Showing results by author "Hannah Cowley" in All Categories

A Bold Stroke for a Husband by Hannah Cowley is a comedic play first performed in 1783. The story follows Olivia, a young woman determined to marry for love rather than obey her controlling father’s wishes. To secure her happiness, she devises a clever scheme involving disguise and deception. Meanwhile, various romantic entanglements and misunderstandings unfold, highlighting themes of female agency, wit, and social expectations. With sharp dialogue and humorous twists, the play critiques traditional gender roles while celebrating love and intelligence. Ultimately, Olivia’s cunning ensures...

http://www.adfreebooks.com - 1000+ audiobooks, all ad free!Author, Cowley: "I offer the following Comedy to the public, under a circumstance which has given my mind the most exquisite uneasiness. On the morning after the first representation, it was observed by the papers that there had been persons present at the Theatre the previous evening, who went there determined to disapprove at all events." This play of 1786 is based on Aphra Behn's "Lucky Chance" of 100 years earlier. By moving the scenes from London to far away romantic Portugal, Cowley thought to avoid criticism for the way she ...

The Graveyard Poets, also known as 'Churchyard Poets' or 'the Boneyard Boys' began in pre-Romantic days with a leaning towards gloom, melancholy and the general decay of churchyards. It should be remembered that in the 18th century city graveyards were a teeming mass of overcrowding and disease, their country brethren better but hardly idylls of worship. What would eventually lead to the Gothic literary genre began, in the main, with reflections by Christian clergymen upon God, mortality and the assumed afterlife.