SOURCE: “Thomas Holcroft: A Satirist in the Stream of Sentimentalism” in Thomas Holcroft: Radical and Man of Letters, Johns Hopkins University, 1936, pp. 31-62.

In the following essay, which originally appeared in the March 1936 issue of ELH: A Journal of English Literary History, Stallbaumer traces Holcroft's development as a dramatist, outlining the way in which he was shaped by the popular demand for sentimentality.

When Thomas Holcroft came to town, like Moliére, after years of experience as a strolling player, he felt he was ready to turn playwright; for he had been “highly approved in the country.” During his years of apprenticeship from 1770 to 1781, he had no doubt learned what every actor and playwright experiences: that success comes from giving the public what it wants. But to cater to popular taste was difficult during these decades; for the London critics and audiences were not only vehemently censorious, but...