The Works of John Dryden, Volume XI: Plays: The Conquest of Granada, Part I and Part II; Marriage-à-la-Mode and The Assignation: Or, Love in a Nunnery

Preface

Preface The plays in this volume werefirstperformed and published within thirty months. But those thirty months—from late December 1670 to early June 1673—were so crucial in Dryden's theatrical career, their story so complicated, that an adequate commentary demanded the researchand knowledge of more than one scholar. The editors divided their labors in this way: David Stuart Rodes wrote the commentary to Marriage A-la-Mode, and is grateful to Dr. Jane L. Curry and Professor Robert D. Hume for reading a draft of it and suggesting improvements; Rodes also prepared the section on actors and actresses; George R. Guffey supplied the annotations to The Assignation, and John Loftis wrote the headnote, with Alan Roper contributing its concluding discussion of the play's first publication and dedication. H. T. Swedenberg , Jr., and Roper assisted the other editors in putting their commentaries into final form and contributed the commentary upon The Conquest of Granada, with Swedenberg writing the annotations to the play and postscript, Roper the annotations to the dedication and preface; Roper wrote the headnote, with Swedenberg researching and drafting the section on sources. Vinton A. Dearing provided the text for this volume. The editors are indebted to the following student assistants of the UCLA Department of English for helping to gather and verify materials used in the commentary and for assistance in preparing and proofreading the text: Jane Abelson, Laurence Behrens, Lynda Boose, Judith Games, Sandra Fischer, Susan Grayson, Faye Joseph, David Latt, Janette Lewis, Sharon McMurray, Christine Metteer, Susan Nierengarten, Frances Reed, Diana Van Zile and Robert Hunt. The editors are grateful to Mrs. Geneva Phillips and Mrs. Grace Stimson for preparing the manuscript so carefully for the printer, and to the former for coordinating the work of editors and research assistants. Work on this volume, like work on previously published volumes in this edition, called for and received the generous assistance of the staff of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. The production of such a volume in such an edition is inevitably expensive, and, in addition to the grants separately ac- viii Preface knowledged on a previous page, the editors received and are grateful for financial support from the UCLA Committee on Research . The editors are also grateful to Chancellor Charles E. Young of UCLA for sabbatical leaves during the period when they were preparing this volume. A. R. ...