Seen on Stage: English Operas, the Female Wits, and the ‘Reformed’ Stage

Abstract

The final decade of the century saw changes and challenges to the London commercial stage, including Jeremy Collier’s attack on it for profanity and immorality. Dramatists including Dryden, Congreve, and Southerne defended their writings as promoting good morality, while a group of female dramatists comprising Mary Pix, Delarivier Manley, and Catharine Trotter became a target of satire, referred to as the ‘Female Wits’. Audiences were increasingly interested in new forms of plays called ‘operas’ that required more singers, dancers and stage effects.