bell’s british theatre

According to Wikipedia, John Bell published 21 volumes of theatre. The University at Buffalo lists 34 volumes, running 1791-1802! Here’s the sampling I’ve tracked down so far.

an aside: check out Arpana Gollapudi’s Selling Celebrity: Actor’s Portraits in Bell’s Shakespeare and Bell’s British Theatre, in the periodical Eighteenth-Century Life (2012)

Volume 2 – first volume of Comedies (1776), containing

• Sir J. Vanbrugh, The Provok’d Wife
• Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour
• G. Farquahr, The Beaux Stratagem
• W. Congreve, The Old Batchelor
• Sir R. Howard, The Committee

Volume 4 – second volume of Comedies (1776), containing

• Mrs Centlivre, The Wonder
• Blaumont and Fletcher, Rule a Wife and Have a Wife
• Dr Hoadley, The Suspicious Husband
• Sir R. Steele, The Conscious Lovers
• Mr Farquahr, The Recruiting Officer

Volume 8 – fourth volume of Comedies (1777), containing

• Sir Richard Steele, The Funeral
• William Congreve, Love for Love
• Colley Cibber, The Careless Husband
• Sir Richard Steele, The Tender Husband
• Mrs Centlivre, The Busy Body

alternate No. 8

Volume 20, the tenth Volume of Tragedies (1778), containing

• Mr Mallet, Elvira
• Mr Glover, Boadicia
• W. Whitehead, Creusa
• Mr Home, Douglas
• W. Whitehead, Roman Father

Volume 9 – Operas (1780), containing

• Mr Gay, The Beggar’s Opera
• Mr Gay, Achilles
• Mr Gay, Polly
• Allan Ramsay, The Gentle Shepherd
• John Milton, Comus

Volume 12, Plays; 6th volume of Tragedies (1780), containing

• Shakespere, Troilus and Cressida
• Mr Moore, The Gamester
• Dryden, Don Sebastian
• Dryden and Lee, Oedipus
• Dr Young, The Revenge

Volume 17, eighth volume of Comedies (1780), containing

• Mr Farquhar, The Twin Rivals
• Mr Wycherley, The Country Wife
• Mr Shadwell, The Fair Quaker
• Ben Jonson, The Alchymist
• Mr Cha. Johnson, Love’s Last Shift

Volume, of Comedies (1791), containing

• Henry Fielding, The Miser
• Joseph Addison, The Dummer; or, The Haunted House
• Colley Cibber, The Double Gallant; or, the Sick Lady’s Cure

Volume, of Tragedies (1791), containing

• Aaron Hill, Alzira

Volume, of Comedies (1791), containing

• Mrs Centlivre, The Busy Body

Volume 24, of Comedies (1792), containing

• Dr Goldsmith, The Good Natured Man
• Edward Moore, The Foundling
• Samuel Foote, The Minor

Volume 3, of Plays (1797), containing

• Rowe, Fair Penitent
• Home, Douglas
• Addison, Cato
• Rowe, Jane Shore
• Whitehead, Roman Father

Volume 9, of Plays (1797), containing

• Otway, The Orphan
• Charles Johnson, The Country Lasses
• Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer
• W. Shirley, Edward, the Black Prince

Volume 12, of Plays (1797), containing

• Mrs Centlivre, Bold Stroke for a Wife
• Murphy, All in the Wrong
• Cumberland, Brothers
• Hughes, Siege of Damascus

Volume 20, of Plays (1797), containing

• Steele, Tender Husband
• Howard, Committee
• Cumberland, Natural Son
• Colman, Jealous Wife

Volume 25, of Plays (1797), containing

• Ramsay, The Gentle Shepherd
• Vanbrugh, The Mistake
• Rowe, Ambitious Step-Mother
• Dr Johnson, Irene

Volume 29, of Plays (1797), containing

• Shakespere, Pericles
• Young, Busiris
• Buckingham, The Rehearsal
• Mrs Cowley, Albina

MORE “Bell” on Internet Archive