In 1764 Baker, in _Biographia Dramatica_, gave an account of Mrs. Centlivre's work, and most eighteenth-century dramatic collections included plays by her. In 1776 _The New English Theatre_, which professed to assemble "the most Valuable Plays which have been Acted on the London Stage," published _The Busy Body_, _A Bold Stroke for a Wife_, and _The Wonder_. Her plays were included by John Bell in various collections from 1776 to 1792. Mrs. Inchbald, in her _British Theatre_ (1808), and Oxberry, in _The New English Drama_, 1818-1824, carried the publication of her plays into the nineteenth century. Such brief notices as occur are highly laudatory. Mr. Baker says: "In a word we cannot help giving it as our opinion, that if we do not allow her to be the very first of our female writers for the stage, she has but one above her, and may justly be placed next to her predecessor in dramatic glory, the great Mrs. Behn." Nearly half a century later Mrs. Inchbald gave even stronger praise when she said that Mrs. Centlivre "ranks in the first class of our comic dramatists." Of the _Busy Body_ Mrs. Inchbald said: "This comedy is by far her best work. In excellence of fable, strength of character, and intricacy of occurrences, it forms one of the most entertaining exhibitions the theatre can boast." Of _The Wonder_ she wrote: "Garrick thought Don Felix worthy his most powerful exertions, in describing the passion of jealousy; and his character was upon the lists with the favorite parts he performed.... Mrs. Centlivre has somewhere said 'the Muses, like most females, are least liberal to their own sex.' She was ungrateful if she did not acknowledge her obligation to them in the composition of this work; for they presided with no niggardly influence over the whole production." Modern study of Mrs. Centlivre's work has taken a surprising turn. It has to do entirely with _Quellen_ and _Verhältnisse_. In 1900-1905 there were seven German dissertations dealing with the sources of her plays.[199] The impulse to play-writing seems to have expended itself with Mrs. Centlivre. Hannah Cowley's popular _Belle's Stratagem_ (1782) is the only other play of even moderate importance through the rest of the century. The situation with regard to play-writing is rather curious. Virtuous ladies were at liberty to write tragedies because tragedies were supposed to be moral and elevating. But unfortunately none of these ladies succeeded in tragedy. On the other hand, ladies who were not virtuous wrote comedies and were eminently successful. The realm between tragedy and comedy, the sentimental comedy, in its combination of didacticism and morality with social studies from middle-class life and the opportunity for rapid intrigue, might have seemed the very medium in which women could most advantageously work. But the successful sentimental comedies from _The Conscious Lovers_ to _False Delicacy_ were written by men playwrights. GENERAL LEARNING AND LITERARY WORK