Examining chameleonic identities as seen in theatrical performances and literary texts during the Romantic period, this study explores cultural attitudes toward imposture and how it reveals important and much-debated issues about this time period. Brewer shows chameleonism evoked anxieties about both social instability and British selfhood.

William D. Brewer is Professor of English at Appalachian State University, USA.

Introduction 1. The Case of the Pretended Duke of Ormond 2. Richard Cumberland's Imposters 3. Thomas Holcroft's Politicized Imposter and Sycophantic Chameleon 4. Fluid Identities in Hannah Cowley's Universal Masquerade 5. Mary Robinson's Polygraphs 6. James Kenney's Opportunistic, Reformative, and Imitative Chameleons Epilogue: The Perkin Warbeck Debate