This is the first book to examine the working world of the playwright in nineteenth-century Britain. It was often a risky and financially uncertain profession, yet the magic of the theater attracted authors from widely different backgrounds--journalists, lawyers, churchmen, civil servants, printers, and actors, as well as prominent poets and novelists. In a fascinating account of the frustrations and the rewards of dramatic authorship, Stephens uncovers fresh information on the playwright's earnings, relationships with actors, managers, publishers, and audience, and offers a new perspective on his growing status as a professional. Further chapters focus on the struggle for copyright reform and the complexities of dramatic publishing. A large number of major and minor authors are discussed, among them Planché, Fitzball, Boucicault, Pinero, Grundy, Gilbert, Jones, and Shaw.

English stage censorship goes back to Tudor times, but only in the eighteenth century were the powers of the censor seriously organised. Further legislation in 1843 required theatre managers throughout Great Brtiain to present each script for the Lord Chamberlain's scrutiny before a licence for public performance was granted. Originally published in 1980, this was the first study to make extensive use of the riches of the Lord Chamberlain's files in the Public Record Office, which begins in 1824, and of the manuscript plays in the British Museum. Dramatic censorship is shown to be a significant index of the Victorian age; but it was also an act of individuals. The author describes the censors as personalities and charts their success or failure in contriving to steer contemporary drama on a course determined, on the one hand, by the insistent demands of the public and, on the other, by their own liberal or illiberal prejudices. This book filled an important gap in the knowledge and understanding not only of Victorian theatre, but of contemporary manners and attitudes.

This is the first book to examine the working world of the playwright in nineteenth-century Britain. It was often a risky and financially uncertain profession, yet the magic of the theater attracted authors from widely different backgrounds--journalists, lawyers, churchmen, civil servants, printers, and actors, as well as prominent poets and novelists. In a fascinating account of the frustrations and the rewards of dramatic authorship, Stephens uncovers fresh information on the playwright's earnings, relationships with actors, managers, publishers, and audience, and offers a new perspective on his growing status as a professional. Further chapters focus on the struggle for copyright reform and the complexities of dramatic publishing. A large number of major and minor authors are discussed, among them Planche, Fitzball, Boucicault, Pinero, Grundy, Gilbert, Jones, and Shaw.

In his introduction to this collection of essays by constitutional experts, Philip Bryden says that Canadians can be proud of their commitment to the protection of rights and liberties in the Charter. Canada, he believes, is a better place to live then it would be otherwise. Nevertheless, as the essays in this book reveal, the case in favour of the Charter is not simple or one-sided. For instance, Kim Campbell, minister of justice at the time of writing, and Jeffrey Simpson of the Globe and Mail express concern that the Charter promotes a rights discourse that threatens to overwhelm the ordinary politics of recognizing and accommodating different interests. Dean Lynn Smith of the University of British Columbia law faculty observes that the Charter rights are better understood as complementing than as supplanting traditional mechanisms. The authors, diverse in background and outlook, reflect varying points of view but share a significant degree of consensus on issues that need to be addressed.

English stage censorship goes back to Tudor times, but only in the eighteenth century were the powers of the censor seriously organised. Further legislation in 1843 required theatre managers throughout Great Brtiain to present each script for the Lord Chamberlain's scrutiny before a licence for public performance was granted. Originally published in 1980, this was the first study to make extensive use of the riches of the Lord Chamberlain's files in the Public Record Office, which begins in 1824, and of the manuscript plays in the British Museum. Dramatic censorship is shown to be a significant index of the Victorian age; but it was also an act of individuals. The author describes the censors as personalities and charts their success or failure in contriving to steer contemporary drama on a course determined, on the one hand, by the insistent demands of the public and, on the other, by their own liberal or illiberal prejudices. This book filled an important gap in the knowledge and understanding not only of Victorian theatre, but of contemporary manners and attitudes.