The Strange Anonymity of John Vanbrugh

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Nineteen editions of works rightly attributed to John Vanbrugh appeared in print in London between 1697 and 1718—all issued anonymously, a fact hitherto ignored by scholars. Vanbrugh was a playhouse habitué, as Colley Cibber and others make clear. English critics hailed his plays, the principals of which were published under his name in Holland. But anonymity was clearly his choice: his primary interests lay in government office and architecture. Ambitions achieved and knighted in 1714, Vanbrugh allowed his old friend Tonson to use his name on the 1719 edition of the major plays.