This handbook, which addresses specialists and non-specialists of drama alike, provides a concise overview of dramatic genres and developments in the history of British drama. Bringing together experts in the field, it critically reflects major thematic concerns and formal conventions that shaped drama in diverse periods. Rather than focusing primarily on individual authors, this History offers a diachronically structured series of introductions to main dramatic genres as well as exemplary analyses of plays that can serve as paradigm examples of the respective (sub-)genres at the time. In addition to presenting an array of theoretical and methodological approaches to central plays, each chapter exemplifies crucial generic developments in model interpretations linking aesthetic concerns to cultural issues of the time. Using the analytical tools and methods developed by literary studies in general and the analysis of drama in particular, this handbook provides readers with a systematic framework to place and understand the most important generic traditions of British drama.