ABSTRACT
For her final dramatic work Cowley returned to mainpiece comedy, the genre with which she was most associated. The Town unites some of the recurring issues in her plays and represents the culmination of her experience as a dramatist. It is also a reflection on her own practice, for Cowley includes in the preface to the first printed edition a manifesto of her theory of comedy and an explanation of her retirement from the theatre. 3 She portrays a female creative artist in Lady Horatia Horton, a woman sculptor recognizable to the audience as based on Anne Seymour Darner, who exhibited thirty-two works at the Royal Academy. 4 Through this character Cowley questions prevalent theories about sexual difference in aesthetic and intellectual judgement and creativity.
