Steele at Drury Lane

Steele at Drury Lane by John Loftis offers a comprehensive study of Richard Steele’s pivotal role as both playwright and reformer in the early eighteenth-century London theater. Appointed by George I as governor of Drury Lane in 1714, Steele was entrusted with the unusual responsibility of supervising repertory and purging plays of offensive material—an appointment that reflected contemporary anxieties over declining standards on the stage. Loftis situates Steele within this climate of reform, showing how his longstanding critiques in the Tatler and the Spectator translated into managerial authority at the Royal Company of Comedians. Through incisive analysis of Steele’s writings, his governance, and his culminating play The Conscious Lovers, Loftis demonstrates how Steele sought to replace the satiric edge of Restoration comedy with a model of “exemplary” drama designed to elevate public taste and encourage virtue, even as his managerial performance was uneven.

Beyond Steele’s own career, the book illuminates wider debates about theatrical regulation, censorship, and artistic integrity in the period. Loftis explores Steele’s 1720 suspension by the Lord Chamberlain, an episode that sparked a vigorous pamphlet war and laid bare the unresolved tensions between patentees and royal authority in managing London’s theaters. The controversy over Steele’s governorship, along with the critical reception of The Conscious Lovers, signaled a decisive turning point in the long struggle to reform the English stage. Blending literary criticism with theater history, Loftis shows that Steele’s career—though often marked by contradiction—was central to the evolution of eighteenth-century drama, bridging Restoration wit and the rise of sentimental comedy. This volume thus provides both a focused portrait of Steele’s Drury Lane years and a broader account of the contested cultural politics of the Georgian stage.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1952.