This Broadview edition pairs two of Frances Burney?s linked comedies. They both present the character of Lady Smatter, a ?femme savante? whose lineage may be traced back to Molière; they both centre on the misfortunes of the ?elle? figure, the dispossessed heiress and wife who appears frequently in Burney?s fiction; and they both criticize a culture of misogyny that breeds suspicion and resentment. The Witlings, lighter and more comic, derives from late seventeenth-century conventions; The Woman-Hater, more melodramatic, both expresses and warns against the excessive sensibility of romanticism. Together, these two plays constitute a miniature history of English drama from the Restoration to the French Revolution and beyond.

This edition contains a valuable selection of appendices, including: Burney?s ?Epilogue to Gerilda?; letters and diary entries; contemporary writings on comedy; and Burney?s cast-list for The Woman-Hater.