a specific moment in British imperial history.

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This thesis is set out to explore the scenography of contemporary British playwright Howard Barker through in-depth textual analysis of select dramatic texts and archival materials. It engages in detailed semiotic, poetic and phenomenological analytical approaches to Barker’s scenographic work in order to derive some of his fundamental working principles; the engagement with this specific example is undertaken with a view to continue the development of an appropriate, coherent discourse for the field of scenography more generally. Despite a recent proliferation of academic literature (at the time of writing) the subject area of scenography is still underrepresented in the larger field of drama, theatre and performance studies and remains subject to wide-ranging developments, particularly in terms of widely accepted forms of discourse and critical academic analysis. Though much of Barker’s work – dramatic and otherwise – has been studied in great detail, his scenography has yet to receive sustained attention; the study at hand addresses this lack. Furthermore, in developing an approach to detailed, rigorous scenographic analysis, it evaluates the efficacy of the philosophical discourse of the sublime regarding the particularities of Barker’s scenography. It proposes the concept of the scenographic sublime to address the necessary incompatibility between discourse’s efficacy in description and analysis, and scenography’s expressiveness of that which is in excess of description and complete analysis. This thesis offers the first in-depth study of the scenographic work of one of the most notable contemporary theatre makers, whose positioning as playwright-director-scenographer presents an exceptional example for analysis in terms of a unified theatrical imagination. As such, the thesis presents a possible example of the continued development of scenographic discourse and its attempt to become more generalizable without becoming reductive, whilst acknowledging its necessary limitations in terms of individual perception, researcher’s bias and cultural context.

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The comic rogue is a particularly memorable character type in English drama. A familiar figure in the works of Shakespeare, Jonson and their contemporaries he has retained his popularity until the present day. This thesis attempts to offer some account of the rogue's appeal by examining a select number of comedies from the Jacobean period to the early eighteenth century. The rogue's cultural and literary background is discussed in chapter one, with particular emphasis upon the traditions established in Elizabethan rogue pamphlets. Subsequent chapters deal with rogues who pursue a wide variety of knavish professions: Shakespeare's opportunistic peddlar, Autolycus; Jonson's alchemists; Middleton's merchant/swindler, Quomodo; Quicksilver, the roguish apprentice of Eastward Ho!; and rustic vagabonds in plays by Fletcher, Brome, and Shirley. Later chapters consider the decline of roguery after the Restoration and notable revivals of the tradition in Farquhar's late comedies and in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. Two important aspects of the rogue's characterization which consistently emerge are his ambiguity and his inherently theatrical nature. He is an attractive but deplorable knave; his crimes deserve punishment but his skills as an entertainer invite applause. Such paradoxes are a fundamental part of the comic experience. The rogue's mutability as actor, artist, imposter, and thief opens up multiple possibilities for the creation of mirthful and provocative comedy.

Katherine Newey, in her study of nineteenth century female playwrights, has written of those, ‘who routinely worked for money, in theatres where the takings were as important as aesthetic achievement or legitimacy’. While Joanne Shattock, in a study of women authors, acknowledges that earnings were the key to a woman’s professionalism. With her short hair, masculine style of dress and her penchant for cigarettes, Clotilde Graves (1863-1932) epitomised the vigorous New Woman of the fin de siècle. Drawing on previously unused material from Graves’s case file, held in the Royal Literary Fund Archive, this thesis charts her progress as a writer to explore both the motivational force of economics on her literary career, and its impact on her various discourses as a journalist, playwright and novelist. The study, divided into three sections, explores a number of key themes including: sexual abuse, marriage, the fallen woman, and the maternal ideal, to assess Graves’s development as both a writer and an advocate of social purity feminism. The thesis exposes the precarious nature of the writer’s profession, especially for a woman, and reveals the demands on Graves to balance personal beliefs against the immediate need to earn a living. Though she died penniless her extensive output included innumerable articles, twenty plays, nine compilations of short stories, and fifteen novels. The thesis appraises Graves’s adoption of male aliases and her employment of autobiographical material, which is contextualised against the production of her most popular novel, The Dop Doctor. This work shows that compromise was often a prerequisite and confirms that commerciality did not necessarily translate into financial achievement, nor did it provide economic security. This recovery of a forgotten female writer, of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, contributes to the growing body of work in this field.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine Shelley's drama as texts for theatrical performance in the context ofthe early nineteenth century and to question their relegation to the category 'closet drama'. I argue that not only his acknowledged stage-plays but, more controversially, even the 'lyric dramas', Hellas and Prometheus Unbound, and the satiric Swellfoot the Tyrant, are theatrical and performance-orientated in conception. To build this argument the following have been consulted: plays by late Georgian dramatists; Georgian and Regency theatre histories; biographies, memoirs and critical works oftheatrical practitioners; English and Italian newspapers and scripts held in the Larpent Collection and at La Scala, Milan. I have drawn on my experience as a performer, writer and manager of a small theatre company. Interest in Romantic theatre has been growing over the past 20 years, and I have engaged in current debate concerning the definition of that genre. I have found that A.W. Schlegel's dramatic theories support my argument for the influence of classical Greek tragedy, Athenian Old Comedy and Jacobean drama upon Shelley's drama and attitude to theatre practice. I have ascertained what performances Shelley attended, as a result of which I propose some new sources for his settings and plots. I have established the additional influence upon him of English melodrama, pantomime and burlesque, pre-romantic ballet, commedia dell 'arte and the improvvisatore's art; I document his awareness of practical constraints: developments in theatre buildings, scenery, lighting, costume and performance styles of actors such as Cooke, Grimaldi, Kean, Kemble and O'Neill. I have uncovered evidence about 'patent' and 'minor' theatres in relation to censorship and performance. My conclusion is that Shelley had developed a sophisticated understanding of the theatre, and with increasing skill was seeking to integrate the best of past dramatic writing with successful contemporary forms of performance.