Please note: In order to keep Hive up to date and provide users with the best features, we are no longer able to fully support Internet Explorer. The site is still available to you, however some sections of the site may appear broken. We would encourage you to move to a more modern browser like Firefox, Edge or Chrome in order to experience the site fully.

The Provoked Wife, Paperback / softback Book

The Provoked Wife Paperback / softback

Edited by James L. Smith

Part of the New Mermaids series

Paperback / softback

Description

In this late Restoration comedy Vanbrugh not only pushes the unhappily married couple, which had been good for no more than a raucous subplot in earlier comedies of manners, centre-stage - he also makes the audience sympathise with the wife: The only thing Sir John and Lady Brute agree on is that they ought not to have married each other; now he spends his time in drunken debauchery with his cronies, while she tries to withstand the advances of her admirer Constant.

After a series of farcical accidents involving cross-dressing and the eternal lover-in-the-wardrobe, the couple end where they began.

Since the scene in which Sir John disguises as a clergyman was deemed 'immoral and profane', an alternative scene (in its way equally profane) was written, in which he disguises as his own wife.

This edition provides both versions and discusses the play's continuing popularity on the stage.

Information

Other Formats

£10.99

 
Free Home Delivery

on all orders

 
Pick up orders

from local bookshops

Information