The present volume attempts a systematic explanation of various dimensions of Romantic drama by foregrounding both the theoretical and practical questions bearing on Romantic drama in its historical situation. In this effort, the volume intentionally gravitates toward discussion of lesser-known works of the period, rather than such major dramas as Manfred or Prometheus Unbound.

This is because the poetic dramas by Byron and Shelley have already been the subject of many useful historicist investigations, and also because lesser-known works - for instance, the dramas of Scott, Wordsworth's Borderers, and the many revolutionary and counter-revolutionary dramas of the period - provide avenues into historical and ideological issues that cannot be adequately addressed by exclusive attention to dramas long recognized as canonical.