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Abstract The history of drama in the eighteenth ntury shows the unavailing efforts of a handful writers to break the stranglehold of ’ntimentality. If moral literature is that which es a true picture of life, and immoral literature t which gives a false picture, the audience are und to conclude that sentimental comedy is :mparatively immoral, and the comedy of’ ycherley and Congreve comparatively moral. t the sentimentalists believed their plays uld have a beneficial effect on the morals of •diences, even if they were not improved. The amatist in the eighteenth century was forced to come an entertainer in order to appeal to the w kind of audience. He no longer had a patron please; and his new audience was less well ucated. He was in the hands of the managers, ose choice of play was vitally important to The effect of these changing conditions on the kind of comedy that was written and roduceddn the eighteenth century was to make , in gentral terms, sentimental. That is to say, s cynical immorality left the stage, morality, ’efinement and virtue set in and the theatre was need of sentimental drama after the decline of rnedy, The sentimental movement may be |