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English Verse Drama

Elizabethan illustration

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Scope:

English Verse Drama contains more than 2,200 works by around 500 named and over 300 works by unknown authors. English Verse Drama includes masques and short dramatic pieces written primarily in verse, selected translations, works written for children, and numerous adaptations by authors such as Sir William Davenport, Colley Cibber and David Garrick. It covers a period from the Shrewsbury Fragments of the late thirteenth century through the Elizabethan and Jacobean period to the end of the nineteenth century. The bibliographic basis of English Verse Drama is the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, Cambridge University Press, 1969-72 (NCBEL). The database aims to encompass the complete published corpus of verse dramas of writers listed in NCBEL who were active before 1900.

A verse drama is generally defined as a work acted on or intended for the stage which is either wholly in verse or includes significant verse content. Works written primarily in prose, containing minimal verse (e.g. prose interspersed with occasional songs) are excluded.

Access, Copyright, and Use:

This collection is restricted to use by the VIVA Community via license from Chadwyck-Healey/Pro-Quest Information and Learning.

Texts may be printed out to create hardcopy editions for teaching or research, providing that the rights of original copyright holders are not infringed. Only a small proportion of the texts in the database are in copyright and such copyrights are clearly noticed in the headers for each work. Small extracts of text may be saved to create databases for teaching, research and personal use and may be incorporated in an article or essay for publication in a journal or collected work. Texts may not be used for publication in electronic formats whether on their own or with other texts or in modified form without written permission from Chadwyck-Healey. Such permissions will not be unreasonably withheld. The publication of larger extracts of texts in printed form requires the written permission of Chadwyck-Healey.

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