In the course of his short but imaginative dramatic career George Lillo created two of the most important tragedies of the eighteenth century. In fact, his London Merchant is widely cited as the first modern tragedy, mainly because of Lillo's attention to the "domestic" issues confronting the common man, rather than to the more commonly portrayed affairs and crises of state and honor facing the aristocracy. And although Lillo's name is never mentioned in the company of the greatest of British playwrights, as Isaac Reed states the matter, "Mr. Lillo is far from standing in the lowest rank of merit ... among our dramatic writers."

Details concerning Lillo's life are limited. Nothing is known of his childhood, schooling, or mature years, even after his success in the theater. A jeweller by trade, Lillo left the world as quietly as had entered it. No correspondence or manuscripts in Lillo's hand...