EDWARD NILES HOOKER, _University of California, Los Angeles_
H.T. SWEDENBERG, JR., _University of California, Los Angeles_


_ASSISTANT EDITOR_

W. EARL BRITTON, _University of Michigan_


_ADVISORY EDITORS_

EMMETT L. AVERY, _State College of Washington_
BENJAMIN BOYCE, _University of Nebraska_
LOUIS I. BREDVOLD, _University of Michigan_
CLEANTH BROOKS, _Yale University_
JAMES L. CLIFFORD, _Columbia University_
ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, _University of Chicago_
SAMUEL H. MONK, _University of Minnesota_
ERNEST MOSSNER, _University of Texas_
JAMES SUTHERLAND, _Queen Mary College, London_

* * * * *


INTRODUCTION


Susanna Centlivre (1667?-1723) in _The Busie Body_ (1709) contributed
to the stage one of the most successful comedies of intrigue of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This play, written when there was a