Glorious Causes explores the politics of theatricality and the theatricality of politics in late Georgian Britain, at a time when the British nation can be described as a stage for reform. Political rhetoric during this period was characterized by a rich vocabulary, drawing on theatrical language and forms, from melodrama and tragedy, to comedy and burlesque. Most importantly, activity in the theaters themselves, often dismissed until recently as vulgar or sentimental, was highly charged with political dynamic and controversy, central to the drama of reform.