A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 12

This twelfth volume of Dodsley's influential collection opens with Thomas May's "The Old Couple," a comedy built around the clandestine meeting of two lovers whose passion exists in direct opposition to the world around them. Eugeny, haunted by the weight of his past transgressions, and Artemia convene in secret, their exchanges charged with the emotional wreckage of forbidden desire. Meanwhile, the miserly Earthworm and his morally upright son Theodore observe the proceedings from opposing positions on the great chain of greed and virtue. The play operates on multiple registers at once: it is genuinely funny, yes, but also scalpel-sharp in its examination of avarice, class mobility, and the Restoration era's particular talent for pretending to be something other than what one is. The dialogue crackles with wit even as it probes genuine emotional terrain. For readers willing to meet these early dramatists on their own terms, Dodsley's collection offers a window into theatrical traditions that laid the groundwork for everything that followed in English comedy.