Treatment of Women in The Restoration Comedy of Manners PDF

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THE TREATMENT OF WOMEN IN THE RESTORATION COMEDY
OF MANNERS
THESIS
Presented to the Graduate Council of the
North Texas State College in Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
.By
Dorothy Sala Brock, B. A.
Denton, Texas
Augus t, 1956
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
II.* THE TRUEWITS . . .0.0.0 . 0.*. . 0.0. 0 .0.0 . 15
III. THE WITWOUIDSWD..... ..... .. . 71

The Fop
The Country Girl
The Antiquated Belle
The Scorned Mistress
The Old Man's Darling
The Rake
IV. THE EXCLUDED ... .. ...... ........ 128
The Maid
The Prostitute
The Duenna
The Bawd
V. CONCLUSION .0.0. .0. . . .9. . . . .

0. .a. 0. 153
0.
B1BLIOGRA.PHY 5
Iii
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
With the return of Charles II to the throne of England
in 1660 came the reopening of the London theaters after
eighteen years of Puritan enforced closure. Although the
first plays produced were those written before the Great
Rebellion or those written by such men as Killigrew and
Davenant, who continued in prewar traditions, within a short
time new plays by fresh talent appeared. The popular trage-
dies and heroic verse plays were almost uniformly uncreative,
but the comedies ushered in an excitingly new phase of
English drama--the comedy of manners. Borrowing to a cer-
tain extent from French, Spanish, and earlier British
authors, the comedies, peculiar to the England of the
Restoration, represented a revolution rather than a develop-
ment.
Beginning with Sir George Etheregets first play, Love
in a Tub, the new dramatic type was a social play in the
absolute sense of the word. Although a few critics 2
staunchly support LambIs saccharine idea that the society
1 JohnPalmer, The Comedy of Manners (London, 1913),

p. 65.
2 Ibid.,
p. 294.,and Elmer Edgar Stoll, From Shakespeare
to Joyce (Garden City, New York, 1944), p. .6T
1
2
represented was a "Utopia of gallantry," a fairyland which
never existed, 3 and Archer expresses the opinion that if
these comedies represent a true society "the British nation
would never have emerged from such a morass of levity, cyni-
cism, corruption, and disease /-enereal7, 4 most contemporary
observers and modern scholars agree that the works were
written for, by, and about the beau monde of Restoration
London, one of the most sophisticated and least decorous
groups England has ever produced. Since comedy stems from
a critical impulse, these plays derived humor from satirizing
the follies and foibles of the day.
Wit was the first prerequisite to the beau monde of
Restoration comedy. If one had true wit, all else followed.
Ruthless, even cruel, the society acknowledged only two
categories of human beings--those who lived up to the
standards, and those who failed. The first received the
accolade due to taste and brilliance; the second, the agony
3Charles Lamb, "On the Artificial Comedy of the Last

Century," Essays of Elia (London, 1908), p. 168.
William Archer, The Old Drama and the New (Boston,

1923), p. 176.
5H. F. B. Brett-Smith, "Introduction," The Dramatic
Works of Sir George Etherege, edited by g. F. B . Brtb-Smith
(Oxford, 1927), I, xxiii.
6
For instance, see William Ashton, T of English
Drama (New York, 1940), p. 358; Joseph Krutch, Comedy and
Conscience After the Restoration (New York, 1949), p. 192;
Allardyce Nicoll, The Theory of Drama (London, 1931), p.
222.
3
of exploitation and derision. There were no half measures.
To be partially witty was as impossible as to be partially
virginal.7 Of course, no one was obliged to participate
in the social whirl, but if one chose to compete, he had
to accept the rules, concentrate on skillful execution, and
be prepared for the consequences should he fail. There was no
conflict between good and evil; the triumph was always one
of the keen over the stupid.
Preoccupation with wit reduced most plays of the period
to a tour de force of clever language. Plot, character,
emotion were all sacrificed to skillful conversation of
which sex was easily the favorite topic. Even when discuss-
ing a subject far removed from sexual implications, the play-
wrights habitually chose metaphors and expressions which

8
suggested the subject obviously uppermost in their minds.
Since wit is dependent on surprise and paradox for its
effect, the treatment of sex was naturally an assault
against social mores. Revolting against both the Platonic
modes prevalent before the Great Rebellion and the puritan-
ism of the Commonwealth, nothing was too sacred for the
sharp-tongued ridiculers; conventional morality became a

target rather than an example. Idealism was scorned;
emotions, mocked; chastity, doubted; constancy, ridiculed;

marriage, avoided.
7 Harold
R. Walley, The Book of the Play, An Introduc-
tion to Drama (New York, 9 O7p.T2l~
8 Krutch, Comedy and Conscience, p. 85.
14
Frankly cynical, the Restoration attitude toward the
relationship between the sexes has- led many scholars to
scourge the comedies as "nauseous, and abominable beyond
anything else in literature," or "such an offense as human
nature cannot long endure,"1 0 or a "disgrace to the English

11 Even those who champion
language and national character.
the plays as truly creative, deserving and occupying a per-
manent place in English literature, confess them suited to
an unsqueamish audience. 1 2
At any rate, although the plays may be risque, they are
not really licentious. The consensus of critical opinion
seems to agree that the immoral sentiments are too intellec-
tually expressed and the sexual intrigues too coldly con-
trived to arouse passion. 3 Far from being pornographic,
sex, here, serves simply as a springboard for wit.
9William Archer, The Old Drama, p. 122.

1 Louis I. Bredvold, "Literature of the Restoration and
Eighteenth Century," A History of English Literature, edited
by Hardin Craig (New York, 19507 p.396.
1 1 Thomas
B. Macaulay, "Leigh Hunt," Critical, Historical,
and Miscellaneous Essays and Poems (Chicago, 1887), II, 504.
12 For example, see Nicoll, British Drama, An Historical
Survey from the Beginning to the Present Time (New York,
1933), p. 25";~and Benjamin Ifor Evans, _A Short History of
Engli shDrama (London, 1950), p. 84.
examples, consult Walter E. Houghton, Jr., "Lamb's

1 3 For
Criticism of Restoration Comedy," ELH, X (March, 1943), 70;
W. C. Ward, "ntroduction," William Wycherley, edited by
W. C. ard, Mermaid Series (London, 1893), p. ix.
Women played a unique part in the development of
Restoration comedy. For the first time actresses appeared
on the British stages. Before the closing of the theaters
in 1642 the idea of women on the stage was grotesque and
shocking, but continental tastes returning with Charles II
demanded the adoption of the practice in England.1 Al-
though at first there was some moral ob jection,15 the
actresses were quickly accepted by the majority. Naturally,
with real women on the stage more and better female parts
were demanded and produced, and a new emphasis on sex was
added. Eaton believes that even if the court of the Merry
Monarch had not been licentiously corrupt, the plays of
this period would still have placed a strong emphasis on
sex simply because of the addition of actresses.16 Since
the popularity of the stars had a great influence on the
popularity of the play, playwrights often wrote or expanded
parts, or at least added a prologue or epilogue, especially
for some beautiful lady. Congreve's tailoring of female
characters for the talents of Anne Bracegirdle1 7 and
14Henry Wysham Lanier, The First English Actresses,

from the Initial Appearance of Women on the Stage in 1660
until 1700 (New York, 1930), p. 22.
15Bartlett Burleigh James, Women of England, Vol. IX
of Woman in All Ages and in All Countries, 10 vols.
(Philadelphia, 1905), p. 298.
1 6 Walter Pritchard Eaton, The Drama in English (New
York, 1930), p. 159.
1 7 John C. Hodges, William Congreve the Man (New York,
1941), P. 50.
6
Farquhar t s attention to Anne Oldfieldts specialitiesl were
perhaps the most famous examples of the influence actresses
had on the works of authors.
The old standing tradition of representing women char-
acters in the dress of men was revived. Well established
during the Elizabethan period, it took on a new aspect in the
Restoration because now real females trod the boards in
breeches. 1 9 Both audiences and actresses gave their avid ap-
probation, and playwrights were not reluctant to write in
such parts. Growing in popularity as the chastening of im-
morality became more and more severe, the device helped com-
pensate for the loss of "luscious dialogue," cut out, but

craved. 20 When the play itself could furnish no disguise,
prologues and epilogues featuring a saucy actress in mas-
culine apparel were frequently added. Silk clad feminine
legs were advertised as assiduously as the play itself.

Women, thus, were somewhat responsible for initiating
Restoration comedy of manners, but were even more important
in bringing that species to an end with Farquhar and the
seventeenth century. Regardless of who was the real
founder of the new weeping domestic moralities--Cibber,21
18prederick Tupper and James W. Tupper, Representative

English Drama from Dryden to Sheridan, rev. ed. (New York,
1934)s Po 335,
Harold Wilson, The Influence of Beaumont and
1 9 John
Fletcher on Restoration d (Columbus, Ohio, 1928), p. 82.

2 0 Allardyce Nicoll, A History of Early Eighteenth
1
Century Drama, 1700-1770 TCambridge, 1925), p. 46.
2 1 Adolphus William Ward, A History of English Dramatic
Literature to the Death of QueenAhne(London,71b9, . 5
7
DtUrfey, 2 2 Southerne,2 3 or Shadwell2 --the fact remains that
the substitution of saccharine sentimentality for cynical
satire was largely due to complaints and boycotting by
women. Although Jeremy Collier t s attack on the morality of
the plays is widely credited with radically changing the
tone of comedy, his tract, published in 1698, was much too
late to be thought of as initiating the change.25 The
ladies had already registered their displeasure.
For the first decade and a half of the Restoration,
women found little fault with the theater; they, too, en-
joyed the first gay reaction against prewar Platonic modes
and Commonwealth puritanism. Then as more and more stress
was laid on female faults and foibles,26 as marriage became
a matter of ridicule to be avoided if possible or con-
descendingly accepted if necessary,2 7 as gallants remained
Lynch, "Thomas D t Urfey's Contributions to

2 2 Kathleen
Sentimental Comedy," Philo icl Quartel, IX (July,
1930), 249.
B. Stroup, "The Princess of Cleve and Senti-
2 3 Thomas
mental Cormedy," Review of English Studies, XI (April, 1935),
201.
24Montague
Summers, "Introduction," The Complete Works
of Thomas Shadwell, edited by Montague Summers (London, 1927),
I, cciv.
25John Harrington Smith, "Shadwell, the Ladies, and the
Change in Comedy," Modern Philology, XLVI (August, 1948), 31.
26
For examples see The Plain Dealer, Wycherley; The
Double Dealer, Congreve; The Feignd Courtezans, Behn.
2 7 For instances, see The Rover, Behn; The City Heiress,
Behn; The Kind Keeper, Dryden.
8
rakish and unmarried at the plays end28 (it was one thing
for a man to philander, but quite another for him to go
free), they began to find fault.
Wycherley's The Co Wife (1675) was one of the first
to incur serious criticism by the ladies. Well aware that
his play was off limits to the female of reputation, the
author had Olivia, a character in his next play, express
horror at women seen at The Country Wife after the first
performance.29 The Plain Dealer was also regarded with dis-
pleasure, and in revenge Wycherley, not a man to bow to
pressure, dedicated it to Mother Bennett, a celebrated pro-
curess. Not as courageous, Ravenscroft was so daunted by
the organized boycotting of his The London Cuckolds that he
cut his next play to suit the taste of his irate feminine
critics.30
Obviously, more playwrights followed Ravenscroftt s
example than Wycherley's, for from 1675 until the end of
the century prologues, epilogues, and remarks within the
plays themselves frequently alluded to the pressure put
28 For illustration, see The Cou Wife, Wycherley,

and Friendship in Fashion, Otway.
2 9 The County Wife, II, ii, 127. All references to
this play are to William Wycherley, The Complete Works of
William ycherley, edited by Montague Summers (Soho, 192)T,
Vol. U. During the course of this paper three numbers
together will stand for act, scene, and page respectively.
3 0 John
Harrington Smith, The Gay Couple in Restoration
Comedy (Cambridge, Mass., 19488T7p. 132.
9
upon the writers by women. Commenting on The She-Gallants,
by Granville, Downes opined in The Roscius Anglicanus that
although the play was witty and well-acted, it offended
"'the Ears of some Ladies who set up for Chastity and made
its Exit." 3 1 Southerne's dedication to Sir Anthony Love
explained that a scene was omitted rather than he should
run "the venture of offending the women, not that there is
one indecent expression in it; but the over-fine folk might
run it into a design I never had in my head." Prologues
to Shadwells The Squire of Alsatia, 3 3 Dryden's Love Tri-
umphant,34 and Farquhar's The Constant Couple5 all promised
no bawdy or double-entendre in their plays.
Even the greatest of Restoration playwrights, Congreve,
did not escape the ladies' wrath. Mrs. Fondlewife in The
Old Bachelor was not seriously criticized, perhaps because
she was a commoner, but Lady Froth and Lady Plyant in The
Double Dealer incurred a good deal of female complaint.36
31John Downes, Roscius Anglicanus (London, 1928), p. 45.

3 2 Thomas
Southerne, Sir Antho Love, cited in John
Wendell Dodds, Thomas Southerne, Dramatist, Yale Studies in
English, LXXXI (London, 1933), p. 68.
Thomas Shadwell, The Complete Works of Thomas Shadwell,

33
edited by Montague Summers (London, 1927), IV,2
3 4 John Dryden, The Dramatic Works off John
(London, 1735), 11, 13.
5George Farquhar, The Dramatic Works of Geor e Farquhar,
edited by Alexander CharlesiEwald (London, ~b92),I,-12
3 6Smith, "Shadwell," p. 31.
10
Dryden wrote to a friend that the women were displeased
with the work because it "exposed their Bitchery too much,U37
and the author suggested this displeasure as an explanation
of the play's poor success) 8 Trying to appease the crpers,

in his dedication to The Double Dealer Congreve wrote:
But there is one thing at which I am more concerned

than all the false criticisms that are made upon me;
and that is, some of the ladies are offended. I am
heartily sorry for it, for I declare I would rather
disoblige all the critics in the world than one of
the fair sex. 3 9
By the turn of the century the note of exculpation had
disappeared, not because the ladies had ceased to exert
pressure, but because they had won their fight.40 Obviously,

there was no real moral purpose in the first changes toward
sentimental drama. The first four acts were still designed

for the coarse palates,while the last act was warped by a
sudden revulsion of character or a swift change in the con-
duct of the plot to suit the more refined tastes.4l However,

within a few years both characters and plot were completely
sentimentalized to the approbation of the ladies and the
ruin of the English comedy of manners.
3 7 Hodges,
William Congreve, p. 47.
38 Palmer, Comedy of Manners, p. 156.
3 9william Congreve, "To the Right Honourable Charles
Montague," The Comedies of %Illiam Congreve, edited by
Norman Marshall(London, 1941), p.122.
40Smith, Gal Couple, p. 135.
English Dramas, p.
20. 4lTupper and Tupper, Representative
11
More important to this paper is the treatment of women

within the comedy of manners, for as a whole, they represent
the best these plays have to offer. The five major comic
authors of the day--Sir George Etherege, William Wycherley,
William Congreve, Sir John Vanbrugh, George Farquhar--
lavished particular attention on their female characters,
as did most of the other playwrights. Certainly, the most
outstanding stage personality in this period, and perhaps
in English comedy as a whole, is Millamant, heroine of
Congrevets The Way of the World.42
Furthermore, the characteristics of the real and
stage society--the basis of admittance to it, the flaws

considered most stupid by it, the division of classes in
and out of it--are illustrated in the portrayal of women.
Far from being put on a pedestal, the Restoration woman
socially and intellectually was the equal of the male and
had to compete, as he, on the basis of wit. Jealousy
and hypocrisy were considered the two worst faults; however,
women had their own third sin--licentiousness, for despite
opinion to the contrary, morally the double standard was
still in effect.
2MalcolmElwin, The Playgoerts Handbook to Restora-

tion Drama (London, 19-2'87, p. 179.
12
A genuine Restoration comedy of manners features a
very specialized picture of the ideal woman, the truewit. 4 3
Meeting her gallant as an antagonist, she treats love as a
duel rather than a duet. "To place beside the ideal Wit
any equally witty and graceful woman, who could meet him on
his own ground and with his own weapon, . . . and at once
conquer him and yield to him" 44 is the aim. Verbally, she
may be as free as he from conventional restraints and as
contemptuous as he of those who comply to them. In deed she
remains physically virtuous. Additionally, she is young,
wealthy, high born, scornful toward fools, and addicted to
London society.
Only the heroine among the women makes the grade as a
member of the beau monde. Attempting the citadel, other
female characters, through foolishness, ignorance, old age,
or promiscuity, are excluded and, as witwoulds, have to
bear the ridicule of the beau monde. A third group of
women make no attempt to join the social whirl; they are
usually stock characters or comic portrayals of the lower
classes.
William Congreve, "To the Right Honourable Ralph,

Earl of Montague," Comedies of pCongreve,p.
314, uses the
terms Truewit and Witwoud to differentiate between those
wits who do make the beau monde and those would be wits
who fail. In this paper the terms will be spelled truewit
and witwoulde.
4V. de Sola Pinto, Sir Charles Sedley 639-1701;

a Study in the Life of the Restoration (London, 1927), p.
259.
13
When women force a reform of comedy, it is in the
treatment of their own sex that the changes are first made.
Sense is substituted for wit; the absurd becomes the abomi-
nable. Although Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar were all
writing during the period in which sentimentalism was first
becoming popular, none of them succumbed to this mawkish
style. Congrevets plays represent, of course, the most out-
standing examples of the elegant comedy peculiar to the
Restoration period, and, certainly, Vanbrughts plays incline
toward this style. Primarily aiming for popularity and
profits, Farquhar, as a transition playwright, endowed his
principal characters with more seriousness than the others,
but still his work definitely provokes laughter rather than
tears.
The five major comic playwrights of the Restoration
completed twenty-one original comedies:
Sir George Etherege--The Comical Revenge or Love in a
'ub; She Would If She Could; and The Man of Mode
or Sir F Flutter.
William Wycherley--Love in a Wood, The Gentleman
Dancing-Master; The Country Wife; The Plain
Dealer.
William Congreve-- The Old Bachelor; _The Double Dealer;
Love for Love; and The Way of the World.
Sir John Vanbrugh--The Relapse; The Provokt d Wife;

The Confederacy.
114
George Farquhar--Love and a Bottle; The Constant Couple
or A Trip to the Jubilee; Sir Ha Wildair; The
Inconstant or The Wa to in Hirm; The Twin Rivals;
The Recruitin Officer; The Beaux Stratem.
Not all of these plays were popular during their time, and
not all of them seem really good plays now. However, these
twenty-one contain the best of the species and are representa-
tive of the Restoration comedy of manners as a whole. Ac-
cordingly, these will be the principal plays studied in this
paper.
CHAPTER II
THE TRUENITS
The typical Restoration heroine is always an antagonist
in a love duel; since wit rules the game, she can never ad-
mit any seriousness of emotion to her gallant. Scorning
conventional restrictions, the fashionable gentleman ex-
hibits an insatiable appetite for variety, not a surprising
attitude for the male, who likes to believe that he is not
by nature monogamous and that only the factitious constric-
tions of society can prevail upon him to remain fitfully
true to one woman. The fashionable lady must profess the
same sentiments in order to maintain her social and intellec-
tual equality.
Many scholars seem to feel that because of her raillery
the clever young woman actually does not take love seriously
or place any restrictions on her physical pleasures.
Thorndike belittles Restoration romances as "the gay flirta-
tions of impertinent coxcombs and coquettes," and Wilson
scorns such love as "a transient thing to be employed for
Jean Elisabeth Gagen, The New Woman, Her Emergence in

English Drama 1606-7O (New York, 1954),t p. 141.
2 Ashley Horace Thorndike, English Comed (New York,
1929), p. 28 7.
16
amusement only.03 More violently disdainful, Macaulay, hor-
rified, calls the love of the gay couple an "appetite of
beasts, t" while Beljame says that there are no such things as
steadfast maidens in the plays of the period.5 Concurring

with these opinions, the characters in the plays express
similar ideas. To Scandal in Love for Love (Congreve) the
only virtuous women are those too afraid to be otherwise, 6
and Wycherley t s Monsieur de Paris (The Gentleman Dancing-

Master) is sure that women were made on purpose to fool men. 7
Since nothing can change woman's fickleness, according to

Farewell, a gallant in Sir Courtly Nice (Crowne), he advises
men to take their ladies quickly because if they "delay but
half an hour, they'll fthe ladies7 be in love with someone
else."8
Despite these opinions, the beau monde of the Restora-
tion is as insistent as any other on female chastity. Pre-

tenders to wit may give in to love and lust without marriage,
3 John Harold Wilson, The Influence of Beaumont, p. 61.

1 Macaulay, "Leigh Hunt, p. 5O4.
5Alexandre Beljame, Men of Letters and the English Public
in the. Eighteenth Cen , 1660- , Dryden~Addison, Pope,
translated by E. 0. Lorimer (London, 1948),p. 9. T
6 Lovefor Love, II, iv, 266. All references to this

play are to Congreve, Comedies.
7 The
Gentleman Dancing-Master, V, i, 217. All references
to this play are to Wycherley, Complete Works, Vol. I.
8 SiCour tly Nice, II, 1, 273. All references to this
play are to John Crowne, The Dramatic Works of John Crowne,
edited by James Maidment and W. H. Logan, Dramatists of the
Restoration (London, 1873), Vol. III.
9 Smith, _Gay p. 76.
17
but the heroine realizes that such behavior is foolish, since
it leads to scorn and contempt. As Hermes in The Twin Rivals
(Farquhar) points out, the greatest provocation to a slight
is to treat a man too well,'1 and Richmore in the same play
says contemptuously of his genteel mistress, "Do you think
a lady that gave me so much trouble before possession shall
ever give me any after it?" 1 Consequently, the heroine is
always virginal and resolutely constant to her gallant,
even though to her knowledge he may not be true and even
though she does not admit her own fidelity. If unmarried,
the heroine may pretend an inclination toward another or
several others in order to taunt or test her true love; if
a scorned wife, she may actually have an affection for some-
one other than her husband, but she virtuously suppresses
her passion.
Consequently, the heroine is in deadly earnest about
both love and marriage, for that is the only way she can
have the man she wants. Realizing that her destiny is
marriage, the ingenious girl attempts by her wits to bewitch
a man she can love. To accomplish her purpose, she must not
only play but also be hard to get since a rake marries only
1 0 The
Twin Rivals, III, iii, 70. All references to
this pl~ayare toTarquhar, Dramatic Works, Vol. II.
11
Ibid., I, ii, 24.
18
when his passion demands possession and possession is im-
possible any other way.
At the same time the belle is intelligent enough to
know that in capturing her man, she herself is captured, and
she is not sure the reward is worth the sacrifice. The

Restoration woman has a large amount of freedom before she
comes under the domination of a husband, and the beautiful,
witty, wealthy, young woman, who has her pick of escorts and
suitors, pleasures and diversions, values her liberty as
much as the gallant does his. Once married,she may become
practically imprisoned by a jealous, domineering mate or
practically ignored by the typically inconstant rake. She
may be trading a pleasurable courtship for an overbearing
or uncaring husband.
Marriage being such a great gamble, the belle naturally
avoids it as long as possible. When it appears that she can-

not do without it, she frequently takes steps in a proviso
scene to try to avoid enslavement or desertion. Both hero

and heroine recognize in wedlock a curtailment of liberty,
but traditionally, the wife is the servile partner. As a
result, the covenant is more important to her than to him
because it represents her revolt against the conventional

mores of female inferiority.1 2 Although found in Elizabethan
comedies, the proviso scenes of the Restoration are unique in
1 2 Gagen, The New Woman, p. 147.

19
that here for the first time the lovers make an agreement
in which the independence of each is safeguarded with legal
precision. 13 More than a formal love contract, the proviso
is actually an elaborate contest of wit with each partner
taking care to concede no more than the other. Certain condi-
tions are always included: one, jealousy is not tolerated;
two, freedom of speech and action is guaranteed; three, in-
constancy is repaid in kind; four, terms of Platonic servi-
tude or marital affection are banned. In spite of her demands
for equality, the heroine will not repay inconstancy in kind;
instead, she hopes by the threat of cuckoldry to keep her
husband true.
Because according to the mores of Restoration society
no one past his youth can be a part of the beau monde, the
typical Restoration heroine debuts early and departs abruptly.
Beauty and wit can capture a man for the girl in her teens;
a fortune may prevail until she reaches thirty; past that
age she must positively give up the game or become an object
of ridicule. It is somewhat difficult in the present age of
glamorous grandmothers to realize that the twentieth birthday
threw the Restoration woman into the shadows of old age.
1 3 Kathleen
Martha Lynch, The Social Mode of Restoration
Comedy (New York,.1926), p. 84.
14Elizabeth Mignon, Crabbed Age and Youth, the Old Men
and Women in the Restoration Comedy of Manners (Durham,
North Carolina, 1947),Tp77,
20
As a consequence of the supreme importance of youth,
such heroines as Hippolita in The Gentleman Dancing-Master
(Wycherley) feel capable of shifting for themselves at four-
teen years of age.15 In The Rover (Behn) an old bawd, want-
ing to represent the most desirable age, goes "dressed like a
Girl of Fifteen. 11 At sixteen Corinna in The Confederac
(Vanbrugh) considers that she has been ready for marriage for
three years,1 but to Raines and Bevel in Epsom Wells (Shad-
well) "A handsome Wench of 17 were no ill bargain."18 Some
late blooms of eighteen are very desirable, such as Christina
in Love and a Bottle (Farquhar), but Laura in The English
Friar (Crowne) is already patronized by her fifteen year old
sister because she is "full 20."19 As Florimel in The Maiden
Qe (Dryden) says, a lady should slip "out of the World
with the first Wrinkle, and the Reputation of five and
twenty."j20
15 The Gentleman Dancing-Master, TI, i, 175.

Rover, Part II, II, i, 145. All references to this
1 6 The
play ar~to Aphre Behn, The Works of A Behn, edited by
Montague Sunmers (London, I9WTTVoI. 1.
1 7 The
Confederacy, II, i, 30. All references to this
play are to Sir John Vanbrugh, _The Complete Works of Sir
John Vanbrugh, edited by Bonay (Bloomsbury,
BDobr~e England,
1927), Vol. i1.
18 Epsom Wells, I, i, 117. All references to this play
are to Shadwell,7Complete Works, Vol. II.
1 9 Mignon, Crabbed Age, p. 27.
Maiden Queen, III, i, 47. All references to this
20 The
play are to Dryden, Dramatic Works, Vol. II.
21
Youth has absolutely no sympathy for the aged during the
Restoration; in consequence the heroine always mocks the old
for their outmoded ideas and decayed looks. Contemptuous of
attempts by the elderly to join society, the gay ingenue
is rebellious against mature authority. Although conventional
tradition allowed the parent or guardian to arrange marriages,
the witty young lady revolts against such an arbitrary dis-
posal of her liberty. Speaking for the emancipated woman,
Hillaria in The Careless Lovers (Ravenscroft) refuses to
marry anyone her uncle selects and adds:
But uncle, it is not now as it was in your young

dayes, Women then were poor sneaking sheepish Creatures.
But in this Age, we know our own strength, and have
wit enough to make use of our Talents. If I meet with
a Husband makes mi 1 Heart ake, Itilmake his Head ake,
I'll warrent him.
In The Younger Brother (Behn) Olivia flatly calls an arranged

21 Most
marriage "Prostitution in the leudest Manner.o
heroines do not theorize, however; they simply act, marry-
ing whomever they please and defeating any parental attempts
at control.
On occasion in her efforts to capture a recalcitrant
gallant, the heroine finds it expedient to don male attire.

t
Flamboyantly daring, she may court and win her inconstant s
present romantic interest, thereby sending him back to his
21Edward Ravenscroft, The Careless Lovers, Act III,

p. 25, cited in Gagen, The New Woman, pp. 123-24.
2 2 The
Younge Brother. All references to this play
are to Behn, Works, Vol. IV.
22
earlier love, 23 or like one determined less, she may disguise
herself in order to steal her lovers clothes, which, of
course, effectively ends his new affair.2 4 Many a wandering
rake is brought back to the fold as a result of a duel with
his disguised belle;25 apparently, her willingness to fight
is such an exciting proof of her real worth that he can no
longer resist her. For the same reason, serving in the army
is sometimes an effective lure for the dissembler.26 Perhaps

the girl has no proof of her beauts infidelities, but simply
wants to test his faithfulness. Dressed as a rake, she may
accompany him on his rounds of the city,2 7 or dressed as a
messenger, she may take him a note supposedly from some other
lady to see whether he will respond.28 To escape a forced
marriage, a lady may pretend to be male, 29 or she may think
the best method of finding her ideal mate is to meet him as
a fellow gentleman. 30 Later Restoration heroines usually
2 3 For example, see The Maiden Queen, Dryden, and The

Recruti Officer, Farquhar,
24She Would and She Would No, Cibber.
25For example, see The Dutch Lovers, Behn, and The Woman
Captain, Shadwell.
26 For example, Humours of the Army, Shadwell, and The
Recru Officer, Farquhar.
2 7 For
example, Sir Harry Wildair, Farquhar, and The
Feignd Curtezans, Behn.
28 For example, The Mulberry Garden, Sedley.
2 9 For example, The Younger Brother, Behn.

3 0 For example, The Feigntd Curtezans., Behn.
23
masquerade as pages who serve their men with valor and
loyalty until their true sex is revealed and their true love
rewarded.3
Infrequently, the heroine may disguise herself as some
other woman. A smutty playwright may allow his leading
ladies to pretend to be prostitutes in order to select their
own mates. 3 2 In The City Heiress (Behn) Charlot masquerades
as a country girl so that she can spy on the gallant Wilding;
Leanthe in Love and a Bottle (Farquhar) pretends to be
Christina, and as a result, gains the rake Roebuck in
marriage.
In the early comedies of manners there was occasionally
a heroine borrowed from the heroic verse plays. Grave
rather than gay, she is almost the complete antithesis of
the typical Restoration heroine. Uninteresting because
they are usually either plot devices or expediencies for
expressing lofty sentiments, these grave heroines are all
virtuous in deed and word. Really an intrusion of secondary
importance,33 the grave lady is completely uncharacteristic

of the style and feeling of the comedy of manners.
3 1 For
example, The Plain Dealer, Wycherley; The Incon-
stant, Farquhar; The Amorous Prince, Behn; and Bu Fair,
Shadwell.
3 2 For
examples, see Leona in Sir Courtly Nice, Crowne,
and Marcella and Cornelia in The Feigned Curtezans, Behn.
33 Smith, The a, , p. 117.
2h.
In Love in a Tub Etherege features two grave heroines
along with a gay one. Graciana and Aurelia, modest and
sedate, are actually a part of a heroic plot and serve only
as vehicles to spout in verse lofty yet tender sentiments
concerning honor, love, duty, and virtue. Instead of trying
to hide her love, Graciana freely and flowerly admits it;
however, she is prepared to sacrifice her happiness when
she believes honor demands it. Aurelia loves secretly, not
because she is coquettish, but because she is modestly re-
served and the man of her choice loves another. When there
seems a chance that he cares, she, begging pardon of the
female sex for her forwardness,3 throws herself into his
arms. Uninteresting in personality, these two are contrasted
with the sparkling Widow Rich, their aunt, who is the first
or at least one of the first gay heroines.35
Completely out of harmony with fashionable society,
Emilia, in Etherege's The Man of Mode, belongs to the honor-
able world of the past. 3 6 Her earnest modesty and tender
34 Love in a Tub, V, i, 63. All references to this play

are to Sir George~Etherege, The Dramatic Works of Sir George
Etherege, edited by H. F. B.~Trett-Smith (Oxfrd, 1927T,
Vol. I.
5Wilson, Influence of Beaumont, p. 95 points out that
there is some disPute as to whether the Widow Rich (Etherege,
The Nan of Mode) or Constance (Dryden, The Wild Gallant)
is the first gay heroine. He of course thinks she is a
descendant of characters by Beaumont and Fletcher.
36 Thomas H. Fujimura, Restoration Comedy of Wit
(Princeton, 1952), p. 113.
pity prompt Lady Townley, the social leader, to chide, "You
Emilia." 7 Openly, she admits
are a little too delicate,
her sincere love for young Bellair; there is no question of
a duel. Though she lacks affectations, she also lacks fire
and spirit. Actually, however, her personality is very
faintly sketched and completely overshadowed by that of
Harriet.
Wycherleyts two grave heroines, Christina in Love in a
Wood and Fidelia in The Plain Dealer, are the weakest char-
acters in their respective plays. Serving as mere expedients
of the plot, neither one emerges as multidimensional.
Christina is the epitome of faithful, suffering womanhood.
When her lover must flee the country after a duel, she goes
into mourning to await his return. Through a series of
mishaps, the gallant, secretly returned to England, suspects
her virtue. Quite unlike the typical Restoration heroine
who regards jealousy and mistrust as two heinous sins,
Christina servilely seeks her lover out and, despite the
mortification of her modesty and pride, explains the ex-
tenuating circumstances as she pleads her love.

Compared frequently to Viola,3 8 Fidelia is regarded by
many Victorian scholars as a tender and beautifully gracious
3 7Man
of Mode, III, ii, 229. All references to this
play are to Etherege, Dramatic Works, Vol. II.
3 8 For example, see Ernest Bernbaum, The Drama of Sensi-

bility, a Sketch of the History of the English Sentimental
omedy and Domestic Tragedy, Q1690-~70 (Boston, 1915), p. 66;
and George H. Nettleton, English Drama of the Restoration
and Eihteenth Century (162-179) (New York, 191T), p. 2.
26
and pure girl, whose modest propriety and pathetic loyalty

bring unabashed tears to the eyes of all observers. 3 9 Modern
critics are not as touched; instead, they find her the
weakest character in the play,40 a "romantic intruder on a
very unromantic scene,t141 who is "incongruous to the play,,42
because of her unreality.4 3 Certainly, her devotion, border-
ing on idolatry, for the coarse and carnal Manly is rather

unbelievable, but then none of her portrayal is realistic.
Not a woman, Fidelia is rather a plot device illustrating
selfless (and perhaps, unintentionally, indiscriminating)
love, faith, and duty.

The Widow Rich in Etherege's initial work, Love in a
Tub, is usually credited with being the first typical
Restoration heroine. Of course, her marital status puts
her under a definite handicap since the widow during this
period is the target for the broadest jests, all featuring

her desire and need for remarriage. 4 4 Wealthy, young, and
beautiful, Widow Rich urgently attempts to conceal her love;
39Montague Summers, "Introduction," The Complete

Works
of William Wycherley (London, 1924), I, 50.
40Elwin, The Playgoer's Handbook, p. 82.

4 lLynch,
Social Mode, p. 173.
42Louis Kronenberger, The Thread of Laughter, Chapters
on the English Stage Drama from Jonson to Maugham (New York,
19 37 p. 73.
4 3Bonamy
Dobrde, Restoration Comedy (Oxford, 1924),
p. 87.
44 Brett-Smiith, Eherege, ,lxxiv.
27
she is never really convincing as a love antagonist, for she
has all too obviously settled her future on the rakish Sir
Frederick Folly. Realizing the warmth and generosity of her
affections, the gallant dupes her into admitting her true
feelings several times during the play. For example, he
pretends he is dead, and she weeps; 45 he sends word he is in
jail, and she donates money to bail him out. 46
Fujimura decrees her too lacking in perspicacity and

47
malice for a truewit; not only does she exhibit her true
feelings toward her lover, but she also shows compassion for
the foolish Dufoy. On the other hand, Brett-Smith finds in
her a formidable sparring partner for Sir Frederick. 4 8
Although gulled into betraying herself by her actions, the
widow never verbally admits his power. Derisively mocking
his attempts to talk of love, she jeers, "What pitiful
rhyming fellow's that? he speaks as if he were prompted by
Fidlers."49 When he begs kisses as a necessary food for his
infant love, she advises, "Hold, hold, Sir; if it be so fro-
ward, put it out to Nurse; I am not so fond of it as you
imagine; . .. t50
45Love in a Tub, IV, vii, 60.

6Ibid., V, 11, 68.
47Fujimura, Restoration Comedy, p. 68.
48Brett-Smith, Etherege, I, lxxiv.

49Love in a Tub, III, ii, 31.
51bid*., III, ii, 33.
28
Perhaps the most precocious of all comedy heroines of
this period is Wycherley t s Hippolita in The Gentleman Dancing-
Master. At the age of fourteen she feels fully capable of
assuming an active part in either the fashionable world or
in a love affair. Furious at being strictly cloistered, she
rages in her frustration: "To confine a Woman just in her
rambling Agel take away her liberty at the very time she
should use it! 0 barbarous Auntl 0 unnatural Father; to
shut up a poor Girl at fourteen, and hinder her budding....r51
A very sophisticated young woman, she is well aware that
times have changed since her guardianst youth. "Women
formerly . . . never knew how to make use of their time till
it was past, but let it not be said so of a young Woman of
this Age; . . . courage, I say; Hippolita, thou art full
fourteen years old, shift for thy selfs52 she soliloquizes.
Despite her sequestered life, Hippolita still has the
characteristic foibles of the typical city-bred female.
Eagerly she embraces all the good and bad points of the
period and commonsensically advises: ". . . by what Ifve
heard ttis a pleasant-well-bred-complasant-free-frolic-
good-naturtd-pretty Age; and if you do not like it, leave
it to us that do." 5 3 Disdaining the country, she tells
Gerrard, her suitor, that men too often carry their wives
5lThe Gentleman ening-Master, I, i, 157.
2Tbid., II, i, l7 .s31bid., I, i, 163.

29
away intoo Yorkshire, Wales, or Cornwall, which is as bad
as to Barbadoes, and rather than be served so, . . . she7

would be a Pri s I ner in Lond on s ti11, "54When he
promises her a coach and six if she'll elope with him, she
pertly answers, "What young Woman of the Town could ever
say no to a Coach and Six, unless it were going in to the
Country. . .. e55
Fools merit no sympathy from this gay youngster; far
from pitying her cousin for his foolishness and his unfor-
tunate love for herself, she makes him the primary means
of her marrying another and laughs at his stupidity. Rich,

she recognizes the power of money. To secure Gerrard's
interest she tells him she is an heiress; noticing his new
appraisal of her, she asides, "0 money powerful money

how the ugly, old, crooked, straight, handsom, young Women
are beholding to theeitt56 Even though she has made the
first advances toward Gerrard, she never lets him know of
her real interest, but whimsically leads him on and then
spurns his advances. At last when she has finally settled
on him, she insists on an agreement between them calling for
mutual trust and equality and an absolute absence of
jealousy.57
54Ibid., II, i, 183. 55_bi d.., IIi, 1, 196.
56Ibid., 11, i, 177. 57Ibid., V, i, 220.

30
Naturally, Hippolita scorns, mocks, and rebels against

the restraint of her father and aunt. Taunting her aunt for
her age and teasing her father for his Spanish affectations,
she carries on an unsanctioned affair under their very noses,
cleverly pitting them against one another in order to hide
her own intrigue. Her modern attitude toward marriage is
that each person should be allowed to choose a partner for
himself. ". . . I will no more take my Father's choice
in a Husband, than I would in a Gown or a Suit of
Knots . . . ,58she tells her maid. And when she triumphs
over the oldsters and attains her father's blessing, she
advises all parents in the last couplet:
When Children marry, Parents should

Since Love claims more Obedience far than they. 59
obey,
Fujimura believes Hippolita the most original character
in The Gentleman Dancing-Master and the most misunderstood
of all Wycherley's creations60 because while most critics
seem to feel she is merely lasciviously after a man to
satisfy her sexual desires, he sees her as a clever young
girl interested only in a man of true wit.61 One critic says,

"Hippolita wants a man (she doesn't care much who), 62 and
Dobree opines that Wycherley really has an underlying hatred
for Hippolita because she "has the desires natural to the
58 Ibid., I, 1, 158. 5 9 Ibid., V, i, 231.

6 0 Fujimura, Restoration Comedy p. 133.
6 1 Ibid., p. 181. 6 2Ibid., p. 133.
31
animal."63 In reality, despite her enforced seclusion,

Hippolita is not desperate to escape in order to indulge
her lubricity; she desires freedom in order to join the
social whirl. Obviously, she will not marry just any man,
or she would have accepted her father's choice, the fop
Monsieur de Paris. If he did not please her, she could
always follow her maids advice and take her pleasures else-
where,6 4 but the very thought enrages the heroine. "Wou'dst
thou have me marry a Foolt an Idiot?65 she screams. And

there is no question of her merely taking a lover without a
husband. Instead, Hippolita is interested only in a husband
with wit, one whom she can love and respect. Of Gerrard,
whom she hopes will satisfy her qualifications, she says,
i* . . if he has wit he will come, and if he has none he

wou t d not be welcome.U66 Later, after she has met him, she
is afraid she may have to discard him because although he
loves her, he may be dull. 6 7 Apparently aware that his

creation might find disfavor in some quarters, Wycherley
gives her a tongue-in-cheek speech about her own actions:
I am thinking if some little, filching, inquisitive

Poet should get my story, and represent it on the
Stage; what those Ladies, who are never precise but
6 3 Dobr4e,
Restoration Comedy, p. 85.
6 The Gentleman Dancing-Master, I, i, 158.
65Ibid., 66bid.,9I,1,7164.
671bid., II, ,is176.
32
at a Play, would say of me now, that I were a confident,

coming Piece, I warrant, and they would damn the poor
Poet for libelling the Sex; but sure though I give my
self and fortune away frankly, without consent of my
Friends, my confidence is less than theirs, who stand
off only for separate maintenance.68
Vanbrugh includes only one truly gay heroine in his
original plays, Bellinda in The Provok t d Wife. Typically
young, beautiful, wealthy, and witty, she is also character-
istically unsympathetic, even malicious, toward fools. When
the foppish Lady Fanciful exhibits obvious jealousy of Heart-
free, Bellinda deliberately becomes kinder toward the gallant,
taunting and teasing the affected egotist until she grows
almost distracted by frustrated rage. 69
Frankly admitting her interest in and desire for men
when she converses with her aunt Lady Brute, she, of course,
denies any such feelings when with her gallant Heartfree.

"One other Compliment with that serious Face, and I hate you
for ever after,tN70 she scorns his romantic cant. Admittedly
a coquette, she believes her flirting wrong, but cannot give
it up because she is "fully convincId, no Man has half that
pleasure in possessing a Mistress, as a Woman has in jilting
a Gallant. . .*"7l
Professing a very open-minded attitude toward her aunt's
unhappy marriage, Bellinda advises her to accept a gallant;
6 8 Ibid., V, i, 221.
69 The
Provoktd Wife, III, i, 140-41. All references to
this play are to Vanbrugh, Complete Works, Vol. 1.
7 0 Ibid., IV, iv, 162. 7 1 Ibid., I, i, 119.
33
7 2 she decides;
4. . . the sooner you capitulate, the bettert
however, she herself never considere: taking a lover. Because
"Women must have Frolicks, . . . whatever they cost tem," 7 3
the two ladies in vizards secretly meet their beaux,and in the
succeeding series of comical misadventures, Sir John Brute is
led to believe that his lady has followed her niece's advice.
Ostensibly to save Lady Brute's reputation Bellinda decides
to marry the penniless Heartfree. She offhandedly admits
to her aunt that she loves him, but she commonsensically
knows that if she, too, had no fortune, she would not wed him:
I can't say, I would live with him in a Cell upon Love

and Bread and Butter, but I had rather have the Man I
love, and a Middle State of Life, than that Gentleman
in the Chair there /Jrunken Sir John~, and twice your
Ladyship's Splendour. . . . Yet I must own to you,
some little Struggling I still have, with this teazing
Ambition of ours. For Pride, yqu know, is as Natural
to a Woman, as Itis to a Saint.u
Finding Bellinda gay in the best traditional sense, Smith
credits the negligence with which she makes the match with
much of the charm of the love duel.75
Two of Wycherley's heroines, Lydia in Love in a Wood
and Alithea in The Country Wife, are far from the usual witty
lady of Restoration comedy, yet they clearly are meant to be

of that type. Like Widow Rich, Lydia is too obviously in
love with her gallant to hide her feeling, but whereas the
widow at least manages to match her suitor in clever verbal
7 2 Ibid., 7 3 1bid., IV, iv, 161.

II, iii, 150.
74 Ibid., V, ii, 169. 75smith, Gay Couple, p. 174.
34
love duels, Lydia's feigned indifference is occasionally
sarcastic but never really witty7 6 Well aware of her passion
and desire for marriage, Ranger, Lydia's love, treats her
quite scurvily, lying to her, breaking dates, and chasing
other women. Although humiliated by his treatment and
mortified by her own actions, Lydia cannot help furtively

spying on him and jealously trying to break up his other af-
fairs. Of course, she realizes that her behavior merits
ridicule and that she cannot win him in marriage if she shows
herself too eager. Unable to stop her machinations, she at
least has the presence of mind to hide them from her beau.
Since Ranger really loves her, they finally make a match.
Characteristically he declares the purpose of matrimony is
freedom; like the typical heroine she agrees, but her com-
pliance is evidently only lip-service.
Described in the play as having wit, Alithea's dialogue
gives no evidence of this fact. 7 7 Like the typical heroine,
she takes her delight in "the innocent liberty of the Town,"78
and shudders at the thought of the country. On the other
hand, she is going to marry a fool simply because she is
contracted to him; many gay ladies rebel against authority
simply because it is authority,and none would accept a fool
7 6 Fujimura, Restoration Comedy, p. 130.
77Ibid., p. 144.
78 The Country fe, II, i, 23.
if they could help it, regardless of the reasons. Rather
illogically, she berates Sparkish throughout the play because
he is too stupid to be jealous when his friend Harcourt woos
her; however, the minute he is really jealous, she feels
justified in jilting him to marry the gallant of her choice.
Nevertheless, finding her both honest and reasonable, Dobrle
calls her the one congenial character Wycherley ever drew.7 9
Lacking the joyful high spirits of the usual Restoration
heroine, but possessing more common sense and sensibility,
Congreve's Cynthia in The Double Dealer is perhaps in the same
class with Lydia and Alithea; she is not truly typical, but
still belongs to the gay heroine species. Gosse believed
her a gracious maiden used to preserve the wild satire so
that Bracegirdle might have a pure, impassioned part to
play.8 0 Instead of laughing at fools, she tolerates them;
analyzing her feelings, she soliloquizes rather sententiously:

'Tis not so hard to conterfeit joy in the depth
of affliction, as to dissemble mirth in company
of fools--Why should I call tem fools? the
world thinks better of tem; for these have
quality and education, wit and fine conversation
are received and admired by the world--if not,
they like and admire themselves.--And why is not that
true wisdom, for Itis happiness? and for aught
I know, we have misapplied the name all this
while, and mistaken the thing: since
79 Dobr4e, Restoration Comedy, p. 95.

8
Edmund Gosse, Life of William Congreve, Great Writers
Series (London, 1924), p.4
36
If happiness in self-content is placed, 81

The wise are wretched, and fools only blessed.
No truly witty woman would have had such strange misgivings.
Occasionally, however, she does flash forth with the brilliance
of the really witty female: ". . . but Itis but reasonable
that since I consent to like a man without the vile considera-
tion of money, he should give me a very evident demonstration
of his wit . . ., 82she decrees.

There is no true love duel in the comedy, for Cynthia
and Mellefont are already agreed and ready for the altar
when the play begins. Both are too level-headed and too
romantically in love to indulge in fanciful wit or repartee.
However, the thoughtful young woman still has her misgivings
which, far from the usual fears of Restoration heroines,
betray inner disillusionment and deep seriousness about
life.83 Typically, however, she is never quite willing to
give up her individuality in marriage; she suggests, "'Tis
an odd game we tre going to play at, what think you of draw-
ing stakes, and giving over in time?t 8 4
The use of two gay heroines forming a team in order to
discuss their views upon society and to capture two equally
8IThe Double Dealer, III, iii, 169. All references to

this plaiy are to Congreve, Comedies of Congreve.
8 2 Ibid., IV, 1, 170.
8 31i-jimura, Restoration Comedy, p. 171.
8 4The Double Dealer, II, i, 141
.
37
gay gallants is a frequent device in Restoration comedy. In
the works of the five major dramatists, Etherege's She Would
if She Could and Congrevets The Old Bachelor use such a duet;
Farquhar's The Inconstant and The Twin Rivals also feature a
duo-heroine arrangement, but these couples cannot be considered
strictly gay. Many of the secondary playwrights also feature
two witty feminine leads; for example, Shadwell's Epsom Wells,
The Lancasshire Witches, The Virtuoso, and Sedley's Mulberr
Garden. Occasionally the girls are so evenly matched in
beauty, wealth, and wit that when their preferences do not
coincide with those of the men, each gallant gladly switches

8
his interest to the girl who likes him better; 5 usually,
however, one of the young women is wittier and wilder than
the other.
Despite minority opinion that Gatty and Ariana,
Etherege's beautiful, young, wealthy, and witty heroines of

86
She Would If She Cou'd, are perfectly evenly matched,
Gatty proves herself cleverer, more daring, and more
typically the gay heroine than her sister. In fact, upon
arriving in town, Ariana actually bemoans the loss of the
country; "Why, would it not make any one mad to hear
thee . . . ? speak but one grave word more, and it shall
be my daily Prayers thou may'st have a jealous Husband, and
85See Shadwell's The Virtuoso.
8 6 Kronenberger, Thread of Laughter, p. j46.

38
then youlle have enough of it I warrant you," 8 Getty
threatens the other for her sedateness. She herself is
ecstatic at being in town again so that she can partake
freely of the city pleasures. When Ariana chides Gatty for
singing a wanton song, the candid heroine scoffs at such
reticence: "I hate to dissemble when I need not. . .1.
Toward love 4riana is inclined to remember the vanishing
romantic Platonic modes, but Gatty deplores such idealism,
and mocks:
Now art thou for a melancholy Madrigal, composed by

some amorous Coxcomb, who swears in all Companies
he loves his Mistress so well, that he would not
do her the injury, were she willing to grant him
the favour, and it may be is Sot enough to b lieve
he would oblige her in keeping his Oath too. 9
Still "Sly-girl and Mad-cap t 90 as their uncle calls
them, both qualify as gay heroines, pert but not impudent,
full-blooded and confident in their future.9 Gayly good-
natured, they are amused at their aunts ill success in love
since they are more than able to hold their own in the court-
ship game. When they seek adventure by masking themselves
for a frolic in Mulberry Garden, they immediately attract
87She Would If She Could, I, ii, 102. All references

to this play are to Etherege, Dramatic Works, Vol. II.
8 9 Ibid., IT, ii, 115.

Ibid., V, i, 170.
90 Ibid., I, ii, 103.

39
two gallants handsome and witty enough to interest them.
Each girl has sworn to be a tyrant toward men because they

ttcannot plague I'em enough when . . . theg7 have it in . .
.
ftheiI7 power for those priviledges which custom has allow'd
'em above . . . fwomen7."9 2 Naturally both understand that,

though equal in all else, the double standard still applies
in love affairs. Ariana explains to a gallant: ". .
.
for I know you would think it as great a Scandal to be thought
to have an inclination for Marriage, as we should to be be-
lieved willing to take our freedom without it." 9 3
Mocking the men in a sprightly way, which shows their
mettle rather than their malice, they win the first round
easily by proving the men false to their oaths of constancy,
and the second major point is theirs, too, when their suitors
believe them capable of writing the notes the old huntress
Cockwood, who desires one or both of the men for herself,
forged in their names. Since the girls are interested only
in marriage as a conclusion to their affairs, Ariana tells
the men, "'Tis to as little purpose to treat with us of any
thing under that, as it is for those kind Ladies, that have
obliged you with a valuable consideration, to challenge the
9 2 She Would If She Could, I., ii, 103.

931bid., V, i, 173.
9 4 Fujimura, Restoration y p. 101.
40
performance of your promise.,95 Forcing Courtall and Freeman
to sue on their terms, the heroines maintain their superiority
to the end, and recognizing marriage as a terrific gamble,
they refuse to accept the gallants immediately. Instead,
they agree to use them as "servants" during a probationary
period before they decide bn a more permanent arrangement.
Congrevets Araminta and Belinda in The Old Bachelor are
neither one as typical or as charmingly appealing as Ariana
and Gatty. In this duo Belinda easily outranks her partner
in wit, gaiety, and wildness. Described quite accurately
as "too proud, too inconstant, too affected, and too witty
and too handsome, 96 Belinda comes very close to being a
fop; quite vain and egotistical, she spends excessive time
on her appearance and seeks revenge on Heartfree because he
affronted her squirrel. Only her charm and real wit save
her. Much more malicious and cutting in her speech than
Gatty, Belinda ridicules and scorns everything in extravagant
hyperboles. Naturally detesting the country, she cruelly
satirizes a rustic family she meets in a store; Lynch believes
her happiest moments are spent poking fun at ill-mannered
people.9 7 However, despite the fact that she derives all
95She Would If She Coutd, V, i, 74.
9 6 The Old Bachelor, I, i, 47. All references to this

play are to ~ongreve, comedies of Congreve.
9 7 Lynch, Social Mode, p. 196.
41
of the
her pleasures from the beau monde, her observations
fashionable city life are just as biting.
Professing to loathe "that filthy, awkward, two-legged
creature, man!"9 she exclaims, "This love is the devil, and
sure to be in love is to be possessed,"99 Nevertheless,
Belinda is pursued by the gallant Bellmour, who pretends as
much interest in her fortune as in her person. Although she
feigns disgust at his suit, she takes every opportunity to

be with him, and the resulting love duels are high-spirited,
evenly matched intellectual contests from which neither
emerges victor. Casually, in the last act, the gallant and
the girl accept each other without loss of individuality.

Much less colorful and much more practical than Belinda,
Araminta is so thoughtful in her approach to life that she
borders on being a serious heroine. However, although she
has judgment rather than fanciful wit,, Araminta can still

love
qualify as a gay heroine because of her attitude toward
and marriage.100 Admitting her love of Vainlove to Belinda,
she nevertheless conceals it from her suitor. In fact, when
he becomes too emotional during a discussion, she interrupts,
"Nay, come, I find we are growing serious, and then we are
in great danger of being dull."

101 Undoubtedly part of the
98 The Old Bachelor, II, 11, 60.
99Ibi d.
1 0 0 Fujimura, Restoration p. 169.
1 0 1 The Old Bachelor, II, 11, 64.

42
restraint, even disdain, she consistently exhibits is due
to her insight into Vainlovels chief foible: he despises a
conquest once it is made. When Belinda and Bellmour agree
to wed, they urge their friends to join them. Even though
Vainlove is enthusiastic, Araminta, realizing that her
suitor's inconstant disposition makes a very unstable basis
for marriage, refuses, countering with the suggestion that
they wait to profit from the experiences of the other couple.
The three best examples of the typical Restoration
heroine are Harriet in Etheregets The Man of Mode; Angelica
in Congreve's Love for Love and Millamant in Congrevets
The a of the World. Calling her duels with the gallant
Doriment Etherege's chief contribution to drama, Brett-
Smith credits Harriet with enough heart to make her lovable
and enough head to win respect.1 0 2 Fujimura gives her his
highest accolade when he ranks her a truewit with real
perspicacity and self-control.1 0 3 Doriment's description
seems to sum up both her person and personality, "Wild,
witty, lovesome, beautiful and young--"10l
Unpretentious and spontaneous, Harrietts dialogue is
free of labored similitudes. As a truly typical heroine
should, she loves wit and is a good judge of it. Of Dorimant
she perceives: "Hets agreeable and pleasant I must own, but
1 0 2 Brett-Smith, Etherege, I,,lxxix.

1 0 3 Fujimura, Restoration Comedy, p. 110.
lo4Man of Mode, III, ,iii244. All references to
this play~are~to Etherege, Dramatic Works, Vol. II.
43
he does so much affect being so, he displeases me."105 See.
ing the follies of the world, she has wit enough to dissemble
with it and judgment enough to behave sensibly. 1 0 6
Because she displays no sympathy for those who fail in
their attempts to be truewits, Kronenberger believes her wit
shows more malice than mettle. 1 0 7 She condemns an aging
bellets use of cosmetics: "That Women should set up for
beauty as much in spite of nature, as some men have done for
Witj"j 8 Although, naturally, she is elated at her conquest
of Dorimant, her advice to Mrs. Loveit, his cast-off mistress,
seems unnecessarily sharp. "Mr. Doriment has been your God
Almighty long enough, 'tis time to think of another,ttl 9
she coolly counsels the unfortunate lady. Her raillery does
not spare her own mother, whom she mocks for her pretensions
to charm and fear of modern gallants.
On the other hand, Fujimura attributes her apparent spite
to a desire to cover her true feelings.110 As a typical
Restoration heroine, she does dissemble very cleverly her
genuine emotions for Dorimant. When he remarks on her change
1051bid., III, 111, 234.

10 6 Fujimura, Restoration Comedy, p .112.
107 Kronenberger, Thread of La p. 52.

108Man of Mode, III, i, 219.
1 0 9 Ibid., V, ii, 286.

44
of countenance at their first real meeting, she asides, ti
feel as great a change within but he shall never know it."
Unintentionally, she betrays her feelings to others; young
Bellair tells Dorimant, "Why, she's never well but when shets
talking of you, but then she finds all the faults in you she
can. She laughs at all who commend you, but then she speaks
ill of all who do not." 1 2 However, to Dorimant she is
coolly impersonal; the deeper she becomes attached to him,
the more malicious she seems, and in this way she maintains
superiority over the most capitivating and irresistible rake
of the whole period. When he begins to speak of an affair,
she says to Bellair, "S. . . let us walk, 'tis time to leave
him, men grow dull when they begin to be particular.ill 3
Later, he becomes more serious, and she, more caustic as she
mocks him when he tries to talk of love:
If it be on that Idle subject, I will put on my serious

look, turn my head carelessly from you, drop my lip,
let my Eyelids fall and hang half o're my Eyes--Thus--
while you buz a speech of an hour long in my , and
I answer never a word I why do you not begin?1 4
Rather angrily Dorimant answers, "That the company may take
notice how passionately I make advances of Love ! and how
disdainfully you receive 'em.,115 Nonchalantly Harriet
replies, "When your Love's grown strong enough to make you
l 1 1 Man of Mode, III, 235.

,iii
112 Ibid .,IV, ii, 263. '1 3 Ibid., III, iii, 236.
1141bid., IV,:1, 249. 1151bid., IV, 1, 249-50.

bear being laughed at, I'll give you leave to trouble me with
it. Till when pray forbear, Sir."ll6 Dorimant's final sub-

jection brings a rash flood of promises; he will renounce
friendship, wine, women and will even live in the country.
Calmly cool in her victory, she interrupts, "Though I wish you
devout, I would not have you turn Fanatick." 1 1 7
Typically rebellious against both living in the country
and allowing her mother to choose her husband, Harriet feigns
docile acceptance of her parents marital scheme in order to
get to London. Actually, she would agree to anything if city
life were the reward, for she is so in love with London that
she can "scarce indure the Country in Landscapes and in
Hangings." 118 Once there, however, she demands of her maid,
"Shall I be paid down by a covetous Parent for a purchase?
.
no, I'le lay my self out all in love."? 1 1 9 When her mother
realizes that she has been duped and that her rebellious
daughter will marry no, one but Dorimant, they start at once
for the country. Swearing she will marry no one but Dorimant,
Harriet also shrewdly promises never to marry against her
mothers will, for she knows dissembled acceptance will soon
win her parent over. Although Harriet obviously wants
Dorimant to visit her, her witty description of her country
existence is half a warning; he will find "a great rambling
ll 6 Ibid., IV, i, 250. 11 7 1bid., V, ii, 278-79.

llIbid., III, i, 222. 1 1 9Ibid., III, i, 221.
46
lone house, that looks as it were not inhabited, the family's

so small; there youtle find my Mother, an old lame Aunt, and
my self, Sir, perched up on Chairs at a distance in a large
parlour; sitting moping like three or four Melancholy Birds
in a spacious vollary.tl20
Wilsonts condemnation of Harrietts having no regard for
virtue or convention121 seems quite unjustified. Throughout

the play both the heroine and the other characters make it
quite clear that she will not yield her favors short of
marriage. As young Bellair tells Dorimant, "You had not
best think of Mrs. Harriet too much, without Church security
there t s no taking up there." 1 2 2 Unsympathetically harsh,

her treatment of Mrs. Loveit certainly illustrates her dis-
dain for those who surrender without the proper ceremonies,
and the very fact that a rake like Dorimant wants to marry
her is proof enough that she is interested in nothing less.
Distrustful but not scornful of marriage, Harriet,like all
Restoration heroines, fears it may not be worth the sacrifice;
still there is no thought of doing without it.

Ranked among the truewits by Fujimura,1 2 3 Angelica is
judged captivatingly engaging by Kronenbergerl24 and one of
120 bd
Ibid., V, ii, 287.
12 1 Wilson, Influence of Beaumont, p. 101.
122
Man of Mode, IV, 11, 263.
4KronenbergerThread of Laughter, p.
130.
47
the most delightful of all comedy heroines by Gosse, who
lauds her as reigning "easily first among the creations not
only of Congreve, but of post-Restoration comedy down to
Goldsmith." 1 2 5 Certainly she is wittier and subtler than
her lover Valentine. Refusing, as a typical Restoration
heroine should, to admit love, she is determined to test
secretly Valentine's sincerity and devotion before losing
her liberty. Living in a house where she daily sees an ill-
matched uncle and wife, she wants to avoid a similar mistake,
and besides she realizes that the chase is often better than
the fulfillment: Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of
life. Security is an insipid thing and the overtaking and
possessing of a wish, discovers the folly of the chase., 127
Sharp-tongued at times, Angelica, like Harriet, uses her
apparent maliciousness to cover her true feelings.
Constantly attempting through pleading or tricks to gain
an acknowledgement of her love, Valentine is unsatisfied
with his uncertain state. "You know her temper; she never
gave me any great reason for hope or despairtl28 he tells
a friend. When he accuses her of fickleness, she logically
says, "You can't accuse me of inconstancy; I never told you
125Gosse, Life of Congreve, p. 64.

1 27 Love for Love, IV, iii, 291.

12 8 Ibid., I, 11, 222.
that I loved you." 29And then she negligently adds when
he asks her if she does care, "I never had concern enough to
ask myself the questionsl 0 Feigning madness because of her

coldness, Valentine hopes to trick her into a confession of
love, but she sees through his ruse and vows, "1. . . if I
don't play trick for trick, may I never taste the pleasure
of revenge."l 3 1 She almost makes his plea of insanity come
true when she pretends to think he really is mad, frustratingly
refusing to believe him when he tries to be honest. 1 32
Rather boisterous in her wit, she at times is earthy
and even frankly sexual in her speech. For example, she

teases her uncle about his unfaithful wife in double-entendre
alluding to his love of astrology: ". . . if you wontt lend

me your coach, Ill take a hackney, or a chair, and leave
you to erect a scheme, and find who's in conjunction with

your wife. . . . Uncle, I'm afraid you are not lord of the
ascendant, hal hai halul3 3 Later when Sir Sampson,
Valentine's old father, whom she is pretending to marry,
says, "Odsbud, let us find children, and I'll find an

estate l" she replies suggestively, "Will you? well, do you
find the estate, and leave the other to me,.134 Still her
frankness is not coarse or hard, but merely an example of her
freedom and sharp-tongued wit.

129 Ifbid., III, i, 249. 1 3 01bido.,
III, i, 249.
1 3 1 Ibid., 1 32 1bid.,
IV, i, 272. IV, iii, 289-99.
1 3 3 1bid., II, i, 232-33. 13 4Ibid., V, i, 295.
49
Probably no heroine in comedy has received as many
kudos as Congreve's Millamant in The Wax of the orld. As
Downer aptly remarks, few critics have been able to resist
her.135 "Nothing so delicious has ever been depicted on the
stage. . . She is the most refined product of the cultural
civilization,"136 lauds Elwin, and Evans rates her as "perhaps
the most brilliant woman in English comedy. "137 Agreeing,
Noyes calls her "the most charming figure in the English
imaginative literature of the Restoration period.ull38 No
lover of this age, Archer still finds her not only unique
in Congreve but in the world, "the one great creation of
this whole literature. . . . She is the one thing of beauty
in a realm of repulsiveness. l39 Complimenting Congreve,

Meredith finds her manner of portrayal a work of genius;1hO
Dobr4el and Nettleton find her brilliant characterization
135Alan S. Downer, The British Drama, A Handbook and

l 7Y. 214.
Brief Chronicle (Ne w York.,9
13 6 Elwin, Playgoer's Handbook, p. 177.
1 3 7 Evans, Short History, p. 94.

138George Rapall Noyes, "William Congreve: The W of
the World," n and His Contemporaries, Vol. IV of
reiresentative Enjsh Comedies, 4 vols. (New York,
1903-30), p. 547
1 3 9Archer, The Old Drama, p. 86.
14 0 George Meredith, An Essay on Comedy and the Uses of
the Comic Spirit, edited by Lane Cooper (New~ohk, 918),
pp. 101-102.
14lBonamy Dobr6e, "Introduction," Comedies by William
Congreve, The World's Classics, edited by Bonamy Dobree,
Mermaid Series (London, 1925), P. xvii.
50
Congrevets greatest triumph.142 Although Kronenberger
believes her endowed with an air too perfect for real life,
he also finds that a particular virtue of the characterization
is that her actual behavior and motivations are realistic
and convincing143
Millamant is captivating rather than loveable, and though
it is easy to find fault with her, it is almost impossible to
resist her. Certainly she is affected, coquettish, selfish,
vain; without wealth and beauty she cannot exist. Yet she
and her admirers seem to glory in her weaknesses as much as
her strong points. As Mirabell says: . . . I like her-with
all her faults; nay, like her for her faults. Her follies
are so natural, or so artful, that they become her; and those
affectations which in another woman would be odious, serve
but to make her more agreeable."l 4 4 Pleasure is her occupa-
tion; whim, her law. Egotistically but truthfully she avows,
"I please myself. . . .145 As she elegantly, fancifully
moves from scene to scene "full sail, with her fan spread
and her streamers out, and a shoal of fools for ten-
ders . . . ,"1 6 she is always the focal point of attraction.
Quite spoiled by constantly occupying the center stage, she
1l42Nettleton, English Drama, p. 130.

14 3 Kronenberger, Thread of Laughter, p. 141.
l4The HaX of the World, I, ii, 325. All references to
this play are to Congreve, Comedies ofConeye.
14 51bid., II, ii, 347. 146i-bid., I,, ii, 344.
feigns disdain for many of the fashionable pleasures she
loves. For example, she cries she's pestered with letters--
110 gy, letters--I had letters--I am persecuted with letters--

I hate letters--Nobody knows how to write letters, and yet
one has tem, one does not know why. They serve to pin up
one's hair." l4 7 She is more honest when she declares, "I
nauseate walking; 'tis a country diversion; I loathe the
country and everything that relates to itale8
Although deeply in love with Mirabell, the delightful
dissembler characteristically does not intend to show it,
for that would mean a loss of part or all of the control she
exercises over the gallant. "One's cruelty is one's power,"i149
she knows. Enjoying Mirabellts discomfort in his suspense,
she badinages, "Well, I won't have you, Mirabell--I'm re-
solved--" then tauntingly adds, "Hal hat hat what would you
give, that you could help loving me?tl50 Her alert sense of
humor gives her perception enough to pick out the weak spots
in his self-conceit. For example, when he declares beauty
is the lover's gift to his lady, she exclaims incredulously
at his rather fatuous vanity: "Beauty the lover's giftt--

Lord, what is a lover, that it can give? Why one makes
lovers as fast as one pleases, and they live as long as one
pleases, and they die as soon as one pleases; and then if
Ibid., I1, ii, 345. 1481bid.,IV., i, 372.

14 9 Ibid., II, ii, 346. 1501bid., II, ii, 348.
one pleases, one makes more.l5l Mocking him for his serious
face, she teases, "Well, after all, there is something very
moving in a lovesick face. Ha! hat. ha!--Well, I wontt laugh,
dontt be peevish--Heigho! now I'll be melancholy. . .
.
Well, Mirabell if ever you will win me woo me now.--Nay if
you are so tedious, fare you well. . . ."52Leaving, she

gayly flings back, ". . think of me,,153 as if he could
forget.
Canby's critique that Millamant is a libertine, virtuous
only through "contempt for lovers and a nice fastidious-
ness seems untrue, as does Thorndike's labeling her a
Diana whose courtship is unmarked by one moment's real hesi-
tation or by one real palpitation of the heart.155 A coquette
but no profligate, Millamantts scorn of Mirabell is feigned
to cover the very real, but alarming, love she has for him.
Clearly superior to her suitor now, she is virtuous because
any other course would be foolish; her nicety springs from
the knowledge that for her--clever, beautiful, wealthy,
sought after, and decidedly her own mistress--marriage will
mean a great sacrifice, whichshe is not sure the pleasures
of the match will compensate.
151ibid., I, ii, 346-47.1521bi.I, 1,is,348.

153Ibid., II, ii, 349.
154 Thomas Canby, "Congreve as a Romanticist," PMLA,
XXXI (1916), 16.
15
' Thorndike, English Comedy, Po 324.
Millamant is, after all, not choosing a man to marry;
she is choosing whether to marry at all. When it becomes

plain that in spite of the inherent dangers, she must have
him, she still tries to keep her favored position. "It'll

fly, and be followed to the last moment . . . I'll be
solicited to the very last, nay, and afterwards,156she
resolutely declares. "Ah, I'll never marry, unless I am

first made sure of my will and pleasure,t157 she insists,
exacting a formal proviso, which is one of the high spots
of the comedy of manners. Stipulating for herself all the

prerogatives that are hers before she dwindles into a wife,
Millamant bans both reprimands and instruction and asserts
that she will not be taken for granted. When the terms
have been accepted, she sighs with simulated disgust,
i* . . well, you ridiculous thing you, I'll have you--I
won't be kissed, nor I won't be thanked--. * "158 However,

her self-control wavers for a moment after his departure,
and she confesses: "Well, if Mirabell should not make a
good husband, I am a lost thing,--for I find I love him
violently.J59
Typified by whimsy, Millamant's wit is not so biting
as that of some earlier heroines. With somewhat increased
15 6 The Up of the World, 1V, i, 374.
157bid., Iv, i,, i, 378.

1591bid., Iv, i, 378.
sensibilities she tolerates as well as laughs at fools.
Rebellious against her silly, antiquated guardian's wedding

plans for her, Millamant agrees to but does not engage in
Mirabell's plan to humiliate the old belle into allowing
their match. Her aversion to ignorance is quite obvious;
the airy disdain with which she treats the boorish Sir
Wilfull, when he enters a room in which she is reciting
Suckling's poetryis highly amusing:
Mill. Natural, easy Suckling.
Sir Wil. Anon? SucklingZ no such suckling

neither cousin, nor stripling: I thank Heaven, I'm
no minor.
Mill. Ah, rustick, ruder than GothicI 160
Only in her sly raillery of the other women who love
Mirabell does real malice show in Millamant's character.

"Dear Fainall, entertain Sir Wilfull--thou hast philosophy
to undergo a fool, thou art married and hast patience,ul 6 1
she says to Mirabell's former mistress. Charged by the

jealousy-ridden Marwood with having Mirabell for a lover,
the witty heroine does not spare her rival. Pretending
great horror at his constancy, she swears shed command him
to show more gallantry if she had any power over him. "But
I despair to prevail; and so let him follow his own way.
HaJ hat hat pardon me, dear creature, I must laugh, hat
16 0 1bid.,
IV, i, 373. ON" .,IV,
od i, 372.
hat hat though I grant you ttis a little barbarous, hal hat
hapt1 6 2 Furiously, Marwood says she detests Mirabell, and
the charming mocker cries, ". . . why so do I--and yet the
creature loves me, hat hat hat how can one forbear laughing
to think of it.--" 1 6 3 When Marwood directly, but veiledly,
threatens disaster to that love, Millamant rather than
answering personally has an insidious song sung:
'Tis not to wound a wanton boy

Or amorous youth, that gives the joy;
But Itis the glory to have pierced a swain,
For whom inferior beauties sighed in vain.
Then I alone the conquest prize,

When I insult a rival's eyes:
If there's delight in love, 'tis when I see
That heart, which others bleed for, bleed for me. 164
During the latter Restoration, pressure from the moralists
gradually forced a change in the character of the heroine.
She became a woman of emotion rather than intellect, of sense
rather than wit, and accordingly, the plays became senti-
mental domestic moralities rather than sophisticated comedies
of manners. No longer a shadowy interloper, the grave
heroine had come into her own, revered for the qualities
which seemed ridiculous to the gay lady. Whereas the gay
heroine denies love and sentiment, the serious heroine
revels in it. The gay one finds in marriage a curtailment
of her individuality and delays it as long as possible, but
the serious one feels marriage the fulfillment of her dreams,
16 2 Ibid., III, iii, 360. 1 6 31bid,
1641bid., III, iii, 361.

and only external objects can defer the wedding. Accepting,
even delighting in the age in which she lives, the gay heroine
is frank and witty; contrarily, censuring the world as it is,
the serious heroine is modest and sensible. Abhorring the
fools the woman of sense pities, the gay heroine scornfully
rebels against the old, whom the serious heroine deferentially
respects.
The character of the scorned wife is responsible for
some of the first traces of sentimentality in the comedies
of this period. Actually, the heroines of these plays are
very fortunate that their dramas usually end with their be-
trothal or wedding vows, for as a result, they seldom suffer
the fate of the disdained wife. In the few examples, mostly
written after 1690, in which the heroine is married in the
play, almost without exception she is mistreated. Agreeing
with Courtall (She Would If She Could, Etherege) that "a
Wife's a dish, of which if a man once surfeit, he shall
have a better stomach to all others ever after,165 a husband
may be untrue; or agreeing with Sir John (The Provokt Wife,

Vanbrugh) that love is a cloying dish "when Matrimony's the
Sauce to it,"166 he may be unkind.
The abused wife has only three courses of action: boldly
take a lover, meekly accept her treatment, or optimistically
endeavor to reform her husband. As already pointed out, the
165she Would If She Cou'd, III, iii, 137.

1 6 6 The Provok'd Wife, I, i, 115.
first solution is impossible for the typical heroine. Other
women may be promiscuous, but she must remain physically
virtuous regardless of her verbal or mental deviations. The

second plan, too galling to be endured by the typically
high-spirited Restoration heroine, obviously requires a per-
sonality change in the leading female. Since the character-

istic attitude of the period proclaims reform of a husband
an impossibility, the third resolution is affected only in a
play in which the ending at least is sentimentalized.
Perhaps the first reforming wife in Restoration comedy
is Olivia, D'Urfey's title character in. The Virtuous Wife. 1 6 7
Dressing as a man, she steals her husband's newest mistress,
and pretending to take a lover, she arouses her husband's
jealousy. Although, superficially, these seem to be tricks

of the gay heroine, Olivia lets it be known that she con-
siders her plight too grave for laughter, and the recon-
ciliation scene is misty with tears. In Cibberts Love's
Last Shift, often called the first real sentimental comedy,
Amanda tricks her husband back into line by posing as a new
mistress. Her tender and emotional soliloquies on mistreated

virtue and the mawkish final scene dissolve in tears the comic
aspects of the plot.

The sentimentalized woman who unhappily but meekly sub-
mits to her fate as the rejected wife is more common than the
1 6 7 Lynch, "Thomas D'Urfey," p.

250.
reforming mate. Married to an unfaithful, unappreciative
coward, Mrs. Friendall in Southerne's The Wives Excuse sums
up her fate: "Every woman carries her cross in this world,
a husband happens to be mine, and I must bear it, as well I

168
can." In Estcourt's The Fair Exa Lucia is married
against her wishes to a cruel husband, but she steadfastly
refuses to corrupt her chastity even though she laments the
loss of the gallant she has loved since before her marriage.
Perhaps the most fortunate of all scorned wives is Lady Easy,
Cibber's heroine in The Careless Husband. Heroically and
silently accepting all of her spouse's infidelities, she is
so loving and merciful that when she finds him asleep with
her maid, she solicitously covers his bare head so that he
will not catch cold. Overcome by her goodness, her husband
remorsefully begs forgiveness which she compassionately
grants, as they both weep.
Vanbrughts attitude toward wifely reformation of husbands
is easily detected in his first play, The Relapse, a sequel
to Cibber's Love's Last Shift. In the newer work, the hus-
band, whom Amanda has reduced to penitential tears in Cibber's
play, immediately regresses to his old habits as soon as the
opportunity is available. Perhaps because the cast is taken

directly from the earlier play, Amanda remains virtuous.
Chastity is not easy for her, however, especially after she
1 6 8 Thomas Southerne, The Wives Excuse, V, iii, cited in

Dodds, Thomas Southerne, pTTE7.
has definite proof of her husbands new misdemeanors. The
attractive, persistent gallant Worthy is so persuasive and
her honor is so precariously balanced that on the night of
the first performance Vanbrugh himself said, "I confess I
once gave Amanda up for gone.,1 6 9
Both Vanbrugh and Farquhar in their best plays portray
a scorned wife, but here their treatment is lighthearted
rather than lachrymose. Lady Brute in The Provoktd Wife
(Vanbrugh) and Mrs. Sullen in The Beaux Stratagem (Farquhar)
are both married to sots who deny their wives even the common
courtesies. Since both women possess beauty, wit, and breed-
ing, they merit, and realize they merit, a better life than
that which they have.
Not a typical heroine, Lady Brute deliberately marries
without love for the wealth and position Sir John can give
her; she intends to be a good wife. Confident in her own
charm and her suitors fierce passion, she believes herself
capable of satisfying both his desire for love and her desire
for luxury. Her plan overlooks the Restoration belief that
man is naturally inconstant. Sir John soon tires of his wife
and resents his fetters. Nauseatingly coarse, he lives up
to his name in his efforts to make his wife miserable. Some

critics believe that the lady deserves her treatment because
1 6 9 Joseph Walter Cove, Sheridan, His Life and His

Theatre (New York, 1948), p -7.
60
she arred fr mney 170

she married for money;17however, since she did not mis-
lead Sir John about her feelings and since she has tried to
make a pleasant life for them both, this judgment does not
seem equitable.
At any rate she is scornfully and degradingly abused.
Too spirited to accept her fate meekly, she is also too
practical to believe in reforming her husband, especially
since she not only holds no charms for him but positively
disgusts him now. A handsome, witty gallant offers her an
attractive solution to her dilemma at every opportunity.
For two years she has virtuously dissembled so well that he
believes her cold toward him. Privately, however, she loves

him, and her frequent soliloquies are usually clever attempts
to rationalize an affair. "Lord what fine notions of Virtue
do we Women take up upon the Credit of old foolish Philos-
ophers. Virtue's its own reward, Virtue t s this, Virtue's
that--Virtue's an Ass, and a Gallant's worth forty on't," 17
she earnestly endeavors to convince herself. Nevertheless,

despite the near capitulations and the near discoveries,
she remains physically faithful at the plays end. Inten-

tionally, Vanbrugh leaves the question of how long she will
remain so unresolved.
17 0 Bernbaum, The Drama of Sensibility, p. 78.

1 7 1 The Provok'd Wife, I, i, 117.
61
Whereas Lady Brute willingly married for wealth, Mrs.
Sullen was forced by her relatives to wed for the same

reason, although a typical Restoration heroine would have
rebelled against such coercion. Her husband, an uncouth,

taciturn country squire, spends his time carousing with his
bucolic neighbors. Boorishly insensitive to the agonizing
boredom of his city-bred wife, he frankly has no interest in
anything about her but her dowry. To pique his interest

through jealousy, Mrs. Sullen ostensibly begins an intrigue
with a French officer; the affair serves only to make him
more contemptuous and saturnine. Forced into wedding a man
with whom she has no common interests, denied even the
sparsest luxuries or the diversions of city life, Mrs.

Sullen, perhaps, is more mistreated than Lady Brute.
As in the case of her predecessor, an appealing solution
in the form of a wittily gay and handsome gallant presents
itself. Although a natural affinity draws her to the young
man, she determines to maintain her virtue; however, when
events conspire to place him in her bedroom alone at night,
only the turbulence of a robber attack saves her chastity.

Unlike Lady Brute, Mrs. Sullen does not leave her life status
quo. Instead, with a very modern attitude and a very face-

tious manner, she and her husband agree to the provisos of
their separation on the grounds of incompatibility.
Influenced by his time, Farquhar included no typical

gay heroine in his plays; on the other hand, his leading lady
62
is not as a rule the typical woman of sense either. Most

often she is somewhere between the two types, virtuous with-
out cant, witty without smut; she is frankly bent on marriage
and will accept only the rake of her choice. Disliking

maudlin sentimentality as much as she does risque cleverness,
Farquharts heroine usually exhibits a new naturalness and
unaffected charm.
Constance in The Twin Rivals is unusual because she is
almost the perfect woman of sense. Scorning the fashionable

whirl of city life, she would like to live quietly with the
man of her choice, Hermes. Like all serious heroines she

disapproves of coquettishness and admits her love, but still
she must maintain her modesty. When Hermes appears alive
after she is already in deep mourning for his death, she
cries aside: "Now passion, powerful passion, would bear me
like a whirlwind to his arms1--But my sex has bounds.--t1 7 2
Aloud she merely says, "'Tis wondrous, sirV,3 73 Hermes'

flowery cant of virtuous love and heavenly purity thrills
Constance to the soul, whereas a gay heroine would undoubtedly
laugh hysterically if a gallant said to her: "Here let me

worship that perfection whose virtue might attract the
listening angels, and make 'em smile to see such purity, so

like themselves in human shapeV"l74
1 7 2 The Twin Rivals, III, iii, 66-7.

173bid.,nIT, iii, 67. 174Ibid., III, iii, 66.
63
On the other hand, Bisarre in The Inconstant is almost
a gay heroine, although she is meant to be humorous rather
than ideal. Overhearing Duretete rail against women and
marriage, she determines to plague him for his rashness.
First, she will not talk at all, then she quotes Platonic
philosophies; and finally, she pretends to be a romping,
boisterous hoyden. In each instance it is exactly what the
awkward gallant least expects. When to get even he forces
her to rail against herself, she finishes the tirade by
assigning all the faults to him and adds to his shame by
disclosing a closet full of eavesdropping, giggling females.
She plainly sets forth her intentions to be a coquette:
. . . I would make a fool of any fellow in France.

Well, I must confess, I do love a little coquetting
with all my heart; my business should be to break
gold with my lover one hour, and crack my promise
the next; he should find me one day with a prayer-
book in my hand, and with a play-book another. He
should have my consent to buy the wedding-ring 1
and the next moment would I laugh in his face. 75
When Oriana chides her for her interest in such a silent,
unpolished fellow as Duretete, she sagaciously says:
had not I better have a lover like him, that I can
make an ass, than a lover like yours, to make a fool of
me.176
175The Inconstant, 1, i, 347. All references to this

play are to Farquhar, Dramatic Works, Vol. I.
1 7 6 Ibid., IV, ii, 383.
64
Obviously, these are not the sentiments of a gay heroine
who demands an equal partner for the duel of love; however,
her cavalier treatment of the gallant is certainly in the
earlier vein. Like a typically gay couple, the two deny that
they marry for love, but vow they'll wed to plague one
another.
Lucinda in Farquharts first play, Love and a Bottle,
is a combination of the serious and the gay. Like the early

Restoration heroine, she is really in love with Lovewell
but does not intend that he should know it. On the other
hand, she is desperately jealous, and after seeing her beau
with another woman, she decides, out of spite, to marry the
next one who asks her. Fond of humor, no matter how raw, she
is still so virtuous that the rake Roebuck is awed into cold-
ness. Although beautiful, young, and wealthy, she really
lacks the verbal wit she is reputed to have; however, this

is probably Farquhar's fault rather than Lucinda's.
Pursuing rather than dueling, Farquhar's heroines are
frequently in earnest and open pursuit of a man who prefers
his life as a rake. Leanthe in Love and a Bottle is very
reminiscent of Wycherley's Fidelia. In love with the rake

Roebuck, she disguises as a page and follows him to London;
while he is physically attracted to her, he ignores her be-

cause she is virtuous. When he decides to marry another for
money, Leanthe masquerades as his bride to be, then marries
and beds him before revealing her true identity. Apologetically,

she pleads: ". . . I beg you to pardon the effect of violent
passion, which has driven me into some impudent actions: but
none such as may blot the honour of my virtue or family."4 7 7
A good sport, Roebuck is so delighted by her love-making that
he does not really complain of the fraud.
Leanthe has virtue rather than wit and a headlong deter-
mination to win a man rather than skill in the courtship game.
Unlike a gay heroine she does not demand the right to be as
wicked as her beau; instead, she intends to make him as good
as she is.
In The Inconstant Oriana has even more trouble capturing
her man. She pretends to wed an old Spaniard, she enters a
nunnery, and she feigns madness; but her gallant manages to
see through every trick. At last determined to be near him
at all costs, she disguises as a page to serve as a companion
for his travels. While in this guise, she saves his life
when his wandering eye has handed him into the possession of
the whore and murderess Lamorce. Apparently, this brush with
death brings him to his senses, and he at last decides to
take the faithful girl for his wife.
Treated much more humorously than Leanthe, Oriana has
every reason to expect Mirabell to marry her, for they have
been contracted before his journey abroad. However, travel
has widened his interest in women, and upon his return home
1 7 7 Love
and a Bottle, V, iii, 111. All references to
this play are to Farquhar, Dramatic Works, Vol. I.
66
he refuses the faithful, determined girl. One amusing scene

is a parody on the typical proviso in which each tells the
other what bad marriage partners they will make--he, if

forced to marry against his will, and she, if he marries and
refuses to perform his marital duties. Here, she vows she
will do all the things the typical Restoration heroine does,
but it is obvious that her words are empty, but humorous,
threats.
As some critic has justly remarked, Farquhar allowed
his audiences to have their spice cake and eat it, too,
when he arranged for the gallant Sir Harry Wildair to be
misled into thinking the tenderly sedate Angelica a whore
in The Constant Co He could talk bawdily, and the girl
could remain modest and unbesmirched. Another weakly drawn

serious heroine, Angelica serves only to suffer Sir Harry's
indelicacies and at last, still virtuous, to agree to marry
the apologetic knight.
A wronged wife in the sequel, Sir Harry ildair, she

becomes a pursuing heroine; however, she stalks her man
gravely rather than gayly. Bent on redeeming her husband's
love and stilling a rival's malicious gossip, she succeeds
in both purposes after being reported dead, disguising as
Sir Harry's younger brother, and pretending to be a ghost.
Even though Sir Harry has not actually been unfaithful, he
is in the mood to be when Angelica starts her machinations.
Naturally, in the final scene he proclaims her the perfect
wife with whom he is well satisfied.

67
Besides Mrs. Sullen, Farquharts two best heroines are

Dorinda in The Beauxt Stratagem and Silvia in The Recruiting
Officer. Both are sensible if not really serious. Dorinda

is neither a typical heroine nor a typical country girl, al-
though she is a -rural maiden who has one of the two chief
female parts in the play. She has none of the coarse las-
civiousness and outspoken language of the typical country
girl, nor none of the love of fashionable life and biting
satire of the typical heroine, nor none of the rebellion
against authority of either. Instead, she adds common
sense and refinement to her beauty and wealth and is a woman
of charming naturalness whose lack of sophistication is
touching rather than ridiculous.
Aimwell, the destitute, fortune-hunting London gallant,
is the first really attractive and polished man she has ever
met, and she promptly falls in love with him. Realizing

her inexperience, she hesitates even about conversing with
him because she is "but a young gunner" and is "afraid to
shoot, for fear the piece should recoil. * t17 8 However,

when the sophisticated Londoner praises her wit and beauty
and proposes marriage, the maiden is frankly but modestly
delighted. Mrs. Sullen, her sister-in-law, chides her for
her open pleasure, but Dorinda will not dissemble. "Why,
my ten thousand pounds may lie brooding here this seven years,
17 8 The
Beauxt Strat .,IV, i, 306. All references to
this play are to Farquhar, Dramatic Works, Vol. II.
68
and hatch nothing at last but some ill-natured clown like

yours" she cries. Certainly there is no love duel nor
fear for freedom, but Dorinda has the Restoration heroine's
very frank approach to the physical side of marriage; "I
dont find anything unnatural in that thought,"18o she

remarks.
Sentimentalized in the last scene, she floweredly

professes pride in Aimwell's honesty when his love prompts
him to disclose his mercenary scheme to marry her fortune.
"Once I was proud, sir, of your wealth and title, but now
am prouder that you want it: now I can show my love was
justly levelled, and had no aim but love," 1 181 she proclaims.
When she subsequently learns that the wealthy titled brother
he has been impersonating has died, making Aimwell in reality
all he claimed to be, she nobly rejects his suit, just in
case, now that money is no longer a consideration, he may
prefer another. Of course, he does not, and a match is

made. Certainly, no country girl ever behaved with such
decorum, nor heroine with such sensibility before.

Perhaps the most outstanding of all masquerading, pur-
suing heroines is Farquhar's Silvia in Th Recrui n

Officer. Apparently, she is the author's ideal of what a
women should be .182 Certainly, he allows the hero, Captain
1 7 9 1bid.,
IV, i, 318.18(Ibid., IV, i, 317.
l8 lIbid., V, v, 343.
18 2Willard Connely, The Younger Geor e Farquhar,
The
Restoration Drama at Twilight (London,9O), p. 251.
69
Plume, to praise her lavishly: "I admire her frank, generous

disposition. Therets something in that girl more than woman,
her sex is but a foil to her. The ingratitude, dissimulation,
envy, pride, avarice, and vanity of her sister females, do
but set off the contraries in her.111 3
More generous toward fools and rivals than the typical
heroine, she privately cares for Plumets deserted mistress
and illegitimate child. Furthermore, she is contented with
life in her country town. Unaffected, honest, and healthy,
she is disgusted with female foibles and pretensions. "In
short, Melinda, I think a petticoat is a mighty simple
thing, and I am heartily tired of my sex,1S4 she tells a
friend.
Though tired of her sex, she still is of it, and she
desires Plume for a husband; he desires her for a mistress.
Plume sums up their early romance rather coarsely, but ac-
curately: "'Tis true. Silvia and I had once agreed to go
to bed together . . . but she would have the wedding before
consummation, and I was for consummation before the wedding.
She was a pert, obstinate fool, and would lose her maiden-
head her own way, so she may keep it for Plume.185
Her father is opposed to her marrying the soldier
because she is his sole heir; therefore, like an earlier
18 3The Recruiting Officer, I, i, 132. All references

to this play are to Farquhar, Dramatic Works, Vol. II.
184Ibid., I, i, 136. 185Ibid., I, i, 131-32.
70
heroine, she defIies her parent and disarms her lover by
posing as a young rake and joining Plumets regiment. While

disguised she neatly takes care of a rival by wooing and
winning her from the captain. When her identity is finally

revealed, Plume agrees to take her; and her father agrees
to let him.
CHAPTER III
THE WITWOULDS
Practically every female character in the comedy of
manners struggles to make the inner circle of the beau monde
of Restoration society, even though only the heroine is suc-

cessful. Predestined to disappointment, the frustrated as-
pirants fail principally because of their foolishness (the
fop), their ignorance (the country girl), their age (the

antiquated belle), or their promiscuity (the mistress, the
old man's darling, and the lady rake).

Although the heroine may hesitate to give up her free-
dom in love and marriage, nearly all other women in the plays
want a man, preferably a husband, more than anything else in
the world. Consequently, trick marriages are quite common.
Characterized by disguises, impersonations, false witnesses,
forgeries, these services are really quite unrealistic. If

the parson is genuine, the bonds hold despite fraud. It is
not the innocent who escape, as Stoll contends,1 but the
witty. Usually, fops and fools regardless of innocence are
firmly caught.
1 ElmerEdgar Stoll, "The tReal Society' in Restoration

Comedy; Hymeneal Pretenses," Modern Lanffage Notes, LVIII
(March, 1943), 178.
71
72
The masked marriage is the most frequent trick. In such

a wedding a maid or loose woman, masked, passes for the
heroine and espouses a fool silly enough to aspire to a
truewit. 2 A mask is not always necessary; sometimes pretend-
ing to have a fortune gulls an unwise person into matri-
mony.3 Usually it is the male who is fooled, but once in a

while a pretentious lady is brought down by the wedding. 4
False parsons save a few from bad marriages;5 however, young
girls whom men try to deceive with false parsons are usually
clever enough to arrange for a genuine priest. 6 Villains

are often forced rather than tricked into marriage in order
to avoid jail or other punishment.7
The Fop
One of the greatest sources of comedy in the plays of
the Restoration stage is the fop, a silly, conceited pre-
tender to wit or beauty. As Colley Cibber describes the

female fop, "Her language, dress, motion, manners, soul, and
2 Forexamples, see The Humourists, Shadwell; The Old

Bachelor, Congreve; The Virtuoso, Shadwell.
3 Forinstances, see Love in a Tub, Etherege; The True
Widow, Shadwell; The Mulberry Garden,~Sedley.
4For examples, see Love for Love, Congreve, and The
False Count, Behn.
5 For examples, see Love in a Bottle, Farquhar; The Old
Bachelor, Congreve; The Country Wife, Wycherley.
6 The Town Fop, by Behn, is one example.
7 Forinstance, see The Twin Rivals, Farquhar; The Miser,
Shadwell; Love in a Tub,Etherege.
73
body are in a continual hurry to be something more than is
necessary to be admirable." 8 Actually, her absurdities

generally proceed from an extreme vanity of her own beauty,
wisdom, or wealth, which causes her to become foolish in
almost every respect. In the plays of this period Vanbrughts

Lady Fanciful in The Provok'd Wife, Congreve's Lady Froth in
The Double Dealer, and Farquhar's Melinda in The Recru n

Officer are among the most important portrayals of this
farcical type.
Drawn with facility and strength, Lady Fanciful is one
of the most effective characters in English comedy. 9 She is

probably the greatest of all the female fops whose chief
weakness is a vanity of their own beauty. Her pride is so

great that she fears "The very Looking-Glass . . . flatters
me, it makes me look so very engaging."1 0 Incredulously she
asks her maid, 13ut is it possible my Eyes can be so languish-
ing--and so very full of Fire?" 1 Comparing herself to every

woman she meets, Lady Fanciful thinks the whole female popu-
lation suffers by contrast. Indeed, her vanity is so un-

limited that she writes poetry to herself in which she
ecstatically proclaims her beauty so magnificent that only
the gods are fit to praise it. 1 2
8
Colley Cibber, An Apology for His Life (London, 19114),
p. 90.
9Palmer, Comedy of_ Manners, p. 23.
1 0 The Provokt d Wife, I, 11, 120.
"1 Ibid. 1 2 Ibid., II, ii, 132.
74
Busily flattering herself all the time, she naturally
expects praise from everyone else. Her first words on the

stage form the characteristic question, "How do I look this
Morning?J1 3 When one of her women answers honestly that she
does not look her best, the maid is banished from the room
for lying Mademoiselle, the French servant, is more ex-
pedient; she flamboyantly seconds and tops her ladyshipts
self-commendations and receives a new garment for each
eulogy.
Actually, Lady Fanciful's illusions are not completely
flatulent. Heartfree, a gallant who feels that nature has

given her "Beauty to a Miracle" and a "Shape without a fault,"
which her vanity and artifice have spoiled, tries to encourage
her to give up her affectations. He promises that she will

be considered the most beautiful woman in town if she follows
his advice. Since she is convinced she already has that
reputation, Lady Fanciful scorns his counsel as impertinent
and absurd.
Considering her exaggerated approval of her physical
appearance, it is easy to see why she imagines that all
mankind is violently in love with her. As her neighbor

Lady Brute sagaciously says, "She concludes all Men her
Captives; and whatever Course they take, it serves to con-
firm her in that opinion.11 14 Substantiating Lady Brute's
- t
1 3 Ibid.,
I, 11, 120. 14
I-Ibidov Ip ii, 11go
75
opinion, the female fop remarks, ". . . i0tis an unutterable

pleasure to be adored by all the Men, and envytd by all the
Women-Yet I'll swear I'm concerned at the Torture I give

tem. Lard, why was I formed to make the whole Creation
uneasy?"15 Still, she judges herself to be so discriminating

that if the whole merit of mankind were invested in one man,
she would not condescend even to notice him.16
Through his audacity in ,censuring her, the bachelor
Heartfree captures the attention and perhaps the affection
of Lady Fanciful, who determines to humble and refine him.
However, her affectations make her ludicrous to him, and he

devotes himself to Bellinda, Lady Brute's niece. Wounded
pride and unrequited love make Lady Fanciful's jealousy as
extreme as her vanity. She disparages Bellinda, spies on

Lady Brute, encourages her maid to plot with the Brutes'
servant against her rival, writes poison pen letters, and
at last stoops to disguising herself as Heartfreets castoff
wife. Even in this ignominious disguise she cannot help
boasting of her beauty. When the extent of her folly is at

last revealed, she refuses to admit her mistakes or resign
one foible; instead, she leaves the stage as she entered it--
a foolishly affected and astonishingly vain female fop.
Whereas Lady Fanciful's folly arises from an exaggerated

sense of her own beauty, Lady Froth is ridiculous because of
her pretensions to wisdom, wit, and learning. A great
15 Ibid.,
I, ii, 122. 16Ibids
.I, ii, 121.
76
favorite with the scholars of Restoration drama, she is
judged the most fanciful and amusing character in this

play by one and one of the best and most complex characters
Congreve ever created by another.1 8 The triumph in her
characterization seems to lie in the fact that she is an ex-
tremely silly woman who is portrayed in such a fashion that
she becomes positively attractive. 19
A real bluestocking, she ostentatiously exhibits her

bits of learning on every occasion, striving always to use
multisyllabled words. In conversation with Cynthia, a young
bride-to-be, she uses the words phosphorus and hemisphere, 2 0
then asks, "Do you understand those two hard words? if you
don't, I'll explain tem to you . . . being derived from the
Greek, I thought you might have escaped the etymology." 2 1
French expressions affectedly dot her speech; one has bel
air or lc ks brilliant.
Considering creative writing a prerequisite to good
breeding, intelligence, and romance, she incredulously ex-
claims to Cynthia, who disclaims any literary achievements:
not writer bless mel how can Mellefont believe you
love him?" She herself writes "songs, elegies, satires,
1 7 Fujimura,
Restoration , p. 75
18 Gosse, Life of Congreve,
p. 43.
1 9 Lynch, Social Mode, p. 208.
20 The Double Dealer, I, i, 141.
21Ibid. 2 2 Ibid.
77
encomiums, panegyricks, lampoons, plays, or heroic poems," 2 3
and is, at present, engaged in writing a heroic poem to her

coachman. Her vanity in her own learning expands to include
her daughter, hopefully named Sappho, who at nine months "has
a world of wit, and can sing a tune already."2 4
A romanticist as well as a pedant, Lady Froth rhapsodizes
publicly over her love affair with her husband, Since rail-
ing at marriage is the style of the period and since her
husband is a great fool, this incident is particularly
amusing: "'My Lord, I have been telling Cynthia how much
I have been in love with you, I swear I have; IPm not
ashamed to own it now. Ah, it makes my heart leapt I vow,

I sigh when I think on't. . * .25 Now he must re-enact
scenes from their courtship while she trills her approval
and forces compliments about his style from all the spectators.
Notwithstanding her affection for her marriage, Lady
Froth becomes enamored of Hr. Brisk, as great a fool as her
husband. They are drawn together by their mutual pretensions
to knowledge, but Congreve leaves no doubt that their "as-
tronomical observations" include a study more carnal than
the planets*26
23 Ibid., IT, i, 140. 24Ibid., III, iii, 168.
25bi., L1, io141.

26Gosse, Life of_ Congreve, p. 43.
78
Vanity as a result of new-found wealth marks Melinda as

a fop. Previously, Worthy has offered to settle five hundred
pounds a year on her as his mistress. On the verge of ac-
ceptance, she has unexpectedly inherited twenty.thousand
pounds. As a result, she has not only refused Worthy's offer
but has also immediately become an affected female coxcomb.
From the pinnacle of her new-found wealth, she can afford
melancholia, overly delicate sensibilities, a passion for
poetry, and coquettishness.

As the play opens, Worthy's now honorable suit of
marriage is met with scornful and skittish refusal. A very
haughty woman of means, Melinda resents any mention of her
near loss of conventionality;- in fact, she spitefully con-
trives to banish her friend Silvia to the country because of
her insinuation about the former affair with Worthy.
In reality the wealthy fop sincerely loves Worthy, but
has decided to "coquette it with every fellow she sees,"2 7
as a punishment for his not wanting to marry her when she
was poor. Furious at his neglect of two days, a procedure
he has undertaken to force her to show her love, she vents
her anger on her maid, boxes a suitor's ears, tears her fans,
and at last cannot resist seeking out her lover. Her anger
reveals her concern, but still refusing to admit that it is
2 7 The Recruitin; Officer, I, i, 132.

79
Worthy himself she cares about, she cries, "One may like the
love and despise the lover, I hope. . 28

Unlike most female fops in Restoration drama who never
relent in their ridiculous fancies, Melinda reforms in the
end; doubtlessly her repentance was influenced by the grow-
ing taste for sentimental regenerations. Regretting her

malicious actions against Silvia, she determines to free her
and seek her forgiveness; and relenting toward Worthy, she
decides the score may be even now:
* . . you have been barbarous to me, I have been

cruel to you; put that and that together, and let
one balance the other. Now if you will begin upon
a new score . . . and behave yourself handsomely . .P
her ts my hand. I'll use you as a gentleman should
be.
Many other authors of the period found the pretentious
woman a subject for humor in their plays. Dryden was par-

ticularly successful in the creation of Melantha in Marriage
a-la- Mode, an exquisite piece of pure comic wit. 3 0 Described

by Cibber as a "finished impertinent . . . , the most com-
plete system of female foppery that could possibly be crowded
into the tortured form of a fine lady," 3 1 Melantha is beauti-
ful, young, rich, and ridiculous, especially for her preten-
sions to intellect, which like those of many fops of the
period, are based on an ostentatious love of French
28Ibid., III, Ii, 169. 2 9 Ibid.,

V, i ii, 212.
3 0 Summers, jjchley, p. 45.
>Cibber, Apolqgy, p. 90.
80
mannerisms and' use of French words. Rendering her conversation
elegant with studied postures and hastily memorized French
terms, she demands that her maid supply her with a new list
of words every day and is horrified if she brings only fourteen
or fifteen new ones. If her servant uses any unusual French
expressions during the toilette, Melantha purchases them with
a farandine gown or a new point gorget. Unlike most fops who
do not reform, Melantha with her beauty and fortune attracts
a man who successfully woos her "en Francais" with "abundance
of noise and no sense.t31a

Shadwell's Mrs. Fantast in Ep Wells is also a wittily
drawn Francophile. Along with her mother, old Lady Fantast,
she bewails the "want of the French tongue"3 2 in England and
apologizes for not having been born French. 3 3 Anything from

France appeals to her, and because of her foppish lack of dis-
crimination, she is completely misled by a barber masquerading
as a French count. Even his professional interest in hair and
wigs does not arouse her suspicions of a humbler origin, and
when her sensible sister disparages him, Mrs. Fantast cries,
10 madam, madamt. I beseech you, betray not your ill-breeding.
A French count a coxcombt Mon Dieul0 Not as original as
Melantha in her choice of words, she is sometimes just as

amusing; for example, she tells a suitor, "That thought's
very recherchee."5
31aMarriage a-la-Mode, V, i, 276. All references to

this play are to Dryden, Dramatic Works, Vol. III.
2p ells, II, , 376. 3 3 Ibid.,
II, i, 393.
34Ibid., II, 1, 385. 351bid., II, i, 384.
81
The Country Girl
To the beau monde of Restoration England, life centered
in London, collapsed in the country. In fact, banishment to
a rural existence was the real "bete noire"l of the city. Poor
transportation facilities left the widely scattered rustic
estates completely isolated from the fashionable world; con-
sequently, anyone from the country, regardless of sex, age,
or ancestry, was bound to be an ignoramus, fit only to be
laughed at for his lack of breeding and knowledge.
The bucolic fool is a frequent character in the comedies
of the period, and it is interesting to observe that the
country girl seems to faresomewhat better at the hands of
the playwrights than her male counterpart. For while he is
customarily so tricked and cheated by city sharpers that by
the play's end he is more than ready to return to his pastoral
quiet,3 6 she is usually well on her way toward learning the
mores of city life as she leaves the stage. Still the rustic
lass is never accepted as a part of society during the comedy;
want of breeding and perhaps want of brains deprive her of wit
and judgment, absolutely essential qualities for a woman of

the beau monde.
Perhaps because her background is enough to make her
humorous, the rural maid usually has the advantages of
riches, youth, and beauty. Strictly cloistered by her
36For examples, see Love in a Tub, Etherege; Sir Patient

Fancy, Behn; The Old Bachelor, Congreve; and Love and a
Bottle, Farquhar.
82
guardians, she is physically innocent, but through ignorance
and lack of opportunity rather than through virtue and lack
of inclination. Once she arrives in town, she soon proves
herself as lascivious and greedy as any city woman by eagerly
seeking a husband, a gallant, or both,as well as a coach, ex-
pensive clothing, and all the other fashionable pleasures.
Insatiably curious, innately cunning, and naively outspoken,
she cannot hide her desires nor be kept from attaining them.
The three best examples of this rowdy type are Margery
Pinchwife in Wycherleyts The Country Wife; Prue in Congreve's
Love for Love; and Hoyden in Vanbrughts The Relapse. While
these lasses are individuals, they still exemplify the typical
country girl characteristics. However, it is noteworthy that
although all are licentious, each succeeding creation becomes
less a libertine in satisfying her sexual appetites. Margery
frankly commits adultery; Prue is willing to be seduced before
marriage, but her affair is interrupted; Hoyden does not
even consider love without marriage, yet she is definitely
eager for her wedding. Because of the disapproval of the
ladies toward extramarital sex experience on the stage, it
was becoming very unpopular in the last decade of the seven-
teenth century for any woman, regardless of her willingness,
to be ravished during a play. Still it would be incorrect to
think that either Prue or Hoyden is really reformed; society
stymies them, but their frank lustiness leaves no doubt that,
like Etherege's famous play title, they would if they could.

83
Margery Pinchwife, the first outstanding rural maid, is

married to a jealous old coxcomb who chooses a young, in-
experienced country girl so that, as the rake Horner says,

he can keep a whore to himself. 37 Hoping to insure her ig-
norance, Pinchwife keeps Margery locked in her room, where
his constant warnings of city temptations whet her curiosity
about things she never knew existed before. She tells

Alithea, her sister-in-law, "Nay, I confess I was quiet
enough, till my Husband told me, what pure lives the London
Ladies live. . . ." Obstinately determined to enjoy as

many of the fashionable pleasures as possible, she is so
successful that linchwife's reason for marrying her becomes
invalid.
Described by critics of Restoration drama as "in-
stinctively wicked,""3 9 tnturallyvile,,,40 and "unconsciously

naughty,,Lt Margery is typical of comedy country women in her
natural penchant toward carnal gratification. Since her
37 The Country Wife, I, i, 20.

38
Ibid., III, i, 35.
3 9 Harold
N. Hillebrand, "Review of the Todd-Naylor
Edition of The Country Wife by Wycherley," Journal of Enslish
and German Philology, XXXI (October, 1932)7,C0.
40John Wilcox, The Relation of Moliere to Restoration
Comedy (New York, 1935, p. 91.
H4lerbert Elsworth Cory, "William Wycherley: The
Country
Wife," Dryden and His Contemporaries, Vol. IV in Representa-
tive English Comedies, edited by Charles Mill Gayley, 4 vols.
FTe York, 1903-36).,p. 264.
84
husband is incapable of satisfying her desires, she eagerly
seizes every opportunity to learn and to practice the ways
of adultery. Her starved senses thoroughly aroused, she is
ready for any handsome male--butler, actor, farmer, rake.
She fixes her attention on Horner because he is available,
and once her lust is centered, her libido will not let her
rest until she has attained him.
Apparently Margery is one of the least intelligent of the
Restoration country women. No one, whether the scholars of
drama or the characters in the play, seems to have a very
high opinion of the country wifets mental abilities. Called

systematicallyy and sustainedly stupid" by one critic,42 she
is scornfully dismissed as the "idiot wife of a country
squire" by another. 4 3 Her husband and lover frequently refer
to her simplicity and also label her an "idiot," whether
their moods are loving or angry. Her ignorance is amply
illustrated; for example, she densely believes a casual
compliment to indicate true feeling and takes a just as
casual affair to be a lasting love. Furthermore, she is
completely dependent on Lucy, the maid, for the plot which
cuckolds her husband. Realizing her own inadequacies, she
quavers when her schemes are detected by Pinchwife: "I
have just got time to know of Lucy . . . who first set me
on work, what lye I shall tell next, for I am e'ne at my
4ElwinThe Playgoerts Handbook, p. 76.
43Palmer, The Comedy of Manners, quotes Macaulay, p. 23.

wits end--"'W She does not even have sense enough to keep
quiet about her desires, before or after she has given herself
to Horner. Nodd-Taylor is very much in the minority when she
describes largery as a kind of Mulberry Garden Desdemona, the
flower of truth and honesty, 4 5 for it is not her integrity, but

the fact that she "is not even a novice in casuistryi46 which
makes her foolishly blurt out her true thoughts. In fact, it
is only because of the combined pressures of Hornerts seraglio,
his friends, and Lucy that Margery reluctantly agrees to save
her marriage. However, for all her nescience, she blunders
through as well as the experienced city wives. Her desires
are satisfied, her husband is ignorant of it, and her honor,
while privately spoiled, is publicly unspotted.

A reflection of Margery Pinchwife,0 4 Prue is Congrevet s
contribution to the beautiful young rustic, eager to exchange
her country innocence for city experience. Certainly she is

as untutored in the ways of society as her predecessor; how-
ever, though unlearned, she does not seem stupid. The demure
cunning with which she learns her lessons and the abandoned
wantonness with which she tries to put them into practice

are in the finest spirit of comedy.)8
44 The Country Wife, V, i, 72.

4 5 Hillebrand, "Review of Todd-Naylor Edition," p. 606.
4 6 William Hazlitt, "On Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh,
and Farquhar," Lectures on English Comic Writers, Vol. III
of The Collected Works of William Hzlitt (London, 1903),
p. 76
k7bid., p. 77.
48Alexander Charles Ewald, editor, 4illiam Congreve,
Mermaid Series (New York, 1949), p. 195.
86
Mr. Tattle, her teacher, is a foolish fop whose pseudo
grace and wit strike the naive country miss as the height
of elegance. When he asks her if he may make love to her,

she quickly acquiesces. Appalled at such unabashed frankness,
her would-be lover instructs her in the fashionable way of
making love: she must always say no when she means yes.,
always verbally withdraw while she physically yields. De-
lightedly she cries, "O Lord, I swear this is purely I like
it better than our old-fashioned country way of speaking
one's mind." 4 9 Thus she quickly masters the lessons, and
when he asks if she will show him to her bedchamber, she
replies, "No, indeed, won't I, but I shall run there and
hide myself from you behind the curtains.5O Suggesting his
all too obvious intentions, he gets the correct answer from
her: ". . . then I'll be more angry, and more complying."61
As he follows her, he approvingly sighs, "Oh, my dear apt
scholarL#52 However, the lesson is not completed, for they
are interrupted by Pruets nurse.
Naturally, the pupil cannot abide the rough seaman
designed for her husband, after such charming instruction
from the perfume-drenched Mr. Tattle. When her tutor seems
uninterested in marriage, Prue reverts to her bucolic manners
and demands that her father force the fop to wed, but
4 9Love for Love, II, 247.

,ii
50Ibia_., li, 1i, 248. 51 bi.q2Iid,

87
Mr, Tattle, aspiring to higher things, unequivocally rejects
her. Somewhat daunted, Prue is undefeated. Insisting on
marriage at once, she protests as her father ushers her out
to be locked up again:
What, and must I not have eter a husband then?

Mhat, must I go to bed to nurse again, and be a
child as long as she's an old woman? Indeed but
I won't; for now my mind is set upop a man, I will
have a man some way or other. . . . '3
Hoyden is the last great interpretation of the typical
Restoration country girl. More comically cloistered than
her predecessors, she is locked in her room the minute a
male approaches the family estate, and her father and all
the servants arm themselves with guns, clubs, pitchforks,
and scythes to protect her innocence. Proud of his meticulous
care, her father gloats, "Ah poor Girl, she'll be scared out
of her Wits on her Wedding Night; for, honestly speaking,
she does not know a Man from a Woman, but by his Beard, and
his Britches."54 Belying his words, Hoyden, as frankly
outspoken as Margery and Prue, rails against her father's
oversolicitousness of her virtue:
Itts well 1 have a Husband a coming, or, Icod, I'd

marry the Baker, I would so. No body can knock at
the Gate, but presently I must be lockt up; and here's
the young Greyhound Bitch can run loose about the
House all the day long, she can; 'tis very well.2
53bia., V, il, 300.

54
The Relapse, II, v, 60. All references to this play
.
are to Vanbrugh, Comple te Works, Vol. I

.
55Ibid., III, v, 59.

88
Taine says she has the spirit of a goat;5 6 certainly, she

can hardly wait for her nuptials. When told she must delay
the ceremony for a week, she is horrified: "A week,--why,
I shall be an old Woman by that time."57
Although eager for fulfillment of her sensual desires,
she is indifferent as to who satisfies them, for just as
important as her lust is her avidity for the life of a London
lady. Consequently, as long as a man can place her in the
midst of elegant urban life, she will take him. Explaining

her attitude to her governess, she says of one of her suitors:
Love him? Why do you think I love him, Nurse?

Icod, I would not care if he were hanged, so I
were but once Married to him--No--that which pleases
me, is to think what work I'll make when I get to
London; for when I am a Wife and a Lady both
Nurse, Icod, I'll flaunt it with the best of 'em.58
It is primarily to attain the frivolities of the city
that she becomes a bigamist. Secretly married to Squire
Fashion, who pretends to be his brother Lord Foppington in
order to gain the rich heiress, she decides to conceal her
first nuptials, marry the real peer, and become a titled
lady. Even though she finds the young squire much more
attractive physically (". . . he'd have made a Husband worth

two of this I have") 9 she still prefers the wealth and pomp
5 6 Hippolyte Adolphe Taine, Histo of English Liters-

ture, translated by H. Van Laun (Philadelphia,15979), II, 200.
57Te Relapse, IV, i, 62. 58_Ibid., IV, i, 61.
591bid., V, v, 93.
89
which go with Lord Foppington ("If I leave my Lord, 1 must
leave my Lady too; and when I rattle about the Streets in
my Coach, they'll only say, there goes Mistress--mistress--

60
kistress what?") She renounces her second marriage only
when she learns that the two hundred pounds promised for pin
money is to cover all expenses, not just pins; then she de-
cides to purchase her first husband a knightship and live as
lavishly as possible on her own fortune.

Farquharts two inexperienced country girls are somewhat
atypical, First of all, they are from the lower classes and
have no wealth. Rose, a pretty young farm girl in The Re-
cruitin Officer, is quite lusty in her desire for love and
marriage, but unlike most Restoration country maidens, she
does not yearn for London. Instead, her ambition is merely
to be a captains lady in a velvet saddle upon a white horse.
Although she converses almost entirely in double-entendres,
it is almost impossible to decide whether she is naively
innocent or mischievously naughty. At any rate, she is still
physically virtuous at the end of the play--perhaps more from
want of opportunity than from moral conviction.
In The Beaux'Stratagem Farquhar portrays the delightful
Cherry Boniface, daughter of a rural innkeeper. Unlike the
usual country parent, Cherry's father urges her to make love
to Archer, a disguised gallant, in order to acquire knowledge
of his money. Although she admittedly loves him, if she
60 Ibid., V, v, 94.
90
yields her final favors, Farquhar never says so. He does
feature her in one of the most charming of all lesson scenes
in which she recites the witty catechism of love taught her
by Archer, 6 1 Not typically ignorant ofthe fashionable
world, she reads plays, keeps a monkey, suffers with "vapours,
and speaks with real wit. She is, in fact, so obviously not
a country bumpkin that Archer suspects she must be of better
ancestry than Boniface can afford.
The Antiquated Belle
Conflict between youth and age is traditional, but sel-
dom on the stage has it become as vicious as during the
Restoration.62 Neither reverence nor mercy is shown to
those past their youth. For the woman this means that at
about twenty her day is over,63 and at thirty she is old. 6 4
1f she accepts her limitations, she will be ignored; if she
attempts to overcome them, she will be ridiculed.

In her study of the treatment of the aged in Restoration
drama, Elizabeth Mignon gave two main reasons for the cruelly
contemptuous attitude toward the old. First, Charles IIts
return to the throne brought a revolt from and derision of
the constricting morality of puritanism; naturally, the

elderly were associated with the past and its discarded be-
liefs. Second, the rigid social structure of the period which
6 1 The Beauxt Stratagem, II, ili, 269-71.

6 2Mignon, Crabbed Aqe, PP. 3-4.
63p. 21. 6 4 Ibid.,
p. 29.
91
made wit and charm essential for acceptance into the beau
monde excluded all who had passed their prime. Age itself
prevented one from being freshly beautiful, aptly witty,
and modernly up to date on society's latest fads and
foibles.65 Thus, the old must stumble and fall behind,
perennial witwoulds.
Most painstakingly developed and amusingly drawn of
the old women are the superannuated belles, those ladies
past rambling age who cannot give up the sport. The more
they try to camouflage or compensate their decayed charms,
the more they are mocked and mortified. Eagerly proclaiming
their vanishing or nonexistent charms, they pursue gallants
who frequently already prefer their daughters or wards. Al-
though amicably available for any affair, the old belles
feign a great disgust for sexual gratification and hypo-
critically profess honor dearer than life. Since they are
usually widows, there is nothing morally wrong with their
desire to marry, but socially the idea of the deteriorated
female seeking a brisk young gallant was contemptible to the
Restoration beau monde. No old woman in the plays of this
period succeeds in either wedding or bedding except through
money or trickery. As a consequence, she is usually
maliciously revengeful.
65jbid.., pp. 4-5.

92
One of the first and one of the best portraits of the
amorous old woman is Lady Cockwood, the "she" in Etherege's
She Wou'd IfShe Coutd. Although practically every scholar
of the Restoration period discusses her, there is disagreement
as to what primarily motivates Lady Cockwood. Naturally,
Mignon finds age the key to her characterization.66 To Gosse,

however, she is "a female Tartuffe, a woman of loud religious
pretensions who demands respect and devotion for her piety,
and who is really engaged all the time in vain prosecution
of a disgraceful intrigue." 6 Wilcox vehemently dismisses
this opinion as being "long since refuted by repeatedly
observed evidence" and claims that her only hypocrisy con-
sists in her countrified efforts to fool her husband and to
maintain the externals of social decency.68 To him,69 as

well as to Brett-Smith, she is simply a lascivious woman
who pursues gallants because they will not pursue her; 7 0
thus, her motivation lies in the reversal of the hunter and
the quarry roles. Also disagreeing with Gosse, Elwin finds
her too human for a Tartuffe, although he does believe that
she has added an eleventh commandment-- "thou shalt not be
661bid., p. 39.
6 7 EdmundGosse, "Sir George Etherege," Seventeenth Cen-
tury Studies, A Contribution to the Histor of English Poetry
(London, 1893), p. 243.
68
Wilcox, The Relation of Moli're, p. 18.
69 Ibid., p. 78.
7 0 Brett-Smith, Etherege I, lxxvi.
93
found out"--which governs all her behaviour. 1 Taking a

different approach, Lynch believes her "a woman of social
pretensions whose attempts at illicit romance are wrecked
by the pressure of a social standard she lacks the intelli-
gence to comprehend." 72 Fujimura finds her, instead, a

naturalistic study of a sensual woman unhappily married to
a man who shuns his marital duties.7 3 Kronenberger agrees

that she is driven by sexual desires but finds her vanity
and malicious spite are also strong motivating forces.7 4
Certainly her age is against her. She is referred to in

the play as an "old Rook," 75 an "old devil," 7 6 and an "old
Haggard, "7 among other derogatory labels. She has definitely

reached the age beyond which no Restoration woman may parti-
cipate in the love game without appearing ludicrous. Courtall

finds her "the very spirit of impertinence, so foolishly fond
and troublesom, that no man above sixteen is able to endure
her.
There is no denying she is a notorious hypocrite, for
while she is unscrupulously seeking an intrigue, she is
7 1 Elwin,
Playgoers Handbook, p. 65.
7 2 Lynch,
Social Mode, p. 154.
73 Fujimura,
Restoration CPP 95-96.
74 Kronenberger, Thread of La p@. 46.
75She Woud If She Coutd, 1I, i, 104.
76 Ibid.,
IV, ii, l3. 77 Ibid.,
III, 1, 122.
78 Ibid., I, i, 98.
94
fervidly declaring herself the soul of honor, Her husband,

however, is probably the only one taken in by her frequent
avowals of strictest conventional morality. Calculating

on his abject shame in mistreating the woman he considers
his fond, virtuous wife when he goes on a spree, she covertly
encourages his lapses so that she can do as she pleases during
his periods of penance. One of the best scenes in the play
finds her engaged in a surreptitious meeting in a public
restaurant to which, she learns, her husband has come for
the same purpose as she. Furious at the interruption and
fearful of discovery, she is, nevertheless, fervently bent
on upbraiding her husbands perfidy. Although she has quite

a struggle with her mixed emotions, she at last determines to
blame her husband before he can censure her.
Even before her maid, who frequently must take an active
part in arranging clandestine meetings, Lady Cockwood keeps
up her pretensions to honor. Following an interview with the
gallant Courtall which she has sought, she berates Mrs.
Sentry for leaving her alone with a man:

L. Cock. What a strange thing is this will you
never take warning, but still be leaving me alone in
these suspicious occasions?
Sent. I was but in the next room, Madam.

L. Cock. What may Mr. Courtall think of my
innocent intentions? I protest if you serve me so
again, I shall be strangely angry: you should have
more regard to your Lady's Honour. 7 9
7 9 Ibid.,
II, 1ii, 113.
Mrs. Sentry is not fooled, however, for she realizes that if
she stays in the room, her lady "will not speak kindly . .
.
a week after."80 Trying to impress everyone with her in-
nocence, Lady Cockwood feigns great reluctance in going to
a public eating house: "Dear, how I trembled I never was
in one of these houses before. 8l Again Sentry, for one, is

not impressed; she says aside: "This is a Bait . . . ; she
has been in most of the Eating-Houses about Town to my
knowledge."82 It is indeed this virtuous cant which en-
ables Courtall to elude her passionate advances, for he
pretends so great a concern for her honor that he will not
touch her. Appreciative of the respectful solicitude, but
nonetheless eager for the lewd deed, she suggests, "Methinks
you are too scrupulous, heroick Sir."13
Although she is not really very particular as to who
satisfies her lust, she is furious when she realizes Courtall
has more interest in her niece than in herself: "How am I
filled with indignation To find my person and my passion
both despised, and what is more, so much precious time fooled
away in fruitless expectation: . . .4 Like all amorous
old huntresses, she finds her desires stronger than any
shame and undeterred by rebuffs; immediately she begins a
8 0 Ibid. 8 1Ibid., ITI, iii, 129. 2Ibid.

83Ibid., III, 1, 124. 84Ibid.,iv, 1, 145.
96
new intrigue. Still, she maliciously tries to ruin Courtall's
love affair with her niece and his friendship with her hus-
band by maligning his character.
The fifth act brings ignominious defeat to Lady Cockwood.
Her dear honor is safe, but her equally dear passion is un-
satisfied. Certainly Fortune was never before so unkind to
the Ambition of a Lady, 85 she mourns. Resolving to retire

to the country, she probably will take Courtall t s advice to
"entertain an able Chaplain," 8 6 for she remains as obdurate
as ever in her sexual desires.8 7
Unlike Lady Cockwood, Lady Woodvil in Etheregets Man of
Mode does not seriously strive to enter into the charmed
circle of youth; instead, she looks back to the "good old
days." As the gallant Medley says,. she is "a great admirer
of the Forms and Civility of the last Age." 8 8 Constantly

berating the present modes as uncouth and vulgar, she de-
clares, ". . . it was not so when I was a young Woman."8 9
Perhaps her condemnations are somewhat justified, for "An

antiquated beauty may be allowed to be out of humour at the
freedoms of the present," 9 0 a rake remarks.
However, she refuses to admit that youth is necessary
to charm and beauty, thereby insinuating that she still
85Ibid., V, i, 178. 8 61bid.
8 7Fujimura,
Restoration 4yp. 98.
8 8 Man of Mode, I, i, 193.
8Ibid.,ITI, i, 223. 9 0 Ibid.,
I, i, 193.
97
possesses both qualities. In the following excerpt Dorimant,
a gallant posing as Mr. Courtage, a lover of the past as his
name implies, mocks her delusions of glamorous age:
Dor. They pretend to be great Criticks in Beauty,

by their talk you would think they lik'd no face, and
yet can doat on an ill one, if it belong to a Landress
or a Taylors daughter: they cry a Woman's past her
prime at 20, decayed at four and 20, old and unsuffer-
able at 30.
L. Wood. Unsufferable at 301 That they are in

the wrong, Mr. Courtage, at five and 30, there are
living proofs enough to convince tem.
Dor. Ay, Madam) there's Mrs. Setlooks, Mrs.

Droplip, and my Lady LowdL shew me among all our
opening Buds, a face that promises so much Beauty
as the remains of theirs.
L. Wood. The depraved appetite of this Vicious

Age tast's nothing but green Fruit, and loaths it
when 'tis kindly ripened.
Dor. Else so many deserving Women, Madam, would

not be so untimely neglected. 9 1
Even worse than her delusions of ripened charm and
beauty is the fact that she has not given up the pursuit of
romance. Although she does not appear to have the burning
sexual urge Kronenberger discerns, 9 2 she certainly does try
to captivate Dorimant, still disguised as Mr. Courtage.
Harriet describes scornfully her mother's attempts to be
alluring. "See, seet her head tottering, her Eyes staring,
and her under-lip trembling--" 9 3 Although she is already
9 1 Ibid., IV, i, 245-46.

9 2 Kronenberger, Thread of Laughter, p. 145.
93Man of Mode, IV, i, 255.

98
tired, Lady Woodvil cries, "One Dance morel I cannot refuse
you, Mr. Courtage.9F94 To just what point her rebudding

sexual drive would have carried her is uncertain, for
Dorimant's true identity is revealed at their next meeting.
As usual, age is defeated. Lady Woodvil's utmost care
to keep her daughter from the wicked men of the period, es-
pecially Dorimant, whom she believes to be the worst, has
utterly failed, and she, of course, appears ridiculous for
her attempts at romance with the man she most hates and
fears. Ignobly beaten, she is not revengeful as most old
belles, but determines to run back to the woods where she
belongs and since she cannot avoid it to let youth have its
own way.
Perhaps the most desperate of all the old huntresses
is Wycherley's Lady Flippant in Love in a Wood. A widow,
she is frantically searching for a husband while pretending
an aversion to matrimony. She explains her actions by say-
ing, "I cannot deny, but I always rail against Marriage
Which is the Widows way to it certainly.,'95 However, no one
is either fooled or attracted by her subterfuge. Since her
fortune is gone, her need is particularly urgent; conse-
quently, she has stooped to engaging a bawd to match her
with Sir Addlepot, an awkward knight reputed to have money.
941bid ., IV, i, 246.
95Love in a Wood, I, i, 74. All references to this

play are to Wycherley, Complete Works, Vol. I.
99
Desperate as her need for marriage is, her desire for
sexual satisfaction seems even more frenzied. Of course,
she is just as hypocritical about her lusts as she is her
pursuit of a husband; for example, disparaging Lydia, her
young friend, for wanting to walk in the park, she deliber-
ately loses the girl because she thinks she will have a
better chance of being accosted if she is alone. Nymphomani-
acal, the widow hates anything which interferes with the
gratification of her carnality. When the gallants she has
flirted with in the park do not follow her, she cries in
vexation: ". . . a PoxI the lazie Rogues come not, or they
are Drunk and cannot run; Oh drink, abominable drinkI instead
of inflaming Love, it quenches it. . . Curse on all Wine,
even Rhenish-Wine and Sugar--"9 Her avid desire reaches
hilarious peaks when she literally chases a gallant around
the room still protesting her aversion to sex and when she
seduces her brother's clerk because she nearsightedly does
not recognize him as Sir Addlepot in disguise.
Like Lady Cockwood, Lady Flippant is too old to seek
out amours without appearing laughable. Although she claims

97 other members of the cast
her "Person's in good repair,
do not seem to agree with her. Sir Addlepot describes her
as "bow-leggId, hopper-hipped, and betwixt Pomatum and
96 Ibid., 9 7 Ibid., I, i, 73.

II, ii, 116.
100
Spanish Red, has a Complexion like a Holland Cheese, and no
more Teeth left, than such as give a Haust-gaust to her
breath. . . .9 Unable to face the truth about herself even
after overhearing this verbal picture, Lady Flippant rational-
izes: "Oh Rascall he has heard some body else say all this
of me. . * *"99 Attempts to remedy her defects merely point
up her senility: ". . . my eyes are none of the best, since
I have ustd the last new eye wash of Mercury water. . .,100
she confesses. Still she does capture her knight, although
the victory is a hollow one. Both are fortune hunters, who
do not have good hunting.
Although Kronenberger finds Lady Flippantt s furious
passion appalling rather than amusing, 01 to Fujimura she

102
is the most original and humorous character in the play.
Certainly, she is even bolder and franker in her speech than
most other women of her type, yet she is also witty and
satirical. Astonished when asked if she did not love her
first husband, she remonstrates: "Fye . . . do you think
me so ill bred, as to love a Husband." 1 0 3 Not as fine an
over-ell. creation as her predecessor Cockwood or her suc-
cessor Wishfort (The Way of the World, Congreve), Lady
Flippant is still enjoyable, especially since most of her
9 9 Ibid.
98Ibid., Ii, i, 91.
10'Ibid.,
0 IV, ii, 122.
1 0 1 Kronenberger, Thread of Laughter, p. 58.
1 0 3 Love in a Wood, III, ii, 116.
101
speeches furnish both the pleasure of her wit and the
author's ironic exposure of her insincerity.104
Probably the best known of this species is Congrevets
Lady Wishfort in The Way of the World; the critics, however,
are divided concerning the merits of her characterization.
Mignon calls her the "greatest of all superannuated belles,itlQ5
and Elwin, seeing her as the central figure in the play,
finds her "a delightfully diverting comic creation.fl10 6 On
the other hand, Fujimura feels that "Congreve himself did
not regard her too highly, because she is not sufficiently
natural, and ingredients of her character are too apparent,n 1 0 7
and Dobrde claims she is almost an abstract satire.108 The

09
nineteenth century scholars Dobr4e1 and Street find her a
pathetic figure, approaching tragedy,110 and Ward, a writer

of the same period, concludes that she is too offensive for
comedy. However, most modern critics believe her to be a
comic character for whom only Victorian sentimentalists

112
could weep.

105mignon, Crabbed A ge, p. 121.
1 0 6 Elwin, Playgoer's Handbook, p. 176.
l0 8 DobreRestoration Comedy, p. 147. 1 0 91bid.
1 1 0 Mignon, Crabbed A-e, p. 121.

1 1 1 Ward, History of English Dramatic Literature, p. 475.
1 1 2 Mignon, Crabbed Age, p. 121.
102
No matter what the period, most scholars agree that her
language is a magnificent achievement. Meredith's judgment
is often quoted:
Her flow of boudoir Billingsgate is unmatched for the

vigour and pointedness of the tongue. It spins along
with a final ring, like the voice of Nature in a
Fury, and is indeed the racy eloquence of the educated
fishwife.1l3
A "vocabulary of vituperation both rich and rare .. . , very
piquant without being disgusting" is Tupper's opinionl1 4
and Lynch discerns a "shrewd cutting irony and keen sense of
humor" which extends even to the knowledge of her own decay-
ing charms.115 It is her novel malapropisms which most im-
press Fujimura, who believes she is "better and wittier than
Mrs. Malaprop, because her mistakes are not nonsensical but
have an ingredient of sense in them.k,16

At fifty-five Lady Wishfort has deteriorated past re-
demption in her physical appearance, but she resolutely tries
to repair the damage with paint and wine. Her decay is
vividly pointed out by the other characters; for example,
Waitwell, a valet disguised as a knight, calls her "the
antidote to desire. tll7 When asked if he does not recognize
113Meredith, An Essay o n Comedy, p. 101.
ll 4 Tupper and Tupper, Representative English Dramas,

p. 299.
115Lynch, Social Mode, p. 211.
116
Fujimura, Restoration Comedy, p. 195.
11 7 The
Way of the World, IV, ii, 385.
103
his own mistress, a footman replies, "Why, truly, . . . I

cannot safely swear to her face in a morning, before she is
dressed. Tis like I may give a shrewd guess at her by
this time." 11 8 Even Lady Wishfort is at times conscious of
her defects. When Foible suggests that she has frowned too
rashly, for there are "some cracks discernible in the white
varnish," the lady screams, "Cracks, sayest thou?--why, I am
errantly flayed--I look like an old peeled wall."119
Still, though her equipment may not be in the best re-
pair, she is not going to give up the game of love and mar-
riage. Before she ever appears on the stage, the audience
is informed that "my lady will do anything to get a hus-
band" 1 20 and that "the good lady would marry anything that
resembled a man.l 2 1 Confirming these opinions, her first

122
speech to "Sir Rowland" suggests a wedding.
Actually she cannot really comprehend that all her
charms are gone. Grotesquely assuming that she is still
alluring, she plans her actions with "Sir Rowland":
. . . a little scorn is alluring . . . but tenderness

becomes me best--a sort of dyingness--you see that
picture has a sort of a--ha, Foiblel a swimmingness
in the eye--yes Ill look so--my niece affects it;
but she wants features. 1 2 3
Later, she even works out a complete strategy for the first
meeting, finally choosing to give "his heart the first
1 1 8I1bid., III, 111, 363. 1 19 Ibid., III, i, 355.

1 2 0 Ibid., II, li, 344. 1 2 1 Ibid.
1 2 2 Ibid., IV, ii, 383. 1 2 31bid., III, i, 355.
104
impression" from a couch where she will be leaning upon one
elbow with a foot dangling off the side. 0, nothing is
more alluring than a levee from a couch, in some con-
fusion . . . ," she decides.12 4
Desperately deluding herself as much as possible, she
tries to minimize her age by declaring her nephew really too

125
young to marry, although he is forty. Her illusions of
charm become so magnified that she expatiates Mirabellts
pretended courtship126 of her into "the hours that he has
died away at my feet, the tears that he has shed, the oaths
that he has sworn, the palpitations, . . . the trances and
the tremblings, the ardours and the ecstacies, the kneel-
ings, . . . the heart-heavings. . . .1*27
Something of a hypocrite, Lady Wishfort superficially
protests adherence to conventions and proclaims Ia mortal
terror at the apprehension of offending against decorums.11l2 8
Censuring both plays and playhouses, she stocks her reading
shelves with puritanical literature, but good red wine in
ample proportions sits alongside. Her cabal nights are a
subterfuge to rail at men while she is really on the prowl
for a husband. When her schemes have gone awry, she begs
Marwood to retire to the country to become a shepherdess
124bid., Iv, 1,9371. 1251bid., III, 11,4358.

Mignon, Crabbed Age, p. 126.
127Theay of the World, V, ii, 384.
128Ibid., 112, ,356.

105
with her, 1 2 9 but only four pages later she refuses to promise
not to wed on the grounds that marriage may prove necessary
to her health.1 3 0 Thus she leaves no doubt as to the eager-

ness of her physical desires--her name alone would discover
her lust, but still she disclaims any 'sinister appetite,
or indigestion of widowhood; nor . . . lethargy of con-

tinence--.4131
A dictatorial, irritable, garrulous old harridan in her
boudoir, she is domineering, dignified, and baroquely polite
in her drawing room. Her servants are so abused that they

rarely stay more than 0 week; on the other hand, her home
is the center of activities for her social circle. She

wavers from acute realism ("Smellst he would poison a
tallow-chandler and his familyt") 1 3 2 to decorous nicety
(I have an affair of moment that invades me with some pre"
cipitation. . . .",)133 in the space of seconds, And her

rages are awe-inspiring. The servants hide; family and
friends duck.
Of course, none of Lady Wishfortts plans work out. She

not only is unable to revenge herself upon Mirabell, but she
is also forced to give him Millamant and a dowry, thereby
making the gallant the happiest of men. However, the most

calamitous misfortune is that she does not acquire a husband.
1291b ,sV, ip 391, 130Ibid . ,45,

1 3 1 Ibid., IV, i, 384. 1 3 2 Ibid., IV, 11, 382.
1 3 31bid.,
IV, ii, 383.
106
A humiliated old woman, she recognizes her failing strength:
"As I am a person, I can hold out no longer,--I have wasted
my spirits so to-day already, that I am ready to sink under
the fatigue. . . ."t134 Nevertheless, there is no indication
that she has given up her "superannuated frippery." Tomorrow
will find her painting, drinking, screaming, flattering,
and searching secretly but diligently for a man. The next
"Sir Rowland" definitely stands a chance.
The amorous old huntress is featured by many other
Restoration playwrights.135 Particularly fond of the type,
Shadwell portrays such examples as Lady Loveyouth in The
Humourists, Lady Gimcrack in The Virtuoso, Belliza in The
Amourous B Lady Naggott in The Scourers, and others.136
In each of the plays named here the old woman desires the
same man as her daughter or ward, but, of course, is finally
humiliated for her audacious desires. Lady Fantast in Bury
Fair is perhaps his best creation of this sort. Although not
actively engaged in pursuit during the play, she leaves no
doubt that she has not given up the game of romance; like-
wise, her husband leaves no doubt that she is unfit for the
sport since her charms have long since decayed. "You would
134Ibid., V3, 11, 404.
135For examples, see Dryden's Limberham; Crownets Sir

Courtly Nice; and Cibberts The Refusal.
1 36Examples include Lady Shacklewood in The Lancashire
Witches and Lady Cheatly in The True Widow.
107
by art appear a beauty and are by nature a mere mummyu1 37
he condemns. A Francophile and pr ieuse, she is both proud
of her wit and breeding and apologetic for not having been
born French.13 3
Aphra Behn drew two ludicrous old huntresses in Lady
Knowell (Sir Patient Fancy) and Lady Youthly (The Younger
Brother). Verbally denying love, Lady Knowell, an old

pedant, maligns her own daughter in an effort to capture the
gallant Leander. In one of the most amusing scenes in the
play, Lady Knowell and Leander make a perverted prbviso,
which, far from being a cynical match of wits, simply dis-
integrates into complete approval by the lady of all his
desires, including unrestrained, unprotested postmarital
dissipation and infidelity.1 3 9
Unable to accept the truth about her extreme age, Lady
Youthly deludes herself into thinking she is actually de-
sired by a gallant young enough to be her grandson. Constant

references are made to her decayed appearance; she is called
an "Old Cathedral"t1h and "Old Queen Gwiniver without her
ruff on."ih Someone wonders how she escaped the flood14 2
137Bury Fair, III, i, 382. All references to this play

are to Shadwell, Copete Works, Vol. IV.
138Ibid., II, i, 393.
1 3 9 sir
Patient sangy,
V, i, 94. All references to this
play are to Behn, Works, Vol. IV.
140The Younger Brother, III, i, 360.
141Ibid., TV, iii, 380. 1 4 2lbid., I, 11, 338.
108
and another describes her as old as timeel43 Yet she en-

thusiastically cries when the young man's father pushes him
toward her: "Well, well, Ill defer your Joys no longer,
this Night shall make you happy, . .. 4

As the heroine becomes sentimentalized, so does the old
woman; both become women of "sense." The oldster gives up
vanity and gains dignity; she admits her age and acquires
respect. Finally, she foregoes chasing men and, therefore,
is no longer humiliated. Congreve is the last of the five
major playwrights to portray a laughable old woman of quality;
in fact, Vanbrugh includes no old ladies at all in his
original plays. Although Farquhar does produce Mandrake, she
is despicable rather than ludicrous, and it is her profession
and character rather than her age that are abhorrent. His
other ancient women, Lady Darling, The Constant Couple, and
Lady Bountiful, The Beauxi Stratagem, are more typical of the
change in characterization, for by the early eighteenth
century the rebelled-against oldster of the Restoration, who
is ridiculed for her follies and scorned for her infirmities,
is metamorphosed into a revered sage, whose wishes are
honored and whose judgment is respected.
Although Mignon terms Lady Bountiful the first good old
woman, 145Lady Darling is certainly not at all wicked; she

is, however, somewhat deficient in judgment. Sir Harry
14 3Ibid., IV, iii, 381. 144Ibid., TV, iii, 382.
V45Mignon, Crabbed Age, p. 73.

109
Wildair, a wealthy knight, has been informed that Lady Darling

is a bawd and her daughter Angelica, a whore; he treats them
accordingly. Blinded by her hopes of a brilliant match for

her child, the old woman accepts his ill-usage and encourages
Angelica to be amicable . When her daughter complains of the

knights lack of respect, she remonstrates, "I'm afraid,
you mistake Sir Harry's gaiety for dishonour.,1 4 6 Even

though her age and lack of discernment are treated humor-
ously, the lady is not a figure of ridicule. Making no ef-
fort to be young or alluring, she helps rather than hinders
the lovers.
Despite the fact that her medicinal recipes make her

a target for laughter, Lady Bountiful is still a sympathetic
character. Before she appears on the stage, she is described
by a villager as "one of the best of women, "lJ47 and she is
given credit for curing "more people in and about Lichfield
within ten years than the doctors have killed in twenty." 1l 8
As much as her daughter-in-law hates her husband, she still

respects the amateur physician, whom she calls "the good old
gent lewoman."1 4 9
Like Lady Darling, she lacks judgment. When Aimwell, a

London gallant, pretends to have a fit in order to gain
146The Constant Couple, IV, i,207. All references to

this play are to Farquhar, Dramatic Works, Vol. I.
147The Beaux' Stratage, I, i, 246.
I18bi d. 149I bid . ,II, A 29

110
access to her house and daughter, she unwittingly assists him
in his purpose by encouraging the girl to be tender toward
the mock patient. Although not clever enough to see through
the gallant's ruse, she is never scorned as stupid or bucolic.
Pretending neither youth nor glamor, she usually acts with
common sense so that the total effect of her characterization
is one of kindness and affability made amusing, but not
ludicrous, by a touch of rustic backwardness.
The Scorned Mistress
Antiquated belles, to their regret, are scorned before
consummation; mistresses, equally regretful, are scorned
afterward. Neatly summed up in Etherege's song is the plight
of the Restoration woman who gives herself before marriage:
And Jenne was all my Joy,

She had my Heart at her will;
But I left her and her toy
When once I had got my fill.. 1
No matter how great her quality or how sincere her love, she
is destined to be cast off as soon as her gallant finds
another lady or simply tires of the one he has. Typically,

the male agrees with the rakish Horner, who opines, "And
next to the pleasure of making a New Mistress, is that of
being rid of an old One."151
Naturally this woman, who is unable to control her
passion and deny her gallant, is regarded as foolish in
150Etherege, Love in a Tub, II, 111, 26.

151wycherley, The Country 1Nife,
I, i, 14.
Restoration comedies, for she is predestined to be the loser
in her romantic adventure. Of course, she can never hope to

marry her beau now that he has already had all he wishes from
her; having made her favors cheap, she must expect them to
be soon discarded. To object to being cast off is considered

unreasonable, for the rake's philosophy is well known: love
is transitory and constancy, impossible. Consequently, the

overfond mistress who would keep a man when he is ready to
be rid of her is an object of ridicule to be dispatched
rlgorouslr but wittily by her lover. At the same time, a

woman of breeding does not take such treatment lightly and
frequently bears full witness to the old saw concerning
hell's fury and scorned woman. Motivated by wounded pride,

jealousy, and unsatisfied erotic passion, the rejected lady
frequently tries to impair her false lover's present schemes
in order to revenge her treatment and perhaps to recapture
his love.
Etherege portrays two such women in The Pan of Mode.
Both possess beauty and breeding; both love and lose Dorimant,
who finally proposes marriage to a girl who will not yield
without it. However, unlike most scorned women, neither
attempts to avenge herself; ignorance of the identity of
Dorimant's new amorata rather than charity probably prompts
this restraint. Mrs. Loveit, the gallant's first love in

the play, completely abandons herself to the romance. Though
her love is true and passionate, Dorimant grows weary and
112
seeks a fresh intrigue. No mawkish sentimentalist whining

about her lost virtue, Loveit is chagrined because she fer-
vently loves a man who does not care for her. She is aware
of the helplessness of her situation and struggles valiantly
against her emotions.
Loveit is rejected in favor of her best friend Belinda,
who possessively insists that Dorimant sever all ties to his
old mistress. Concealing her passion from the world, the

double dealer is in a position to see and appreciate her
predecessors fate, After the gallant's cruelly witty con-

clusion of his affair with Loveit, Belinda says:
H'as given me the proof which I desired of his love,

But ttis proof of his ill nature too;
I wish I had not seen him use her so.
I sigh to think that Dorimant may be
One day as faithless and unkind to me.l52
Forewarned by both general and specific data, she still does

not take advantage of her knowledge. Needless to say, she,
too, is discarded as her flighty lover transfers his affec-
tions elsewhere. Somewhat more fortunate than Loveit,
Belinda's illicit affair remains a secret, which although

painful seems at last to have taught her something. She
penitently begs aside in the final act: "Let me but escape
this time, Ill never venture more.ol,53
In Silvia (The Old Bachelor) Congreve has drawn his
interpretation of the well-bred but castoff woman. Ignored
152Nan of Mode, II, ii, 218.
13Ibid., V, is 274.
113
by Vainlove, her ex-gallant, for some time, she even takes
another lover in her desperate attempts to forget him. She

is so unsuccessful that her new friend admits she pretends
he is Vainlove during their more erotic moments. Since she

wants her first lover back at any price, she vigorously
pursues him while obsequiously pleading her love and forgive-
ness for his ill treatment; all of her tactics serve only
to make her more despicable to Vainlove, who is bored once
a conquest is completed. At last hoping to win him back, she
vengefully attempts to ruin his new affair. Although her
maneuver Is an obstacle in the plot, it is, of course,
ultimately unsuccessful, Unreconciled but practical, Silvia
marries another.
More violent in her persistent though scorned pursuit
is Lady Touchwood in Congrevets The Double Dealer. Although
usually the scorned woman is considered amusing because of
her lack of judgment, no one, scholars or other characters
in the play, seems to think Lady Touchwood is funny.
Fujimura declares her unredeemed by any gaiety or wit and
more disturbing than diverting,154 and Hazlitt discerns in
her "measured tones" the characteristics of a tragic queen.155

Because her "hot blood and cold fury" appear more like
155Hazitt, 'On Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and

Farquhar," p. 72.
114
Elizabethan than like Restoration theater, Kronenberger thinks
she seems cast in the wrong play.156 Mellefont, her husband's

heir and the object of her formidable passion, rather than
being amused as most gallants are, is appalled, "for hell is
not, more busy than her brain, nor contains more devils than
that imaginationso.0157
As her name implies, Lady Touchwood is completely decayed
morally. Insatiable, her lascivious desires are repugnant
to Mellefont, but his repudiation of them serves only to make
her more tenacious in her efforts to satisfy her lust and
more fiercely bent on revenge. When the gallant of her

choice refuses her, she nefariously becomes the mistress of
her husband's servant Maskwell, for whom she cares nothing;
he is merely an instrument by whom she hopes to have a child,
thereby disinheriting Mellefont. Her other schemes to injure

the heir are as iniquitous and more successful as she ruins
his marriage plans, his reputation, and his chances for in-
heriting his uncle's estate.
Although called a typical scorned woman,158 there is
one unusual aspect to Lady Touchwood's plight. She is ad-

mittedly handsome, yet Mellefont scorns her before any
ecstasies are enjoyed. Heretofore, while a manly gallant

might reject an old, ugly, or extremely foolish woman, he
156Kronenberger, Thread of La p. 123.

157The Double Dealer, I, i, 131.
115
never turned down a night's pleasure with an attractive
partner no matter how much he might be in love with someone
else. 1 59 More violent because never satisfied, Lady Touch-
wood's malignant passion is a furious mixture of both love
and hate. "Oh Mellefontt I burn. . . . Despair strikes me.

Yet my soul knows I hate him too: let him but once be mine,
and next immediate ruin seize him." 1 6 0 Just as she is more
wicked and more rashly impetuous than the usual scorned
woman, her punishment is more severe. She never gains the

man she desires; her true character is exposed to the world;
and her husband irrevocably casts her off.
Congreve portrays three rejected women in The Way of

the World: Lady ishfort, an old woman, and Marwood and
Fainall, both young and beautiful. The latter character is

unique. Thinking herself pregnant with Mirabell's child,
the attractive widow has married another. Still enamored of

her gallant, she nevertheless has wit enough to perceive his
new passion for her cousin fillamant and pride enough not to
press her unwanted suit. No longer desired as a paramour,
she determines to remain a friend, and tactfully concealing
her love, she becomes Mirabell's chief conspirator and as-

sistant in his new affair. She is also scorned by her
159por examples, see Man of Mode, Etherege; Wells,

Shadwell; Sir Patient Fancy, Behn; The Old Bachelor,
Congreve.
16 0 The Double Dealer, I, 111, 139.

116
husband, who loves his mistress Marwood, but she could not
care less.
Diametrically opposed, Marwood suffers the same lack of
interest which racks Lady Touchwood, and she too is malig-
nantly intent upon despoiling all the plans of the neglectful
gallant. She considers her plight much worse than Fainallts.
"But say what you will, 'tis better to be left, than never
to have been loved,"170 she reasons. Feigning contempt for
men, her cankerous jealousy and ferocious desire are too
obvious to be concealed. The snickers of others and the
indifference of Mirabell feed her malevolence until she will
stoop to any spiteful act to destroy the man she loves.
Humiliatingly exposed in the last act, Marwood leaves the
stage still defiantly bent on revenge.
The Old Man's Darling
More successful in her attempts at sexual gratification,
the old man's darling (the youthful wife married to a fool-
ish old man) is typically a happy adulteress in the comedy
of manners. In fact, the elderly husband seems introduced
into the plays in order to wear horns dexterously placed
on his forehead by a young, beautiful, pleasure-loving
spouse, who has married him for money and fools him for love.
Natural hypocrites, the cheating wives usually manage to de-
ceive their husbands throughout the play; in fact, they are
170Th e y oof the World, II, i,336.

117
frequently so adroit in their pretenses and the husband so
imbecilic in his ancient passion that he is happily convinced
she really cares while she happily cares where she will.
Portrayed in a decidedly comic spirit, the wives behavior
is not condoned except in the works of Aphra Behnx, who
glorifies the inconstant into a sympathetic, mistreated
heroine, rather than a fickle, lying clown. 1 7 1
Each of Congreve t s first three plays includes such a

woman in its cast. Laetitia in The Old Bachelor is the most
impudently lascivious. When the gallant she summons on the

absence of her husband sends another in his place, she ac-
cepts the substitute, unblushingly grateful for his discre-
tion and his youthful vigor. Justifiably jealous and
suspicious, the old husband reasons with himself: ". .. ,why

art thee distrustful of the wife of thy bosom?--because she
is young and vigourous, and I am old and impotent. Then,
why didst thee marry, Isaac?--because she was beautiful and
tempting, and because I was obstinate and doting; . 172

His weakness for her survives even the strongest proofs of
her dishonesty until at last, taking the weeping baggage
into his arms, he comforts, "Here, here, I do believe thee.--
I won't believe my own eyes."17 3
171For examples, see Lady Desbro in The Roundheads,

Lucia in Sir Patient Fancy; and Leticia in The Lucky Chance.
1 7 2 The Old Bachelor, IV, i, 81.
1731bid., IV, vi, 100.

Old Foresight, the astrologer in Love for Love, has no
specific incident about which to accuse his wife, for she is
much too clever to be caught in her infidelities. Coolly

impersonal in her affairs, she flatly denies them even to
her love partners. "This I have heard of before, but never

believed. I have been told she had that admirable quality
of forgetting to a man's face in the morning that she had
laid with him all night, and denying that she had done favors
with more impudence than she could grant temA"74 one of her
lovers murmurs increduously when she snubs him the morning
after a passionate night. Only once does she show herself
anything but circumspect. Chiding her sister for frequent-

ing a disreputable public establishment, she offers a gold
bodkin as proof of the guilt; naturally, she betrays her own

visit as a consequence.175 However discreet she may be, no
one is really fooled, and several characters twit the old

husband about his perfidious wife. Foresight, still fond,
rationalizes: "she is young and sanguine, has a wanton hazel
eye, and was born under Gemini, which may incline her to
society. . .. 76
Congreve's best portrait of this type i Lady Plyant in

The Double Dealer. Married to Sir Paul, an uxorious old
fool, she takes her pleasures elsewhere, beguiling him tnto
174 Love for Love, IV, 111, 279.
1751bid., 11, ii, 243- 1761bid., 11, i, 235.

119
thinking her "so nice . . . that . . . she would ZCnot7 touch

a man for the world;--at least not above once a year." 1 7 7
Ruling her husband completely, she lambasts him when he
tentatively disputes her word: "Gad's my life, the man's

distracted Why, how nowl . . . cantt I govern you? what
did I marry you for? Am I not to be absolute and uncon-
trollable ?1
When the gallant Mellefont describes her as "handsome,
and knows it, . . . very silly, and thinks she has

sense, . . ." .79 he is quite accurate He might have added
that she pretends great honor, but actually has very little.
Careless, Mellefont t s friend, lays siege to her, but he is
somewhat bewildered by her pious lingo: "I can't get an

answer from her that does not begin with her honour, or her
virtue, her religion, or some such cant."10 Yet she yields.

Initiating an amour with Mellefont, whom she believes is
marrying her stepdaughter to be near herself, Lady Plyant
denies she can succumb while she encourages him to try her.
I know Love is powerful, and nobody can help his pas-

sion: 'tis not your fault, nor I swear it is not
mine.--How can I help it, if I have charms? and
how can you help it if you are made a captive? I
swear it is a pity it should be a fault.--But my
honour,--well, but your honour too--but the sin:--
well, but the necessity . . . . Well you must
consider of your crime; and strive as much as you
can be against it,--strive, b sure--but don't be
melancholic, don't despair.l11
17 7 The' Double
Dealer, III, 111, 163.
178Ibid., II, i, 145. 179Ibid., I, i, 132.
180Ibid., III, 11, 159. 18'Ibid.., , i, 149.
120
Like Fondlewife, Sir Paul ignores positive proof of his
wife's infidelity. Using a typical trick, she shifts the
accusations and the blame around until he apologizes to hert
"Holdl stay&. . . I'll confess all," he cries.1 8 2
Vanbrugh's The Confederac contains a pair of gorgeous
young wives who abhor their old husbands and long for witty
young gallants, although during the play they settle for
wealthy, old ones. Really a satire on the faults of the
nobility, the two are married to rich merchants, but they
try to ape the ways of the quality. Clarissa, the more
fully portrayed, protests when her maid objects to her spend-
ing money when she lacks nothing, "How aukward an Objection
now is that . . . Quality always distinguishes itself;
and therefore, as the Mechanick People buy things, because
they have occasion for tem, you see Women of Rank always
buy things because they have not occasion for tem.,tl 8 3
The old saleslady Mrs. Amlet complains, ". . . shets but a
Scrivener's Wife; but she lives as well, and pays as ill,
as the stateliest Countess of 'em all." Chaffing against
the restriction of her life, the young social climber mourns,
"Why, I dare abuse no body; I'm afraid to affront People,
tho' I don't like their faces; or to ruin their Reputations,
tho' they pique me to it, by taking ever so much Pains to
preserve tem: I dare not raise a Lie of a Pan, tho' he
182Ibid., IV, iii, 181.

18 3The Confederacy, II, i, 27.
121
neglects to make love to me; nor report a Woman to be a
Fool, thot she's handsomer than I am. In short, I dare not

so much as bid my Footman kick the People out of Doors, tho'
they come to ask me for what I owe tem.1l84

Clarissa discovers that her husband's in love with her
friend Araminta, who finds that her husband is enamoured of
Clarissa.1 8 5 Gleefully, the two jointly scheme to fleece as
lovers the old men who are niggardly as husbands. Since the
men are ancient they receive only a grudging kiss for their
cash; doubtless had they been younger, they would have re-
ceived a more equitable return for their investment.
The Rake
The ideal male of Restoration drama is that charming,
witty, elegant seducer, the rake. Because of the double
standard, there can be no real female counterpart to this
character. Fine ladies may be roue'es, but whereas men are
honored for such accomplishments, women must pretend to be
conventionally honorable in order to remain socially accept-
able. As a result a male profligate may be charming, but the
female is unpleasantly hypocritical.
Perhaps the most finished portrait of the feminine rake
is Lady Fidgit in Wycherley's The Country Wife. She matches

the notorious Horner vice for vice--she drinks, talks filth,
sleeps with whomever she pleases, and takes great pleasure in
184 Ibid., I, i, 14. 1 8 51bid.,

I, ii, 19.
122
all her deeds. Every bit as clever and adroit as Horner,
she is also as selfish and egocentric as he, with no more
affection for a lover than for her husband.
However, Lady Fidgit wants to be accepted into society
and realizes that she must pretend to conform to conventions.
One of the greatest libertines in private, she is one of the
greatest prudes in public. As Homer says, ". . . your
Virtue is your greatest affectation, Madam.1186 Precisely,
she claims Horner's "very name obscenity, 187 scolds her
husband for being crude when he says "naked truth," and
checks a trifling freedom of speech with "Nay, fie, let us
not be smooty. ."189 Her constant cry is for her "dear
honour." Even as she is going into the bedroom with her
lover, she meretriciously cries, ". . . you must promise
to have a care of my dear Honour." 1 9 0
Just as important as her reputation is the satisfaction
of her sensual desires. Anxiously, she inquires of Homer,
after he discloses that his posing as an eunuch is a ruse
to give him free access to women, ". . . but, indeed, Sir,
as perfectly, perfectly, the same Man as before . .

.
Sir, as perfectly, perfectly, Sir." 1 9 1 Assured that he is,
l&6 The Country Wife, I, i, 13.
1 8 7bid., II, i, 34. 1S&Ibid., II, i, 30.
189Ibid., IV, iii, 60. 1 90 Ibid.

1 9 1Ibid.,
II, 1, 33.
123
"Nay, then as one may say, you may do your worst, dear, dear,
Si rv192 she invites.
The drinking scene in Act V is the real exposure of her
rakishness, for here she indulges herself openly in all the
vices she's been keeping secret. Downing a bottle of wine,
she laughs bawdily at her own and her friends suggestive
remarks, and admits her infidelities with Horner. "Our
Reputation, LordP" she exclaims to Horner, "Why should you
not think, that we women make use of our Reputation, as you
men of yours, only to deceive the world with less sus-
picion . . . .1193 Aptly, Kronenberger sums up her char-
acter: "As one may smile and smile and be a villain, so
Lady Fidgit can shudder and shudder and be a slut.1"194
Wycherley draws several other females of this type.
In The Country Wife Mrs. Squeamish and Mrs. Fidgit serve
mainly as emphasis to Lady Fidgitts perfidy, but while only
lightly drawn, seem as skilled in protecting their honor
while losing their virtue as their friend. Martha Gripe in
Love in a Wood is as addicted to but not as skilled in de-
bauchery as the threesome above. Saucy and shameless, she
impudently affects innocence, although she is really Dapper-
wit's mistress and is pregnant with his child.
1 9 21bid., IT, i, 34. 1 9 31bid., V, iv, 80.

194 Kronenberger, The Thread of Laughter, p. 66.
124
A "ludicrously malignant study in female depravity,ul95
Olivia in Wycherley's The Plain Dealer is a lying hypocrite,
a treacherous scandalmonger, a mercenary sadist, and a
lascivious adulteress. Pretending to hate worldly frivoli-
ties, she indulges in them all. For example, although she
protests a hatred of clothes, she has a huge wardrobe; al-
though she claims a disgust for matrimony, she is secretly
married; although she pretends an aversion to lovers, she is
assiduously seeking one. An insatiable gossip, she derides

all her friends to all her acquaintances and vice versa.
Preying on men, she strips them of fortune and dignity.
For example, she accepts Manleyts estate, then marries his
best friend, mocks his credulity, and gloats over his
financial straits which she could but will not relieve.
Secretly encouraging both Novel and Plausible with the im-
plication that she will wed each, she accepts their jewels
and money, although she is already married. Summers equates
her character with that of a horse leech, crying always,
"Give, give.196
Flamboyantly physical, the villainess attracts men and
is attracted in turn. Precisely pretending an aversion to
sex, she really has a furious sensual appetite which she
boldly attempts to satisfy. While her husband goes down
1 95Palmer, The OldComed, p . 136.

196 Summers, Wycherley, p. 51.
125
the stairs, her lovers come up, and she hopes that like
buckets in a well the two never meet. Obviously, Olivia

is too depraved to be a counterpart of the male rake. In-
stead she is so disgusting that her cruel, even crude come-
uppance is unmourned by playwright, fellow characters, or
audience.
Wearing out both her fortune and her reputation in pur-
suit of her pleasures, Mrs. Frail in Congreve's Love for Love
is ready to retire as a roude. She seeks now to contract a
marriage before her indiscretions, poverty, and age make that
impossible. Had she been a male rake, her efforts would
probably have awarded her a handsome person and property, but
she gains only a penniless fool whom she thinks is an heir
and who thinks her an heiress.
Since Berinthia in The Relipse (Vanbrugh) is a widow,
she is immediately pegged by Restoration comedy as a man
lover, an accurate label in this case. Vanbrugh describes
her as ". . . Beautiful in her person, Gay in her Temper,
Coquet in her Behaviour, and Warm in her Desires."1 9 7 Having
all the characteristics of a rake, she is completely un-
principled in the satisfaction of her lechery. City life
provides her pleasure, and now that she is a widow of means

and free to carry on her intrigues, she is perfectly happy
1 9 7 Sir
John Vanbrugh, 'A Short Vindication of The Relapse
and The Provok t d Wife.,' "Cmplete Works, 1, 212.
126
in her debauchery and scornful of those who tie themselves
down to conventional morality. "But if you'll consult the

Widows of this Town, they'll tell you you should never take
a Lease of a House you can hire for a Quarter's Warning,1l9S
she tells Amanda Loveless, the friend and relative with whom
she is staying. More than satisfied with her "delicious
widowhood," she makes no pretense of having cared for her
husband, and she actually cares no more for Loveless; it is
the thought of seducing the husband while living as a member
of the family which is exciting to her. No sense of loyalty
is considered; instead, she helps Worthy in his attempts to
debauch her hostess.
Lady Lurewell, a captivating adventuress who charms
every man she meets, then tricks, deludes, and cheats him,
falls just short of being a lady rake, for she is unscrupu-
lous only up to a point. Debauched at fifteen, she has sworn
eternal vengeance on all men: "I hate all that don't love
me, and slight all 'that do. Would his whole deluding sex
admire me, thus would I slight them all."' 9 9 Consequently,
she entertains men not through lubricity, but through

maliciousness, and she remains aloof from all sexual ad-
ventures, although her spleenful rage against men is il-
lustrated in many cruelly ingenious plots against them.

In some respects Lurewell seems the scorned woman, but since
19 8 The Relapse, II, i, 46.

1 9 9 The Constant Couple, I, ii, 142.
127
her gallivanting, deserting lover turns up years later,
still true, and since her revenge is general rather than
specific, she cannot really fall into that category.
Ln the sequel Sir Harry Wildair, Lurewell, married now
to Colonel Standard, has not reformed. In fact, she seems
more than ever like a rake. So used to coquetry that
she cannot give up the sport, she is very close to becoming
promiscuous even though revenge is no longer of consequence.
Her ire, once directed against men, now seems aimed at vir-
tuous women, and she is delighted to think Angelica, Sir
Harryts wife, unfaithful. ". . . Itm glad on tt. I hate to
have any woman more virtuous than myself." 2 0 0 In one of the
most hilarious scenes in the play, she vindictively c lum-
niates Angelica, but Sir Harry stops his ears as she almost
dies in her frustrated attempts to ruin his good opinion of
the wife he now thinks dead.
200
Sir Harry Wildair, III, i, 274. All references to
this play are to Farquhar, Dramatic Works Vol. 1.
CHAPTER IV
THE EXCLUDED
Barred from both the truewits and the witwoulds are
a few character types whose common parentage, occupations,
or recognition of the restrictions their old age places
upon them excludes them from society t s struggle. The maid,
the prostitute, the duenna, and the bawd are the most out-
standing of those who do not even try for admittance into
the higher echelon of the beau monde. However, like the
other women of the Restoration society, their primary con-
cerns are sex, love, and marriage, and as mentioned before,
the maid and the whore account for a good many of the trick
or forced marriages.
The Maid
The portrayal of the female serving woman is the most
finished and typical of al character typesexcluded from
the truewits or the witwoulds. In spite of her lack of
social pretensions she is not a subservient menial with a
walk-on part. Speaking with the wit of her betters, she
1 JohnStrong Perry Tatlock and R. G. Martin, Repre-

sentative English Plays, from the Miracle Plays to Pinero
(New York, 1935),_p. O0 2
.
128
129
is at least the lady's confidante and advocate, and frequently
she originates as well as champions the plans for her mis-
tress's intrigues. Courier, prevaricator, conspirator, in-

former, bawd, she can and will perform any office assigned
her; consequently, the plot often hinges on her machinations.
Naturally cynical, she is contemptuous of all conventions
but loyalty. However, although she is nearly always faithful
to her mistress, the maid is still opportunistic, and, thus,

not above serving more than one master at a time if the pay
is good and she feels that her actions will not really harm
her lady. She is lusty as well as mercenary and usually finds
a way to satisfy her sensual appetite without undue concern
about marriage. However, because she is both clever and
shrewd, the serving woman sometimes manages to acquire a
husband from among the fops and fools left over at the
play's end.
Although the "Big Five" usually manage to make their
characters individuals, rather than mere types, most of the
maids in their comedies conform to the general characteristics

outlined above. Naturally ore or more trait may be em-
phasized more than others, but there does not seem to be
very much change in the general portrayal of serving women

over the period covered in this paper. Apparently, the
morality demanded for most female stage characters in the
latter part of the 'Restoration did not apply to maids, who
remained as unconventional in their morals as ever through
Farquharts time.
130
One of the most instrumental in her plot is Lucy,
Alithea's maid in Wycherley's The CountrZ Wife. She master-
minds both the country squire Pinchwife's cuckolding and
Alithea's marriage to Harcourt, a man of wit and judgment.
Encouraging Margery Pinchwife's yearnings for Horner, a
rakish whoremonger, she supervises every move toward the
fulfillment of the country wife's desires. When Mrs. Pinch-
wife's plot is nearly discovered by her husband, she runs to
Lucy, who skillfully rescues her from her predicament. In

the final scene, when everything seems discovered, the clever
maid saves all by meekly accepting the blame and adroitly
lying so that everyone's reputation, if not his honor, is
spared.
Really wittier than her mistress, 2 Lucy is also typically
skeptical and cynical; she calls honor "a disease in the
head,t 3 and scorns a parson's "Canonical smirk" and "filthy,
clammy palm."4 No doubt she is vastly amused at her ironical
scheme which tricks Mr. Pinchwife into delivering his own
wife to her lover, for she believes that a woman ought to
marry a fool so that she can enjoy all pleasures undetected.5
However, realizing that Alithea is idealistic about marriage,
she cannot bear to see her wed Sparkish, a foppish pretender
to wit: "Lord, Madam, what should you do with a fool to your
2 Fujimura,
Restorationom , p. 144.
3 The Country Wife, IV, i, 51.
4 Ibid.., IV, i, 53. 51bid., II, i, 42.
131
Husband, you intend to be honest, dontt you?#t she exclaims.
Her natural cunning enables her to turn Mrs. Pinchwife t s use
of Alithea t s name in the affair with Horner into a test of
Sparkish's jealousy and trust. Of course, his real unworthi-
ness is disclosed when he believes the worst about his fiancee.
Thus, Lucy triumphantly manages Alithea's betrothal to the
man she really loves.
Although all Restoration maids are frankly wanton, Prue
in Wycherley's The Gentlemen Dancing-Master and Pindar in
Farquharts Love and a Bottle are perhaps the most belliger-
ently lascivious. Prue is desperately discontented with the
cloistered life she must live with her mistress Hippolita.
"Have you a mind to be shut up as long as you live? For my
part . . . I cannot live so, . . ." she declares. Hippolita
is impressed with her vehemence and sagely judges, "Hold,
hold--your resentment is as much greater than mine as your
experience has been greater, . . ." Later, when she is
placed to guard the door behind which Hippolita and her
lover Gerrard make their plans to elope, Prue bewails the
sad fate of all chambermaids:
0 the unfortunate condition of us poor Chamber-maids,

who have all the parking and caring, the watching and
sitting up, the trouble and danger of our Mistresses
6Ibid ., IV., i, 51i

7The Gentleman Dancing-Master., I., i, 158.
8Ibid., I, i, 157.
132
Intriguesl whilst they go away with all the pleasure;

and if they get their Man in a corner, ttis well
enough, they ne tre think of the poor watchful Chamber-
maid, who sits knocking her heels in the cold, for
want of better exercise in some melancholy Lobby or
Entry, when she could imploy her time every whit as
well as her Mi "tress for all her Quality, if she were
but put to tt.
The only male allowed in the secluded household is
Monsieur de Paris, the man Hippolita is contracted to marry
but intriguing to discard. Even though he is a foolish
Francophile whom she dislikes, he is the only male available,
and Prue's lust forces her to attempt him. She pinches him,
tickles him, tells him her door is always unlocked at night--
all to no avail, and when she hints she walks in her sleep,
he promises to keep his door securely bolted, Still her
restless libido admits no defeat; she simply resolves that
she will be more frank at the next opportunity.1 0
Although Hippolita conceives the idea which allows
Gerrard in the house, Prue naturally encourages her designs.
Privy to all Hippolitats dreams and desires, the maid ac-
tually feels her mistress would do better to marry the fool
Monsieur de Paris because with him a woman could find her
own pleasures without fear of discovery. 11 Even so she
favors the deception of the old guardians. ". ... a Woman
may soon be too old, but is never too young to shift for her
self, l2 she counsels her fourteen year old charge.
9 Ibid., IV, i, 203. 10Ibid., IV, i, 205.
lljbid., 1, 1, 158. 12Ibid., 1, i, 161.

133
As lascivious as Prue, Pindar, Lucinda's maid in
Farquharts Love and a Bottle, is attracted by her mistress's
new page, who is in reality the maiden Leanthe. Apparently
convinced that Ilying alone is very dangerous,"13 the servant
uses all her wiles to arouse "his" amorous desires. At last
she actually picks up the disguised maiden, intending to
carry her into the bedroom,but Lucinda interrupts the venture.
More hypocritical than Prue, Pindar pleads innocence and
later, when her deceit is discovered, entreats, "I hope your
ladyship entertains no ill opinion of my virtue."t1 However,
she has by no means given up her passion for the page and
in the last act proposes marriage, which Leanthe accepts as
a part of her plan to gain the man she loves. Pindar is
delighted. "Oh, my little green gooseberry, my teeth waters
at yetu1 5 she gloats.
Quite loyal to her mistress, the maid is proud of the
confidence Lucinda has in her and swears, ' . . I can keep
a secret . . . and the greater the secrets are, I love

tem the better.h16 Nevertheless, being a typical Restoration
servant, she can be bribed. She encourages Lovewell's suit
partly because she knows he loves and is loved by Lucinda,
but also because she has "had above twenty pieces from him
since his courtship began.t"1 7
1 3 Love and a Bottle, I, i, 12.

14 Ibid., IV, i, 74. 151bid., V, i, 103.
1 6 Ibid., 17
I, i, 16. Ibid., I, i, 13.
134
A real French charmer, Mademoiselle, chambermaid to
Lady Fanciful in Vanbrugh's The Provok'd Wife, is another
pleasure-loving confidante. Frankly, she admits that she
always sacrifices reason to nature because "my nature make
me merry, my reason make me mad,"18 and honor to pleasure
because honor is inconvenient and "quand quelque chose
m'incommode moy--je m'en defais, Vite." 1 9 Romantically in-
clined toward Razor, a valet, she is not above using his
passion for her to win him to Lady Fancifults plot against
Belinda, a rival for Heartfree's love. When she has inflamed
him with flirting and teasing, she pretends to question his
love until he promises to help; fixing his allegiance, she
contracts: "If dou fail me--I never see dee more--If dou
obey me--Je m'abondonne a toy."2 0
Although Mademoiselle is very loyal to her mistress's
plots, like many other maids of this period, she is not
above selfishly taking advantage of her lady's foibles.
Complying with Lady Fancifults desire for flattery, the
serving woman strains her imagination to produce extravagant
tributes to her employers beauty. Her compliments are too
florid for anyone but her foolish lady to credit, yet as
Mademoiselle knows, the fop believes and rewards each hyper-
bole. Gloves, nightgowns, and other expensive trifles amply

repay each bon mot.
18The Provok'd Wife, I, 11, 124.

19 Ibid., I, 2 0 Ibid.,
i, 123. V, iii, 174.
135
Much more cold-blooded in her desire for money, Mrs.
Parley in Farquhar's The Constant C and its sequel
Sir Harry Wildair is offended by the very thought of poverty.
?Faugh, the nauseous fellow. he stinks of poverty already," 2 1
she says of Colonel Standard, who has been discharged from
service. She quickly lets him know that he can "send no
more messages . . . unless . . . /he7 can pay the post-

22
age." Really quite cynical, she pertly informs him of her
guiding principles when he begs her to be honorable toward him:

. . . it shows as ridiculous and haughty for us to
imitate our betters in their honour as in their
finery; leave honour to nobility that can support
it; we poor folks, colonel, have no pretense to It;
and truly, I think, sir, that your honour should be
cashiered with your leading-staff. 2 3
In Sir Harry Wildair, after the Colonel has married
Lurewell, Parley admits she makes approximately one hundred
pounds a year from visiting gallants. Insinuating his ruin
if he does not become more liberal, she gives him sage
advice: 1. . . stinginess to servants makes more cuckolds
than ill-nature to wives."24 Parley refuses to be intimi-
dated by the Colonelts rage at these facts and brazenly
cries when he threatens to have Lurewell fire her:

she won't turn me away, she shan't turn me away,
nor she can't turn me away. Sir, I say she dare not turn
2 1 The Constant Couple, I, ii, 143.

2 2 Ibid., 23 Ibid.
I, 11, 146.
24Sir Harry Wildair, I, i, 249.

136
me away . . . Because I'm the mistress, not she . . . I
know all her secrets . . . ."25 However, the secrets are
soon sold for double the sum she receives for keeping quiet.
Lucy, Melindats maid in The Recruiting Officer, by
Farquhar, also knows how to get around her mistress. Her
mercenary wheedlings have gained her a promise of five hundred
pounds on her employer's wedding day. Possessing more in-
sight than Lady Fanciful, Melinda recognizes the mercenary
strain in her servant. "And pray was it a ring, or buckle,
or pendants, or knots? or in what shape was the almighty
gold transformed that has bribed you so much . . . ?"26 she
asks when Lucy continuously praises one of her lady's
suitors.
The lust of Restoration serving women also runs rampant
in Lucy. Openly horrified at the thought of life without
love, she expostulates, "Die a maidl come into the world
for nothing Dear, madam, if you should believe . .1.
/this could happen/, it might come to pass, for the bare
thought on 't might kill one in four-and-twenty hours."27
In an aside she confesses that such a fate is already an
impossibility for her. Ingeniously planning to satisfy
both her lasciviousness and her desire for marriage, she
acquires Melinda's signature and attaches it to a letter to
251bid.
2 6 The Recruitin Officer, III, ip, 168.
2 7 Ibid., IV, ii, 187.
137
Captain Brazen, one of her mistress's suitors. The note
promises a masked marriage, and Brazen, thinking it from
Melinda, eagerly keeps the appointment. Unfortunately, a
jealous gallant hears of the captain's plans and challenges
him to a duel. To avoid the fight, Lucy discovers her plot;
consequently her marriage attempt is foiled.
Silvia's Lucy in Congreve's The Old Bachelor is more
successful in her attempt to marry. One of the most loyal
of Restoration waiting women, Lucy helps her lady, who is
the castoff mistress of both Vainlove and Bellmour, to en-
snare the old bachelor Heartfree. When Bellmour discovers
the wedding plans, he insists on saving his friend, but the
wily servant refuses to give up the scheme until promised
that both she and Silvia will be wed that night. In this
manner the masked maid and mistress espouse two fools, each
of whom thinks he has gained the heiress Araminta.
Describing picturesquely the trust Sylvia has in her
serving woman, another character says, ". . . she is the
very sluice to her lady's secrets . . . . Her confidence
is wisely placed, for Lucy, as is often the case in plays of
this period, is much more clever than her employer. Although
Silvia still loves and pursues Vainlove, she does not under-
stand him at all. Lucy, on the other hand, discerns at once
that Vainlove hates being chased, and using this insight,
2 8 The Old Bachelor, V, 11, 103.

138
she plots to break up his new romance by making his resent
love seem overeager. Thus, it is Lucy, not Silvia, who con-
trives the note which for a time alienates Vainlove and
Araminta. It is she who persuades Silvia to appear innocent
and naive and marry Heartfree while she can; it is she who
at last arranges the dual wedding.
Several other maids in Restoration comedy are as suc-
cessful with their disguises as Lucy. Betty in Shadwell's
The Virtuoso and Bridget in his The Humourists both marry
fools who think them heiresses masked. Although Peg in
Shadwell's .Bry Fair does not get a husband, she does acquire
a large cash settlement. In Etherege t s Love in a Tub, Jenny
does not have to trick a man into wedlock because a rake
forces a rogue to marry her or go to jail, and Susan in
The LanceshI Witches, by Shadwell, acquires a husband
through the use of a love potion. There are many other
examples of maids who trick or force their men into marriage
in the plays of this period. 29
Perhaps the two least characteristic maids in the
comedies of this period are Mrs. Sentry in Etherege's She
Would If She Could and Foible in Congrevets The Way of the
World. They are both typically clever and instrumental in
the plot; however, neither one is outstanding for her
2 9 For example, see the Widow Brightstone's maid in The

Mulber Garden, Sedley, and Isabella in The Amorous Prince,
Behn.
139
pecuniary or sensual lusts. Whereas Mrs. Sentry is loyal
but mildly disapproving of her mistress's intrigues, Foible
has actually transferred her allegiance to another.
Although she is not completely happy about the intrigues
of Lady Cockwood, her employer, Mrs. Sentry faithfully carries
messages, arranges meetings, hides lovers, and lies pro-
digiously in order to further her lady's lovelife and save
her lady's reputation. Reporting to Courtall, the newest
flame, that the Cockwoods have returned to London, she swears
her mistress knows nothing of her visit, in spite of the
fact that Courtall is too familiar with the lady to be fooled.
Even after she has been forced to hide in the gallant's wood
bin to escape detection by Sir Oliver, Lady Cockwood's hus-
band, she loyally affirms as she crawls out that her first
concern was to her lady's honor. Of course, Mrs. Sentry is
aware that while her lady makes stupendous claims to honor,
she actually has very little. When Lady Cockwood scolds
her for leaving the room during Courtall's visit, she
shrewdly analyzes aside:
If I say in the room, she will not speak kindly to

me in a week after; and if I go out, she always
chides me thus: this is a strange infirmity she has,
but I must bear with it; for on my conscience, custom
has made it so natural, she cannot help it.3
In the last act both Courtall and Freeman, another
gallant, are received by Lady Cockwood at an inappropriate
3 0 She Wou'd If She Cou'd, II, ii, 113.

hour. Only Mrs. Sentry's quick wit saves her mistress.
Hiding one gentleman in the closet and the other under the
table, she is even astute enough to run out of the room with
the candle when Sir Oliver comes dangerously close to seeing
one of them. At last she accepts all the blame for the
presence of the two young men.
Only now, as she assumes the role of villainess, does
any of the typical venality appear. Telling Sir Oliver that
a bribe of ten guineas is responsible for her guilt, she
whispers to her mistress that the truth may still be dis-
covered if the knight asks to see the gold. Naturally, Lady
Cockwood promises to supply the money if Sir Oliver becomes
inquisitive. "I shall take care to put him upon It; 'tis fit,
that I who have bore all the blame, should have some reason-
able reward for 't," 3l she righteously asides.
While no insinuation of lust is made about Mrs. Sentry,
Foible is newly and secretly married when The W of the
World starts. Still Foible utters no immodest remark, al-
though Waitwell, her husband, occasionally makes a sly im-
plication about the physical side of their marriage.
The wedding was hastened by Mirabell, a gallant who
has pretended to love Lady Wishfort, Foible's mistress,
in order to be near her niece Millamant, his real idol.
Discovered and despised, he now plans to trick the old lady
31Ibid., V, i, 177.
141
into a false marriage with his valet, Waitwell, disguised
as Sir Rowland. By this means the young lover hopes to
blackmail the ancient coquette into approving his marriage
to her niece; of course, to carry out such a scheme he needs
the cooperation of Foible and the assurance that Waitwell
will not be tempted by a fortune to marry Lady Wishfort. The
nuptials of the two servants satisfy both requirements.
]irabell is fortunate to have Foible as an ally, for
she is one of the cleverest of Restoration waiting women,

32
having as Nettleton says, the wit of her betters. When
Marwood, who loves the plotting gallant who does not even
know she exists, directs her malice against the scheme, the
maid's pretty head is kept busy making excuses. The scorned
woman's report that Foible was seen with Mirabell is used
as a boost to the plan when the adroit servant says she was
berating him for calling Lady Wishfort a "superannuated
.
old frippery." 3 3 This shrewd thrust is well calculated to
turn the lady's wrath from her maid to her ex-pseudo suitor.
When Marwood's note revealing the entire project arrives
while Waitwell is courting the lady, Foible's wit again
projects a near disaster into a real advantage as she ur-
gently instructs her husband to say the letter is in
Mirabell's hand. Her cleverness is not just the product
32 Nettleton, English Drama, p. 130.
33TheWa of the World, III, i, 354.

142
of fear, for she has been so adeptly diplomatic that she is
the only one of her mistress's servants who has been employed
longer than a week.
Like Mrs. Sentry, Foible is not as mercenary as most
comedy maids of the period. Although Mirabell has promised
a farm to the couple for their help, she brushes aside his
replldging of it with the declaration that she trusts his
honor. Furthermore, she is able at last to inform against
Marwood because she will not be bribed to keep quiet.
The Prostitute
Ladies of the oldest profession are certainly not a type
peculiar to the Restoration, and usually their portrayal
is not outstanding. In fact, in most instances they are used
as mere plot devices to bring true lovers together, to ex-
pose a fool's stupidity, or to chastise a witwould by a
trick or forced marriage. Only five of the plays by the
five major dramatists include prostitutes in their casts:
Love in a Tub, Etherege (2); Love in a Wood Wycherley (1);
The Gentleman Danci;-Master, Wycherley (2); Love and a
Bottle, Farquhar (1); and. The Inconstant, Farquhar (1).
Etherege's and Farquharts light women are faintly drawn
characters used only to further the plot. In Love in a Tub
both harlots gain a husband at the play's end, not through
love, but through subterfuge and coercion; their marriages
serve to punish a rogue and to hoax a country bumpkin.

143
Lamorce in The Inconstant emerges only as a beautiful woman,
community property for four murderous thieves, who gulls
wealthy men to her rooms so that the desperados can rob and
kill them. Saving the gallant from the gangsters, the heroine
wins her lover in marriage. More humorously depicted, Mrs.
Trudge in Love and a Bottle bears a child by Roebuck, one of
the rakish heroes, and follows him across the country begging
him to marry her. "Oh, the indefatigable whore . .
.
her lover cries when he sees her in London. Actually, Mrs.
Trudge is simply an instrument to make the heroine jealous
and to point up a country fool's stupidity.
Much more detailed, Wycherleyls portrayals are both
satirical and amusing. Lucy in his first play is a beautiful,
pert young girl just starting her career as a prostitute; her
mother serves as a shrewd manager and procurer for her evi-
dently talented young daughter. Although rather fond of
Mr. Dapperwit, who has been paying her bills, the saucy
wench must drop him when a better opportunity in the form
of an old but rich city merchant comes along. With the help
of her mother and a friend, the young trollop, impudently
affecting innocence, falsely accuses the doddering fool of
ravishing her and extracts five hundred pounds from him to
keep the scandal quiet. Later, because he wants to revenge
himself on his daughter for marrying without his consent,

and because he believes a wife cheaper than a mistress,
the old tradesman decides to marry Lucy, who with the
3 3 aLove and a Bottle, I, i, 21.

144
help of her mother will no doubt be more expensive than

he expects.
In The Gentleman Dancing-Master Wycherley draws Flounce
and Flirt, two original and highly risible sluts. A satire
on the brazenness of loose women, they shamelessly chase men
and force their favors upon them. The restaurants, their
favorite hunting grounds, dare not lock them out because
they'll only break open the doors. In fact, "there's hardly
a young Man in Town dares be known of his Lodging for
'ems34 and gallants do not fear the police as much as the

"Houza-Women." Managing to capture Monsieur de Paris, a
foolish Frenchified fop, Flirt demands that they draw up
articles and settlements of the terms of her keeping. When
he protests this is as bad as marriage, she says it is
different in one major aspect--"t . . . we Mistresses suffer
no Cohabitation."35 In the proviso she demands separate
maintenance in case of separation, separate houses, coach
and bed apart, handsome footmen, privacy, freedom from
jealousy and restraint, and a thousand pounds a year.36
However, the most entertaining and well-drawn of all
Restoration whores is Sedley's Bellamira in the play of the
same name. One of the wittiest women in Restoration comedy,
she is actually a free-lance whore who only allows Keepwell
to pay her main bills while she, keeping him in utter
34 The Gentleman Dacn-Master, I, ii, 167.

351bid., V, i, 229. 36Ibid.,-V, i, 229-30.
145
ignorance, loves and hires out wherever she pleases. So
completely is he under her domination that when she asks him
to go to the country for two days so that she can entertain
another, he agrees. Patterned after the Duchess of Cleveland,
most beautiful and dissolute harlot of Charles II's court, 3 7
Bellamira outlines the philosophy of the kept woman: "1
will make the Presents he an unattractive suitor7 gives
me, . . . Baits to Catch others with: fine Cloaths and rich
Furniture, are great Provocatives to those that don't pay
for lem, . .
.
The Duenna
Occasionally in Restoration drama, the old woman, rather
than hunting a man for herself, serves as a duenna to pre-
vent a younger woman from getting a mate. Lugubriously
mourning the moral slackness of the present age while
eulogizing the past, the old chaperone does not attempt
the beau monde, but is, nevertheless, ridiculed and despised
for her suspicions and her age. Mrs. Caution, Hippolita's
aunt, in Wycherley's The Gentleman Dancing-Master, belongs
in this category. Her job is to see that her niece remains

innocent until she is married to her foppish cousin Monsieur
de Paris. Justifiably suspicious of Gerrard, Hippolita's
lover disguised as a dancing master, the aged guard is merely
3 7 Pinto, Sir Charles Sedley, p. 271.

38 Bellamira, I, 111, 22. All references to this play are
to Sir Charles Sedley, The Poetical and Dramatical Works of
Sir Charles Sedley, edited by V. de Sola Pinto (London,
1928), Vol. II.
146
called "a censorious wicked Woman," 39 "DamId Jade," 0 and
'crabbed old age" 4 l for her attention to duty. Even her
brother, whose wishes she is trying to carry out, scorns
her advice. Consequently, the young couple outwits the old
one very easily. Naturally, Mrs. Caution regards the past
as a much better age than the present; as a result, many of
her conversations begin, "When I was a maid . . . ." At the
same time she tries to minimize her years by claiming that
a girl should not come into a woman's estate until she is
thirty or thirty-five. 2 Hippolita merely laughs at her
aunt's presumptions; she finds the present age delightful
and doubts that her aunt can even remember her youth.
A widow, Mrs. Caution retains fond memories of her
carnal pleasures, but typically, she hypocritically decries
sex as filthy. Ranting constantly about modesty and virtue,
her bombast serves only to suggest lewd ideas. Her double-
entendre concerning her niece and the "dancing master" belie
any purity of mind. When Hippolita says she will be a good
student, Mrs. Caution ejaculates, "As kind as ever your
Mother was to your Father, I warrant." At the discovery
of the marriage of the young lovers, she rails:
Nay, Young-man, you have danced a fair Dance for

your self royally, and now you may go jig it together
39 TheGentlema ncing-Master, III, i, 195.

40Ibid. 4Ibid., I, i, 162.
4 2Ibid., I, i, 164. 4 3Ibid.,IV,
i, 207.
147
till you are both weary; and thou you were so eager
to have him, Mrs. Minx, you'll soon havA4 your belly-
full of him, let me tell you, Mistress. 4
The best and most amusing exposure of her real lubricity is
the scene in which she condones voluptuous dreams, waking or
sleeping, as long as the actual deed remains fantasy rather
than reality.45
Old Lady Squeamish in Wycherley's The C Wife is
also a duenna, but she is very faintly drawn in the play.
Trying to control and protect her granddaughter, the ancient
and distrustful noblewoman is treated with indifference and
scorn by the younger members of the cast. Whereas Mrs.
Caution sees through Gerrard's ruse but is unable to foil
his intrigue, Old Lady Squeamish does not pierce the rake
Hornerts masquerade, but, instead, unwittingly helps him
seduce her charge.
One of the most original and amusing of all old women
in Restoration drama is Widow Blackacre, who serves as
guardian for her son in Wycherley's The Plain Dealer. In
fact, scholarly opinion ranks her among the best of all
comedy portrayals. Voltaire finds her the most comical
character ever on the English stage, 46 and Elwin, going

even further, rates her and her son Jerry two of the best
comic characters ever created in the world of drama.4 7 Even
44 Ibid., V, i,231. KEbid., 1, i, 162-63.

4 6 Harley
Granville-Barker, On Dramatic Method, quotes
Voltaire (London, 1931), p. 28.
4 7Elwin, Playgoer's Handbook, p. 80.
148
though most other critics are not so laudatory, they do

concur that she is both wittily conceived and well drawn.
Although probably about fifty, 4 8 Widow Blackacre, like
the typical elderly woman, denies any insinuation of her
being old. Deeply insulted when Major Oldfox, one of her
suitors, judges they are about the same age, she angrily
retorts, "Howls that? You unmannerly person, Iid have you
to know, I was born but in Ann' undec. Caroli prim ."t 4 9
In an effort to preserve both her youth and full government
of all the Blackacre property, she refuses to let her son
come of age, although he notices that men who were two
years younger than he in school are now grown men before
him.50
Strangely enough, considering that she is both an old
woman and a widow, she is not at all interested in sex or
marriage; her vice is litigation. In fact, the legal pro-
fession is a monomania with her; every action of her life is
ruled by it. Quite garrulous, she prattles endlessly about
her innumerable suits and can immediately twist any conversa-
tion around to some legal technicality. Her favorite enter-
tainment is attending a trial; her usual business investment,
buying the defense of a case.
4 8 Mignon, Crabbed Age, p. 56.
49The Plain Dealer, 11, i, 137.

50
Ibid., III, i, 148.
149
pursued by two men, Oldfox and the young gallant Free-
man, who wishes to marry her for her money, the Widow Black-
acre refuses their offers and vituperates them both, the
former for his old age and ill health and the latter for
his youthful rakishness and fortune-hunting. "I will no
more hearken again to your foolish love motions, than to
offers of Arbitration, 16 she informs Freeman; later, to
both suitors she asserts, "Well then, to make an end of
this foolish Wooing, for nothing interrupts business
more . . *,52 In defense of her opposition to wedlock,
she argues that marriage would deny her of the right to sue
in her own name. "Matrimony to a Woman is worse than Ex-
communication, in depriving her of the benefit of the Law:
and I woutd rather be deprived of my life,"53 she contends.
Freeman, trying to force the widow to marry him, seduces
her son from his black lawyer's gown with a pair of red
breeches and fancy living; consequently, Jerry chooses the
gallant as his guardian. Rather than sacrifice any part of
the estate or the power to administer it in court, Widow
Blackacre sacrifices her reputation and swears that her
child was born out of wedlock. When Oldwit remonstrates
against her taking such drastic action, she avows: "Hang
Reputation, Sir, am not I a Widow? . . . Wonder not at it,

Major, tis often the poor prest Widows case, to give up her
511bid., 11, i, 139. 52Ibid., II, i, 137.

53Iid., V, i, 191.
honour to save her Jointure . . 54 At last, however,
Freeman discovers her engaged in an illegal action and
threatens either marriage or jail. Both courses are so
despicable to her that she finally counters with a promptly
accepted offer to pay his debts and to give him a yearly
allowance of four hundred pounds.
The Bawd
Another variation of the aged woman character type is
the elderly bawd. Like the duenna she realizes her limita-
tions and has given up attempting affairs for herself; how-
ever, she zealously arranges the intrigues of others. An
exponent of sexual gratification regardless of marriage or
even love, she, nevertheless, proclaims honor her dearest
possession. Apparently, she thinks of herself not as an
accomplice to lewd women or the corrupter of innocent ones,
but rather as the pure instrument which brings happiness to
her fellow human beings--for a price, of course. Whether
from the upper or the lower strata of society, she may be
found as a guest in the best Restoration comedy homes, a

custom seemingly adopted from Spanish intrigue comedy; at
any rate, the usually unsavory creature figures most frequently
in the bustling busy plots characteristic of that type of
play. Aphra Behn includes bawds in several of her works,55
and Shadwell and Buckingham each portray one or more
54Ibid., IV, i, 166.

55For example, see The Rover I and II, The Dutch
Lovers, The Town The Lu Chance.
bawds.56 However, only Wycherley and Farquhar of the five
major dramatists include such an individual in their produc-

tions.
In his Love in a Wood Wycherley features two precise old
bawds, Mrs. Joyner and Mrs. Crossbite; completely immoral,
the two licentious ancients nevertheless vigorously and
continuously proclaim their virtue and honor. Hired by the
lecherous old city merchant Gripe to procure Lucy Crossbite,
the wily Mrs. Joyner easily makes a deal with the girl's
shrewd mother, ho is more than willing to sell her daughter's
services. When Gripe proves niggardly, the aged schemers
accuse him of rape and threaten exposure unless he pays
a five hundred pound settlement. Under the pretence of
helping him get his money's worth, Mrs. Joyner, spuriously
protesting her complete innocence in the blackmail plot,
arranges another meeting where she and Mrs. Crossbite con-
vince the miser to marry Lucy. Their most telling argument
is the fact that keeping a wife is cheaper than keeping a
mistress, but with such an expedient mother-in-law and
deceptive friend, this contention seems highly questionable.
Farquharts Mrs. Mandrake (The Twin Rivals) exceeds by
far Wycherleyts old bawds in her proclivity to do evil.
Viciously ingenious, she takes real pride in her nefarious-
ness, A midwife as well as a bawd, she is acquainted with
5 6 For instance, consult The True Widow, Shadwell; and

The Chances, Buckingham.
152
all the better families, serving them in either or both
respects. Benjamin, the epitome of flagitiousness, naturally
turns to her to assist him in corrupting his brother's
mistress and stealing his brother's estate because "she's
famous for understanding the right side of a woman, and the
wrong side of the law."57 Promising to help him attain both
desires, she boastfully concludes: "Well, certainly there is
not a woman in the world so willing to oblige mankind as
myself and really I have been so ever since the age of
twelve . . . . I have delivered as many women of great
bellies, and helped as many to tem, as any person in
England . . . 58
Innately hypocritical, she pretends to perform her
iniquitous tasks for the sake of friendship; however, al-
though she will never take payment for procuring, she will
accept an exorbitant gift of money with which to buy "teeth
powder." Feigning a mere social interest in liquor, she
scorns drinking from glasses because they are "too big";
instead, she gulps great draughts from the bottle. Evidently,
debasing young women is one of her greatest pleasures and
most frequent tasks; nevertheless, she claims a tender af-
fection for her victims and insists that once the girls have
been corrupted, their seducers must fuirnish them with a

husband of some sort.
57The Twin Rivals, I, 1, 21.

58 Ibid., 1, 11, 22.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
Reflecting the real beau monde of Restoration London,
the treatment of women in the comedy of manners was the best
and most unusual characteristic of this dramatic type. With
the first gay reaction against the past, the independent
ladies demanded complete equality with men; intellectually,
they gained that equality. To the gay belles, no less than
to the beaux, wit was the passport to society. The truewit
had everything; the witwould was social refuse, marked for
that worst of all punishment--ridicule.
Although they did not verbally admit it, the ladies were
not actually prepared to accept, nor were men prepared to
grant, a single standard in morals. As a result, the position
of women was somewhat paradoxical. While the male practiced
the inconstancy he preached, the ideal woman railed against
conventional mores, but was careful to abide strictly by
them. Discerning how much of her clever conversation should
remain just talk and how much could safely be put into action
was a specialized part of womants wit. For her licentious-
ness was a failing; the morally free woman might be accepted
into the drawing room or invited to the ball, but she was
still the butt of scornful laughter.

A few types such as the serving woman, the prostitute,
the duenna, and the bawd were excluded because of parentage,
occupation, or acknowledgment of the limitations of old age
from attempting admittance to the beau monde; however, most
female characters struggled but failed to attain a place in
the higher echelon. Even though the fop's foolishly exag-
gerated sense of her own worth, the rural lass's countrified
ignorance of the ways of the world, the antiquated belle's
senile attempts to compete with youth were the principal
causes for their rejection, these women usually added the
sin of lasciviously chasing a gallant to their other faults.
Physical freedom before marriage by the mistress, after
marriage by the old man's darling, and at any time by the
lady rake also doomed a woman to the limbo of the witwould.
Only the heroine among the women was a truewit, for
she alone had true intelligence and deep understanding of
the social structure. Always young, wealthy, beautiful,
and witty, she adored London, abhorred the country, scorned
fools, and valued her freedom. An antagonistic duelist in
the love game, she proclaimed sexual freedom, but never
practiced it. Her raillery was an attempt to bewitch a
rake who never cared for a conquest unless it was difficult
and never married unless possession was impossible without
it. Although realizing that marriage was her destiny, she
also understood that she might lose her liberty in matrimony;

thus, she avoided wedlock as long as possible and before
capitulating insisted on a proviso to guarantee her post-
marital rights.
When the ladies of London began their clamorous demand
for reform of the comedy of manners, the female truewits
and witwoulds were the first to change. Gradually, the fop
gave up her conceits by the end of the play; the country
girl became sweetly natural rather than bucolically stupid;
the superannuated vamp renounced her frenzied pretensions of
glamour and assumed a position of respect and dignity.
Promiscuous women by degrees came to be regarded as evil
rather than ridiculous, or unfortunately misguided rather
than humorously profligate. Always pure in deed, the
heroine now began to be just as circumspect in her language,
and her desire for marriage became more pronounced until
finally, rather than demanding the right to individuality
and freedom, she longed to lose herself in love and
matrimony. Gaiety slowly gave way to sensibility, and
wit was eroded by sense.
However, despite a growing taste for sentimentality,
particularly during the last decade of the seventeenth
century, throughout the Restoration comedy of manners the
treatment of women illustrated an equality with men never
before attained, a frankness of speech never since attempted,
and an intellectual brilliance never before or since sur-
passed on the English stage. 'Wit ruled society, and women

156
succeeded or failed in their efforts to be truewits according
to their ability to comprehend and follow the somewhat am-
biguous but very rigid rules which governed the conduct of

the beau monde.
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af

THE TREATMENT OF WOMEN IN THE RESTORATION COMEDY

Presented to the Graduate Council of the

North Texas State College in Partial

Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of

Dorothy Sala Brock, B. A.

II.* THE TRUEWITS . . .0.0.0 . 0.*. . 0.0. 0 .0.0 . 15

III. THE WITWOUIDSWD..... ..... .. . 71

IV. THE EXCLUDED ... .. ...... ........ 128

V. CONCLUSION .0.0. .0. . . .9. . . . .

With the return of Charles II to the throne of England

in 1660 came the reopening of the London theaters after

eighteen years of Puritan enforced closure. Although the

first plays produced were those written before the Great

Rebellion or those written by such men as Killigrew and

Davenant, who continued in prewar traditions, within a short

time new plays by fresh talent appeared. The popular trage-

dies and heroic verse plays were almost uniformly uncreative,

but the comedies ushered in an excitingly new phase of

English drama--the comedy of manners. Borrowing to a cer-

tain extent from French, Spanish, and earlier British

authors, the comedies, peculiar to the England of the

Restoration, represented a revolution rather than a develop-

Beginning with Sir George Etheregets first play, Love

in a Tub, the new dramatic type was a social play in the

absolute sense of the word. Although a few critics 2

staunchly support LambIs saccharine idea that the society

1 JohnPalmer, The Comedy of Manners (London, 1913),

represented was a "Utopia of gallantry," a fairyland which

never existed, 3 and Archer expresses the opinion that if

these comedies represent a true society "the British nation

would never have emerged from such a morass of levity, cyni-

cism, corruption, and disease /-enereal7, 4 most contemporary

observers and modern scholars agree that the works were

written for, by, and about the beau monde of Restoration

London, one of the most sophisticated and least decorous

groups England has ever produced. Since comedy stems from

a critical impulse, these plays derived humor from satirizing

the follies and foibles of the day.

Wit was the first prerequisite to the beau monde of

Restoration comedy. If one had true wit, all else followed.

Ruthless, even cruel, the society acknowledged only two

categories of human beings--those who lived up to the

standards, and those who failed. The first received the

accolade due to taste and brilliance; the second, the agony

3Charles Lamb, "On the Artificial Comedy of the Last

William Archer, The Old Drama and the New (Boston,

of exploitation and derision. There were no half measures.

To be partially witty was as impossible as to be partially

virginal.7 Of course, no one was obliged to participate

in the social whirl, but if one chose to compete, he had

to accept the rules, concentrate on skillful execution, and

be prepared for the consequences should he fail. There was no

of the keen over the stupid.

Preoccupation with wit reduced most plays of the period

to a tour de force of clever language. Plot, character,

emotion were all sacrificed to skillful conversation of

ing a subject far removed from sexual implications, the play-

wrights habitually chose metaphors and expressions which

Since wit is dependent on surprise and paradox for its

effect, the treatment of sex was naturally an assault

against social mores. Revolting against both the Platonic