Excerpt from Representative English Comedies, Vol. 2: With Introductory Essays and Notes The aim of this series has been stated in the Preface to the first volume to indicate the development of English comedy by a selection of its repre sentative specimens, arranged, when possible, in the order of their produc tion and accompanied by critical and historical studies. The introductory essay and the special studies in that volume presented an historical view of comedy in England from its beginnings to the time of Shakespeare and his earlier contemporaries. In the present work and its companion, F lettner and Otnerf, the comedy of the contemporaries of Shakespeare to the closing of the theatres in 1642 is represented and discussed. It was intended to include here Dekker's Snonzaeerr Holiday, and the consideration of Dekker, Middleton and Heywood but Jonson has shouldered these dramatists out. They will appear in volume three, which is already in press. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.