Disciplining Satire: The Censorship of Satiric Comedy on the Eighteenth-Century London Stage. By MATTHEW J. KINSERVIK. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press; London: Associated University Presses. 2002. 301 pp. 38 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 0-8387-5512-7.

It has been axiomatic in any discussion of eighteenth-century drama that the 1737 Licensing Act had a detrimental effect on the theatre by discouraging new work, and constraining dramatists to write conservative, moralistic drama that eschewed political and religious satire or lampooning of public figures. Referring to Foucault's Discipline and Punish, Matthew Kinservik challenges this view of the effect of the legislation, ...