This volume highlights the variety of forms comedy took in England, with reference to developments in Europe, particularly France, during the European Enlighten

How has our expression, use and reception of comedy developed from antiquity to the present day? What role has it occupied in Western culture, and what can it t

During a modern age that saw the expansion of its democracy, the fading of its empire, and two world wars, Britain's hereditary aristocracy was pushed from the

French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote, 'the general effect of the theatre is to strengthen the national character to augment the national inclinations,

The period covered by this volume in the Cultural History of Tragedy set is bookended by two shockingly similar historical events: the beheading of a king, Char