A misapprehension with which one may emerge from the perusal of a drama anthology is that the contributions of the finest playwrights of an age typify the nature and quality of the drama encountered by contemporary audiences. It is thus useful to be acquainted with the careers of minor figures such as Miles Peter Andrews, whose dramatic efforts better represent the typical theatrical fare offered his contemporaries. Andrews was a moderately successful eighteenth-century playwright, but his contributions are now familiar only to the most ardent and specialized historians of the drama. Though his pieces were generally well received by the audiences for whom they were written, Andrews's work has, justly, faded into obscurity. He attempted a variety of forms--full-length comedy, musical interludes and farces to accompany other plays, comic ballad operas, pantomime. Each is in its way pleasant, if superficial and predictable; each surely was enhanced by performance...