The Basset Table by Susanna Centlivre

The Basset Table by Susanna Centlivre

The Basset Tablefollows the fortunes of Lady Reveller, who runs a table where her friends play the card game basset, and her struggle to avoid marrying Lord Worthy. Meanwhile, Lady Reveller's cousin, Valeria, spends her time conducting scientific experiments and dissections, but her father intends to marry her off to the bluff sea-captain Hearty. How can Lady Reveller be persuaded to forego the delights of gambling? And how can Valeria avoid an unwanted marriage? This witty play paints a seductive picture of the thrills of the Restoration gaming table and challenges contemporary stereotypes of the learned lady.

Appendices to this Broadview Edition include materials on female education, gambling, and writing for the stage, as well as eighteenth- and nineteenth-century critical writing on Centlivre and The Basset Table.

“Jane Milling has provided an exemplary edition of one of the most enjoyable of eighteenth-century comediesHer very full introduction provides a critically perceptive study of the play and of Centlivre’s theatrical milieu, with detailed documentation of the social and intellectual changes on which the comedy draws: the rise of science, and the debates about gambling and female education. The appendices of primary material relating to these topics are extremely helpful and well chosen. This is expert scholarship, deployed in engaging advocacy for a delightful play, and will be invaluable both for students and professional scholars.” — Derek Hughes, University of Aberdeen

“Susanna Centlivre’s important comedy The Basset Table is finally available in a scholarly, lucid, and user-friendly edition that makes the play accessible as both a literary and a theatrical text. Jane Milling adds substantial and revealing contextualization on Centlivre’s life and career, the original reception of the play, female education, and gambling. The play’s themes of buying and selling, giving and taking, risking and investing have never come into sharper focus.” — Jacqueline Pearson, University of Manchester

Nancy Copeland is a professor in the Drama Department at Erindale College the University of Toronto, and has written widely on eighteenth-century drama.