Mrs. Cowley's Comedies

Abstract

<p>Mrs. Cowley's plays have not previously been the subject of separate critical study, and this thesis is therefore mainly concerned with the estabiishment of some preliminary oritical co-ordinates. With the exception of The Belle's Stratagem, none of the plays discussed has received more than incidental comment; two of them are still unpublished.</p> <p>The Introduction supplies a brief chronological outline of her dramatic career, giving essential information on each of her plays. In the four chapters which follow, a topical approach is taken, each chapter being concerned with a leading critioal theme:</p> <p>II. Taste. Individual characters isolated by some excess or eccentricity of "taste" are considered, and the term "taste" is discussed. The roles played by the comedian John Edwin are selected for separate treatment.</p> <p>III. Marriage. This chapter discusses Mrs. Cowley's ideal of marriage as it is presented in her comedies. Recurrent character patterns, and the roles played by Lewis and Miss Younge, are also considered.</p> <p>IV. Society. Mrs. Cowley's satirical treatment of the follies of fashionable society is seen to be modified by her belief in the possible rational enjoyment of society, and in the value of the traditional English virtues.</p> <p>V. Patriotism. Mrs. Cowley's view of the corrupting influence of foreign manners on English society, together with the more positive side of her patriotism, are examined as the basis of her ideal of Englishness. This ideal is seen as the conceptual centre of her comedies.</p>