Elizabeth Inchbald infused a vigor into some of the stock characters and motifs of sentimental comedy that made them last until the time of T. W. Robertson in the 1860s. A dramatist with an actress's inside knowledge of the theater, she excelled at stagecraft. At the least she was an admirably skillful adapter. At her best she was able to give her characters a charm that was distinctively hers. One of her creations, Mr. Harmony the family peacemaker, became a household word. In the theater of high comic naïveté she was supreme. Writing plays was her steady and lucrative business, but the publication of two novels, at the height of her career, brought her new literary fame. It was not until 1806, when she embarked on her prefaces to the British Theatre series that she attempted to act as a critic.

Inchbald's familiarity with the working...