Microforms Research Collections: Three Centuries of Drama

Alternate Title: Three Centuries of English and American Plays 1500-1830

Location: Microprint Shelves M-16 through M-18 (behind Multimedia service counter)

Scope: This set of approximately 5500 plays contains every important play published in the English language in England between 1500 – 1800 and all extant American plays from the beginning to 1830. There are six divisions of material:

Elizabethan, Shakespeare, Jacobean, 1515 – 1641
Restoration, 1642 – 1700
Early 18th Century, 1701 – 1750
Late 18th Century, 1751 – 1800
Larpent Collection of Manuscripts, 1737 – 1800
American Plays, 1714 – 1830

The publisher took great care to make the set as inclusive as possible, obtaining the earliest editions available and including editions valuable for their texts, dating, rarity, inaccessibility to the public and real literary significance in the history of drama.
Many of the first folios of Shakespeare are included in addition to the (Edmond) Malone Variorum of 1821.

How to search the collection:
To find a title in this collection, consult the red volume titled Three Centuries of English and American Plays: A Checklist, located on the Microfilm Index Table (REF.PN1654.Z99 B47). Within each of the six divisions of material the plays are arranged alphabetically by author (playwright) or by title for anonymous works.