In The Embodiment of Characters, Jones DeRitter examines the connection between the eighteenth-century London stage and the early English novel. DeRitter begins with the sweeping changes decreed by the Stage Licensing Act of 1737, which closed three of London's five legitimate theaters and dictated that every new play would have to be censored and licensed by the Lord Chamberlain's office. Before 1737, reading plays had been a favorite pastime of literate English men and women, after 1737, many of these readers shifted their attention to novels.

After using The Beggars...